Legends of Tomorrow: Season 2, Episode 6 - Outlaw Country

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Plot

Still reeling from the revelation that the murderous time-traveler they are tracking is a speedster, The Legends return to The Wild West. The latest Aberration brings them back in touch with their old ally Jonah Hex as he finds himself in the fight of his life against his arch-enemy, Quentin Turnbull.


Influences

The comic series Weird Western Tales and All-Star Western.


Goofs

Where do The Legends get their horses from? Is there a secret stable on The Waverider?

Have the show's writers forgotten that Sara is bisexual and not a lesbian? Mick refers to her as "a filly who likes other fillies". (Then again, in the time Mick has known Sara, she's only shown a romantic interest in women apart from when she kissed Snart and Mick was unconscious for that.)

It is day when Jonah Hex enters the Turnbull saloon but night when he and the rest of The Legends flee despite only being inside for a few minutes.

Why is Ray so shocked that a bullet made of dwarf-star material does more damage than a regular bullet? You'd think he'd know better than anyone how hard the stuff is!

Quentin Turnbull refers to The Colt Single Action Army (a.k.a. The Peacemaker) as "the gun that won The West". Ignoring any debates over the virtues of the Winchester repeating rifle vs. the Colt revolver, both guns were introduced in 1873 and the infamous saying attributed to both guns was first recorded in a print advertisement for Winchester in 1919. It's a bit of an anachronism in any case, since "the west" was hardly won in 1874 and indeed Turnbull is trying to stop it from being won!


Performances

Jeff Fahey is a suitably sinister Quentin Turnbull.

As before, Johnathon Schaech is a pitch-perfect Jonah Hex.

As usual, the entire ensemble is on-point, with more wonderful dialogues between Ray & Nate, Amaya and Rory &  Hex and Sara.


Artistry

The fight in Turnbull's Saloon is a great one, even by the standards of this show.

The make-up to create Jonah Hex's famous face is good.


Trivia Of Tomorrow

Stein reads the opening narration of this episode, which is the same as in 204.

Jonah Woodson Hex first appeared in All-Star Western #10 (March 1972) - just two issues before the comic was renamed Weird Western Tales. Despite not being introduced to comics until 1972, Jonah Hex is probably the most famous of DC Comics Western heroes. He was the star of the New 52 All-Star Western series and has headlined several Vertigo mini-series as well as several DC Comics solo-series. There was also a movie based on his adventures, but it is not well-regarded by most fans.

Abused as a child by his drunken father, Jonah Hex was sold into slavery to an Apache tribe by his father when he was 13. He was freed and made a full member of the tribe after saving the chieftain's life but was ultimately lost to them after his adopted brother attempted to kill him and left him for dead during their manhood rite. Jonah would find them years later and related his brother's treachery, resulting in a trial by combat in which is brother sabotaged his weapons. Force to defend himself outside the parameters of the duel, Jonah was outcast and given "the Mark of the Demon" - the scar on the right side of his face that would make him infamous.

Jonah Hex is characterized as an anti-hero, in that he is willing to use lethal force. However, he's generally considered a good man in spite of this, living by a unique yet seemingly contradictory code of honor while playing at being a hardened mercenary with few cares beyond getting paid. For instance, Hex fought for the Confederacy in the American Civil War despite being a strict abolitionist due to his own experiences as a slave, because his land was in The American South and he wanted to defend it. This code frequently got Hex into trouble.

Around the time of Crisis On Infinite Earths, Jonah Hex was given a mini-series - Hex - in which he was transported forward in time to a post-apocalyptic Seattle. The series did fair business in the United States, but was wildly popular in Europe. It's still considered in-continuity, though the series never did explain just how Jonah Hex made his way back to his own time.

Jonah's exploits as a time-traveler have been referred to Hex's few media appearances.  Hex was the hero of the Batman: The Animated Series episode Showdown, in which Hex thwarted an attempt by Ra's Al Ghul to halt the United States' westward expansion.While no reference was made to Hex's past, he seemed remarkably undisturbed by the steampunk weaponry Ra's and his men employed.

Hex was also one of several Western heroes who teamed up with Batman, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman in the Justice League Unlimited episode The Once And Future Thing: Part One: Weird Western Tales. Hex deduced the three were time-travelers before they revealed himself, saying only that he'd had an interesting life and time-travel wasn't the strangest thing he'd seen when asked how he figured it out.

In the Legends' last trip to The Wild West, Rip Hunter said that the town of Calvert was destroyed by a gang lead by Quentin Turnbull. In the original DC Comics, Quentin Turnbull was a frequent enemy of Jonah Hex's arch enemy, first appearing in Weird Western Tales #22 (June 1974). Turnbull was a plantation owner who blamed Hex for the death of his son during The American Civil War. He hired multiple assassins to try and kill Hex and had him tried on false charges on one occasion.

The DCTVU version of Quentin Turnbull seems to be just an ordinary outlaw gang leader.

In this episode, we find out that Jonah Hex was hired to protect the people of Calvert and that their standing up to Quentin Turnbull rather than paying protection money resulted in Turnbull and his men trapping every man, woman and child in Calvert inside the town church and setting it on fire. Jonah Hex survived but his signature facial scarring was caused by the fire. Hex has been hunting Turbull for eight years and nearly caught him twice before.

Ray refers to Nate's Time Seismograph as "The Trouble Alert", much to Sara's annoyance. In the classic Superfriends cartoon, The Trouble Alert was the advanced global networking system that warned the Superfriends of various dangers that required their attention.

The costume that Nate designs for himself resembles the original Commander Steel costume from the comics.

Quentin Turnbull's plan for starting his own country is based around using a train loaded with dwarf-star alloy to blow up the railroad at a point called Summit Pass. This will cut off the western half of the country from the east, allowing Turnbull and his special bullets to easily take over The West. While Summit Pass is a fictional location, the threat of someone disabling the First Transcontinental Railroad was a real concern in 1874, with the final spike uniting the railways from Iowa to California being driven in the Utah Territory in 1869.

Nate refers to himself as "the Man of Steel". This nickname is more famously applied to Superman.

Later in the episode, Nate stops a train while in his steel form. This is another sneaky reference to Superman, who was referred to as "more powerful than a locomotive"in the introduction to the 1940's Superman radio show.


Technobabble

In the opening scene, Quentin Turnbull kills a time pirate who has some kind of tracking device/scanner that can detect dwarf star alloy.

Chronokenesis is possible through The Speed Force and grants the power of temporal manipulation. Or, in terms Mick Rory can grasp, speedsters can run fast enough to time travel.

Nate dates the amulet Sara stole from Damien Darhk back to Late Antiquity and determines that it is Judeo-Christian in origin. Unfortunately, that's all he can determine, saying that it's almost as if the amulet didn't exist, historically speaking.

Physically, nothing is wrong with Martin Stein. He later describes his headaches to Jax as coinciding with visions of a woman he doesn't recognize but has a feeling that he loves her.

Ray identifies the rare ore in Turnbull's mine as dwarf star alloy - the same material he used to power The ATOM Suit. The piece Ray used for his suit was the size of his little finger. The amount Turnbull has could be used to power the entire Wild West or blow it up.

Dwarf star alloy is the densest material in the universe.

Quentin Turnbull uses bullets made of dwarf-star alloy. These bullets explode on impact, releasing a blue energy similar to the blasts from The ATOM Suit. They are strong enough to penetrate Nate's steel skin.

Quentin Turnbull refers to the Colt Single Action Army as "the gun that won the west".

Jax theorizes that Martin's "memory flashes" are a result of him inadvertently changing something after interacting with his past self in 1987. Or, as Stein puts it, "my memories from my new life are supplanting the memories from my old life, thus creating temporal dissonance."


Dialogue Triumphs

Nate: I just thought becoming a superhero, I would spend less time in the library than my old job.
Ray: Well.. research skills are a kind of superpower.. And you can turn to steel. So... you've got two!
(Nate just glares at Ray.)

Ray: Oooh! What does the Trouble Alert say?
Sara: Look, I told you - don't call it that!

Hex: Where's Rip?
Sara: He's MIA.
Hex: Damn. How the hell did you miscreants manage not to get yourselves killed without him?
Vixen: Miss Lance has been serving as Captain.
Hex: But... she's a lady. (looks at Sara) You are a lady, right?
Sara: You know, I could take your life just as easily as I saved it?
Hex: Mmmmmm.  Fiery. Whoever breaks her is in for a wild ride.
Mick: Too bad this filly's into other fillies.
(Mick laughs as Hex chokes on his drink.)
Hex: You don't say?

Nate: Stuck here doing research while everyone else is out drinking. It's like high-school all over again!

Nate: Hey, hey - would you shoot an unarmed man?
(Turnbull's men start laughing.)
Ray: I think that's a yes.

Sara: (To Hex) Now I know you don't like taking orders from a woman, but you're going to like getting your ass kicked by one even less.

(Hex tells Sara the story of Calvert's destruction and why he's out for revenge on Turnbull.)
Hex: What the hell am I telling a woman this for? You'd never understand.
Sara: Wrong. Like I said, vendetta's kind of my thing. I've got a Turnbull. And he's still out there.
Hex: Well, here you are with a Time Ship...
Sara: Been there. Tried that. Killing Darhk would create ripples in history that I can't control. But there are things I can control. I can help you capture Turnbull.
Hex: Even though I screwed up?
Sara: Been there too. But I'm starting to think that screwing up is just an essential part of surviving.

(Amaya walks in on Mick punching a heavy bag.)
Amaya: Trying to work out your frustration?
Mick: ... something like that.
Amaya: What happened out there today? You lost control.
Mick: (laughs) Says you. That man back in town? The drinker, the gambler, the animal that wants to watch the whole world burn? That's the real me.
Amaya: I happen to know a thing or two about animals. They're not vicious by nature. Unless they're attacked.

Mick: If you're trying to tell me to tell you some sob story about how horrible and painful my life is, forget it.  I'm no victim.
Amaya: Sara's told me of the things you've done for this team and you don't sound like an animal who just wants to watch the world burn. 

Mick: They like to pretend I'm part of the team... that they have me on a leash. (shakes his head) No. Now, if you'll excuse me...
(Mick returns to punching the bag as Amaya leaves.)

(Nate tells Ray about how he thought he didn't have to be afraid of anything anymore because of his power.)

Ray: Well, maybe now you know how I felt after you destroyed my ATOM suit. When we were out fighting the shogun, without my suit? I was afraid.

Nate: Well, you hid it well. 

Ray: That's because I realized that... weakness - or not being invulnerable - is what makes me a hero. There's no bravery without fear. 

Nate: That was a really good inspirational speech.

Ray: Really?!
Nate: Yeah.

Ray: Well, I have a few other aphorisms in my back pocket. Like, uh - "Courage is the mastery of fear - not the absent of fear." "Strength is..."

Nate: You know what, buddy? You nailed it? 

Sara: (To Nate) You, Jax and Ray - stop the train. The rest of us will deal with Turnbull.

Hex: Are you sure about this?

Sara: Of course. This isn't my first rodeo.

Ray: (sighs) I wanted to say that.

Hex: You do a mighty fine job bearing a burden few men could deal with.
Sara: Good thing I'm a woman then.
Hex: (tipping his hat brim) Yes ma'am.

(Amaya walks in on Mick in his quarters. He is drinking beer and watching the flame on his lighter.)

Amaya: It really is beautiful. It's no wonder that human beings have worshiped fire for millennia. Fire gives us life but also has the power to destroy everything in its path.
Mick: Your point? Or are you going to keep talking in metaphors? (pause) Yeah, I know what a metaphor is. But don't tell them.
Amaya: You were right. The animal who wants to watch the world burn? That is who you are. But it's not all that you are.

Mick: Your point?
Amaya: Don't deny the animal. But don't let it control you either. I can help you. Believe me - I know a thing or two about controlling wild beasts. 

Continuity

Jonah Hex was last seen in 108. Quentin Turnbull was also mentioned in this episode and identified by Rip Hunter as being responsible for the destruction of the town of Calvert, Oklahoma.

In this episode, we find out Quentin Turnbull was responsible for Jonah Hex's scarred face and that Hex was the hired protector of Calvert, Oklahoma and that their deaths were due to Hex's standing up to Turnbull, who was running a protection racket.

Sara says the amulet that she stole from Damien Darhk in 205 resembles the one that The Legends and JSA recovered from the Nazis in 202, before it was stolen by their mysterious speedster.

Jax once again asks Stein about the message from the future Barry Allen that they overheard in 203 and wonders if they should tell the rest of the team.

When Nate uses his powers, it stretches out his clothes and they fit strangely afterward. This is why he tried to design a superhero costume for himself. Or so he claims!

All of The Legends, except for Nate, know how to ride a horse.

Sara is a good enough shot with a rifle to shoot through a rope.

The Time Aberration The Legends need to fix involves how - in the new timeline - everything west of the Rocky Mountains became known as Turnbull Country in 1876.

Turnbull took over the town of Liberty, Colorado six months before The Legends arrived.

Mick is an accomplished card-shark.

Sara is a master at using a whip and can disarm an armed man with one.

Jax can always tell when Martin Stein is lying.

Martin Stein is having visions of a woman he doesn't recognize - like memories of a stranger who isn't a stranger. These coincide with his headaches.

Nate was picked on by a bully named Shane Blocklin as a kid. Shane broke Nate's nose in two places.

Ray refers to the battle with the Shogun from 203.

The "memory flashes" that Martin Stein is experiencing resemble the memory loss that Barry Allen experienced in The Flashpoint Reality in F301.

At the end of the episode, Ray now has enough dwarf-star alloy to build twenty ATOM suits.

Ray builds an armored suit based on Nate's design and addresses him as "Steel".

The episode ends with Sara telling Ray and Nate that their friends in 2016 need help.


Location

Liberty, Colorado - 1874.


Untelevised Adventures

We learn the details of the destruction of Calvert, Oklahoma and how Jonah Hex got his scarred face.


The Fridge Factor

Averted hard with Sara putting Hex in his place and Amaya doing the same with Mick.


The Bottom Line

A solid episode and a heck of a high-note to end on heading into the big four-part crossover between all of the DCTVU shows.