Legends of Tomorrow boss on that long-awaited kiss

Warning: This story contains major spoilers from Monday’s episode of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. Read at your own risk!

While the Legends of Tomorrow were busy playing pirates with Blackbeard, romance finally blossomed for Sara — a moment more than seven months in the making.

During Monday’s episode of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Sara (Caity Lotz) and Ava (Jes Macallan) went on their first date. And though it was adorably awkward and went awry thanks to a failed Legends mission and a drunk Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill) and Wally West (Keiynan Lonsdale), it did culminate in a kiss between them.

Unlike Sara’s past romps with various figures throughout time — including her hookup with Constantine (Matt Ryan) last week — their slow build-up over the last 11 episodes of the season signals that Ava and Sara’s dynamic is anything but fleeting. Legends fans have been highly anticipating this moment since Comic-Con, after the show’s bosses promised Sara would settle down with a more solid love interest this year.

“When Jes Macallan came in to do her first chemistry read with Caity Lotz, it was evident how great a couple they would make on screen,” executive producer Phil Klemmer tells EW. “But the last thing we wanted to do was to make their relationship come too easily. After two seasons of Sara loving ‘em and leaving ‘em, we wanted to challenge her with something more than a one night stand with some random historical figure of the week. Although those are fun too. But the real challenge was, for ourselves as writers, to come up with a character worthy of Captain Sara Lance’s romantic interest — dare I say love? Thank God we found a performer like Jes to bring this person to life. I hope that our fans are relieved by the time Sara and Ava sit down for their date on [Monday’s] episode because it was an awful long time coming. ”

Though Sara and Ava are now in the honeymoon phase, if you will, trouble abounds for the newbie couple. “This quiet story line in which they interact as two women on a first date, getting to know one another in a tranquil setting, isn’t destined to last because we have a pair of bombshell episodes coming up that force Sara and Ava independently to consider whether they are worthy of love,” Klemmer teases. “We know a lot about Sara Lance’s dark and tragic past. It only seemed fair that we complicate things for her love interest Ava Sharpe — which is not to say that we’re looking to force the two of them apart. We’re just looking to complicate things. Because let’s be honest… how many four beat ‘date night’ stories can you have on a time-traveling superhero show?”

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.