Injustice: Ground Zero #6 - A Review

As Harley Quinn fights her conflicting feelings regarding a new Joker entering her life, her army of protesters wage a more physical battle against Superman's Regime forces. Meanwhile, The Regime has captured Batman... but not the one they expected!


While a solidly written piece of work, Injustice: Ground Zero #6 lacks the luster of previous issues. Half of this is due to the book's intrusion into the story of the original game, when the appeal of the original Injustice comic was that it told us all the stories we didn't see in the five-year gap between the game's prologue and first act. The other half is the lack of Harley's narration in the later part of the book, as the action shifts to focus on The Regime torturing Earth Prime Batman.


While the story may seem somewhat repetitive to those who have played the original game, the visuals of the artwork more than make up for it. Marco Santucci has a great gift for depicting facial expressions and the close-ups in this book look fantastic. The rich colors by J. Nanjan are also worthy of special praise.

Injustice: Gods Among Us - Year Five #33 - A Review

The race is on for both The Regime and The Insurgency. As Batgirl desperately tries to hack Cyborg's memory banks and find some proof of Superman murdering unarmed protesters, The Regime works to find Batman's team and to save the life of a poisoned Superman. And even now The Flash can't help but wonder if he's chosen the right side...


This art in this issue is uncharacteristically weak. I'm quite fond of Tom Derenick's work - both here and on Secret Six - but there are a lot of panels here that just look off, whether it be due to the proportions of the characters, some oddly chosen angles or the overly heavy inks. Every artist has their off days and this is definitely not one of Derenick's better pieces of work.


Thankfully the writing is as strong as ever. Brian Buccellato makes The Flash our point-of-view character again - not surprising his long history of writing the character and Barry Allen's status as a man in the middle in this story. And the scene in which he confronts Lex Luthor with his fears is a dramatically ironic one, given that Barry is totally unaware of Lex's own secret campaign against Superman.

Injustice: Gods Among Us - Year Five #32 - A Review

Hawkman has returned to Earth and he is out for blood! Abandoning Batman's plans to peaceful bring Superman to heel, he's laced his mace with Kryptonite. Unfortunately, that won't help anyone when the rest of The Regime show up...


The action in this issue is amazing. Marco Santucci and Rex Lokus do a stellar job in portraying Hawkman in all his savage fury and create a number of amazing visual effects, such as the golden glint of Hawkman's helmet. The emphasis may be on the action this week, but the script by Brian Buccellato still allows for some brief character moments, such as one panel where it seems that Barry Allen seems conflicted over the fight and is seriously pondering stepping in to change things... one way or the other.

Injustice: Gods Among Us - Year Five #31 - A Review

As Hal Jordan begins to share Barry Allen's reservations about what they've come to represent and what Superman might be doing in the name of peace, Batman and Batwoman take the fight to Cyborg and Hawkgirl at the Hall of Justice. Meanwhile, Superman seeks the unlikeliest of guides in finding Raven...


There's quite a lot going on in this issue of Injustice but Brian Buccellato does a fine job of keeping all the plates spinning.No one sequence seems overly long and the fight between the Bats and the Regime team is a thrilling centerpiece for the issue. And props to showcasing a relatively obscure Titans character as Superman's point of contact for finding Raven.  It's little touches like this which have made this book such a delight for DC Comics readers even as we witness the horror of Superman gone bad.


I've enjoyed Marco Santucci's artwork in the past and, for the most part, I enjoy his work here. That being said, his depictions of Batwoman and Hawkgirl are textbook examples of Escher Girls. While not the most egregious example of this sort of thing, it was still distracting enough to take me out of the story. At least Rex Lokus gave his usual stellar job on the color art but it's still disappointing as Santucci is capable of much better work.

Injustice: Gods Among Us - Year Five #30 - A Review

As Superman continues to roam the globe, checking up on those few super-beings - such as Aquaman - he has allowed some degree of freedom since taking over the world, what remains of Batman's resistance launches a desperate raid on the Hall of Justice. Meanwhile, in the depths of space, Hawkman seeks the last piece of Kryptonite in the universe - a prize he will have to battle the warlord Mongul to claim!


This chapter of Injustice: Year Five is largely concerned with moments of transition. Apart from the fight between Mongul and Hawkman, there's little action. Yet Brian Buccellato's script is full of tension and we get a number of great character moments throughout.


Xermanico's artwork proves a perfect partner to Buccellato's writing. There is a subtle complexity to Xermanico's style and a lot of fine detail worked into the backgrounds and - in the case of the bones in Mongul's throne room - foregrounds. And Rex Lokus' colors are as stupendous as ever.

Injustice: Gods Among Us - Year Five #29 - A Review

In the wake of Barry Allen's rebellion against Superman following Alfred Pennyworth's murder, questions are being asked in both The Regime and The Resistance regarding their leadership's actions. As Hal Jordan investigates Zsasz's escape from Sinestro's super-prison and Batman enacts another desperate plan, Superman begins to check in on those few superhumans he has allowed some degree of autonomy, staring with Black Adam.


Xermanico's artwork is well-suited towards depicting this chapter where a dark world becomes a shade dimmer, with what little trust still exists between Superman and his followers eroding even further. Xermanico boasts a Film Noir aesthetic of heavy inks and deep shadows that capture the mood of this chapter perfectly. Rex Lokus colors the final art appropriately to match, with even the usual bright golds and reds of Superman and Black Adam's costumes seeming somewhat more shaded than usual.

Brian Buccellato continues to find new drama, even as this series enters into its climax. It's good to see that in spite of how much things have changed, Sinestro is still Sinestro and enjoys needling his former, fallen student for his own sick amusement. And the battle between Black Adam and Superman is one of the best in the series to date.

Legends of Tomorrow: Season 1, Episode 16 - Legendary

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.





Plot

The Time Masters control of the time-stream has been shattered but Vandal Savage is still at large and he still holds Carter and Kendra hostage. Still, in the wake of Leonard Snart's sacrifice, Rip Hunter is unwilling to further risk the lives of his crew now that their destinies are their own. To that end, Rip returns them all to May 2016.

But the team aren't ready to admit defeat just yet, though Sara finds her resolve tested when she learns of her sister's death. And when a clue from Kendra sent back through time gives them a lead on where to find Savage, the team will have one more chance to prove themselves legendary.


Influences

Doctor Who (the general themes of predestination, time being rewritten and a complex story involving time-travel trickery to defeat a great evil), the Back To The Future movies (Rip's riding his ship upward after seemingly falling to his death is a nod to a similar scene from Back To The Future II, the general plot of using time travel to prevent a corrupt timeline), the movie Men In Black (Rip's knock-out device seems similar to memory-erasing machine used by the MiB) and the JSA comics of Geoff Johns, David Goyer and James Robinson (complex time travel plot, the connection between Thanagarian technology and Ancient Egypt, the surprise cameo at the end.)


Goofs

Kendra just happening to run into the soldier whose helmet wound up in Rip's collection of historical memorabilia is completely unbelievable.

Why are The Thanagarians blasting their technology into space, hidden inside meteorites? That doesn't seem like the action of the war-like race from the comics, whom the DCTVU version of The Thanigarians seem to resemble based on what little we've heard.

In previous episodes, it was too dangerous for Stein and Jax to become Firestorm on The Waverider due to the energy released when they merge. For some reason, this isn't an issue when they merge in the loading bay in this episode to practice transmuting other objects.

There's a lot of questions that are left unanswered, particularly regarding Jax's subplot. Did he manage to save his father? What did he tell his mom about his being gone for five months?


Performances

Again, Caity Lotz is the episode MVP. The scenes where Sara copes with the news of her sister's death - both in mourning with her father and in her violent reaction to Rip's refusal to take her back to stop it from happening - are the emotional high points of the episode.


Artistry

The direction, fight choreography and editing combine to make the final battle with Savage the best sequence in the show's history.

The scene in which Rip sees his wife and son and seems to make peace with them is well-shot and well-scored.


Trivia Of Tomorrow

Instead of the usual opening with Rip Hunter's voice-over, this episode opens with Gideon speaking and a quick visual recap of the first season.

Mick returns to robbery, giving Snart's cold gun to his new partner. He then kills said partner, when he proves to be even more hot-headed than Mick, killing a helpless security guard. This is something of a nod to the code of conduct utilized by The Rogues in the original The Flash comics.

In addition to rules against drug use, endangering the innocent and the use of lethal force except in self-defense, The Rogues have rules regarding their membership, weapons and one criminal making use of another's gear and gimmick. No one can take up a Rogue's identity while the original Rogue still lives. Also, simply possessing the Rogue's weapons or costume is not enough to assume their identity, even if the original Rogue is dead. This is why the second Mirror Master and Trickster had to prove themselves worthy of a place among The Rogues before being accepted.

Firestorm is able to break the bonds holding Carter and Kendra with their bare hands. In the comics, Firestorm also possesses super-strength.

In the fight with the Nazis, Firestorm accidentally transforms a German rifle into dust. Stein identifies this power as transmutation - changing the molecular properties of an object.  In the comics, this is one of Firestorm's primary abilities and perhaps the greatest power they have.

In the original comics, Firestorm's transmutation ability was originally limited to their merged physical form and inorganic material. Firestorm could, for instance, change lead into an equal amount of gold but could not reduse a human being into the basic elements making up their body. Firestorm also has to have a basic understanding of the elements involved in order to manipulate them. In the comics, this prevented Ronnie Raymond (a poor student) from being able to alter objects during the period he was able to become Firestorm without Martin Stein's scientific know-how guiding him.

This episode establishes a link between Carter and Kendra's powers and the alien race known as The Thangarians.  This link was originally created in the comics by writers Geoff Johns, David Goyer and James Robinson in their JSA series as a means of tidying up the rather messy history of the Hawkman franchise at that time. To make a long story short, it was established that the Nth Metal which Prince Khufu and Chay-Ara (later Carter Hall and Kendra Saunders) used to fly was taken from a Thangarian ship that crashed in Ancient Egypt.

This episode marks the first time Ray is able to use his ATOM suit to shrink another object. In the comics, Ray Palmer was occasionally able to shrink other objects, but he had to restore them to their original size within a matter of minutes or they would explode. Given that he was shrinking an object that was already about to explode, it is unclear if Ray's tech in the DCTVU has the same limitation.

The mystery man in the final scene identifies himself as Rex Tyler.  In the comics, Rex Tyler was the first superhero to use the alias Hourman.

The costume Rex Tyler wears appears to be based on the design of the second Hourman, Rick Tyler (Rex's son), with a primarily black color scheme and red-trimmed bracers.

Rex Tyler also identifies himself as a member of The Justice Society of America. Historically, the JSA were the world's first superhero team. In the DC Comics Universe, they were either the first superhero team on pre-Crisis Earth Two or the first superhero team in the post-Crisis DC Universe.


Technobabble

The Waverider has sophisticated hologram projectors. Rip uses this to create the illusion that he walked of the ship with the rest of the team when he first drops them off in Star City, May 2016.

When taking off, The Waverider left behind a quantum signature. Ray builds a radio beacon. Stein builds a quantum entangler. Both devices should be capable of signaling The Waverider, by broadcasting on its quantum signature.

Subspace interference and improper adjustment of temporal polarity can affect the ability of a signal to travel through time.

Rip has a hand-held device that can knock a person unconscious by flashing a bright light in their eyes. He uses this to subdue an enraged Sara, when she's demanding he take her back to save her sister from Damien Darhk.

Chronometric Repositioning is a phenomena where temporal changes can reverberate through the timeline, physically moving an object from one place to another. In this case, Kendra's putting a note inside the helmet she recognized from Rip's room caused it to move several feet across the room in the future.

The blood of Carter Hall and Kendra Saunders is the key to unlocking the Thanigarian technology contained within the Nth Metal meteorites.  Vandal Savage contrives a way to use their blood with the three meteorites to erase time, travel back to the year 1700 B.C., restarting his immortal life as a virtual god.

Transmutation is the process by which one changes the molecular properties of an object, like changing a gun into dust or a meteor into water. It's also how Firestorm materializes their uniform when Jax and Stein merge. Stein further describes it as a literal function of mind over matter.

Stein calculates that Savage means to create a temporal paradox by destroying the Earth three times at three different points in time, during a celestial alignment between Earth and Thanagar. This action will generate a time quake that would return the Earth to the point of the first chrono-thermic reaction in Earth's history (i.e. Ancient Egypt in 1700 BC, when Savage was first empowered). The alignment points Savage muse utilize are 1958, 1975 and 2021.

It was previously said that only Kendra or Carter could kill Savage using items exposed, as they were, to the meteor's radiation. Stein postulates that the same radiation that grants Savage his immortality also makes him vulnerable while he is directly exposed to a source of the same radiation. This means that they can kill Savage without the need for a fancy Nth Metal weapon or Carter and Kendra's presence, but they have to attack while he's being bathed in the radiation of a Thangarian meteor.

Firstorm is unable to transmute the final meteor because the radiation build-up is too progressive.

Approaching the sun, the solar array on The Waverider is operating an efficiency of 12,000%. This gives them enough power to make one emergency jump back to just after they left Earth to fly into the sun.


Dialogue Triumphs

(After Rip abandons them in May 2016)
Mick: I never liked that guy.

Rip: Despite my wishes to pursue Savage alone, it seems that you're all intent on seeing this thing through to the bitter-
(Sara suddenly punches Rip and puts a knife to his throat.)
Mick: Oh! Speaking of bitter...
Sara: You knew! You dropped us off five months later because you knew!
Jax; Knew what?
Sara: You knew that Laurel was going to die! And now you're going to take me back. And I'm going to save my sister!
Rip: I'm afraid -
Sara: You should be afraid!
(There is a pause as everyone watches Sara, unsure what to do next.)
Rip: I can't allow -
Sara: (punching the wall next to Rip's head with her free hand) I don't care about the timeline! You're taking me back... NOW!
Ray: Look, Sara - I'm sure there's a valid reason why Rip-
Sara; (turning to Ray) Stay out of this!
(While she is distracted, Rip is able to slip a device from his sleeve that flashes a light and kocks Sara out. Mick moves forward and catches her before she hits the ground.) 
Jax: What the hell, Rip?!

(Rip enters into Sara's room. Sara is sitting on her bed.)
Rip: Please try very hard not to kill me.
Sara: (with forced calmness) Rip. Please take me back. I need your help. I need to save my sister.
Rip: And you know that I would do this for you, Sara, but I just can't.
Sara: (up and moving across the room) I have never asked you for anything! And you of all people should understand! You have tried everything. We - WE - have tried everything to save your family-
Rip: And I would not wish the pain of that failure on anyone.
Sara: I would rather live with that pain than this!
Rip: And that's just the thing, Sara. Look, if you were able to try and save Laurel, then you wouldn't be alive at all.
Sara: Then fine. I don't care!
Rip: When we left... when I recruited you... we altered the timeline. Now, had it remained the same, then Damien Darhk, would have... (sighs) he would have killed not only you and your sister... but your father as well.
Sara: But Rip, if- if we go back, and we take the team-
Rip: - the outcome will be exactly the same.
Sara: You don't know that!
Rip: I'm afraid that I do.
Sara: No! There has to be a way! Rip, I have to be able to do something!
Rip: I'm so sorry.
Sara: (sitting down, sobbing) I can't... I can't do this without my sister! I can't!
Rip: Oh, yes you can. You are one of the strongest people I have ever met, Sara. Laurel...Laurel may be beyond your saving. But Kendra and Carter? They might not be...

Mick: (on seeing the electrocuted Savage) Dammit! I wanted to be the one to kill him! Again, I mean!

(A second Waverider crashes in front of the team.  A man in a black and red uniform with a hooded cape emerges and approaches them.)
Man: Is this 2016?! Is this May 2016?!
Jax: Yeah?
Man: You're exactly where you said you'd be. (gesturing at The Waverider) Do not get on that ship. If you do, you're all dead.
Mick: Says who?
Man: Says you, Mr. Rory. You sent me.
Rip: I'm sorry. Who exactly are you?
Man: (pulling back his hood to reveal short-cut hair) My name is Rex Tyler. I'm a member of the Justice Society of America.


Continuity

Rip plans to return to The Refuge from 112, to return the teams' past selves to where they should have been.

Rip drops everyone off in May 2016 rather than January 2016.  It is later revealed that he did this because if Sara had been present when Damien Darhk killed Laurel Lance in April 2016, Sara would have been killed, along with Quentin Lance.

Sara learns of Laurel's death, which occurred in A418, from her father. She later visits Laurel's grave with him.

Sara's visit to Quentin in The Bunker (aka Team Arrow's current hideout) seems to take place during A422, when Quentin was watching the base while Green Arrow and Spartan were rescuing Speedy from HIVE as Overwatch was off-site trying to avert a launch of every nuclear missile on Earth.

Mick returns to robbing. He recruits a new partner, whom he gives Snart's cold gun. When the new partner, proves to be even more hot-headed than Mick, Mick sets him on fire and takes the gun back.

H.G. Wells' childhood nickname was Bertie - a fact Martin Stein knows while playing Trivial Pursuit, because of his experiences in 111.

Martin Stein was never a history buff before his time on The Waverider.

Both Martin Stein and Ray Palmer build devices to try and signal The Waverider.

Rip refers to several of the team's previous misadventures including a bar fight in 1975 (101), a bar fight in the Old West (111), putting dwarf-star technology in the hands of terrorists (102) and being turned into a scary bird monster (108).

Vandal Savage speaks German.

Firestorm is strong enough to break the bonds holding Kendra and Carter with their bare hands.

Firestorm is able to transmute a German rifle into dust by touching it. This is the first time they've used the transmutation power that is one of Firestorm's main abilities in the comics.

The Waverider is capable of traveling through time and outer-space.

The future Carter has no memory of being on The Waverider, but he does remember that his name once was Carter Hall.

Jax identifies the Meteor that Savage was stealing in 1944 as similar to the one he saw in Harmony Falls, Oregon in 1958, during 108.

Firestorm breaks Ray and Kendra's lucky vase from 109 trying to transmute it.

Savage's ultimate goal in 108 was to seize the meteor that landed in Harmony Falls.  Ray and Mick move to stop him here.

Savage's ultimate goal in 102 was to buy the second meteor with the money he made from the sale of a nuclear weapon. Sara and Firestorm move to stop him here.

Savage takes the third meteor that he stole from the Nazis in 1944 to St. Roch in 2021. Rip and Carter move to stop him here.

Savage is killed by fire in 1958, having his neck snapped in 1975 and being stabbed in the heart with an Nth Metal dagger before being thrown into an electrical generator in 2021.

Ray disables the first meteor in 1958 by shrinking it. This is the first time he is able to use his technology to shrink an object besides himself.

Firestorm disables the second meteor in 1975 by transmuting it into water.

Rip disables the third meteor in 2021 by flying it into the sun.

Rip elects to continue policing the time-stream because somebody has to in the wake of the Time Masters' depowering.

Sara decides to join Rip after a talk with her father at Laurel Lance's grave.

Stein decides to join Rip after his wife (who talked with Jax) says she thinks it would be good for him.

Rip takes Mick Rory back to Central City in 2013 so he can say his goodbyes to a completely confused Len Snart.

Mick Rory and Ray Palmer also elect to join with Rip.

Kendra and Carter decline the offer to stay on The Waverider, saying they want to see what life holds for them now that Savage is gone.


Location

Star City - May 2016
Central City - May 2016
Saint-Lo, France - 1944
Harmony Falls, Oregon - 1958
Norway - 1975
St. Roch - 2021.
Central City - 2013


Untelevised Adventures

We don't see just how Kendra was able to escape from Savage in 1944.


The Bottom Line

An action-packed hour that still somehow seems like it isn't doing enough. Good as it is to see Sara and Mick get closure, Jax and Ray kinda get shafted on their respective homecomings. I wish I could say I'm sad to see Kendra and Carter go but they were always the weakest link on the team and there's really no reason for them to stick around with Savage gone. The final two minutes, however, have be chomping at the bit for this fall. I'm not sure how The JSA is getting brought into this mix but I can't wait to find out!

Legends of Tomorrow: Season 1, Episode 15 - Destiny

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.



Plot

With most of the team in the custody of The Time Masters and Vandal Savage back on the way to his proper place in time, things have never looked bleaker for The Legends. But Captain Cold and The Canary are still free!


Influences

Star Wars (Snart and Sara's hiding on-board The Waverider mimics the smuggling compartments on the Millennium Falcon), Doctor Who (the general time travel trickery plot, The Time Masters act just like The Time Lords, the free will vs. predestination theme and a mention of reversing the polarity), Back To The Future (Jax working with the past Stein to fix a time machine is reminiscent of Marty McFly working with the younger Doc Brown and the free will vs. predestination theme), the film 2001: A Space Odyssey (the sequence where the crashing time-ship computers burst into song mirrors HAL's break-down), Pinocchio (reference is made to being a puppet without strings, Snart quotes the song "I've Got No Strings" from the Disney version) the animated movie Justice League: Starcrossed (idea of a Thanagarian invasion of Earth) and Neil Gaiman's The Sandman (the concept of The Oculus is basically a high-tech version of The Book Of Destiny.)


Goofs

How is it The Time Masters are able to predict The Legends going after the Oculus Wellspring but are totally unprepared for Jax's arrival from 2016 in the jump-ship? Logically, that should have been completely under the control since all of Jax's actions took place outside of The Vanishing Point.

If Rip Hunter saw Ray Palmer die trying to destroy The Oculus Wellspring, but they are able to control their destinies while inside The Vanishing Point, why didn't he try to have anyone except Ray work on disabling The Oculus computer?


Performances

Honestly, the whole cast is on-point tonight and everyone gets at least one great scene. Arthur Darvill's heart-breaking realization that even in victory over The Time Masters and Destiny, he still couldn't save his family. The scenes between Brandon Routh and Dominic Purcell in the kitchen.  The scenes between Victor Garber and Franz Drameh as they try to repair the Jump Ship. The final scene between Ciara Reene and Casper Crump. And every single moment Wentworth Miller and Caity Lotz are on-screen, but especially when they are together.


Artistry

The special effects work throughout the episode is of cinematic quality.


Trivia Of Tomorrow

Druce claims that in 2175 a group of aliens called The Thanagarians invade the Earth and only Vandal Savage's leadership can preserve the human race. In the DC Comics Universe, The Thanagarians are a war-like race of winged humanoids.

Some versions of Hawkman and Hawkgirl in the comics and other DC Comics cartoon series were Thanagarians.


Technobabble

Martin Stein must merge with Jefferson Jackson periodically to maintain nuclear cohesion.

Gideon uploaded herself into the latency core of The Waverider to avoid being wiped out by The Time Masters.

The restraints binding Kendra in Savage's timeship are made of Tiberian Steel.

Mick Rory was only given a partial induction when he was transformed into Chronos.

The Oculus Viewing Chamber is the Time Master's most powerful window into the past, present and future. It is the source of all their information on the timeline. It's existence is known only to The High Council of The Time Masters. It not allows them to view any event in space and time - it also allows them to shape time as they see fit.

Choice and Free Will are illusions thanks to The Time Master's manipulation of The Oculus. The only place in the universe where free will and choices are truly possible is within The Vanishing Point itself. Rip says this is most likely due to The Vanishing Point existing outside of Time.

As they are repairing the Jumpship, Jax says that Stein is drawing too much power from the sequestrian manifold.

Gideon establishes an uplink with the omnimatrix mainframe of The Time Masters, so that Rip and Ray can remotely disable their tractor beam.

Past Stein tells Jax not to forget to initiate the quantum attenuator once he locks onto The Vanishing Point.

The Oculus is a massive temporal computer, most likely powered by a scaled-down supernova. Deactivating the core-contained supernova should create an anomalistic event. (i.e. a very big explosion.) Ray describes the explosion as, on a scale of 1 to 10, a googolplex (i.e. 10 to the power of 1 followed by 100 zeroes)

At one point, Ray must reverse the polarity matrix of The Oculus computer.

There is a fail-safe to prevent tampering with The Oculus. In order for The Oculus to be destroyed, someone must maintain physical contact with the fail-safe lever.

Tabula Rasa is a Latin phrase meaning "blank slate". Ray quotes the phrase when referring to the status of their destinies in the wake of the destruction of The Oculus.


Dialogue Triumphs

(As Rip finishes his sales pitch to The Legends)
Ray: So what do you think?
Snart: I think that's five minutes of my life I'm not getting back.
Stein: He just showed us the entire world in flames.You can't turn your back on that!
Snart: Observe.
(Snart and Rory turn around and leave.)

Druce: You were a fugitive from justice.
Rip: You're helping Vandal Savage take over the world. I have a feeling that our definition of 'justice' may differ somewhat.

Snart: Let's get out of here.
Sara: Wait! What about the team?
Snart: Nothing more we can do for them.
Sara: You're just gonna leave Mick?
Snart: If the Time Masters are half as twisted as Mick said, there's an excellent chance Mick is no longer Mick. Now why aren't we flying yet?!
Sara: Because I'm not going anywhere! And even if we wanted to, we're in a hanger surrounded by an entire armada of timeships!
Snart: It's The Waverider! We've got guns! We can blast our way out!
Sara: This isn't Bonnie and Clyde. And I'm not going anywhere without the rest of the team.
(Snart draws his gun and aims it at Sara.)
Snart: Maybe I didn't make myself clear.
Sara: Don't do that. Don't act like you're that same cold-hearted bastard that I first met. I remember Russia. And you were the one who told me not to kill Stein.
Snart: Yeah, because you seem to have a problem with being a killer. I, however, don't.
Sara: Prove it. Shoot me.
(The two stare each other down. Suddenly, the phone in Rip's room starts ringing. Sara goes to answer it without a word.)
Sara: ... hello?
Gideon: Hello, Ms. Lance.
Sara: Gideon, you're alive!
Gideon: If by being "alive", you mean that my operating system is intact, yes.

Declan: After we're finished, temporal criminals and time pirates alike will quake at the sound of your boot steps.
Rory: Mmmm.  Well, for your sake you'd better hope that plan works. Because if it doesn't, that boot's gonna crush your skull.

Ray: What did they do you?
Rip: They showed me the truth.

(Stein allows a piece of the Jumpship to overheat after Jax warned him about it happening.)
Stein: Well... you were right.
Jax: (sarcastically) Oh, don't sound so surprised!
Stein: Well, it's not often an auto mechanic knows more than a nuclear physicist.
Jax: You know, I forgot how arrogant you were.
Stein: "Were"? Why are you referring to me in the past tense? Do you witness my death?
Jax: Relax. You don't die.
Stein: Horribly maimed?

(Snart tells Sara the story of his pinky ring.)
Snart: Three weeks of planning and all I have to show for it...
Sara: ...was a lousy pinky ring. (sarcastically) So sad.
Snart: (sarcastically) Considering i'm about to trade my life for nothing, I think I came out ahead.

(Rory is back in his Chronos armor. He enters the prison block along with Declan. Snart holds his gun on Rory.)
Snart: Put the gun down, Mick.
Declan: Chronos. Fire.
(Rory take's the safety off his gun as he has a stare-down with Snart.)
Rory: Sure thing.
(Rory turns his gun and shoots Declan. He then takes his helmet off and approaches the fatally wounded, but still breathing Declan.)
Rory: As I recall, I made you a certain promise.
Declan: No, I beg of you, no!
(We cut to Rory's face as he steps on Declan's head and a sickening squish is heard.)

Jax: Oh! By the way, I'm going to be real pissed about this whole roofie thing. But I do get over it.
Stein: Roofie thing? I- I would never dream-
Jax: Yeah, you do. (chuckles) But it's okay. It's actually the best decision I never made. (pauses) The future... you want to know what happens?
Stein: No. No. It's - it's alright. I- I know enough. The young man in front of me is proof that something must have gone right on this adventure.

(After Ray suggests destroying The Oculus.)
Sara: I'm with Ray.
Rip: If I'm going to be someone's puppet, I'm gonna be the one who cuts his own bloody strings.
Rory: And I like blowing stuff up.
Ray: We set out on this mission to stop Savage and save the world. Become Legends. Change our fates. That mission hasn't changed.
Snart: This is madness. (smirks) I like it.

Rory: The Time Masters have been known to make mistakes, you know.
Ray: But what if those mistakes were all part of the plan? Actually, I gotta stop thinking about it. The temporal implications are infinite.
Rory: That's why I don't think.

(Snart stands in the doorway of Sara's room. Sara is lying on her bed. Snart holds up his card deck.)
Sara: Not in the mood.
Snart: I was going to apologize for pulling a gun on you. But apparently I was just following a script.
Sara: Doesn't make you any less of a jerk.
Snart: Guilty. So what do we think of Rip's plan?
Sara: Does it matter? Apparently everything we're going to do has already been predetermined by Rip's former bosses.
Snart: It's funny. I always prided myself on being the guy who doesn't play by the rules. Come to find out... I'm the one being played.
Sara: I don't know. I still feel responsible for everything I've done. And it still keeps me up at night.
Snart: It's the things I didn't do that keep me up at night.
Sara: What's that?
Snart: Oh, I don't know. Maybe it's being on this ship, traveling through time. Started to wonder what the future might hold for me. And you. And me and you.
(Snart looks at her, smirking.) 
Sara: You want to steal a kiss from me, Leonard? You'd better be one hell of a thief.
(Sara gets up and leaves the room.)

(Snart runs up to Rory, who is holding down the fail-safe for The Oculus)
Snart: Mick!
Rory: Get outta here!
Snart: Not without you, Mick!
Rory: Pretty boy said I gotta hold the stick for the ship to blow. So I'm holding the stick! Now leave!
Snart: My old friend... please forgive me.
Rory: For what?!
(Snart wacks Rory across the back of his head with the cold gun. He then puts it down and takes over holding down the fail safe. Sara runs up.)
Snart: Get him outta here!
Sara: No.
Snart; Just do it.
(Sara looks at Snart. Then she steps close to him, grabs his arm and kisses him hard. He kisses back for a moment before she breaks the kiss, looks at him a moment, then moves to pick up Mick.)

(Druce enters the room with The Oculus computer with a squad of soldiers. Snart continues to hold the fail safe even as they draw weapons on him.)
Druce: No! Shut it down!
(The computer core begins to glow with an intense blue light.)
Druce: Shut it down!
Snart: (smiling) There are no strings on me.

Ray: He traded his life for ours. He was a hero. Which i'm pretty sure is the last thing he wanted to be remembered as.
Sara: But that's what he was.
(Sara wipes away a tear quickly before anyone notices her facade crack.) 

Rory: I killed Declan. Druce is dead. The Time Masters have nothing now that their ship is completely destroyed. Yet... I still feel the need to kill someone for Snart.
Ray: Savage still has Carter and Kendra.
Rory: He'll do nicely.

Savage: I no longer need to rule the world, Chay-ara. I now have the ability to change it.


Continuity

Rory says he was able to resist The Time Masters' brainwashing the first time by focusing on his desire for revenge on the other Legends. He says most of those who aren't killed by the Time Masters' brainwashing are made completely mindless.

Rip makes reference to 104 and Druce's offer to surrender to him then.

Druce claims that The Thanagarians are due to invade Earth in 2175 and only Vandal Savage's leadership of a united Earth will be able to repel the invasion and assure the survival of humanity.

Sara makes reference to 105 and Snart stopping her from assassinating Martin.

It is revealed that all of Rip Hunter's actions were engineered by The Time Masters to help cement Vandal Savage's eventual control of The Earth.

It is further revealed that Vandal Savage killed Rip Hunter's family on the orders of The Time Masters, in order to spur Rip to take the actions necessary to bring about Savage's rise to power.

Rip Hunter saw Ray Palmer's death in the future, among the other things Druce showed him to convince Rip that everything he had done was predetermined.

Martin Stein invented the sequestrian manifold.

Leonard Snart has a silver pinky ring he kept from his first robbery with Mick. It wasn't a memento but a reminder that even the best laid plans can go sideways.

The second time Rory underwent The Time Masters' brainwashing, he resisted by thinking about The Legends. He claims he was thinking about how screwed they'd be without him but later threatens to shave Ray's head if he tells everyone he actually cares about the team.

Rory knocks Ray out and sacrifices himself so that Ray and Rip can escape.

Snart knocks Rory out so Rory and Sara can escape.

Sara kisses Snart before escaping with Rory.

Snart seemingly dies in the explosion that destroys The Oculus Wellspring.

Sara seems to be praying as the rest of the team is thinking about Snart.

Gideon is no longer able to check the timeline data due to the destruction of The Oculus. She is, however, able to check newspaper records and confirms that Rip's wife and son are still killed.

Snart planted his ring on Rory as he knocked him out.

The Time Master Savage speaks to at the end of the episode confirms that Druce is dead and that The Time Masters no longer have any capacity to manipulate time. They also cut ties with Savage, saying that time as they have foreseen it is unmoored and they can no longer say what the future will bring.


Location

Star City - January 2016
The Vanishing Point
Central City - January 2016.
The Vanishing Point - Oculus Wellspring
London 2166


The Fridge Factor

Kendra is reduced to a screaming damsel in distress, spending the entire episode either in a cell or in bondage.


The Bottom Line

Damn near flawless. The only real weak moments are - as usual - those involving Kendra and Vandal Savage. Thankfully, these moments are the smallest part of the episode and most of it is focused on the best relationships in the show amid all the action.

If this were to be Captain Cold's final appearance in the DCTVU, it would be a fitting one. I'm not quite ready to write Leonard Snart off just yet, though. Still, as far as ways to go out go, breaking reality and establishing freedom for everyone everywhere after a kiss from Canary is tough to beat.

Legends of Tomorrow: Season 1, Episode 14 - River Of Time

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.



Plot

The team has captured Vandal Savage but the question of what to do with him remains. Rip's plan to turn him into The Time Masters doesn't sit well with Snart and Rory, who consider jumping ship and returning to their old lives in 2016. And Kendra is reluctant to kill or incarcerate Savage until she finds a way to restore the memories of a resurrected Carter Hall - a desire that has put tension on her relationship with Ray. It is a tension that Savage exploits, as he tries to turn the crew against one another in a bid for escape...


Influences

The Silence of The Lambs (a sociopath in a glass cell manipulates the people who speak to him) and the comics of Dan Jurgens.


Performances

Again, Caity Lotz is the episode's MVP. Sara's the only one of the crew whose interaction with Savage yields a believable shift in considering another teammate's motivations. Of course it helps that Rip has freely admitted that saving his family is priority one and that Sara does call Rip upon this point.

Casper Crump hasn't been given much chance to be truly menacing in the series so far. This episode, however, gives him a chance to play Savage as the master manipulator and force of nature he should be.


Artistry

The flashbacks detailing some of the crew's final encounters with a loved one before leaving to join The Waverider crew - while seeming like non-sequiturs - do offer some quick insight into the characters. In particular, it's nice to see where Nyssa and Sara stood in the wake of Sara's recovering her soul and Nyssa being jailed by The League of Assassins.


Trivia Of Tomorrow

Vandal Savage compares showing time-travel technology to him in the 1970s to being like showing a caveman fire. This is a nod to the original DC Comics, where Vandal Savage was a prehistoric man whose intelligence was enhanced by exposure to a radioactive meteor.

In the flashback, Ray suggest that Felicity consider "Hot Wheels" as her hero codename.  Hot Wheels was one of the many aliases used by the hacker heroine Oracle.

When looking at Rip's maps of the time-stream, Sara sees a point called "Jurgens' Ridge."  This is likely a nod to Dan Jurgens - a comic book writer/artist who wrote and drew many classic stories involving time-traveling superheroes. Among them are Zero Hour, Booster Gold and Waverider.


Technobabble

The telemetry data from Ray's suit included a comparative scan of the Leviathan robot's technology. It proved that Savage was using technology at least 100 years more advanced than what was available in 2166. Stein comments that the neuromorphic profile is astonishingly futuristic even by the standards of 2166.

Rip asks Jax to reroute power from the secondary manifold of the time drive.

Jax is exposed to a lethal amount of temporal radiation. The side-effects of this include internal organs aging at an accelerated rate (i.e. intracellular degeneration). The rest of the body follows shortly after.  He also develops early-stage osteoarthritis.

Through some adjustments based on quantum retro-causality, Stein figures out a way to use the jump-ship to cure Jax's exposure to temporal radiation. Unfortunately, this also sends Jax back to 2016 alone.

General Order 52 calls a full assembly of The Time Council for a trial.


Dialogue Triumphs

Savage: I have lived long enough to watch civilizations rise and fall. You weep for your son. I have held dozens of my children, as they perished from old age. You might be a Time Master but I am the master of Time. And I play a far deeper game than you could ever hope to comprehend.

Sara: (to Savage) I'd tell you to go to Hell but you'd probably just feel at home there.

(As Rip asks Gideon to check the time stream for changes one more time.)
Sara: Are you expecting something different?
Rip: Hope springs eternal, Ms. Lance. If it didn't, I would have surrendered to despair a long time ago.

(Ray enters the brig.)
Savage: Dr. Palmer. To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?
Ray: You're going to tell me how to free Carter's mind.
Savage: (chuckling) Well, all you had to do was ask.

Savage: Who are you to stand up against me? Vandal Savage, Destroyer of Empires!
Snart: Leonard Snart, Robber of ATMs!


Continuity

Rip Hunter's liquor cabinet contains a bottle of Scotch that was given to him by Rob Roy MacGregor in 1689.

Savage claims he first figured out that Rip Hunter and his allies were time-travelers back in the 1970s, after the events of 103.

Savage claims that he knew the Roman historian/senator Tacitus and that they were good friends.

Savage also asks Rip not to misquote Tacitus. Rip says "You would create a wasteland and call it peace."  The quote is "To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace."

The Waverider has been Rip's ship for 13 years.

The Waverider's jump-ship is pre-programmed to make one trip to 2016.

Savage asks if Sara has spoken to a sister lately - a hint that he knows about Laurel's final fate.

Savage notes that he has had 191 years to study the crew of The Waverider.

Before he left to say goodbye to Professor Stein and was shanghaied onto The Waverider, Jax was given a gift by his mother - a watch she'd bought him as a birthday present that she was never able to give him.

Alexa was a security deposit box job that Snart and Rory pulled once, where Snart had a premonition just before things went bad. He has the same premonition here and begins plotting to steal the jump ship.

Kendra shows Carter a picture of Professor Aldus from 101 in the hopes of jogging his memory.

Savage claims, in a conversation with Ray, that Kendra's first reincarnation after her death fell in love with him and they were happy for a time, until she met the reborn Carter.

Ray spoke with Felicity before he left to join the crew of The Waverider.

Kendra reads Carter the poem he wrote for her in 102.

Ray ends his engagement with Kendra.

Sara journeyed to Nanda Parbat to speak with Nyssa before she left to join The Waverider crew.

Nyssa refers to the events of A403 and her destroying the Lazarus Pit. She is also surprised to see that Sara has gotten her soul back, following the events of A405.

Nyssa asks Sara to forget about her and live a life unburdened by her past.

Stein refers to the events of 103 and Savage using Carter Hall's blood in a ritual that allowed him to share his immortality with his followers.

Stein roofies Jax, as in 101. Ironically, Stein does it this time to forcibly remove Jax from The Waverider when before he did it to force Jax to come with him.

Rip takes a laser blast for Kendra.

Carter recovers his memories but is stabbed by Savage.  He is finally brought down by Kendra.

Rip escaped from his prison in Ancient Egypt by bribing the guard with a novelty pen with a half-naked woman that he won from a drunk GI in a bar in 1944.  It turns out that Savage already knew this and had been keeping the pen all these years as a trophy.

It is revealed that The Time Masters have been working with Savage since the beginning. They order Rip arrested along with the rest of his team. Only Snart and Sara are able hide.


Location

Ancient Egypt - 1700 BC
The Time Stream
Central City - 2016
Star City - 2016
Nanda Parbat - 2016
Vanishing Point


The Fridge Factor

As always, Kendra's entire character is defined by which man she's hooked up with.


The Crisis Factor

Honestly, Ray should have known better than to unlock Savage's cell to try and beat him up for MANY reasons.

Rip's suddenly deciding to turn Savage in for his crimes rather than killing him seems really out of character.

Kendra's suddenly choosing Carter over Ray despite her repeated desire to fight fate also doesn't ring true.

The revelation that Savage has been working with The Time Masters this whole time is hardly a surprise. Why else would they be so hell-bent on stopping Rip from stopping him?


The Bottom Line

Another weakly-written and witless episode that requires the cast lose a collective 500 IQ points between them for Savage to be turned into a credible threat. It is only the strong performances of the ensemble cast that manage to salvage any of this nonsense. At least the Kendra/Ray romance is finally over and done with.

Legends of Tomorrow: Season 1, Episode 13 - Leviathan

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.



Plot

Out of time and options, Rip Hunter plots a bold strike at the one place they know for certain Vandal Savage may be found - three days before the attack that killed Hunter's family and put Savage on the path to total world domination. Unfortunately, Savage is at the height of his power, but The Legends do have two advantages they might gain - an artifact from the night Kendra and Carter first died and the assistance of Vandal Savage's daughter!


Influences

Doctor Who (the theme of predestination versus free will), The Justice League animated series (Kendra arming herself with an Nth metal mace), Gail Simone's Secret Six (the character of Cassandra Savage seems loosely based on Simone's Scandal Savage character), Jurassic Park (Stein and Ray watching the liquid shake in a container as Leviathan approaches), various Godzilla movies and other movies inspired by them, particularly Pacific Rim (the Atom/Leviathan fight) and various WWII films set during The London Blitz (general tone, the setting of London under siege by fascist forces, Savage's forces wearing storm-trooper outfits and offering a Nazi-style salute).


Goofs

In the 1941 flashbacks, Carter makes reference to needing to train Kendra to fight with his weapons in case he isn't there to protect her. This neatly ignores that she was originally a warrior priestess and (until her most recent incarnation) was supposed to maintain the knowledge and memories of her past-lives, including her fighting skills.

Just what was Snart's plan for convincing Cassandra to turn on her father before they wound up with a ship full of unarmed refugees?


Performances

Arthur Darvill and Brandon Routh get a nice scene at the start which sets the tone for the theme of the episode and both their respective battles - Rip's belief that you can't fight Fate and Ray's belief that life is defined by choices. The heck of it is they're both right based on their respective lives but are both proven wrong by the events of the episode, with Rip finding a way to stop Savage and Ray's romance with Kendra seemingly imperiled by Savage's latest gambit involving the brainwashed Carter Hall.

Wentworth Miller has an interesting role this week as Snart. He's put in the unusual role as a persuader instead of a heavy, trying to convince Cassandra Savage of her father's treachery. Story-wise it's an interesting parallel to have Snart being the one trying to persuade someone that they can change for the better given his own slow journey towards heroism. And Miller plays it with his usual perfect level of dry snark.


Artistry

The script for this episode has even wittier dialogue than usual and a lot of good lines for the whole cast.

The fight choreography is outstanding throughout, with Cassandra's battle with Sara and Kendra's fight with Savage being the high-lights.

There's a nice use of sepia tint on the Carter/Kendra flashbacks.

The entire sequence of Ray fighting Leviathan is also worth mentioning for how well it replicates the giant monster fights of the B-movies of yore, right down to the slow-motion action to indicate huge figures and the used of forced perspective photography to make Ray look bigger.

The final shot of the episode - Savage's reflection on the glass as he stares at Rip - is a chilling one.

Trivia Of Tomorrow

The title of the episode comes from the Old Testament of The Bible. Leviathan is the Hebrew word for twisted, presumably referring to a large sea serpent. It has come to mean any large monster, particularly an aquatic one.

The title of the episode refers to Savage's ultimate weapon - a 200 foot tall humanoid robot.

There are several Leviathans in DC Comics folklore, but none of them are a giant robot.

Leviathan was one of the code names used by Legion of Superheroes member Gim Allon, who had the power to change his size. He also used the code-names Colossal Boy and Micro Lad.

Leviathan was also the name of the League of Assassins splinter group founded by Talia Al Ghul when she turned upon her father, Ra's Al Ghul, in Grant Morrison's Batman comics.

The Levithan robot bares a slight resemblance to some versions of the Metal Men enemy Chemo.

In the comics, Chemo was the creation of scientist Ramsey Norton. Originally the plastic vessel into which Norton emptied his failed experiments, the vessel achieved a limited form of sentience, killed its creator and went on a rampage until it was stopped by The Metal Men. Since that time, Chemo was revived by various characters (including Lex Luthor and Brainiac) for use as a weapon against their enemies. Chemo possessed limited intelligence, super-strength, size-changing abilities and the power to emit toxic waste.

In the comics, Vandal Savage had a daughter named Scandal Savage. The product of an affair between Savage and an unnamed Brazilian woman, Scandal was raised by her mother for most of her youth before she was tracked down by her father and trained in the arts of combat and groomed to provide him with a male heir. Unfortunately for Savage's plan, Scandal was a lesbian and had no interest in being a brood mare for his legend. She rebelled and eventually fell in with the mercenary group known as The Secret Six.

Apart from rebelling against her father in the end and being an accomplished fighter, there seems little relation between Scandal Savage and Cassandra Savage - the daughter of Vandal Savage featured in this episode. Nothing is said in the episode about her sexual orientation and she does not appear to be of Brazilian ancestry.

While renown for his shrinking powers, it was not unheard of for Ray Palmer to use his technology to increase his size in the comics as he does in this episode. Immediately after the Zero Hour storyline, Ray Palmer gained the ability to change his size without utilizing his technology and proved able to grow as well as shrink using his new powers.

It's worth mentioning that the growing-and-shrinking shtick is more frequently associated with Ray Palmer's Marvel Comics counterpart, Dr. Hank Pym (a.k.a. the original Ant Man/Giant Man)

To create a weapon that can hurt Savage, Kendra covers Carter's mace with melted Nth metal. In the comics, a mace of Nth Metal was Hawkman's signature weapon. It was also the preferred weapon of Hawkgirl in the Justice League animated series.


Technobabble

The rebels have retinal scanner technology. They have no record of Rip existing but do have records for Jax, Stein and Ray from 150 years in their past.

Ray suggests analyzing soils samples to determine the nature of Savage's ultimate weapon. Stein does this and confirms that the weapon is not an explosion - the same conclusion Ray comes to after having Gideon hack a defunct spy satellite and looking at the destroyed rebel camp and realizing the impact craters look like very large footprints.

Ray's plan is based upon the theoretical possibility that siphoning power from the auxiliary time drive of The Waverider should provide Ray with enough power to reverse the polarity of the dwarf-star matrix of the ATOM suit, allowing him to grow to superhuman size instead of shrinking.

The energy blasts emitted by the ATOM suit are compressed light beams - not lasers.


Dialogue Triumphs

Rip: In order to capture him (Savage), I require the services of -
Rory:  - a killer, klepto and pyro?
Rip: Bingo!

Rip: What exactly do you think you were doing back there?
Snart: Distracting Savage's pals. Which worked, by the way.
Rip: Yes, well... I could have been killed!
Rory: Never said it worked perfectly.

Sara: How am I supposed to teach someone to fight with a piece of jewelry?
Rip: Good question.
Sara: It wasn't rhetorical!

Rip: I watched my family die countless time at the hands of Savage and his forces before I realized that...
Ray: ... Time wants to happen.
Rip: It's a funny feeling knowing the universe itself doesn't want you to save your family.

Rip: Do we have a plan for stealing this bracelet?
Rory: We're on it!
Sara: Please don't tell me the plan is to walk into Savage's citadel and steal it off her wrist?
Snart: All right. I won't tell you that.

(Kendra walks in on Carter practicing with his mace. She is dressed to the nines.)
Carter: Wow. What's, ah... the occasion?
Kendra: I'll give you one guess.
Carter: ...our anniversary?
(Kendra puts her hands on her hips and gives him The Look used by all wives to signal to their husbands that they have screwed up in the worst way possible.)
Carter: Look, I'm sorry, but in my defense there's quite a few of them to remember.
Kendra: We were only married in... eight lifetimes.
Carter: That's a lot! But I do remember your Victorian England incarnation being particularly tough to be pinned down.

Rip: (upon entering the cell-block where Snart and Rory have stashed Cassandra) And there I was thinking we could go a whole week without kidnapping anyone.

Cassandra: No one dared to stand up to Degaton except my father. He may not be a kind man but he is the only one capable of putting this world back together. So you can torture me if you like. My suffering is a small price to pay.
Snart: Who said anything about torture?

Rory: You sure you can do this? Bash Savage's skull with Carter's mace?
Kendra: You got a better plan?
Rory: It's not the weapon I'm worried about. Thousands of years of reincarnation and I'm guessing you've killed a grand total of nobody. Yet here you are entering into the Olympics of Murder.
Kendra:What's your point?
Rory: Are you sure you can look Savage in the eye and kill him?
Kendra: I'm sure.
Rory: Well you'd better be. Otherwise you're going to end up like the last guy to swing that thing.

(Rip finds Stein ushering refugees into the halls of The Waverider)
Rip: What the hell do you think you're doing?!
Stein: Saving a township by the looks of it.
Rip: Since when did my vessel become a life raft?!
Stein: Since I decided we can't leave these people here to be slaughtered! You recruited us to save the world. That includes everyone here!

Snart: I know what you're thinking "My dad may not be perfect, but deep down he's not a bad guy."
(Snart opens the door to Cassandra's cell)
Cassandra: What are you doing?
Snart: Showing you that when it comes to crap fathers, there is no "deep down".

(Snart shows Cassandra the unarmed civilians her father nearly killed trying to save her.)
Snart: Look. It took me a long time to accept my old man was a monster. I'm betting you're smarter than I am.
Cassandra: At last - something we agree on!

Ray: How are repairs coming? (pauses) Are repairs coming?
Rip: Not in thirty minutes, which is about as much time as we have. (chuckling darkly) We brought all those people on board and all we've bought them is a few extra minutes to live in fear.
Ray: Well, I guess the question is what do we do with those minutes?
Rip: (exasperated) The ship is... crippled! Everyone aboard is as dead as my...
Ray: ...family? Look, I know you think the universe wants them dead. But I don't. I don't believe in Fate. I believe in choices. And we can choose - we can choose to fight! Even if that fight may be futile! We can save your family, Rip! It's not impossible! All we have to do-
Rip: - is kill Vandal Savage. The chances of which appear to be fading.
(Kendra and Snart enter the room.)
Kendra: Not anymore. I figured out how to do it.
Snart: And my new Bestie and I can get us in.
Ray: And I think I've got a way to stop the giant robot that's coming to kill us.
(Rip rubs his face as if steeling himself and turns to face them.)
Rip: Now, you may not believe in Fate, Raymond, but I certainly do. But perhaps it was Fate that compelled me to bring you seven together, so we can change this future, once and for all!

Jax: You know, if this doesn't work - 
Ray: - I'll turn every cell in my body inside out?
Jax: ... I was going to say "die", but yeah.

Ray: (upon enlarging himself to 200 feet tall) It worked! I'm not dead!

(Cassandra says she has to help undo the damage her father caused.)
Rebel Leader: Why the change of heart?
Cassandra: (looking to Snart) Ask him.

(Rip shines a light in Martin Stein's eyes as he wakes up.)
Rip: Welcome back. Well, the team managed to capture Savage, battle his army and a giant robot and you managed to sleep through all of it.
Stein: The refugees?
Rip: They're safe. Every one of them is alive and well.
Stein: But for how long? Apparently Time Wants To Happen.
Rip: Well, I think you'll find that Time - for once - is on our side.

Rip: Well, you seem quite happy for a man behind bars.
Savage: And why shouldn't I be happy? It seems that once again you have failed to kill me.
Rip: A momentary set-back, I assure you.
Savage: Assure yourself. Providence has allowed me to place Chay-Ara in an impossible situation. A choice between her own soul-mate... Carter... and yours.
Rip: You know, a friend recently suggested to me that there is no such thing as Fate. Destiny is nothing more than the sum of our own choices.
Savage: I see. So you still think that there is hope then? For your family? Time will tell, Captain. Time will tell.


Continuity

As the episode opens, it is three days before Rip Hunter's wife and son died.

Cassandra Savage wears the bracelet that Chay-Ara wore when she died.

Rip's family lives in the Whitechapel district of London's East End.

Rip admits to Ray that he made repeated attempts to rescue his wife and son after failing to kill Savage in Ancient Egypt. It was the second place he went. They died every time he jumped back a day to try again. This is what caused Rip to conclude that Time Wants To Happen.

London is the last free city in the world at this point in 2166. Tokyo fell the week before.

Carter had a habit of giving Kendra weapons as an anniversary present. In all their incarnations, they only married eight times.

Rip jokes about thinking they could go a week without kidnapping someone. The team did kidnap someone in the last three episodes before this one - Per Degaton in 110, Jeb Stillwater in 111 and their past selves in 112.

Reference is made to the events following 110 and how Per Degaton laid waste to the world until Vandal Savage killed him - first when Cassandra recalls the history she was taught then later when Snart shows her the footage of her father ordering the release of The Armageddon Virus.

Kendra melts the bracelet (with Rory's help) and uses it to coat Carter's mace.

At some point, Carter was reborn in the future and Savage found him before he recovered his memories of who he was. Savage was somehow able to brainwash Carter into forgetting those memories and he claims only he can restore them.

The episode ends with Cassandra Savage joining the resistance and Vandal Savage captured and held on The Waverider.


Location

London - 2166
Iowa City - 1941


Untelevised Adventures

Rip makes reference to repeated attempts to rescue his family, only for them to die at the hands of Savage's forces every single time.


The Fridge Factor

Once again, the only conversation between the show's two female leads regards a romantic relationship - this time Carter and Kendra rather than Ray and Kendra.

Kendra continues to be solely defined by her relationships to Carter and Ray. No mention is made of her wanting revenge on Savage for killing her or her children over the years - it's all about saving Carter.


The Bottom Line

A vast improvement on last week's episode.  Kendra continues to be the most problematic aspect of the show by her very nature. Apart from that, everything is damn near flawless for what it is. The whole ensemble gel together and everybody gets at least one moment to shine. The twist ending, for once, was an honest surprise and I'm anxious to see how things go bad next week. Because we know - even ignoring that there's three episodes left this season - that there's no way they're taking Savage without a fight.

Legends of Tomorrow: Season 1, Episode 12 - Last Refuge

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.



Plot

The Time Masters' best assassin - a woman called The Pilgrim - has been dispatched to kill all of The Legends before they joined the crew of The Waverider.. A race begins as our heroes move to save their past selves, with Rip offering the young counterparts safety in the Time Master orphanage where he grew up - The Refuge.


Influences

Geoff Johns's runs on The Flash (Mick Rory's background in this episode) and JSA (Kendra's storyline here mirrors the conflict of Hawkgirl in the comics had regarding her own romantic life, one storyline focused on several JSA members, led by Rip Hunter, traveling in time to save their past selves and their teammates from a time-traveling assassin),  Superman: The Movie (the opening trial of the time pirate resembles Zod's trial before the High Council of Krypton stylistically) and the movie The Terminator (base concept of an cybernetic assassin being sent from the future to alter a future timeline, Ray quotes the movie when saving a young Rory)


Goofs

We're told that The Omega Protocal requires a certain degree of precision and subtlety. Given that, how does storming a police station in broad daylight and killing several police officers - as the Orphan does in her attempt to kill a teenage Sarah Lance - qualify as precise and subtle?

Granting that Rip probably did have Gideon check to make sure that Martin Stein's mother would be okay first, it still seems incredibly foolish for Rip and Rory to snatch baby Martin as he is literally fresh out of the womb and leave his mother behind without seeing her safely to a hospital after she gave birth in the backseat of a car with only her husband assisting her with the birth.

Jefferson Jackson's birthday is said to be sometime in 1993. However, he was a high-school football star when the Particle Accelerator Explosion occurred in Central City on December 11, 2013. While it isn't impossible for Jax to have been held back a few years, it still seems unlikely.that he was still in high school at the age of twenty. Particularly since he's been depicted as being too young to drink legally in 2016. (21 being the drinking age in the USA).

Again, regarding the precision required of The Omega Protocol - how does kidnapping and threatening to kill six innocent people in order to bring about the deaths of six other people count as precise?

If The Omega Protocol can't be applied to Time Masters, how can the The Pilgrim agree to killing a young Rip Hunter instead of her targets? I had thought it was going to be a trick but it turns out she really did capture all those loved ones and was ready to bargain in good faith.

How can The Orphan shrug off bullets but be incapacitated by a knife slash administered by a ten year old street kid?

Considering that Ray lost his fiancee to violence, you'd expect him to be a little more conflicted than he seems to be here about seeing her alive and well again, regardless of his feelings for Kendra.


Performances

Ciara Renee gets a nice moment of non-verbal acting in her reaction to Ray's proposal. She's smiling but her eyes betray her fear that the universe really IS trying to stop her from being with a man besides Carter Hall/Prince Khufu given how Ray's proposal attempts have been thwarted twice now.

Caity Lotz does a fantastic job playing the younger Sara Lance. For a while I wasn't certain if it was her in a wig or just a very well cast younger actress.

It's always nice to see Paul Blackthorne as Quentin Lance, however briefly. His scene at the end with Sara is a sweet one.

Franz Drameh hasn't been given a lot of moments to show his dramatic chops The scene where Jax meets his father, for the first time, however, is a great scene that shows he should be given the center stage more often.

Dominic Purcell has often been relegated to being the comic relief or the heavy on this show. And while he does get a number of funny moments in this episode, he also gets two wonderful dramatic scenes trying to scare his past self straight.


Artistry

The team's combined attack on The Pilgrim - while probably the show's cheapest use of CGI to date - is very well shot.


Trivia Of Tomorrow

In the opening sequence, we find out that Mick Rory's parents died in a house fire. In the origin for Heatwave written by Geoff Johns during his run on The Flash, Mick Rory's entire family died in a fire he started as a child.

It is revealed in this episode that Rip Hunter's birth-name was Michael. In the comics, Rip Hunter is the son of the superhero Booster Gold, whose real name was Michael Jon Carter.


Technobabble

The Omega Protocol calls for a certain degree of precision. This means that if the assassin carrying out the hit fails, they cannot go back and try it again a week earlier for fear of damaging the timeline.

Gideon is able to track The Pilgrim by monitoring the temporal wake of her ship.

Under normal circumstances, it is impossible for a time ship to hide its temporal wake. The Time Masters, however, have ways of hiding a time ship's passage under extreme duress.

Temporal Micro Manipulation is the ability to control time in one's immediate vicinity. This includes slowing time's passage, stopping it completely and causing it to run in reverse.

When history is altered by a person's past-self being taken out of the normal flow of time for too long, that person's future self disappears from the minds of everyone who ever knew them.

The Refuge is a secret orphanage located at an unknown point and location in history. The Time Masters use it to raise children with no connections who can be trained as future Time Masters.


Dialogue Triumphs

Ray: (To a young Mick Rory) Come with me if you want to live! (aside) I always wanted to say that!

Sara: So it seems like you decided to ignore the advice from Old West you about not being with Ray.
Kendra: Ignoring her advice about Ray was your advice. Remember?
Sara: Don't listen to my advice. (putting her staff down to pick up a water bottle) So did you tell him what she said?
Kendra: Oh, sure! (mock-cheerful) "Hey, Ray, by the way? The woman I met in 1871 was me and she told me our love was doomed to fail because you're not Carter."
Sara: (deadpan) So is that a no?
Kendra: Look, Ray and I are happy together. We should be able to enjoy that before i have to drop the whole doomed love-affair thing on his head.
Sara: (sarcastically) Yeah, I mean who wants a relationship based on honesty and communication? (gags and pretends to vomit)
Kendra: Believe me - a relationship based on an ancient Egyptian curse doesn't work much better.

(Sara fights The Orphan as her younger self watches. Suddenly, Young Sara seems to recognize her older self.)
Young Sara: My God, she's-
Rory: - quite the badass!

Young Mick: She slapped me!
Young Sara: The little weirdo said that he liked the way I smelled!
Young Mick: I'm usually a lot smoother but I'm kinda freaking out right now.
Sara: (pointing to her younger self) You! Hands to yourself! (whispers) And the next time, hit him with a flat palm. (looking to Young Mick) And you... you're not her type.

(Rip explains that they run the risk or making their future selves be forgotten by the people they love by kidnapping themselves as infants.)
Jax: You mean my own mom won't even know me?
Stein: My wife...
Rory: Yeah, and my... my uh.... I don't have anyone.

Sara: All right. This is just like any other mission. The mark may be a newborn but it might as well be a diamond or a microchip.
Kendra: You know what? You're starting to sound like Snart.
(Sara makes a disgusted noise.)

Rory: You guys asked for a doctor, right?
Mr. Stein: (confused) How would we?
Rip: Ah - he means that we were on our way to the hospital and we saw your automobile.
Rory: Yeah! And this little munchkin needs a checkup.
(Rory takes the baby Martin away from Mr. Stein.)
Rory: Pre-natal care! It's very important.
Rip: (quietly and quickly) He means post-natal. We'll take him straight to the hospital. We'll meet you there.
(Rip and Rory walk off.)
Mr. Stein: What about my wife!?

Stein: It is somewhat disconcerting that my father would give me up so willingly to two complete strangers.
Ray: Well, the 1950s was a much more trusting time. Trust me - I lived then!

Jax: You were supposed to be shipping out.
James Jackson: How do you know that?
(Jax just nods to the kit bag on the ground.)
James Jackson: Ah! Right. My transport's been delayed. I told my CO my wife's giving birth. He gave me a pass. And a Jeep. And I made it. I saw him. (points to a baby through the glass) My boy. Which one's yours?
Jax: Oh, ah-no. I'm - I'm - I'm not a dad. I'm just... I'm here for my family.
James Jackson: Well, I hope you get to experience this for yourself one day. Imagining all the things my boy's gonna be when he grows up.
Jax: How do you know?
James Jackson: He's my son. Jefferson Jackson. Remember that name.
(Jax chuckles.) 
James Jackson: He's destined for great things. (glancing at his watch) I've got to go. Will you give the nurse a message for my wife?
Jax: You're leaving already?
James Jackson: I'm AWOL if I don't. I just want her to know that I saw my son. And that I couldn't be more proud and happy. And, uh tell her that I'll be home as soon as I can. Can you do that for me?
(Jax just nods as his dad picks up his bag and moves down the hall.)
Jax: Wait!
(James Jackson turns around.)
Jax: I got to tell you something.
(Jax tries to speak and winds up chuckling again.)
Jax: Congratulations.
James Jackson: Thanks. Appreciate that.
(Jax just watches his dad walk off this time.) 

Stein: If all goes according to plan we'll only be here for a a few minutes and then presumably never remember.
Ray: When's the last time anything went according to plan?
Kendra: I don't think there was a last time.

(Rory rounds a corner and finds his younger self staring at a lit match.)
Rory: Where'd you find the match?
Young Mick: You can always fine one.
Rory: Beautiful, isn't it? Not as beautiful as a whole house going up in flames though...
Young Mick: It was an accident...
Rory: Sure it was.
Young Mick: You don't know me. You think I wanted to kill my family?!
Rory: I think you fell in love with your dad's lighter fluid. I think you fell in love with flames dancing around. But then you realized you couldn't control them and you ran without waking your family. The only thing you were concerned about was saving your own skin. (getting up in his younger self's face) Now, while I'm gone there better not be any accidents. If there is, I'm gonna come looking for you. And I'm gonna kill you!
Young Mick: You sound just like my dad.
(Rory turns around and walks away, looking somewhat disturbed at that thought.)

Young Rip: Thought you could snuff me out? You don't know me at all, Miss.

Rory: (to his younger self) You can't change the things you did. But you can change what you become. Don't be like me. Be better.


Continuity

When a person's past self is murdered, their present self mirrors the damages they suffer in the past before dying. Their body then disintegrates into a pile of blue powder.

Mick Rory's parents died in a house fire in 1990. It is suggested that he started the fire by accident and watched it burn rather than try and save his family. It's also implied that his father was abusive.

Jax tells the young Rory that they're part of a secret group called ARGUS. ARGUS is, of course, the government espionage group run by Amanda Waller then Lyla Michaels on Arrow.

Sara refers to her and Kendra's encounter with Kendra's 1871 self in 111.

The Omega Protocol cannot be applied to rogue Time Masters, due to the potential side-effects on the time line. They also can't be applied to the continually reincarnated, like Kendra, because there's no real point to it.

Rip has a secret stash of vintage cereal on The Waverider.

Fruit Brute is Ray's favorite cereal.

The Pilgrim's powers include super-strength (throwing around fully-grown police officers with ease), super-endurance (She is able to survive blasts from both The ATOM suit and Mick Rory's flamethrower) and temporal micro-manipulation (slowing and then turning one of Firestorm's blasts back upon them).

Sara Lance made $5000 in one summer babysitting.

Ray proposes to Kendra. She accepts, but feels somewhat strange about it.

Jax's dad was a soldier, who died in Somalia two weeks after his Jax was born.

Jax was told that his dad was shipped out before his wife went into labor. The truth is that his father was granted a pass and a jeep to drive to the hospital to see his son before heading out.

Rip Hunter's birth name is Michael. He was raised in a Time-Master run orphanage called The Refuge.

The Time Masters pull orphans from around time and raise them in The Refuge to fill their ranks.

Rip was a cut-purse from the age of five onward. His ten year old self is a hardened enough youth to think nothing of stabbing a woman that tries to kill him.

Clarissa Stein no longer remembers her husband.

Quentin Lance recognizes his older daughter and says that he is proud of her.

Jax tells his father about the attack that takes his life in the hope that it might save him once he is returned to his proper place in time and space.


Location

Vanishing Point
Central City - 1990
The Temporal Zone
Starling City - 2007
Starling City - December 9, 2014
Central City - 1972
Ivy Town - 1950
Central City - 1993
The Refuge
Abandoned Time Masters Outpost


The Fridge Factor

Every conversation Kendra and Sara have in this episode is about Kendra's relationship with Ray.

Honestly, Kendra's entire character arc in the past few episodes is based around who she is dating rather than anything about her as a person.


The Bottom Line

A problematic episode, to say the least. There's some good character defining moments for characters like Jax and Heatwave who haven't gotten a lot of moments to shine so far. But the Kendra/Ray romance feels horribly rushed, the rules regarding what The Pilgrim can and can't do are inconsistent and a lot of the characters written horribly out of character for the sake of a few jokes. (Shouldn't Rory be past being dumb muscle now after all his time as Chronos?) The cast make MOST of these scenes work but a lot of them don't. You know it's going to be a bad time when Rory has more witty lines than Snart.

Legends of Tomorrow: Season 1, Episode 11 - The Magnificent Eight

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.



Plot

The Legends travel back to the time of the Old West and hide out from the Time Master's assassins in the town of Salvation. It is here they make the acquaintance of the legendary Jonah Hex - a gun-fighter who it turns out has considerable experience with time-travelers and other things counted unusual in the late 1800s. He's also got a history with Rip Hunter that neither one is willing to discuss.

When the team butt heads with a local gang leader, Ray Palmer will find himself living out his dreams of being an Old West hero. Meanwhile, Professor Stein will use his expertise to save a sickly young boy as Kendra and Sara go after a mysterious older woman, whose presence causes Kendra to start having new visions of the past.


Influences

The comic series Weird Western Tales, the film The Magnificent Seven (the title and the general plot of multiple fighters coming together to save an oppressed town), the film High Noon (a climactic quick-draw duel at high noon with a lawman defending a town that is too scared to back him up in a fight with an outlaw gang),Jonah Hex: A Faceful Of Violence (the town of Salvation), the 2002 Hawkman series (mention of Hannibal Hawkes and the idea of his being a reincarnation of Carter Hall) and the 1985 Hex series (Jonah Hex travels forward in time, to a post-apocalyptic 21st century).


Goofs

Rip Hunter says that Len Snart is suffering from linguistic dysplasia when he is unable to speak clearly. Linguistic dyslalia would be a more appropriate term, since dyslalia refers to a speech impedement whereas dysplasia refers to abnormal organ development. (He's a Time Master, not a doctor!)

Stein tells Snart about how he learned how to play cards by watching his father, who he claims was a degenerate gambler and criminal. This contradicts what little we've heard about Stein's father on The Flash, where Stein painted a picture of an affluent background and strict religious upbringing. He said his father refused to pay his way through MIT unless he became a Rabbi first. (Maybe this is a side-effect of the changes to the timeline due to The Legends' interference?)

Kendra's sudden desire to find Carter elsewhere in time has come out of nowhere.

It is said that Calvert was a town in Oklahoma in 1868. In 1868, the land that would become known as Oklahoma was still referred to as The Indian Territory. (Perhaps a difference between the DCTVU and our own universe is that Oklahoma achieved statehood sooner?)

Stein pulls a complete 180 on not disturbing the timeline. This might make sense if he were a medical doctor and had a Hippocratic Oath to uphold but he is a physicist - not a medical doctor!

When did The Legends learn how to ride horses well enough to do so going into a gun fight?

For that matter, how is Jax - who has no experience with firearms that we know of - able to shoot the gun out of a man's hand?

The team takes a pretty big gamble assuming The Stillwater Gang will leave Jax alive as a bargaining chip, just because they have their leader in custody.

Dr. Stein finds out that "Bertie" -  the boy whose life he saved - is H.G. Wells - the famous science-fiction author, most famous for his work The Time Machine. Ignoring that the actor here looks a bit old to play H.G. Wells (who would have been five-years-old at the time), one wonders how the very British H.G. Wells wound up in the Dakota Territory in 1871!


Performances

Johnathon Schaech is given surprisingly little to do as Jonah Hex. Still, he gives the role the appropriate level of gravitas and one is left hoping that he and Rip Hunter will meet up again in future episodes. Heck, maybe we'll see him as a regular in Season Two?

Again, Caity Lotz is the glue that holds the show together, getting great character moments with both Dominic Purcell and Ciara Renee this week that further develop their personal conflicts.

Ciara Renee has a good turn this week too. As problematic as her romance-driven storyline is (there's a reason Carter is nicknamed Stalk-man in the fandom), Renee carries off the conflict well in this episode as you can see the wall coming up between her and Ray despite her love for him.


Artistry

The music for the episode is wonderful, perfectly replicating the feeling of an old Spaghetti Western.

The direction and cinematography of the scene where The Legends arrive in Salvation is similarly wonderful in evoking the proper mood.

The fight scene in the saloon is well-blocked and amusingly directed. I particularly liked the shot of the unconscious Mick Rory and the inclusion of The Wilhelm Scream.

Ditto the final fight in the streets of Salvation. And another Wilhelm Scream to boot!


Trivia Of Tomorrow

Jonah Woodson Hex first appeared in All-Star Western #10 - 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 apperaances.  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.

Ray Palmer uses the alias John Wayne while in Salvation. John Wayne is perhaps the most famous American cowboy actor of all time.

Rip Hunter says 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 and perhaps the closest thing Hex had to an arch-enemy. 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, though Jonah Hex seems to hold him in unique contempt.

Kendra finds out from her past self that Carter's reincarnation in the 1830s was a man named Hannibal Hawkes. In the original comics, Hannibal Hawkes was a Western hero called The Nighthawk, who was a traveling repairman in his secret identity. He first appeared in Western Comics #5 (Sep/Oct 1948)

In the 2002 Hawkman series, Nighthawk was retconned into a reincarnation of Hawkman, with the Western heroine Cinnamon (First appeared in Weird Western Tales #48 - October 1978) being similarly retconned into a reincarnation of Hawkwoman. In the retelling of their life's story in Hawkman #7 (Nov 2002), they die in order to free a wrongly accused man from jail before a lynch mob can hang him.

 Kendra's past self is not named in this episode, but it seems likely that she's based on Cinnamon as well. It is also not confirmed that the DCTVU version of Hannibal Hawkes was a vigilante called The Nighthawk.


Technobabble

Rip Hunter refers to Snart's temporary inability to speak clearly as linguistic dysplasia.

Time is not as fluid as most people think. Time wants things to happen and will work to make sure that things happen. It takes time for things to harden once a change to the timeline has been made. The timeline is occasionally unclear and constantly in flux. This is what makes it difficult to track an immortal like Vandal Savage with any certainty.

Another interesting aspect of time travel is the existence of Fragmentations - temporal blind spots that The Time Masters, for some reason, can't see into remotely. The town of Salvation is one such Fragmentation.

Most guns of The Old West period had hammer blocks, limiting the number of shots they contained to five.

Professor Stein uses Gideon to synthesize Steptomycin - a common antibiotic used in treating tuberculosis today but futuristic by the standards of the 1870s.

The Omega Protocol is the last-ditch effort used by The Time Masters to deal with those they consider a threat to the space-time continuum In this case, an assassin is dispatched to kill the threat while they are still too young to be a threat..


Dialogue Triumphs

(After Rip denies the crew any chance of "shore leave" while in The Old West.)
Sara: Oh, come on! What's the harm in us just taking a look around?
Stein: With this group? Clearly you haven't been paying attention!

(As he is distributing the weaponry)
Rip: Now this should go without saying, but considering this group, I am going to say it - only use these weapons in the case of extreme emergencies!

(Kendra, Mick and Sara are at the bar)
Kendra: (taking a sip of her shot) Gah! It tastes like gasoline.
Mick: Pretty much. (To the bartender) Hit me again.

Jonah Hex: All right. Why don't you folks tell me where you're really from?
Ray: I'm not sure that's any of your business, sir.
Jonah Hex: Well, let me rephrase that. Tell me WHEN y'all from.
(The Legends just glance at each other.)
Jonah Hex: You seven stick out like a dog in a manger.
Jax: Like you said, we're not from around here.
Jonah Hex: You think you're the first time-travelers I've ever come across?
Stein: Uh - yes?
Jonah Hex: Where is he? I've got some words that need saying.
Sara: With who?
Jonah Hex: Rip Hunter.

(As Ray is made the new Sheriff of Salvation.)
Jonah Hex: Congratulations. By the way. you might find a warrant or two out for me around these parts.
Ray: You know, we have stuff back on the ship that can fix your...
Jonah Hex: Fix what?
(Jonah Hex just fixes Ray with a LONG glare.)
Ray: Yep. Nothing. Nevermind.

(As her past self talks about trying to find love after the death of Hannibal Hawkes.)
Kendra; What happened?
Past Kendra: He was a good man, but he wasn't a soul mate. It was like Fate was trying to break us apart. Eventually Fate broke both our hearts. So I made a promise to myself that I wasn't going to do that to a person again.
Kendra: I'm... I'm sorry to hear that.
Past Kendra: No, I'm who's sorry...to have to be the one to let you go that you're never going to be able to love anyone else ever. How much do you know about our previous lives? I eeckon not a lot because you didn't recognize me. So let me tell you that we did love other men. Loved them real and pure. But it never ended well. Not ever. Tragedy or heartbreak - that's how it always ends if the man's not Carter.

Rip: A Time Master is trained to do his work without interference. Which means not helping people or being a hero. But as you've seen Dr. Palmer, this era offers many opportunities for heroism. I found it... enticing
Jonah Hex: And you still managed to leave. (pauses) Something's been bugging me all these years. If you'd have known what Turnbull was going to do to Calvert, would you have left?
Rip: That's the thing, Jonah. I did know.
( Jonah Hex knocks Rip down with one punch.)
Rip: I deserved that.
Jonah Hex: You deserve a lot worse! You knew and you still left!
Rip: Of course I knew! Because I was a Time Master. And therein lay the problem. Like Raymond. Like Martin. I felt the pull of heroism, of this era's penchant for opportunities to make a difference. That's one of the things that called to me and that's why I had to leave. Because had I stayed... I could no longer remain a Time Master. (pauses) But I'm no longer a Time Master. Which is why I will face Stillwater.
Ray: Wait... I said I would do it!
Rip: And get yourself shot and killed and it's appreciated but I'd rather you stayed alive.

(Kendra and Sara arrive back on The Waverider, entering the cargo bay.)
Sara: You want to talk about it?
Kendra: Not really.
(Sara seals the door and steps over to Kendra.)
Sara: You don't have to listen to her, you know?
Kendra: Is this you not talking about it?
Sara: No. This is me ignoring you saying you don't want to talk about it. (sighs) Look, I get it. Things may have gone very wrong for Old West You and whoever she loved that wasn't Carter.
Kendra: ... but?
Sara: But Old West You didn't know Ray Plamer. She didn't love Ray Palmer. You do. And you have to live your life. She already lived hers.

Rory: You think Hunter can pull this off?
Jonah Hex: Reasonably. If not, I got dibs on that newfangled revolver of his.

Rip: (passing his newfangled revolver to Jonah Hex) I think you'll find this slightly more effective than your current sidearm. (pauses) Yes, I will be wanting that back, by the way. (passing the case with the ATOM suit to Ray) And you'll be needing this.
Ray: What about revealing our future tech to the locals?
Stein: (looking around at the panicking townsfolk) They don't seem to mind. (To Jax) Shall we?
(The two join hands and change into Firestorm. Jonah Hex crosses himself in response.)

(Rip sees Jonah Hex readying his horse for the road.)
Rip: You're not staying?
Jonah Hex: And you'?
Rip: Me? Nah. You know I can't. But this town still needs a Sheriff...
Jonah Hex: Well, I'm not the law and order type. Nor the staying in one place type, either.
Rip: Well, we have that much in common at least.
Jonah Hex: (nodding after a long pause) At least.
Rip: Be well, Jonah.
Jonah Hex: Nice thing about my world, for you? It ain't going anywhere.
Rip: Perhaps we will see each other again, my friend.
Jonah Hex: Yeah. I reckon that'd be okay.


Continuity

Rip says it's been a while since he felt the effects of a Time Jump, this jump having taken them back in time 271 years in one go.

This jump leaves Jax unable to feel his face, Ray unable to feel an embarrassing part of his body and Snart with a case of linguistic dysplasia (i.e. the words he uses are said out of order).

Rory is unaffected by the time jump. In fact, he sleeps through it.

The Waverider has an arsenal of historical weaponry.

It also apparently has a store of historical money or the means to counterfeit it.

Ray Palmer is something of an Old West history buff, knowing that six-shooters were quite rare and that most guns of the period only held five bullets.

Rip Hunter is also something of an Old West fan.

Time doesn't pass normally in the Vanishing Point.  A side effect of this, according to Mick Rory, is that the glasses and bottles kept refilling.

Sara Lance can hold her liquor better than Mick Rory can.

Martin Stein is a skilled card player.

Len Snart is a crack-shot with an Old West pistol and rifle.

Rip Hunter and Jonah Hex pet at some point in the past. During that adventure, Hex did not get a chance to see The Waverider.

Rip Hunter's coat was stolen from Jonah Hex.

The Stillwater Gang have been harassing Salvation for three months when The Legends arrive in town.

Rip refers to the events of 102 and Ray leaving a bit of his suit in 1975.

Calvert, Oklahoma was a town in 1868, where Rip Hunter lived for a time before he got married. It was destroyed the day after he left by Quentin Turnbull's gang.

While living in Calvert, Rip suffered from Time Drift, as Ray, Kendra and Sara did in 109. He was barely able to pull himself out of the time period and even then only managed it for fear of losing the woman who would become his wife.

Rip named his son, Jonas, in honor of Jonah Hex.

Professor Stein uses 20th century medicine to treat a boy named Bertie Neal's tuberculous. He finds out later the boy's name was Herbert George Wells - i.e. H.G. Wells - the noted author famous for such science-fiction novels as War Of The Worlds and The Time Machine.

Kendra also gets flashes of her past whenever she comes into contact with a past incarnation of herself.

Carter Hall's past self in 1830 went by the name Hannibal Hawkes. He was killed by Savage at a relatively young age and left his wife a widow.

Kendra's past self says that she tried loving other men besides "Carter" in other lives but it always ended badly - either in heartbreak or tragedy - as if Fate was twisting things to cause the other men she tried to love to get hurt.

Ray attempts to read Jeb Stillwater his Miranda Rights. As Snart points out, Miranda rights won't be codified for "another 100 years." (95 to be exactly, but trust Snart to know that and not Ray!)

Rip Hunter does not have access to any technology that can erase the minds of an entire town. At least, he denies having access to such technology, saying that skepticism and disbelief are far more effective for covering up evidence of time travel in the past.

The Pilgrim is the most deadly assassin employed by The Time Masters. Her talents are reserved only for Omega Protocol targets.

The episode ends with The Pilgrim getting ready to gun down a young Mick Rory, as he watches a house burn.


Location

Salvation, Dakota Territory - 1871
Central City - 1990.


Untelevised Adventures

Kendra is told by her past self about how the 1830's version of Prince Khufu died fighting Vandal Savage.

We are told about Rip Hunter's time in the town of Calvert, which was destroyed by outlaws the day after he left. We are not told the details but this left Jonah Hex with a grudge against Hunter.


The Fridge Factor

Kendra and Sara are sidelined for most of the episode to deal with a totally new subplot regarding Kendra's emotional conflict over her feelings for Ray and her history with Carter. While the scene is well acted by Caity Lotz and Ciara Renee, it is still bothersome.


The Bottom Line

The script is full of logic gaps and anachronisms. Turn your brain off, however, and it's as amusing as any cheesy old Western you might stumble across on the Late, Late Show.