In a Fate-controlled dystopian world, the Legends are stars of three television shows produced by Clotho Productions. Unknown to them, Charlie had saved them from death by trapping them inside TV at the cost of taking away their free will. Nevertheless, the Legends attempt to find a way to break the system.
Tropes
- The Anti-Nihilist: Sara has more reason than anyone else on the team to just give up and live in a perfect world after all she's been through over the years, but she refuses to give into all that despair and stay in a fantasy."Life is beautiful and terrible all at the same time. If we're only living part of it, then we're not living at all."
- Arranged Marriage: Between Behrad and Astra in the Highcastle Abbey reality.
- As You Know: In the Star Trip reality, Ava needs to remind Sara that their ship's crewed are all androids, so there's no need to let out an anguished Skyward Scream when one of them dies.
- Author Powers: The TV realities the Legends are stuck in are created via computer algorithm, but anyone with access to the computer can make changes or additions to the script, rewriting the Legends' reality.
- Back from the Dead:
- Charlie used the Loom to resurrect Behrad, Sara, Gary, Astra, and Astra's mom (though the last one may only be simulacrum created for the Highcastle Abbey reality).
- Near the end of the episode, Charlie brings the original Zari back from non-existence while still keeping the post-Heyworld Zari intact.
- Bait-and-Switch: It may be assumed that the Faterider on Star Trip is Gideon also trapped in the TV reality. she's not.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Nate and Zari in the Ultimate Buds sitcom, before Zari's old self takes back control.
- Big Brother Is Watching: Atropos in the revised timeline, similar to Big Brother. She cuts the threads of anybody who dares to speak out.
- The Big Damn Kiss:
- When the Legends' memories are restored and Nate realizes that the Zari with the team is the one he was in a relationship with, they share a passionate embrace and kiss that last through a commercial break.
- Sara and Ava share one as they allow the Faterider to be blown up so that Charlie will be forced to free them.
- Big "SHUT UP!": Charlie's "SILENCE!" towards Gary and Mona is supernaturally enhanced and given a reverb effect.
- Blatant Lies: Sitcom Behrad tries to pull one when Zari regains her memories.Hot Boss: Where's Zari?
Behrad: Not in the closet, that's for sure. - Book Ends: In the ending of the , Season 5 premiere, pre-Heyworld Zari tells Nate to "find me". In this episode, after Mona restores the Legends' memories, including the ones existing before the Heyworld incident, Zari (still possessed by her pre-Heyworld self) tells Nate this:Zari: You found me! (cue The Big Damn Kiss)
- Borrowed Catchphrase: When being told that leaving TV land would be a mistake, the Zaris borrow sitcom-Nate and Behrad's catchphrase: "On the other hand..." "...Why not?"
- Bread and Circuses: "Food and shelter and television" are how the Fates keep the populace in line (that and the threat of instant execution, of course).
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: In-Universe. Zari, Nate, and Behrad finally break free from their sitcom reality by turning to the camera and denouncing the Fates; only then does the camera spin around to show the studio audience.
- They escape their sitcom the first time when Zari uses the air totem to literally break the fourth wall. Well, technically she breaks a door, one the characters claim to have never wanted to have opened.
- Brick Joke: Mick finally gets to grow his hair in the TV reality, something he wished for all the way back in Season 4's "The Getaway". And he winds up even grumpier than ever because escaping TV means losing his mop again.
- Bridge Bunnies: On the U.S.S. Faterider, everyone except the captains wears short-shorts, men and women alike.
- Broken Pedestal: The rest of the Legends are obviously very unhappy with Charlie's actions, though she tries to justify it because she didn't want her friends dead.
- The Bus Came Back: Behrad and Mona return in this episode. Mr. Parker also returns.
- Butt-Monkey: Gary is revived from his death last episode only to be reduced to a perceived lunatic futilely raving on the streets that the world isn't the way it should be.
- Call-Back:
- Last season, under the influence of the truth bug, Mick confessed "I want to grow my hair out and look like Fabio". In the ideal reality Charlie crafted for him, he's got long locks of Fabio-esque hair, which he gripes about losing once he's returned to the real world.
- All the TV realities are based very specifically on what the Legends said they wanted most in the previous episode.
- Casanova Wannabe: Behrad tries to make a move on Astra after they get their memories back, but she blows him off.
- Cassandra Truth: Gary, who is a perceived crazy lunatic who rants on the streets that the world isn't what it used to be.
- Different World, Different Movies: Played with. In our world, Arrow is a fictional television series. Legends of Tomorrow is part of the Arrowverse, so in their world, there's no such TV show. But in the sitcom reality Zari, Nate, and Behrad get trapped in, Arrow is a fictional TV series, with Nate trying out for the lead role, although this show features Robin Hood rather than Green Arrow.
- Dinner with the Boss: This is the initial set-up for the Ultimate Buds episode. This cliché plot is what convinces Zari she's trapped inside a TV sitcom.
- Drop-In Character: In Ultimate Buds, Nate is Behrad's friend and apparently Zari's ex, so he visits freely.
- Dystopia: With the Fates victorious, the world is turned into a Nineteen Eighty-Four-like dystopia, with the population being strictly controlled and contented by shallow entertainment, historical records being heavily rewritten, and anyone expressing dissent being punished by death.
- Easy Amnesia: In the sitcom reality, Zari's boss asks, "Zari, do you have amnesia again?" Though it's unclear whether the Ultimate Buds sitcom had Zari get easy amnesia, or if she convinced her boss she had amnesia as part of a sitcom-style Zany Scheme.
- Expy: Sara and Ava are turned into ones for Kirk and Spock, respectively, while Mick is Khan. Mr. Parker continues being one for Mr. Rogers.
- Feminist Fantasy: "Lady Astra" is delighted at this aspect of Star Trip.Lady Astra: Oh, it is grand to see lady adventurers in pantaloons!
- Funny Background Event: When Mona and Gary go to visit Clotho Studios, you can see Hot Boss looking around confused on the set of Ultimate Buds.
- Genre Savvy: Sara and Ava may not remember who they are, but because they've been turned into characters from a Star Trek style series, they instantly accept the truth about what's going on. Being trapped in an artificial reality by godlike entities? That happens to them a lot.
- Gilded Cage: To save the Legends from dying, Charlie erased their memories and trapped them inside television shows. This way, they are safe from Lachesis and Atropos, even if by doing so, they have to follow her script and as a result no longer have free will.
- A Glitch in the Matrix: Despite now being a character in a classy BBC-style period drama, John still knows how to perform sorcery, which he treats as his old shame.
- I Choose to Stay: John tries to do this with Astra in Highcastle Abbey. He's willing to spend the rest of his life in the role of John the Butler, if it means Astra gets the happy life he ripped away from her so long ago.
- Immune to Fate: Literally. Thanks to Charlie's actions, all of the Legends lose their previous memories, except for the old Zari who is trapped in the Air Totem. By possessing the new Zari, she ends up reuniting them all.
- Intrepid Fictioneer: Once Zari realizes the Legends have been trapped inside TV shows, she takes them traveling from show to show until they're all back together.
- Last Kiss: Sara and Ava kiss right before the Faterider is about to be engulfed in fire, forcing a cancellation of Star Trip.
- Literal Split Personality: In a desperate attempt to convince the Legends to accept their TV lives, Charlie splits Zari's fate thread, separating her into her old and new timeline selves.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: Initially, the Legends' TV prisons are this. Charlie designed them to give each Legend what they said they wanted most, and tweaked their memories and personality so they wouldn't realize things weren't always this way.
- Magitek: Charlie combines the Legends' fate threads (incredibly mystical artifacts) with a computer that generates television scripts via algorithm, creating the TV realities the Legends are trapped in.
- Nondescript, Nasty, Nutritious: All food is reduced to different colors of mush. Beige and grey seem relatively common, while blue is apparently fancy.
- Odd Couple: The premise of in-universe sitcom "Ultimate Buds" seems to be career woman Zari rooming with her stoner slacker brother Behrad. The title has "ultimate" in a business-type font, while "buds" is in a handwritten type, with the "I" in "ultimate" also dotted with a marijuana leaf.
- Oh, My Gods!: Everyone swears by the Fates instead of gods.
- Orwellian Retcon: In the Fates' new world, Mona is working on a department that rewrites all historical records to quash anything that might incite rebellion against their dominion.
- Propaganda Piece: In-Universe; all TV shows in the Fates' new reality are designed to reinforce their rule and the way of life they've dictated for their subjects.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Sara's been transformed into an Expy of Captain Kirk, so naturally she includes. Pauses that are. Awkwardly placed. Within her lines.
- Red Shirt: The crew on the Star Trip reality, fittingly.
- Rousing Speech: Zari gives one to the people to rise up against the Fates.
- Running Gag: A possible In-Universe version: In two instances, Nate and Behrad (still in their sitcom personalities) are told not to do something, say "On the other hand, why not?" and promptly do it.
- The Series Has Left Reality: In-Universe. Zari's old spirit possessing her, activating the Air Totem's power, and breaking through to a different TV show's universe does this for the sitcom Ultimate Buds, which Mona (watching at home) comments upon.
- Shout-Out:
- The dystopian reality, with constant surveillance, propaganda posters, the ministry that alters historic records etc is a pretty obvious reference to Nineteen Eighty-Four.
- The three television shows, Ultimate Buds, Highcastle Abbey, and Star Trip, are obvious spoofs of Friends, Downton Abbey, and Star Trek, respectively. And, of course, Mr. Parker is a Mr. Rogers shout out.
- Ava says "let's get the hell out of here" when she decides to escape the Star Trek simulation, as Kirk famously did at the end of "City on the Edge of Forever".
- Sitcom Archnemesis: In the world of Ultimate Buds, Nate is apparently Zari's; whenever she says his name, she clenches her fist and hisses it out like Jerry Seinfeld saying, "Newman!" Though they've also apparently got a Will They or Won't They? thing going on, too.
- Skyward Scream: Sara lets one out over Officer Maala and the rest of her dead crew.Sara: NOOOOOO!
Ava: There's no need to vocalize at that decibel; they're androids.
Sara: Oh, right. - Spanner in the Works: The Legends' television prison is thrown off the rails by Zari's air totem conjuring the spirit of Zari from the previous timeline to possess her.
- Special Edition Title: While still formatted like a normal Season 5 episode title sequence, it now features Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos instead of the Legends to illustrate the premise's dystopian nature.
- Spotting the Thread: The Legends immediately realize when Charlie controls Mr. Parker.
- Strange Salute: The dystopian world apparently has one in deference to the Fates, accompanied by "Praise the Fates!", as shown when Gary and Mona first meet Charlie.
- Thin Dimensional Barrier: The gateway from the Ultimate Buds reality to the Highcastle Abbey reality is right behind an unlocked door in the Main Characters' living room. They never noticed it before, because opening that door had never come up in the script.
- Trapped in TV Land: As the title says...
- Villain World: The world as controlled by the Fates removes all free will. Everyone is provided only the barest needs, with all individuality suppressed, and can be killed remotely if they question the system.
- We Come in Peace — Shoot to Kill: Happens in the Star Trip reality due to Sara and Ava being co-captains with radically different approaches.Ava: We come in peace.
Sara: Yeah, now prepare to die! - Wham Line: In-Universe. Mona has this reaction to hearing her name on Ultimate Buds.
- Win to Exit: Inverted. Sara realizes that, within the Star Trip reality, she and Ava are the heroes who always beat the bad guys. So the only way to escape is to deliberately lose and let the bad guys blow them up, forcing Charlie to "cancel the show" in order to save them.
