Legends of Tomorrow Introduces A Major Status Quo Change for Zari

Last year, ComicBook.com named the cast of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow as our favorite ensemble cast of the year. This time around, they have been just as excellent — but things have been significantly shaken up. The additions of Ramona Young and Matt Ryan were one thing, but in tonight’s season finale, a member of the cast has been written off — and while it is likely temporary, the show’s midseason premiere in 2020 means that it will be quite a few months before fans finally get closure on this particular dangling plot thread. Spoilers ahead for “Hey, World,” the season four finale of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, which aired tonight.

After years of trying to change her future — in which metahumans are outlawed in 2029 and her family is killed, leaving her an outlaw running from ARGUS by the early 2040s — Zari Tomaz finally succeeded, almost by accident. In order to defeat Neron and turn back the hordes of Hell, Nate Heywood (with a little magical help) created Heyworld, an amusement park designed to help prevent the world from descending into terror following the revelation that magical creatures exist in the universe. It was apparently an astonishing success, leading to a divergent timeline where monsters, metahumans, and mankind share the planet in peace and Zari’s family survives.

Of course, the fact that her brother never died means that she never got his Totem, and never joined the Legends. She would have been insulated from such changes to the timeline, had she remained in the Temporal Zone until the timeline had “hardened,” but instead she rushed to Heyworld to save Nate’s life after he was killed by Neron. Doing so subjected her to the changes they were making to the natural course of the timeline, and shortly after Nate’s revival and a passionate kiss shared between the couple, Zari was replaced by Behrad, her brother, in everyone’s memories. (He even arrives wearing what appears to be the same flannel Zari wore in “Here I Go Again.”) Nate is vaguely aware that something has changed, but it would likely be Gideon, if anyone, who actually remembers the true timeline at this point, since the Legends were all-hands-on-deck to fight Neron and save Ray and Constantine.

What this means for the character going forward is anybody’s guess. It is likely that these events will be at least partially reversed and that Zari will join the Legends, but when the new season starts up in early 2020, Behrad will likely be the Tomaz family member fighting alongside the Legends during “Crisis on Infinite Earths.”

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow returns with its next new episodes in January.