"Swan Thong" is the fourteenth episode and final episode of the fifth season and 82nd overall of the American

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

television series ''

Legends of Tomorrow ''DC's Legends of Tomorrow'', or simply ''Legends of Tomorrow'', is an American Time travel in fiction, time travel superhero fiction, superhero television series developed by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg, and Phil Klemmer, ...

'', revolving around the eponymous team of superheroes and their time travelling adventures. It is set in the

Arrowverse The Arrowverse is an American Superhero fiction, superhero media franchise and shared universe that is centered on various interconnected television series based on DC Comics superhero characters, primarily airing on The CW as well as web series ...

, sharing continuity with the other television series of the universe. The episode was written by

Keto Shimizu Keto Shimizu (born December 23, 1984) is an American television writer, Television producer, producer, and comic book writer. She is known for her work on the North American adaptation of ''Being Human (North American TV series), Being Human'' a ...

and Morgan Faust, and directed by

Kevin Mock Kevin Mock is an American television director, editor, and producer who is well known for his work on The WB/ CWs ''America's Next Top Model''. Career Mock got his start as a production assistant on Art Camachos ''The Power Within'' in 1995. ...

Maisie Richardson-Sellers Maisie Richardson-Sellers is a British actress and director. She first gained recognition for her role as Rebekah Mikaelson / Eva Sinclair on The CW series '' The Originals''. She has since gained wider recognition for her starring roles as Kat ...

, stars as Charlie, she is joined by principal cast members,

Caity Lotz Caity Lotz (born December 30, 1986) is an American actress, dancer, and singer. She has portrayed Stephanie Horton in the AMC series ''Mad Men'', Officer Kirsten Landry in the MTV mockumentary series ''Death Valley'' (2011), Annie in '' The Pact ...

Jes Macallan Jes Macallan is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Josslyn Carver in ABC drama series '' Mistresses'' and Ava Sharpe in The CW superhero comedy-drama ''Legends of Tomorrow''. Early life Macallan trained in dance in her you ...

Nick Zano Nick Zano (born March 8, 1978) is an American actor. He played List of What I Like About You characters#Vince, Vince in The WB's sitcom ''What I Like About You (TV series), What I Like About You''. He hosted MTV's former infotainment program abo ...

, Matt Ryan,

Dominic Purcell Dominic Haakon Myrtvedt PurcellO'Connor, B,Break Out". '' Men's Fitness''. December/January 2007 Issue; retrieved 18 December 2006. (born 17 February 1970) is an Australian actor. He is best known as Lincoln Burrows in ''Prison Break'' (2005� ...

, Amy Louise Pemberton, Matt Ryan and

Tala Ashe Talayeh Ashrafi (;), known professionally as Tala Ashe, is an Iranian-American actress. Known for her roles on the television series '' Smash'', '' American Odyssey'', and ''As the World Turns'', as well as her regular role as Zari Tomaz and Za ...

Plot

Infiltrating the Fates' temple,

Sara Lance Sara Lance, also known by her alter-ego White Canary, is a fictional character in The CW's Arrowverse franchise, first introduced in the 2012 pilot episode of the television series ''Arrow'', and later starring in '' Legends of Tomorrow''. The ...

kills

Atropos Atropos (; "without turn"), in Greek mythology, was the third of the Three Fates or Moirai, goddesses of fate and destiny. Her Roman equivalent was Morta. Atropos was one of the Three Fates and was known as "the Inflexible One." It was Atro ...

by throwing her into the Loom of Fate, destroying it. As a result, Sara loses her powers and regains her sight. Traveling four months into the future, the Legends find

Lachesis Lachesis ( ; ; from , 'to obtain by lot, by fate, or by the will of the gods'), in ancient Greek religion, was the middle of the Three Fates, or Moirai; the others were her sisters, Clotho and Atropos. Normally seen clothed in white, Laches ...

rebuilt the Loom as a smartwatch app and imprisoned Charlie in The Museum of Bad Ideas, who has been convinced that everything wrong with humanity is her fault. Freeing her and taking her back to the ship, the Legends find that the Loom really is destroyed and Lachesis is using Gideon as a cover. Lita helps Charlie see good can come from chaos and inspires her to join the Legends in shutting down Lachesis' app and killing the final Encores at the museum. Realizing Lachesis is human without the Loom, Charlie forgives her and tells her to live the one life she has. The previous timeline's Zari realizes her presence is slowly killing Behrad, so she returns to the totem. Returning to 1970s London and her band, Charlie also leaves the team. Astra begins her second chance at life by moving in with Constantine and giving him his soul coin back. Unbeknownst to the team, Sara is abducted by aliens.

Production

Development and filming

"Swan Thong" was directed by

. The episode entered preparation on January 8, 2020, and ended on the 16th. Shooting began the next day and ran until January 29, 2020. A scene featuring a same-sex kiss between Charlie and Zari was shot. The pairing being a popular

ship A ship is a large watercraft, vessel that travels the world's oceans and other Waterway, navigable waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research and fishing. Ships are generally disti ...

by fans of the series. However the scene was cut for time. Reportedly, the cameo by

Sisqó Mark Althavan Andrews (born November 9, 1978), known professionally as Sisqó (stylized as SisQó), is an American Contemporary R&B, R&B singer. Following his tenure as lead performer of the R&B group Dru Hill, he quickly reached success as a sol ...

was not confirmed until four days before filming began. The role of Zari Tomaz in the episode was initially much smaller; it was not until

began performing against herself was the role increased to be a major character in the episode. However due to technical constraints it was decided that this would be only temporary and that one of the two Zari's had to be written out.

Writing

"Swan Thong" was written by

and Morgan Faust. Shimizu and Faust finished the production draft on January 13, 2020. The second and third versions of the script were finished on January 14 and 15 of 2020. The fourth and final version was completed on January 16, the final day of preparation. Several alternative titles for the episode were considered including, "The Hateful Fates", "One Mans Trash...", and "Fight at the Museum." The final version of the title is a reference to the

song,

Thong Song "Thong Song" is a song recorded by American Contemporary R&B, R&B singer Sisqó. It was released on February 15, 2000, as the second single from his solo debut studio album, ''Unleash the Dragon'' (1999). "Thong Song" garnered four Grammy nomina ...

. Sisqó cameos in the episode as himself.

Casting

The episode stars

, Matt Ryan,

, Amy Louise Pemberton,

Courtney Ford Courtney Ford (born June 27, 1978) is an American actress. She is best known for her roles on television, such as playing Christine Hill on ''Dexter'' (2009), Portia Bellefleur on ''True Blood'' (2011), Lily on '' Parenthood'' (2012), Tonia Pyn ...

, and Olivia Swann as Charlie,

Zari Tarazi Zari Tomaz and Zari Tarazi () are fictional Character (arts), characters portrayed by Tala Ashe in The CW's Arrowverse franchise, primarily the television series ''Legends of Tomorrow''. Loosely inspired by the characters Andrea Thomas (characte ...

, Nate Haywood,

John Constantine John Constantine (), also known as Hellblazer, is an antihero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. He was created by Alan Moore, Steve Bissette, and John Totleben, and first appeared in ''Swamp Thing'' #37 (June 1985). I ...

Mick Rory Heat Wave (Mick Rory) is a supervillain appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. He is commonly as an enemy of Flash (comics), The Flash and a member of the Rogues (comics), Rogues along with Captain Cold, among others. Actor Dominic Purc ...

Gideon Gideon (; ) also named Jerubbaal and Jerubbesheth, was a military leader, judge and prophet whose calling and victory over the Midianites is recounted in of the Book of Judges in both the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible. Gideon was th ...

(voice),

Marie Antoinette Marie Antoinette (; ; Maria Antonia Josefa Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last List of French royal consorts, queen of France before the French Revolution and the establishment of the French First Republic. She was the ...

, and Astra Louge. Additionally, Tala Ashe portrays

Zari Tomaz Zari Tomaz and Zari Tarazi () are fictional characters portrayed by Tala Ashe in The CW's Arrowverse franchise, primarily the television series ''Legends of Tomorrow''. Loosely inspired by the characters Andrea Thomas and Adrianna Tomaz, both ...

, the version of Zari that was part of the Legends prior to the events of " Hey, World!". This is the final episode of ''Legends of Tomorrow'' to feature Maisie Richardson-Sellers and Courtney Ford as a series regulars. Richardson-Sellers left the show to work on her career as a filmmaker, with her first directing credit being the short film "Sunday's Child". Both Richardson-Sellers and Ford eventually returned to ''Legends of Tomorrow.'' Richardson-Sellers as a director, directing the episodes " There Will be Brood" and " The Fixed Point". Ford as Nora Darhk in the 100th episode, " wvrdr_error_100 not found". This is the final episode to guest star Shayan Sobhian as Behrad Tarazi and

Adam Tsekhman Adam Tsekhman is a Canadian actor best known for his role as Gary Green (Arrowverse), Gary Green on the television series ''Legends of Tomorrow''. Early life Adam Tsekhman was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, but raised in Toronto, Ontario. His pa ...

as Gary Green as the two were both promoted to series regulars for the remainder of the show. Former series regular Ramona Young guest stars as Mona Wu, this is her final appearance as the character. Sisqó guest stars as himself.

Music

The closing moment of the episode feature a

punk-rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

version of the song, "Mr. Parkers Cul de Sac" which was written by James Eagan and previously appeared in an episode of the same name. American rapper Sisqó performs his song, "Thong Song" in the episode.

Release

Promotional

The episode was teased on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

by show-runner,

. The trailer was released on May 26, 2020.

Broadcast

"Swan Thong" was first broadcast in the United States on

The CW The CW Network, LLC (commonly referred to as The CW or simply CW) is an American commercial broadcast television network which is controlled by Nexstar Media Group through a 75% ownership interest. The network's name is derived from the firs ...

on June 2, 2020. It originally aired to an audience of 730,000 live viewers with a .2 share among adults 18–49. The episode was the eight most viewed of the season when only counting live viewership. When accounting for seven day DVR viewership the episode gains an additional 530,000 for a total of 1.26 million viewers.

Critical reception

Allison Shoemaker of ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...

'' rated the episode a B+. She found the episode "reasonable satisfying", praising the "heart breaking moments" and the musical number. However Shoemaker found herself disappointed with the episodes moments of "hesitation", instead choosing to "not pull on threads". She praised Maisie Richardson-Sellers performance as Charlie calling her exit "top notch". However Shoemaker felt that certain scenes "lacked gravitas" leaving heart-felt moments, empty. Jim Dandeneau of ''

Den of Geek ''Den of Geek'' is a UK and US-based website covering entertainment with a focus on pop culture. The website also issues a biannual magazine. History ''Den of Geek'' was founded in 2007 by Simon Brew in London. In 2012, DoG Tech LLC licensed ' ...

'' found the exit of

to be one of the best moments calling it "beautifully acted" and labeling

the seasons "MVP". Dandeneau called Zari Tomaz's exit one of the episodes best moments, describing a bittersweet feeling as "Nate had yet another love interest ripped from him".