‘Legends of Tomorrow’ Stars Brandon Routh and Courtney Ford on the Ray/Nora Romance

Tonight’s episode of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow marked a turning point in the relationship between Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh) and Nora Darhk (Courtney Ford).

After returning to the Waverider to help John Constantine, Nora’s story took a surprising turn — and one that will play out over at least the next several episodes, according to both Routh and Ford.

Spoilers ahead for tonight’s episode of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, titled “Tagumo Attacks!!!”

“She is recruited to help revive Constantine, and that’s very challenging for her because she’s been keeping away from magic,” Routh told reporters during a visit to the set of Legends. “That has been a challenging for her — her ability to control magic and to not be taken over by it, so I’m asking a lot of her to help John in this way. Ultimately, she does, and comes through it and learns that she’s stronger than she thought which is what Ray has been kind of hoping and feeling, but seeing it was great for Ray. It brings them closer, I think, and will help her character in the future with the Legends, the fact that she has done this for their teammate.”

Routh said that he was reluctant to rush into any kind of relationship for Ray, who has been burned by love a few times in the Arrowverse…but that he sees the fact that there is not another man involved (as was the case with both Felicity and Kendra), things are looking up.

Part of being together with Nora, though, is getting to the point where Nora is not living on the run — and she turned herself into the Time Bureau tonight, not for Ray but for her own peace of mind.

“She wants to pay. She wants people to know that she paid her penance and worked to be a better person,” Ford said during the same visit. “She knows that people don’t trust her and knows why they wouldn’t trust her and accepts that and really has committed herself to doing the work to show people that she’s different. She has to prove it to herself, too.”

“She gives herself over willingly, knowing that she is going to pay for her crimes and hopefully continue to rehabilitate herself, which is a strong power move of taking responsibility and making amends for what she’s done,” Routh added. “Ray is very proud of her and also sad, because he didn’t necessarily want her to do that. As much as he’s a rule-followers, he would have rather had her free and away so that he could spend time with her and she could be away. But there are some fun interactions that happen in the next couple of episodes with her being in the Time Bureau prison. Ray finds an interesting way to get to her, to see her and visit her.”

Ford also revealed that the pair start writing one another letters while Nora is in jail.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow airs on Monday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW, following episode of Arrow.