'Legends of Tomorrow': What Is The Order?

Legends of Tomorrow returned tonight, and while the show's hiatus may have been longer than that of the rest of the Arrowverse, it was well worth the wait with the return of Constantine and some major plot twists. But the episode offered its share of mysteries as well, including one that might have a big impact on the future of the Legends.

Spoilers for tonight's episode of Legends of Tomorrow, "Daddy Darhkest", below.

In tonight's episode, John Constantine (Matt Ryan) seeks out the help of Sara Lance/White Canary (Caity Lotz) when the demon possessing a young woman he's helping just so happens to know Sara's name. That demon turns out to be Mallus (John Noble), and that young woman? Turns out it's young Nora Darhk, now called Emily after being placed in Child Protective Services following the death of her parents during Arrow's fourth season. When attempts to help Nora result in Sara, Constantine, and Leonard Snart (Wentworth Miller) being sent to 1969, Ray Palmer/The Atom (Brandon Routh) and Zari Tomaz (Tala Ashe) take it upon themselves to help Nora, breaking her out of the mental hospital.

Ray and Zari take Nora to Jitters, and while Mallus briefly rears his head, Nora is able to fight back and regain control. Ray and Zari are set to help Nora find a loving, caring foster home so she isn't simply dumped into a mental hospital and drugged again when Damien Darhk shows up. Nora won't be going to a loving foster home. Instead, Darhk convinces her to go with the mysterious doctor from the hospital who claims that a mysterious group known as The Order will help embrace Mallus so she can eventually restore her father to life permanently.

While this is clearly bad news -- as we've seen, the grown-up Nora is very powerful as Mallus' vessel -- what's equally as frightening is this group the doctor mentions. After all, any group that is pro-demon possession can't be a great idea but who is The Order? Just like Mallus is an original villain for Legends, there really isn't a direct correlation for The Order in DC Comics. However, there is a group of god-like supernatural beings dedicated to maintaining cosmic balance across the universe in comics -- the Lords of Order.

The Lords of Order, the most prominent of which is Nabu, which some fans may recognize as the being who gives Doctor Fate his powers, serve to empower human and other mortal agents to resist evil in the form of the Lords of Chaos. The Lords of Order and the Lords of Chaos have been locked in battle for eons, going back and forth with each faction being dominant for a time before falling to the other with a cycle of renewal in between. While Damien Darhk doesn't exactly seem like someone who would send his daughter off to the care and keeping of a group dedicated to balance and "good," The Order the mysterious doctor refers to could be a reference to the Lords of Chaos, or at least a group that serves them.

In comics, the Lords of Chaos are disembodied god-like beings who wield nearly infinite power and are bent on chaos and discord. It sounds quite a bit like Mallus and his desire to unleash unendurable pain on the world. If The Order is connected somehow to the Lords of Chaos from comics, that might be a positive for the Legends. In comics, the Lords of Chaos is defunct, its members killed during Infinite Crisis.

Of course, the mystery around The Order could be a tease about Darhk's larger team of villains this season. Executive producer Marc Guggenheim revealed last year that while he can't give away much about the villain team, they do have a very specific plan.

"Oh, I can't. Come on," Guggenheim said last year. "That's the season. That would be like if a year ago I said, 'Oh, the Legion of Doom want to get the Spear of Destiny, so they can rewrite reality.' Suffice it to say, he has a very specific plan and a very specific agenda, and part of the fun of the season, of course, is our slow reveal of what that is."

Legends of Tomorrow airs Mondays at 8/7c on The CW.