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Legends of Tomorrow 's Caity Lotz shares behind-the-scenes secrets from the 100th episode

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the 100th episode of DC's Legends of Tomorrow.

Legends of Tomorrow star Caity Lotz had a blast directing the zany superhero dramedy's 100th episode.

In the hour, Spooner (Lisseth Chavez) and Astra (Olivia Swann) dove into the now-human Gideon's (Amy Pemberton) mind to help her remember the Legends before a nasty virus wiped out all her memories. Along the way, the Waverider's newest duo met some of the team's former members — including Leonard Snart (Wentworth Miller), Hawkman (Falk Hentschel), Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh), Nora Darhk (Courtney Ford), Martin Stein (Victor Garber), and Jax (Franz Drameh) — and discovered some important information. For example, it turns out Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill), the Waverider's original captain, reprogrammed Gideon so that she would grow to care about and learn from the super-nobodies he recruited onto the ship.

The virus used the revelation of Rip's changes and the many times Gideon experienced pain and loss because of them to make Gideon question whether evolving has been worth it. So Spooner and Astra took Gideon through some joyful and familial memories of the Legends to convince her otherwise, and their first stop was Gideon's memory of the team celebrating every holiday at once. According to Lotz, the scene was mostly improvised.

Legends of Tomorrow
Legends of Tomorrow

Colin Bentley/The CW Caity Lotz as Sara Lance performing karaoke in the 100th episode of 'Legends of Tomorrow'

"That one changed a lot [from the script]," Lotz tells EW. "There was a lot more improv in playing that because the feeling of the scene was the most important thing. None of that dialogue was pivotal. It was all just about capturing that Legends feeling because [Gideon] is like, 'How is any of this worth it?' And it's like, that's why. So like that silly string at the end, none of that was in the script originally. [I] just kind of surprised everyone on the day, which was really fun."

From there the trio journeyed through a fun and hilarious karaoke night on the Waverider, where Gideon started singing along with Sara (Lotz), Nate (Nick Zano), Zari (Tala Ashe), and Ava (Jes Macallan).

"That was a lot of improv as well, and it was fun because Sara's doing her wonderful bad karaoke singing," Lotz says. "I think that made it easy for everybody, for the Legends, to react and laugh at that. There was a lot of improv in that too, like Nate's karaoke. Then of course I always thought it was so funny how badly Sara is singing, and then Gideon comes and then just blows it out of the water, and then everybody getting up and dancing. All of those scenes were so much fun."

Legends of Tomorrow
Legends of Tomorrow

Colin Bentley/The CW The cast of 'Legends of Tomorrow' in the 100th episode

All those memories helped Gideon realize that the happy and sad moments are what help people grow. Thus the trip through Gideon's mindscape ended with every Legend guiding her back down the hallway of the Waverider and back into the real world. Apparently, that's not how the touching scene was initially scripted either.

"Originally that scene was like on the bridge and everybody was standing in a line," Lotz says. "[Co-showrunner Phil Klemmer] and I were talking, like 'Okay, was this going to feel like Rent and we're going to bust out into song right now?' And we decided to change it to the hallway. For me, the whole concept of that is this whole thing has been her journey through and just walking down the hallway was such a representative of each of the Legends helping her keep going and going and going until she gets to the end. To be honest, at first I was worried that that scene was going to feel really corny. It could have gone there, and it didn't. So the feeling just really, I think, landed. So that was very, very cool."

She continues: "From that moment of her first flashback into that holiday scene, into the book club, into the karaoke and all that, you just really feel it. And on that day that we were shooting that hallway scene, I think all of us really felt how special it was to be able to have everybody there and together. Like when you look down the hallway, you just, 'Wow.' You just felt the history of the show and how much it's been through and how much it's changed. It's a hundred episodes that we've done together and the power of that. I was so, so happy that that feeling that we got to feel on set really translated on screen. When I watched it and then seeing Gideon look back, [it] made me tear up."

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow

Jeff Weddell/The CW The cast of 'Legends of Tomorrow'

Of course, the 100th episode wasn't all warm and cuddly. Half the episode was devoted to reintroducing the version of Bishop (Raffi Barsoumian) that the Legends kidnapped at the end of last season. On the eve of launching the AVA program, Bishop regained his memories from the finale and discovered that he actually stole a copy of Gideon while he was on the Waverider. Determined to get his revenge on the Legends, Bishop decided to reprogram Gideon.

"In this episode, we see how powerful Gideon is as well. So now you have Bishop, who's been a formidable foe and is very smart, and now he's got Gideon," Lotz says, explaining how dangerous this situation is for the Legends. ""That will play a big part in the rest of the season."

DC's Legends of Tomorrow airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on the CW.

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