Arrow Episode Guide: Season 8, Episode 1 - Starling City

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




Plot

While trying to decipher the cryptic instructions given to him by The Monitor, Oliver finds himself back in Starling City on another Earth. Meanwhile, in the future of Star City 2040, Mia and William's team of vigilantes clash with an unexpected new foe.


Influences

Season 1 of Arrow and Crisis on Infinite Earths.


Goofs

Nothing is said about Robert Queen, who became The Hood of Earth-2 instead of Oliver Queen. Did Moira divorce him after his secret identity was exposed?  Was he sent to prison, like Roy Harper when he was fingered as The Hood in Arrow season 3? Was he killed and that revealed who he was? And why does everyone act like Adrian Chase's Hood is the first Hood on Earth 2? (Possibly Barry Allen's time-travel altered the timeline so both Robert and Oliver died on Earth 2 in the altered reality?)

Why does Earth-2 Simon Morrison use Adrian Chase as an alias when he's a good guy?

Where did Tommy Merlyn get trained to fight in Earth-2's reality?

Who was responsible for destroying the Queen's Gambit if Malcolm Merlyn honestly was a good guy on this Earth?

In a previous episode, Black Siren said that she knew Thea Queen quite well on her Earth and she was far less idealistic than the Thea Queen of Earth-1. Given the Earth-2 timeline, Thea would have been 12 when Black Siren moved to Central City to start a new life without her version of Oliver Queen. This makes it unlikely they would have kept in touch, particularly after Black Siren got her powers.

In this episode, Earth-2's Felicity Smoak is said to be running Smoak Technologies and is a huge success. Yet in an earlier episode, Black Siren said that Felicity Smoak of her Earth ran a criminal empire and was known for being ruthless. (The two aren't mutually exclusive, although now I really want to see Emily Bett Rickards as Earth 2's Wilson Fisk.)

How is Black Siren openly walking around when she was one of the most notorious criminals on Earth-2 five years ago and part of a regime that effectively ruled the world?

Why does Club Verdant - which Oliver started as a front to hide his first Arrowcave on Earth-1 - exist on Earth 2?


Performances

Stephen Amell does some great silent acting throughout the episode, reacting to various bits of bad news, nostalgia and looking at the picture of Felicity and Mia that is apparently the only possession he brought with him.

David Ramsey gets a bit of this too, during the scene where he is once again "The Black Driver."

Colin Donnel does a masterful job of playing a grief-stricken, driven to violence version of Tommy Merlyn.


Artistry

The direction and music do a great job of capturing the feeling of the first season of Arrow.


Trivia

At one point Adrian Chase calls Black Siren "Pretty Bird." This was Oliver Queen's pet name for Dinah Lance in the classic comics.

Reference is made to an incident in Pennytown. This is one of the districts of Star City in the DC Comics Universe.

Adrian Chase says that Bruce Wayne once told him that "if you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." This is a direct quote from Sherlock Holmes in The Sign Of the Four.


Technobabble

Adrian Chase analyzes the metallurgy of the Dark Archer's arrows and Oliver Queen's arrows to prove they aren't the same.

Queen-Merlyn recently upgraded their facilities with 500 miles worth of high-capacity fiber optics married to an underground server farm.

Queen-Merlyn is research the possibility of using dwarf star matter as an alternative energy source.

William uses satellite imaging to determine that the Deathstrokes have assumed control of the old Galaxy One headquarters


Dialogue Triumphs

The Monitor: (opening narration) Among the many misconceptions humanity holds dear is the fallacy that all beings are created equal. In truth, there are those who are greater. They are called heroes. But even among heroes, there are different echelons. The highest belong to those known as the paragons. And they are the only hope of all creation.

Moira: I know the changes must be overwhelming, and you must feel like you're on a different planet or something.
Oliver: You could say that.

(Oliver walks into Queen-Merlyn's IT Department. He sees a blonde woman with a pony-tail from behind and can just make out her chewing on a black pen.)
Oliver: It's supposed to be red.
(The woman spins around in her chair. It is clearly not Felicity Smoak. Just some other blonde woman in glasses.)
Woman: Excuse me?
Oliver: Nothing. Sorry. I'm looking for Felicity Smoak.
Woman: (laugh) Like Felicity Smoak would slum it in IT, instead of running Smoak Tech!
Oliver: Oh. Good for her.

(Oliver and Diggle are in a car. Oliver in the back. Diggle driving.)
Oliver: So what do I call you?
Diggle: Diggle. Digg if you want.
(Oliver smiles at the familiarity. This is just like when they first met. We cut to the front seat and Diggle smiles faintly too as we hear Oliver tugging on the door handle only to find the child safety locks have been engaged, so he can't tuck and roll out of the car as he did when he lost Diggle before. It is apparent now that this Diggle saw the trick coming because he is, in fact, Earth-1 Diggle.)
Diggle: Sorry, Oliver. Fool me once...

Diggle: Oliver, has it occurred to you that whatever happens in this crisis happens because you push the people closest to you away?
Oliver: So you're in a forward area. Somebody throws a grenade right into the middle of your platoon. What do you do?
Diggle: I jump on it. I contain the blast.
Oliver: That's what I'm doing. I can't prevent whatever it is that's going to happen to me, but I will be damned if I'm going to put other people at risk.
Diggle: And I will be damned if I just let you go gently into that good night.

Tommy: So I've been thinking it over. And you really were on Lian Yu. Because if you had been here, you would've been protecting our sister. So the question is... why are you running around in The Hood's hood?
Oliver: Doesn't matter.
Tommy: Yes, it does! The Hood is running around this city, thinking that he's saving it, and nothing can save it. You don't understand the cancer that has taken over this city.
Oliver: (shocked by the realization) Oh, my God! This is the Undertaking. You stole the dwarf star particles because you want to destroy The Glades and get vengeance for Thea.
Tommy: How could you know that? And what happened to you on that island?
Oliver: What happened to you while I was on the island?
Tommy: While you were gone, this city has been rotting. It can't be saved!
Oliver: That's not true, Tommy. I have seen Starling City come back from darker moments than this. It can be redeemed. You can be redeemed.
Tommy: You don't understand what I've seen. You don't know how I found our sister. Every time I close my eyes, I see her body lying there, cold, on a dirty floor. So I swore that I would get vengeance on The Glades for what it did to Thea, and I am not going to let her down. Not again!
Oliver: That's not gonna make you feel better, Tommy.
Tommy: I don't care about feeling better. I just want The Glades to suffer.
Oliver: You're a better man than this.
Tommy: That was a different me. Good-bye, Oliver.


Continuity

The Monitor deposits Oliver on Lian Yu on Earth-2 in the year 2019, though this is not immediately apparent.

Oliver is able to summon a boat using the same signal fire trick he used in the Arrow pilot.

On Earth-2's Lian Yu, the Deathstroke mask with an arrow through the eye is replaced with a Batman or Batwoman mask.

On Earth-2, Moira Queen and Malcolm Merlyn are married in the year 2019 and have merged their companies.

On Earth-2, after Robert Queen was declared dead, Walter Steele hold his shares in Queen Consolidated and went elsewhere. On Earth-1, he took charge of the company and eventually married Moira Queen.

Earth-2's Tommy Merlyn is still alive and living at Queen Manor. He says he has been married and divorced twice in the 12 years since he last saw Oliver.

Earth-2's Thea Queen died of a Vertigo overdose on her 18th birthday. This is a dark take on the events of 111 on Earth-1, where Thea Queen took Vertigo at her 18th birthday party but only crashed her brand new car.

Oliver breaks into Queen Consolidated looking for dwarf star particles. He finds the security team dead, shot by arrows, the particles stolen and is encountered by The Hood of this reality - Adrian Chase.

The fight between Oliver and Adrian is broken up by Black Siren, who asks what Oliver is doing on her Earth. This is the first indication in the episode that we are on Earth-2.

Black Siren has created her own version of The Bunker on Earth-2. It has the same design as the Earth-1 bunker, but with purple lighting instead of green.

Since returning to Earth-2, Black Siren has partnered with Adrian Chase (aka The Hood). They are not lovers, she is quick to note.

Oliver hides the fact that he is from another Earth from Adrian.

The Monitor reminds Oliver that his task is to retrieve the dwarf star particles for reasons he will not explain - not to confront Malcolm Merlyn over his crimes. Oliver defends his actions, saying that he needs to solve the mystery of the stolen particles in order to get them.

Oliver goes looking for Felicity Smoak in the IT Department of Queen Merlyn, learning that on this Earth she is a famous tech magnate.

The Earth-2 version of Curtis Holt is the head of Queen-Merlyn's IT Department.

The Earth-2 version of Rene Ramirez is employed as the Queen/Merlyn bodyguard.

The Earth-2 version of Dinah Drake is a Detective Sergeant in the SCPD.

As on Earth-1, Moira hires John Diggle to act as Oliver's personal bodyguard/babysitter. It is later revealed that this is Earth-1's John Diggle, come to help Oliver.

Felicity told Diggle about The Monitor taking Oliver away. Somehow, Diggle was able to track Oliver to Earth-2 and got there using a dimensional breach device borrowed from Cisco Ramon.

It is Earth-2's Tommy Merlyn who initiates The Undertaking in 2019 rather than Malcolm Merlyn in 2013. His plan involves attacking The Glades using a doomsday device powered by dwarf star particles rather than an earthquake generator. His motivation is avenging the death of Thea Queen, whom he apparently knew was his half-sister in this reality. On Earth-1, Malcolm Merlyn was avenging the death of his wife.

Tommy chains Oliver up in the same location Malcolm Merlyn did in 123.

Earth-2 Rene and Dinah are working for Tommy Merlyn to bring about the Undertaking.They are nowhere near as well-trained as their Earth-1 counterparts and Oliver defeats them easily on his own.

When Adrian Chase asks how Oliver knows so much about what the Dark Archer is planning, Oliver says he's ten steps ahead of him. This is a nod to what Prometheus continually told him during Season 5 of Arrow.

The location where Thea died is 4587 Burke. Apparently the building there is the home to Star City's worst drug dealers.

Tommy quotes something that Thea once told him to Oliver - "The dead don't want anything." Earth-1 Thea said the same thing to Oliver in 102.

Oliver is able to talk Tommy out of activating the device and turning himself in.

Adrian Chase is able to dismantle the Undertaking device and agrees to give Oliver the dwarf star particles.

Chase deduces that Oliver is the Hood from another Earth on his own.

Chase apparently knew Bruce Wayne and quotes a staying Wayne told him, which is cribbed from Sherlock Holmes. This, coupled with the Batman mask on Lian Yu, suggests that Bruce Wayne may have been the Slade Wilson of Earth 2.

Oliver suggests Chase change his name to Green Arrow.

Oliver visits Tommy in the police station after he turns himself in. He also gives his mother a final hug, after lying that he will see her at home.

Black Siren arrives at the SCPD HQ just as walls of antimatter began to destroy everything.

Moira and Tommy are killed by the antimatter.

Oliver, Diggle and Black Siren jump through a breach just as the walls close in on them.

In the future of 2040, William Clayton is now expanding his company into Star City, under his alias. His company is Harris Consolidated.

Crime has risen 300% in The Glades since the wall came down, but is down across the board in Star City in general.

Mr. Vasquez is a figure of importance in the move to reintegrate The Glades and Star City. He credits the vigilantes with reducing crime in Star City as a whole.

The Deathstroke Gang, which is led by John Diggle Jr., abduct Vasquez. They take him to the old Galaxy One building.

William talks Mia into going along with Connor's plan to rescue Vasquez.

Vasequez gives the Deathstrokes a series of codes.

Mia insists that from now on the team is going to do things her way.


Location

Starling City - Earth 2


Untelevised Adventures

The fate of Robert Queen on Earth 2.

Everything involving how Black Siren got herself established in Starling City and Adrian Chase's background on Earth-2.


The Bottom Line

As a walk down memory lane and a tribute to the first season of Arrow, it is wonderful. As a set-up for the season, it's competently executed apart from some major continuity issues - most likely brought on by the series' need to include Katie Cassidy as Black Siren rather than setting this on an entirely different Earth. That being said, the final sequence in which Earth-2 is destroyed is chillingly effective and set the tone for the future episodes of The Flash depicting the same destruction.  The Crisis is coming and nothing will ever be the same again.

Unfortunately, this does take the piss out of the flash-forward sequences, because we know that timeline is safe, even ignoring the reports that filming has already begun on a Green Arrow and the Canaries spin-off combining the planned Star City 2040 spin-off and Katie Cassidy's proposed Birds of Prey series. Is it too much hope that we can get Ashley Scott in there as well if the universes merge into one?

Green Arrow #36 - A Review

Saved from a watery grave by Black Canary, Oliver Queen must confront his treacherous mother and The Ninth Circle in order to save his city. Little does he know that the assassins Malcolm Merlyn and Shado are coming to join the party as well, as Kate Spencer struggles to clear Oliver's name of murder charges as The Trial of The Century begins in Star City!


Click On The Picture Above For A Full-Screen Scan.
There is very little I can say about this issue without spoiling it. Suffice it to say, Benjamin Percy managed something impossible after several issues of doubting the direction of the story and the point in resurrecting Moira Queen only to turn her into an even more treacherous figure than she was on the TV Series Arrow. For that, if nothing else, he has my respect. For his perfect encapsulation of the Green Arrow and Black Canary romance in this issue, he has my gratitude.

I regret that I can't show you every wonderful two-page spread that Juan Ferreyra has put together for this issue. The layouts for this issue are fantastic and Ferreyra's use of color throughout is amazing.This is rightly applauded as one of DC Comics best-looking books.

The Final Analysis: 10/10.

Green Arrow #34 - A Review

Moira Queen has revealed herself as alive and well. She's also revealed herself as being part of The Ninth Circle and the number one target on their hit-list now that Oliver Queen has done so much to disable their plans. Oliver wants to believe his mother wants to help him turn the tables on the organization that destroyed his life... but can he trust her?


Green Arrow #34 has killed the momentum that was set up regarding Oliver Queen's trial pending trial on murder charges over the last few issues. Unfortunately, Benjamin Percy chose this moment to revisit the subplot involving John Diggle's owing Malcolm Merlyn a debt - a deus ex machina from a previous issue nearly as confounding as Moira Queen's sudden resurrection.

I've come too far not to trust Percy as a writer on this series but this issue is painfully slow and heavy on exposition, the best bits and only action sequences involving Black Canary and Green Arrow fighting The Clock King in flashback. At least Stephen Byrne's artwork is as good as ever but he isn't given much to do beyond draw talking heads this week.

The Final Analysis: 6 out of 10. It isn't bad but I expect better from this team. 

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 5, Episode 23 - Lian Yu

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



Plot

With the rest of Team Arrow abducted by Prometheus and held captive where it all began on the island of Lian Yiu, Oliver Queen must build an unlikely army of his enemies! Malcolm Merlyn, Nyssa Al Ghul, Captain Boomerang and even Slade Wilson will stand beside him for one reason or another. Yet even if they triumph over an army that includes Talia Al Ghul and her followers, Evelyn Sharpe and Black Siren, can Oliver count on them letting him live long enough to enjoy the victory once Prometheus is brought to justice?


Influences

Green Arrow (Vol. 3) #66 (Basic plot of Oliver Queen and his friends and family vs. an island full of killers) and Justice League: Cry For Justice (A villain called Prometheus threatens everything Oliver Queen loves.)


Goofs

It's a minor thing, but it just seems weird for Thea to be calling Sara "my friend's sister" instead of by name.

Unfortunately, all the drama of the episode is killed by the final minute, because - even ignoring press releases confirming the cast for Season 6 - we can't believe for a moment that they're killing off the entire cast except for Oliver Queen himself.


Performances

I never realized how much I missed Manu Bennett as Slade Wilson until now. I know the DCTVU is already a bit over saturated with shows but... 2018?  Deathstroke series? Please?

Well... now we know why John Barrowman didn't get his contract renewed for Season 6. Still, if Merlyn had to go out, we couldn't have asked for a better send off and Barrowman couldn't have given a better final performance as everyone's favorite bad guy you hate to love.

Willa Holland and Emily Bett Rickards haven't gotten a lot of scenes together. The brief moment they have bonding as the daughters of villains who did try to make it up to their daughters shows what a mistake that has been, as the two play off each other beautifully.


Artistry

The washed-out filter used to make the flashbacks look grayer and more miserable/dream-like is a nice touch.

It also helps to provide contrast during the fight between Team Arrow and Prometheus and his recruits when the episode cuts between the fight and Oliver's final battle with Kovar. A masterful bit of directing and editing, that.

The Nyssa/Talia sword fight is a great one.


Trivia

The episode starts with the same words that started The Pilot. "The name of the island they found me on is Lian Yu. It's Mandarin for purgatory."

The blue top and black leather jacket that Dinah is wearing in this episode resemble the DC Rebirth Black Canary costume.


Technobabble

Felicity says that she and Curtis combined have an IQ over 500.

Prometheus created a network of hundreds of charges of linked C-4 explosives.

Oliver gives Dinah the collar that Curtis built for her. It allows her to focus her Canary Cry but also allows it to overcome sonic dampeners.

Prometheus removed the on-wing hydraulic system from the plane he took to Lian Yu, rendering the plane useless.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Oliver has just knocked out the ARGUS guard who refused to abandon his post. He turns around to find Slade Wilson locking his cell door behind him.)
Slade: Would you like to explain what's going on?
Oliver: I'd like to talk about you for a minute. (pauses, clearly considering his words carefully) You seem...
Slade: What? In possession of all my marbles?
(Oliver just nods.)
Slade: The Mirakuru wore off a long time ago, kid. I mean, I remember everything that happened. I'm not trying to escape that. It feels like some... bad dream. Now, regardless of my sanity, why do you want to help me?  After everything I've done?
Oliver: There's a man here on the island named Adrian Chase. He's holding my friends and my family hostage. Including Thea... and my son.
Slade: (smirking) Since when do you have a son?
Oliver: Slade, are you going to help me or not?
Slade: I think I'm stating the obvious when I say I killed your mother.  And for that alone you should have killed me.
Oliver: Maybe what's happening now is the reason I didn't.
(Oliver retrieves a memory card from his pocket and hands it to Slade.)
Oliver: This is all the intel that I've been able to gather on your son, Joe. Including his present whereabouts.
Slade: (openly shaken at the mention of his lost son) Are you offering to help me find my son?
Oliver: I want us to find both of our sons.
(Oliver turns around and walks to the bag that he dropped when he first entered the prison block. He opens it to reveal the Deathstroke mask. Without a word, he returns to Slade and offers him the mask. Slade nods.)
Slade: You and me, kid. Like old times.

Merlyn: Are you looking for applause? Clapping is a little more difficult for me these days.

(Oliver, Slade and Digger discover Felicity, Samantha, Curtis and Thea caged in an open field.)
Slade: Why are they unguarded?
Captain Boomerang: It seems pretty obvious to me, mate.
(Talia and Evenlyn drop out of the trees, guns and bows drawn.)
Captain Boomerang: (sighing) It's a trap.
Talia: Don't even think it Oliver, or your son loses his mother.
Captain Boomerang: Oh, and, uh.. don't worry about that gun, mate. (reaches into his coat pocket to reveal he already has one)  Mr. Chase gave me this nice new one. Along with a better offer.
Evelyn: (nodding to Slade) Adrian thought it would be pointless to reach out to you.
Talia: Although given this turn of events, perhaps you've changed your mind?
Captain Boomerang: What's it going to be, Slade?  Care to side with the winners?

Captain Boomerang: I assumed you'd want to be on the winning side.
Slade: Assumption is the mother of all failures!

(Merlyn unlocks Thea's cage.)
Merlyn: You okay?
Thea: (tiredly) Go to Hell.
Merlyn: I'll take that as a yes.

(Oliver hands Curtis a communicator.)
Oliver: Comms. Just in case something goes wrong.
Curtis: You mean "when", right?

Slade: So instead of marrying the blonde, you married Ra's Al Ghul's daughter?
Oliver: Uh... Nyssa talks too much.
Slade: She hasn't explained your beef with Chase.
Oliver: (sighs and shakes his head) My past is coming back to haunt me.
Slade: Seems to be a recurring theme with you, kid.
Oliver: Don't know why.
Slade: Well, it's not really that complicated. You suffer from survivor's guilt. You can't get over the death of your father.
Oliver: Adrian Chase has nothing to do with my father.
Slade: Kid, when it comes to you, everything has to do with your father. You and I are not dissimilar. We're both haunted by our pasts. And the only way to bury that ghost is by forgiving yourself.
Oliver: Forgiving myself?  For what?
Slade: You blame yourself for your father's suicide. And everything else that has gone wrong since. You need to forgive yourself for your sins.
Oliver: You say that like it's easy.

Slade: It's the hardest thing in this world. 

Merlyn: You may not think of me as your father, Thea, but you'll always be my daughter.

Captain Boomerang: Go after the rest!
Merlyn: I wouldn't do that if I were you.

Captain Boomerang: Well, you don't seem too bright. Standing out here in the open like this? What kind of ass-backwards strategy is that? 

Merlyn: (smirking) Let me show you.
(Cut to: Felicity, Thea, Curtis and Samantha running through the woods. There is an explosion in the distance. Thea turns around and looks behind them in shock.)

(Nyssa has just left Oliver and Slade to scout ahead in the old building.)
Slade: She doesn't trust me.
Oliver: Can you blame her?

Slade: No.

(Slade suddenly cold-cocks Oliver, knocking him out. Black Siren rounds the corner with several of Talia's students and smirks.)
Slade: Tell Mr. Chase I have a gift for him. 

Felicity: I'd ask if you're okay, but I don't see how you could be. 

Thea: Honestly, I... I don't even know how I feel right now. 24 hours ago I... couldn't even think of Malcolm without wanting to scream, and now? Now I miss him. Is... is that insane?
Felicity: It's not insane. He's your father.
Thea: He manipulated me. He lied to me. He... he got me to kill my friend's sister! I... how can you miss somebody that you hated so much?
Felicity: Yeah. I mean, I have some experience with evil dads too. My father abandoned me. Lied to me. And then took a bullet for me, saving my life. (pauses and looks at Thea) Malcolm was not a good person and he was an even worse father, but... in his own way... he loved you. Today, he proved that.
Thea: I don't know. It's like today, I got... I got to see the father that he could have been but... he'll never get to be... because he's gone.

(Felicity pulls Thea into a tight hug.)

(Oliver has just given Dinah the collar Curtis made to enhance her powers.)

Dinah: Oh, I love that Curtis!  (To everyone else) This may hurt a bit.

Rene: Just sing, Canary!

Quentin: Actually, it's Black Canary.

(Dinah takes a deep breath and looks at the joint connecting their chains. She screams, breaking it.)

Nyssa: We have unfinished business... Sister.
Talia: I heard you gave up The Ring of The Demon's Head. What a foolish woman you've grown into.
Nyssa: It was your selfishness that forced me to grow up alone.
Talia: Our father never would have passed his mantle on to a woman. I had to forge my own path.
Nyssa: And you left me, knowing I would suffer at Father's hand.
Talia: Do you wish to settle the score now?
Nyssa: I stand with my friends!
Talia: You ally yourself with our father's murderer? He'd be ashamed of you.

Nyssa: (chuckling) Father was always ashamed of me.

(Black Siren and Black Canary knocked themselves down with their point-blank sonic cries. Siren is the first to get to her feet.)

Black Siren: You thought you could replace me? That's cute. 

(Quentin runs up behind Black Siren and hits her across the back of the head with a bo staff.)

Black Canary: You didn't have to do that.

Quentin: Oh, I did. For so many reasons. 

(Oliver has Prometheus's neck in a death grip.)

Prometheus: It's all over, but only if you do it! Do it, Oliver! And show everyone - show yourself who you really are!
(Oliver winces for a bit, sorely tempted, but he looks out to his friends, who are all watching him struggle with Prometheus.)
Oliver: No!
(Oliver releases his grip on Prometheus, leaving him gasping for breath. Oliver takes Prometheus' gun and empties it before tossing the gun away.)

Oliver: That's who I was. That's who I was before! It's not who I am now. You can blame me for your father's death for the rest of your life. I'm done blaming myself for mine. 

(Oliver starts to walk away from Prometheus.)

Prometheus: I knew it would come to this.  (growling) Your son is dead, Oliver!

(Everybody stares at Prometheus in shock. Oliver moves in and kneels by Prometheus, forcing him to meet his gaze.)

Oliver: (speaking with an eerie calm) I don't believe you. Because you are a liar. You're lying to me to manipulate me into doing what you want. But Adrian, here's the thing. If you're telling the truth? If you killed my son? I am never going to be the person you want me to be. Not ever.

Continuity

Slade Wilson was last seen in 314.

Oliver offers to help Slade find his son, Joe, whom Slade first mentioned in 114, in exchange for his help.

Captain Boomerang was last seen in 308.

Samantha Clayton, William's mother, is among the hostages on Lian Yu.

Captain Boomerang was recruited by Prometheus, in case Oliver tried recruiting him as well.

Oliver is skilled enough with a throwing knife to knock an arrow out of the air.

Merlyn used to own three Gulfstreams and can fly any plane like it.

Before the Chinese government turned it into a prison, Lian Yu was a holy retreat.

Merlyn sacrifices himself to save Thea from a landmine and takes out Captain Boomerang in the process.

Nyssa. Slade and Oliver discover the ruins of the plane that was Oliver and Slade's home on Lian Yu some nine years earlier.

Thea refers to the events of 301 and how Merlyn manipulated her to kill Sara Lance.

Felicity refers to the events of 421 and how her father, The Calculator, took a bullet for her.

Neither Felicity or Curtis knows how to fly a plane.

Quentin gives Dinah his blessing to use the name Black Canary.

Dinah's newly focused Canary Cry is capable of breaking metal chains.

We learn that the burn scars on Oliver's back came from Kovar pushing him back against the burning wreckage of the helicopter that Oliver shot down.

Oliver kills Kovar by snapping his neck.

John is not an ace pilot but he can get a plane started.

Susanna Thompson - who played Moira Queen - has a cameo in the flashbacks as Oliver calls home to tell her that he is alive.

The episode concludes with Prometheus killing himself and Lian Yu blowing up - supposedly with all of Oliver Queen's friends and family still on the island.


The Winick Factor

There's a lot of great character moments here that are ruined by a completely random ending that only serves to make the villain look invincible and smarter than the hero. That describes about 90% of Judd Winick's Green Arrow stories and most of the Prometheus stories in Season Five, in all honesty.


The Bottom Line

For a story that draws upon elements of two of the most infamously bad Green Arrow stories of all time, this one does a miraculous job of doing that this show set out to do for five years and, for the most part, did successfully - take the fractured history of a B-list (at best) comic book hero and turn it into something epic. Ignoring the last minute of the episode, that's what they did. The cliff-hanger doesn't ring true, however, and it ends the whole thing on a sour note.

Ignore that though and focus on the good - Oliver being true to his ideals, Manu Bennett redeeming Deathstroke into something like the anti-hero he's meant to be, the Susanna Thompson cameo, Oliver's final battle with Kovar, Black Canary and Quentin kicking Black Siren's ass - and this is one hell of a Hail Mary for a season that did much to restore the good old days of Arrow.  I honestly can't wait for Season Six.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 5, Episode 22 - Missing

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




Plot

It's Oliver's birthday and Team Arrow is in the mood to celebrate in the wake of Prometheus' capture. Unfortuantely, Black Siren has been sprung from ARGUS custody and - with the aid of Prometheus' other allies - has begun taking down Star City's heroes, one at a time.

In the flashbacks, having been ambushed by a not-quite-dead Kovar, Oliver must endure the greatest torture drug known to the KGB if he is to survive to see his homecoming.


Influences

The film version of The Princess Bride (Kovar's torture of Oliver, with his request for honest answers at the start and his philosophical talk about pain mirrors the torture scenes with The Machine) and the comic Justice League: Cry for Justice (a villain named Prometheus holds Green Arrow's loved ones and city hostage in order to escape capture.).


Goofs

Given the destruction of John's car, it seems unlikely that he and Felicity could walk away from it as they do here.

If Black Siren is meant to seem honestly sorrowful that she's chaining up her own father, Katie Cassidy is doing a piss-poor job of portraying it.

The hallucination of Laurel that convinces Oliver not to kill himself is wearing an obvious wig that is the wrong color for Laurel at that time.


Performances

It's good to see John Barrowman back as Merlyn.

It's even better to see Manu Bennett back as Slade, even for just five seconds.


Artistry

The fight as Malcolm and Oliver move to free Chase is amazingly shot and directed.


Trivia

As is traditional for the penultimate episode of each season of Arrow, the title is a reference to a Bruce Springsteen song.

The song Missing comes from the 1995 album The Ghost of Tom Joad. In it, a man sings about how the woman he loves has walked out of his life and how he sometimes thinks she's come back to him.

It is revealed in this episode that Oliver Queen's birthday is sometime in the month of May.

Depending on the exact day, this would make Oliver either a Taurus (The Bull) or Gemini (The Twins) using Western astrology. Either one might be a good fit for Oliver, as Taurus' have a reputation for stubbornness and Geminis are said to be charming but prone to keeping secrets and living two lives.

According to a 1976 DC Comics calendar, Oliver Queen's birthday is December 9th. Fittingly, this would make Oliver Queen a Sagittarius - The Archer - using Western astrology.

The "Happy Birthday Oliver" signs at Oliver's party are in the same font as the Arrow logo.

Felicity says that Oliver's birthday cake came from Lord Mesa Bakery. This is a nod to artist Lord Mesa, who has become famous among DCTVU fandom circles (to say nothing of beloved by the show stars and creators) for his portraits of various superheroes and his one-panel comics based upon them. The cartoon Green Arrow on Oliver's cake is one of Lord Mesa's designs.

Felicity, being teased by Curtis, compares him to a shipper on a soap opera. It's worth mentioning tat the Arrow fandom has an incredibly active shipping community, with fans of the Oliver/Felicity pairing (or Olicity) being the most numerous.


Technobabble

Curtis builds a pair of sound modulators for Dinah. He claims that they will not only allow her to better focus her Canary Cry but will also allow her to overcome any kind of sonic-dampening technology.

The Red Death is the name given a drug devised by the KGB for use in interrogations. It is meant to break men's wills by enduing psychological anguish.

Purgatory - according to Catholic dogma - is the immediate state following physical death.in which some souls who are destined for Heaven must first undergo purification.

Felicity has access to a keyhole satellite that can track the heat signature of any plane in the world.


Dialogue Triumphs

Oliver: Being happy doesn't mean you don't have issues. It just means that you're working on them.

(Oliver has just said he has plans when Thea invites him out to dinner to celebrate his birthday.)
Thea: With who? Please say 'not Susan Williams' ?
Oliver: Um, it... No... ah.... with Felicity.
Thea: Ah. As in a date?
Oliver: As in... I, I don't know if it's a date.
Thea: (teasingly) But you're hoping that it is?
Oliver: It's dinner! People go to dinner.
Thea: See, I don't believe you. But I find it incredibly cute.
(Oliver sighs in exasperation as he exits the room.)

(Quentin arrives at Oliver's birthday party.)
Quentin: I'm late, aren't I?
Thea: Its all good. You didn't miss much. Just Oliver flipping Curtis over his shoulder.
Quentin: (sighs) I told you a surprise party wasn't a good idea.

(The rest of the team have left Oliver and Felicity alone.)
Felicity: I guess since the dinner at Chez Marta was a ruse, they think we deserve some alone time.
Oliver: Well, I mean... I didn't know if it was a...
Felicity: We can take it one step at a time.
Oliver: I would like that very much.
Felicity: This is hard for you, huh?
Oliver: Hypothetically dating my ex-fiancee?  (sarcastically) No, it's fi-
Felicity: Wow. No. I meant "summer vacation" as they are now calling it.
Oliver: It's incredibly hard. It's borderline impossible.
Felicity: We won. (pauses, before whispering) Oliver, we won. Take a step back. You know? You could put your feet up, no matter the state of your socks. You could just - God forbid - relax.
(Felicity laughs and reaches up to Oliver's tie, loosening the knot.)
Oliver: (softly, without much conviction) Yeah.

(Curtis is teasing Felicity about her and Oliver dressing up for each other.)
Felicity: Can you please stop? You're worse than a shipper on a soap opera.

Oliver: Chase doesn't think I can game out what he;s planning, but it;s obvious.
Felicity: (sarcastically) Yeah. Obvious to a murdering psychopath.
(Oliver just looks at her.)
Felicity: And present company excluded.
Oliver: He's trying to leverage our friends to make me set him free.
Felicity: That's crazy...
(Oliver just looks at her again.)
Felicity: ... which would be consistent with Chase.

(Kovar slides a gun to a shaky-handed Oliver.)
Kovar: That gun only has one bullet. You can waste it on me. But I think we both know who is responsible for your pain. (pauses) I've seen the strongest man resist for up to 12 minutes before... ending his suffering Such is my respect for you, that I... I think you last for uh... 14 minutes.

(Oliver senses someone behind him in The Bunker and throws a dart. Malcolm Merlyn catches it.)
Malcolm: I see your sense of hospitality remains intact.
Oliver: You are not welcome here, Malcolm!
Malcolm: You aim to cut off my other hand, Oliver?
Oliver: Maybe. Are you going to tell another person about my son?
Malcolm: Last time I was down here I saved your life.
Oliver: Do you really think that gives you a pass for serving up William to Damien Darhk?!
Malcolm: I'm sorry about that. I wasn't thinking clearly. (raises his prosthetic hand) I let my emotions get out of hand. That's all in the past. The only thing I'm concerned about now is saving my daughter!

(Talia Al Ghul is standing in the road in front of John's car.)
Felicity: Angry woman with two swords. Are you getting major Isabel Rochev flashbacks right now?
John: Yep.
Felicity: You remember how we handled her, right?
John: Yep.
(John speeds up.)

Malcolm: Friends are one thing but family is family. And a child? You would do anything - absolutely anything - to keep them safe.
Oliver: A little while ago I worried to John... that the personal connections I had were making me vulnerable. Because as long as there are people in my life that I care for, I have to be something else to protect them. That's something I can't leave in the past.
Malcolm: I admire you, Oliver. It takes a special kind of idiot to actually get dumber with time.
Oliver: I am not in the mood, Malcolm.
(Oliver turns from Malcolm and moves back towards their bikes.)
Malcolm: Human connections are what keep us human. And it's sad that it's a sociopath who's gonna have to point this out to you!  You can't live on an island! You've already tried! But you are always going to have people in your life, Oliver. And they will always need you, for better or worse, baggage and all. And if you can't accept that, your past is going to stay your anchor!

(The proximity alarm in The Bunker goes off.)
Malcolm: Are you expecting someone?
Oliver: Yes, I am. Because Chase is working with at least Black Siren, Evelyn Sharp, Talia Al Ghul and whatever army she's currently controlling.
Malcolm: (smirking) So you called in reinforcements? If I wasn't such a confident individual, my ego might be bruised.
Oliver: Malcolm, your ego is what I'm going to need you keep in check.
Malcolm: (suddenly tense) Why? Who did you reach out to?
(Nyssa Al Ghul exits the elevator.)
Nyssa: Husband. (she nods to Oliver before looking to Malcolm.) Mr. Merlyn. I assume you still have no title?
Malcolm: (spinning to Oliver) No.
Oliver: (warningly) Malcolm...
Malcolm: I will not work with her.
Nyssa: I told you.
Malcolm: I'd sooner slice her throat.
Nyssa: Try to, you mean.
Oliver: Malcolm, you said you'd do whatever it takes to get Thea back. So... (suddenly shouting) here we are!
Malcolm: Fine. But does she know?
(Oliver blinks, clearly not having planned on this happening. Nyssa sense this and steps closer to them both.)
Nyssa: Know what, Mr. Merlyn?
Malcolm: One of the people we're up against is your sister.
(Nyssa inhales slowly -the closest thing to a gasp she will allow herself as she stares at Oliver pointedly.)

(Oliver pushes his way past a security door with the ARGUS log on it into a prison block. He drops a bag by the door and sighs before moving deeper into the room toward a row of bars. He sighs deeply before finally speaking.)
Oliver: I need your help.
(We switch to a POV shot from Oliver's perspective as he looks into the cell... and sees Slade Wilson.)
Slade: Hey kid. (chuckles softly) I'm glad you came back.


Continuity

Following the capture of Adrian Chase, Oliver Queen's approval rating as Mayor is 70%, according to a Star City Sentinel poll. This is the highest his approval rating had ever been, according to Quentin

Though no exact date is given, Oliver Queen's birthday is sometime in May.

Oliver refers to the events of 111 and Thea Queen's disastrous 18th birthday party.

At the time of this episode, Lyla and John Jr. are in Chicago visiting family.

According to John, he and Lyla are patching things up after their fight in the last episode.

Based on the number of newspapers outside his apartment, Rene hasn't been home in several days. Also,shockingly, Rene subscribes to a newspaper.

The team discuss vacation plans. Curtis would like to go to Florence, Italy. John wants to take his son fishing. Felicity wants to walk the Pacific Crest Trail before taking a spa day. Oliver just wants to have a day to go shopping and buy some new socks. (Apparently he's almost out.)

Oliver determines that Talia Al Ghul is responsible for abducting Curtis, Dinah and Rene based on one of the darts he finds at Dinah's apartment.

The Red Death causes Oliver to hallucinate the pain from his old wounds whenever the scars are touched.

While hallucinating while suffering from the effects of The Red Death, Oliver has past visions relating to his sins (i.e. killing Taiana in 423), failures (i.e. Shado's death in 209), guilt (i.e. Oliver killing one of Ivo's men in front of Shado in 201) and bloodlust (i.e. Oliver torturing General Matthew Shrieve to death in 323). He hallucinates both his fist teacher, Yao Fei, encouraging him to commit suicide and then a vision of Laurel Lance telling him to live.

Black Siren was broken out of ARGUS at some point after Curtis' abduction. It is later revealed that she was released by an ARGUS agent, who was being blackmailed by Eveyln Sharpe.

As of this episode, Quentin had still not been told about the existence of Black Siren.

Thea apparently had been informed of Black Siren's existence.

Malcolm Merlyn refers to the events of 423 - the last time he was in The Bunker, when he arrived just in time to help defend it from a team of Damien Darhk's Ghosts.

Felicity refers to 222 and how she hit Isabel Rochev with a van when she and John are confronted by Talia.

Oliver recalls that Curtis did put tracking nanites in Felicity in 518, but that they were rendered useless by the EMP from 520.

Oliver figures out that Chase is escaping to Lian Yu.

Nyssa says that her father once told her to visit Lian Yu and that it was where she discovered Sara Lance. This is because Sara, during her time in the past with a younger Ra's ah Ghul and Talia (as seen L109), instructed Ra's to send his next daughter to the island in October 2008. This establishes Sara's recruitment into the League of Assassins as a closed time loop.

Oliver deduces that Talia must have told Chase about Lian Yu.

Oliver uses his one bullet to break the lock on the door of his cell.

In the final scene of the episode, Oliver enters Slade Wilson's cell on Lian Yu and tells him he needs his help.


Location

A freeway 10 miles outside of Star City.


Untelevised Adventures

We do not see how Reme or Dinah were captured.  We don't see how Black Siren escaped from ARGUS.


The Bottom Line

A fantastic episode, curiously, because of how little it has to do with Season Five's on-going plot. It's all because of the other little bits of character business that harken back to the show's glory days. The interactions between Oliver and Malcolm. The chemistry between Oliver and Felicity. The brief scenes of Thea and Quentin together. The flashback sequences that actually tie into the current storyline.

It would have been nice to see Roy Harper show up to offer some back-up too but I can't complain. Apparently they won back Manu Bennett despite his promise never to do the show again after Slade's treatment in Season Three.  That's as much a symbol of how far this show has turned around this year as anything.

Legends of Tomorrow: Season 2, Episode 17 - Aruba

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



Plot

With Amaya dead, Snart alive, Stein having forgotten who he is and The Spear of Destiny destroyed, all of reality is in risk of falling apart under the weight of too many paradoxes. In order to save everything that is, The remaining Legends must break the cardinal rule of time travel and risk an encounter with their past selves in order to destroy The Spear of Destiny before The Legion of Doom creates Doomworld.


Influences

The film Back To The Future 2 (heroes fighting to recover an artifact to prevent a dark alternate timeline from coming into being), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (time-travelers have to help their past selves while avoiding being spotted), The Wizard of Oz (the movie is playing the "There's no place like home...." line during the vision Sara has about resurrecting Laurel, the whole idea of a heroine having her power taken away so she can return to a normal life, Amaya's Ruby Slippers), Men In Black (the memory-erasing light guns return) and countless Doctor Who episodes, particularly the writings of Steve Moffat, where the usual rules regarding time travel are broken to a create a farcical atmosphere.


Goofs

Why is Damien Darhk hanging around STAR Labs? Thawne should be just as likely to kill him as The Legends if pushed, given Darhk and the rest of The Legion of Doom betrayed him.

The prop heart that Thawne rips out of Ray Palmer's chest looks incredibly fake and plastic.

Why do the time quakes not start until the two Rip Hunters see each other?  All the other time duplicates were already in the room together.

Why don't the dozens of Thawnes bull-rush Past Sara before she can activate The Spear? Why do they waste time picking off everyone else first?

When did Past Sara learn the phrase to activate The Spear of Destiny? (Presumably Future Nate taught it to everyone before they tried to escape the Past Waverider?)

Katie Cassidy still cannot emote worth a damn.

The CGI for Thawne's death is incredibly cheap looking.


Performances

Once again, Caity Lotz is the episode MVP. Most of the episode's power moments require her to do most of the heavy lifting, including a magical little scene where Sara has a long talk with herself. It almost makes the sudden revival of the "Sara is dark and broken" subplot from Season 3 of Arrow tolerable. Almost. Still, the fact that the material works half as well as it does is a credit to Lotz's talent as an actress. It only falls apart when Lotz is forced to act for two opposite the Botox-faced Katie Cassidy.


Artistry

The effects work to have the various past and future incarnations of The Legends interact is rather brilliant.


Trivia Of Tomorrow

Instead of the usual opening narration, the episode opens with a montage of Season Two highlights, set to the song Time Has Come Today by The Chambers Brothers.


Technobabble

Ray and Jax assumed that The Waverider was broadcasting using a quantum frequency. That would only be possible if the quad band antenna array was in alignment.

The current team of Legends - Jax, Mick, Sara, Rip, Ray and Nate - will cease to exist once The Spear of Destiny is destroyed, since they never would have existed if The Legion of Doom hadn't have stolen The Spear and created Doomworld.

A time quake is the result of two versions of an individual from different times interacting with one another.

A time storm is a paradox, much stronger than a time quake, which results when two versions of an individual attempt to time travel together,

The memory-erasing guns are used to erase Merlyn, Snart and Darhk's memories of what happened.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Rip looks out the pilot's window of The Waverider at a dome-like object from which light pours from the bottom.)
Rip: Gideon? What is that? Is that another ship?
Gideon: Negative. It appears to be... a desk lamp.
(Comprehension dawns on Rip's face as he realizes what's happened. We see a long shot of the shrunken Waverider hovering above the main desk in the middle of STAR Labs.)
Rip: (quietly) Oh, bollocks. (regular voice) Right! Engage our cloak and plot a course!
Gideon: Heading, Captain?
Rip: The nearest open window.

(The Legends have just made radio contact with Rip.)
Ray: Rip?
Rip: Yes, Doctor Palmer. I've homed in on your location.
Jax: Well, haul ass over here and come pick us up!
Rip: There may be one  small problem with that.
(The shrunken Waverider hovers into the rest of the team's view.)

(Darhk is strangling both Jax and Ray with his magic telekinesis as the shrunken Waverider flies into the room and circles around to face him.)
Rip: Gideon, fire!  Fire everything!
(The Waverider begins firing its lasers into Darhk's chest. Unfortunately, at this size, it is less than effective.)
Darhk: Awww... isn't that adorable?  Is that the best you've got?
(Mick enters the room from behind an oblivious Darhk.)
Mick: How about this?
(Mick pistol-whips Darhk across the back of the head with his flame gun, knocking him out cold.)

(Ray picks up the vial holding Christ's blood.)
Ray: Well... that was easier the second time around.
(There is a streak of red-lighting as Thawne appears, vial in hand.)
Thawne: I knew you idiots would come back from 2017. Apart from being incredibly stupid, you are just -so- predictable!
Ray: (powering up his lasers): Give me back the vial!
(Thawne squeezes his hand and the vial breaks.)
Thawne: (deadpan) What vial?
Sara: (over radio) Ray! Ray, get out of there, now!
Thawne: You know, my allies keep giving me the same, simple piece of advice?
(Another streak of red-lightning and one metallic clang later, Ray Palmer is standing there with a hole in his chest plate.  Thawne is standing where he was.. clutching a still beating heart. Without a word, Ray falls backwards as Thawne lets the heart fall to the ground. He looks down at Ray's corpse.)
Thawne: They were right. I should have done that ages ago.

Mick: Never stolen anything from myself before. Could be interesting.

Mick: Not for nothing, but Aruba would have been a better option.

(Thawne runs into the tent where Darhk and Snart are talking. With him is a confused-looking Merlyn, who glances around, momentarily terrified as he finds himself somewhere else.)
Thawne: Gentlemen.
Merlyn: What the hell is going on here?!
Darhk: That's what I was going to ask. Aren't you supposed to be searching for The Kalabros Manuscript?
Merlyn: (testily) I was.
Thawne: And I found him. And I brought him here. We no longer need The Manuscript. We have a different problem. The Legends are here.
Snart: We know. I just punched Mick.
Thawne: Not -those- Legends. And I'm not your Eobard. I'm from the future.
Darhk: (bored) Yeah, what else is new?
Thawne: (sighs in annoyance) Okay. I mean -your- future. One where have The Spear of Destiny and The Legends from -that- future are here now too.
Merlyn: Wait - there's two sets of Legends?
Snart: (annoyed) When do I get to rob a bank?
Thawne: Just deal with them!
(Thawne turns and takes a step to the tent exit.)
Darhk: Where do you think you're going?!
Thawne: To get backup.
(Thawne disappears in a streak of red lightning. The sudden rush of wind hits Darkh like a punch to the gut, forcing him to spit-take his drink.)
Darhk: I hate it when he does that.

(Past Sara has just ordered Past Ray to deal with her "fake" self over the radio.)
Past Ray: Sorry, Sara.
Future Sara; For what?
Past Ray: Listening to you.
(Past Ray punches Future Sara and throws her to Past Rip as Past Mick tries to punch Future Jax.)
Future Jax: Woah! Big dude! Chill out, bro! We're not impostors!
Tolkien: This is madness! What has come over you people?!
Future Sara; If you would -
(Future Sara ducks under Past Ray's punch, which hits Past Rip.)
Future Sara: - just -
(Futura Sara grabs Past Ray's arm and punches him in the stomach.)
Future Sara: - let me-
(Future Sara punches Ray in the face, knocking him down.)
Future Sara:  - explain!
Past Sara: (over radio) If fake me is anything like real me, Ray's going to need some help.

Future Rip: We are not The Legion. Believe it or not, we are actually future iterations of yourselves who have traveled back in time to prevent some form of calamity.
Past Sara: I don't believe it! Why would Rip Hunter violate the First Rule of Time Travel?
Future Rip: I'm asking myself the very same question.
(The door at the far end of the room opens as Past Rip enters the room. He looks at his future self as they both speak in unison.)
Both Rips: Oh bollocks.
(There is a great rumbling that shakes the ship.)
Past Jax: What the hell was that?!
Future Rip: It's a time quake.
Past Rip: The result of us interacting with ourselves.
Future Nate: Well, that wasn't so bad.
Future Rip: Yeah. Give it time.

Past Sara: Whose bright idea was it to do the one thing that could jeopardize all of time?!
Futura Sara: Yours.
Future Mick: (To his past self) What the hell are you starring at?
Past Mick: Just imagining what you'd look like without teeth.
Both Saras: Knock if off, Rory!
Past Stein: I can't believe that even we would do anything so foolish, unless something went terribly wrong the first time we were here.
Past Ray: Uh - I can't help but notice...
Past Amaya: ... not all of us came back with you.
Past Nate: What happens to us in the future?
(There is a long pause as the future Legends just look at each other.)
Future Mick: (chuckling) Well... (points to Ray) Dead. (points to Amaya) Dead. (points to Stein) Good as dead.

Past Sara: In the future you're from, The Legion gets The Spear?
Future Sara: ... yes.
Past Sara: So this is my fault?
Future Sara: It was more of a... team effort, really.
Past Sara: Can I ask you a question? Do you wish you would have used it?
Future Sara: (without hesitating) No.
Past Sara: But you could have stopped all of this!  I mean, you could have erased The Legion of Doom from existence. You could have kept your team alive!
Future Sara: You know why I... we... can't use it. The Spear... it draws on our desires. Our weaknesses. Our hatred...
Past Sara: Our darkness. We're not strong enough to wield it.
Future Sara: The Spear is a weapon. And you know what we do with weapons.

Future Nate: (To Past Nate) I want you to do the things I wish I would have done instead of the things I wish I would have said. You want to know why? Because there's nothing - nothing worse than looking back at your life with regret.

Future Sara: Everybody clear on the plan?
Past Sara: Run like hell. Try not to die.
Future Sara: (To the Future Legends) What about you guys? You ready?
Future Jax: Other than the fact that I can't Firestorm and Nate can't Steel?
Future Nate: You bet your sweet ass we're ready.

(Darhk and Merlyn are firing at The Legends with their futuristic guns. Suddenly, they both seem to run out of power.)
Darhk: Damn it.
Merlyn: Damien, I think we should go back to basics.
Darhk: Yeah, you're right. Killing's gotten so gosh darn impersonal lately.
(Merlyn draws his bow as Darhk draws his sword.)

(Future Mick overpowers Darkh and pins him over a barricade. He puts his heat gun to Darhk's chest as we hear the familiar sound of Snart's cold gun powering up.)
Snart: Let him go, Mick.
Future Mick: I'm not listening to you anymore.
Snart: C'mon! Is that any way to talk to your old partner?
Future Mick: I don't have a partner. I have a team.

Past Ray: I can't believe we made it.
Future Sara: Don't jinx it.
(Suddenly, red lightning appears on the horizon and surrounds them.)
Past Jax: Awww! He jinxed it!
Past Mick: I hate that guy.
(Suddenly, Future Rip goes flying, falling to the ground, apparently punched dead.)
Thawne: Not that guy. These guys!
(Thawne stands before The Legends but the red lightning continues to dance around them, as more and more Reverse Flashes stop until there's a few dozen surrounding them.)
Thawne: You traveled back in time to help yourselves? I figured I could do the same. You know, it's true what they say - if you want something done right, you really have to do it yourself.

Future Sara: You did it.
Past Sara: You would have done the same.
(Future Sara looks down as her body begins to fade into smoke. She looks up at Past Sara and smiles.)
Future Sara: Remember - Legends never die.
(There is a moment of quiet as the team gather themselves up.)
Nate: Really?  Goonies?
Amaya: What's a Goonie?

(Snart and Mick walk into a warehouse.)
Snart: Should have done this in France, Mick. Could've saved us both a lot of time.
Mick: I didn't bring you here to kill you, Leonard.
Snart: So what are we doing here?
Mick: This is where Thawne recruited you for The Legion. I'm going to wipe your memory and put you on the right path.
Snart: You mean the path where I join up with some Brit twit and die trying to save the world?
Mick: No. You die trying to save your friends.
Snart: Still a death sentence.
Mick: You know what your punishment is, Leonard? You end up being a better man. And so do I.
Snart: (scoffs) Better? You mean softer.
Mick: No. I mean better.

Sara: Stay out of trouble.
Rip: What? Without you lot? I think that will actually be quiet easy.

Sara: Guys? I think we broke Time.
(Everyone looks out the windshield of The Waverider. The skyline of 2017 Los Angeles is made up of varying styles of building. Perhaps more worryingly, a pack of raptors are converging on the crashed ship...)


Dialogue Disasters

The whole of the scene with Laurel and Sara when Sara uses The Spear.


Continuity

Sara had no idea that Nate and Amaya had begun developing romantic feelings for each other.

Thawne used Ray Palmer's ATOM suit to shrink Rip Hunter and The Waverider.

Thawne kept Ray's suit in another lab in the Central City STAR Labs complex.

The team return to the setting of 215.

Future Ray dies after a confrontation with Thawne, where Thawne destroys the vial of Christ's blood before it was destroyed originally.

Future Jax dies taking an arrow shot by Merlyn to save Past Stein.

Jax has apparently been training with Sara, proving capable enough in a fight, to snatch an arrow from Merlyn's quiver, stab him in the leg with it, grab Merlyn's bow from him while he's stunned and smack him in the head with it.

Future Rory is killed after being shot in the back by Snart, impaled on an icicle.

Future Nate is killed by Darhk, stabbed from behind with a sword.

Future Rip is killed by one of the Reverse Flashes.

Future Sara fades out of existence after Past Sara uses The Spear of Destiny to depower itself.

Malcolm Merlyn is returned to his crummy Star City apartment in 2017 and has his memory erased.

Leonard Snart is returned to where he was pulled in 2014 Central City and has his memory erased.

Damien Darhk is returned to where Thawne first approached him in 1987 Miami and has his memory erased.

We see the ruby slippers that Nate gave Amaya in 211.

Amaya decides not to return back to 1942 yet, deciding that if she has a destiny, it will wait for her.

Amaya and Nate officially become a couple.

Rip decides to leave The Waverider, taking The Jumpship to go his own way. He tells Sara he has nothing left to teach her about being the Captain of a Time-ship.


Location

Central City - 2017.
A battlefield near the Somme River in North-Central Framce - 1916
Central City - 2014.
Miami - 1987
Los Angels - 2017


The Fridge Factor

Sara's sudden crisis of faith in this episode regarding there being too much darkness inside of her to use The Spear of Destiny drudges up one of Arrow's most annoyingly stupid plot beats (i.e. the idea that Sara had a natural darkness inside her while Laurel had a light). Every bit of character development Sara had over the past season of this show, growing confident as a hero and a leader as she took over the team, is aborted so that Sara can fall back into the role of the emo whiner who isn't worthy of happiness or love that was forced upon her to justify her removal from Arrow at the end of Season Two.

What makes this even worse is that the universe (or whoever is speaking to Sara in Laurel's form) agrees with her assessment that there's no light in her and that she's a broken bird.

The crowning touch?  Sara can't use the spear until a man tells her that he believes in her.


The Bottom Line

Ignore the fifth segment and it's a solid episode. One might have a spirited debate as to which is more painful - Katie Cassidy's under-acting or Matt Letscher's over-acting. I opt for the former since Matt Letscher is at least amusing when he goes over the top and when you're having to boss around the likes of John Barrowman, Neal McDonough and Wentworth Miller you have to go big or go home. As is, this episode would be perfect if it weren't for their need to tear down Sara Lance in Act 2 to make Act 3 work. Still, the matter seems to be settled once and for all and we can look forward to more of Captain Canary kicking ass and taking names in Season Three.

Legends of Tomorrow: Season 2, Episode 16 - Doomworld

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




Plot

With The Spear of Destiny in the hands of The Legion of Doom, reality has been rewritten and The Legends have never existed! Still, success has not eased tensions within The Legion of Doom's membership. Shockingly, the fate of The Legends and all of reality may rest on the broad shoulders of Mick Rory, who has never found it easy to be a hero...


Influences

Countless science-fiction stories involving restoring a timeline that has been changed.


Goofs

While the question of Mick's trustworthiness is debatable, why in the name of Odin's ravens would you leave the guy you don't trust unattended, in the home of one of your teammates with his mother upstairs making sandwiches, after telling said untrustworthy person that you don't trust him?! Even ignoring the potential danger to Mrs. Heywood, what's to stop said untrustworthy person from going off and doing something untrustworthy?


Performances

Emily Bett Rickards has a fun cameo as an alternate version of Felicity Smoak who dons a costume in the wake of the rest of all of Team Arrow (save perhaps Mister Terrific) dying.

Honestly, the whole ensemble is on fire to such a degree it's hard to pick anyone out as the best.


Artistry

The script for this episode is strong, filled with lots of witty dialogue and the perfect balance of drama, action and comedy.


Trivia Of Tomorrow

The episode opens with a new narration by Eobard Thawne.

At one point Snart says that he and Rory could be tossed in Iron Heights Prison and plot an escape for old time's sake. This is a clever nod to the show Prison Break, which Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell starred in before being cast in The Flash.

The STAR Labs reactor building in which Jax and Stein are working on Thawne's secret project resembles the domed-base of The Legion of Doom from the classic Challenge Of The Superfriends cartoons.

Nate remarks that Ray's pet rat looks like an Indiana as Ray and Rory argue about his name. This is a nod to the Indiana Jones movies, where we find out that Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones Jr's nickname came from the dog that he had growing up.


Technobabble

Among Eobard Thawne's many scientific accomplishments in the new reality are figuring out cold fusion, saving the polar bear, fixing global warming and making desalination sustainable. 

Nate Heywood calls the inconsistencies in reality that he discovered "scars". He theorizes that when reality was rewritten, his subconscious picked up on the inconsistencies in the new reality whenever he saw something that conflicted with his memories of the old reality.

Ray borrowed a set of dipole magnets from STAR Labs in Star City.

Ray constructed an energy gun which he calls a Transreality Multiplexer. It targets irregularities in the hippocampus, acting like a Ctrl-Z for memories (i.e. like an undo command on a computer). In short, it can restore the memories of people who had their minds altered by reality changing.

Nate notes that Ray's random impulse to work on such a device was the result of a scar prompting Ray to try and create something to fix reality despite his completely lack of training and resources in the new reality.

Gideon spent the last year working on new algorithms to redirect power from the the idle quadrants of The Waverider. This, in theory, could allow them to boost the power of Rip's distress signal.

Jax says that the reactor Stein is building will burn 1,000 times hotter than the sun once it was fully operational. Depending on if he was referring to the surface temperature or the core temperature, this means the reactor would burn somewhere from 58,000 degrees Kelvin to 150 million degrees Kelvin.


Dialogue Triumphs

Eobard Thawne: (voice-over) My name is Eobard Thawne. With the help of Damien Darhk, Malcolm Merlyn, Leonard Snart and Mick Rory, I have obtained The Spear of Destiny - an ancient artifact with the power to rewrite reality itself. And we have. It's a brave new world!

Amaya: The mayor would like a word... Miss Smoak.
Felicity: (in a deep, gravely voice like what Oliver Queen uses as Green Arrow) Then maybe he should have come down here himself instead of sending The Bimbo Brigade.

Merlyn: You keep ignoring my requests for a meeting.
Thawne: Because there's no reason for one. Our partnership is ended! You got what you wanted. Your wife and your son are both alive and in good spirits. Your daughter Thea adores you! Nyssa Al Ghul is trapped in a miserable, closeted life in the middle of Ohio. And - hey - you can even clap again! What more could you possibly want?!
Merlyn: How about The Spear of Destiny? There are still some things in this world I would like to see changed...
Thawne: How many times do I have to tell you this, Malcolm? The Spear is safest in my hands. Besides, I'm the only one who knows how to use it.
Merlyn: That's because you destroyed The Kalabros Manuscript!
Thawne: Well, it's not my fault you don't retain information like I do! Speedster brains are handy that way.

(Snart and Rory exit a diamond exchange. A guard comes running at them. Rory shoots a fire blast the guard barely ducks away from.)
Snart: Cool it, Mick. We already got what we came for.
Rory: Just heating things up.
(A team of police officers run up as they round the corner.)
Cop: Don't move! Both of you on the ground!
(Rory draws his gun and aims it at the cops. Snart holds back.)
Cop: Mr. Snart! Sorry. Sir. We didn't realize it was you. Carry on.
(Rory looks confused as Snart just smiles and the police put their guns away and break ranks, leaving Snart and Rory a clear path to walk away.)
Rory: What the hell's going on? No roasting pigs?
Snart: No need. We're home free, buddy.  It's good to be the king.
Rory: No getaway? No chase?
Snart: You want a chase, I can arrange a chase. Even get us tossed in Iron Heights and we can plan an escape, just like old times. How does that sound?
Rory: Boring!
Snart: Well, we can hit up the Central City Bank. They've got a fancy new vault I've been dying to crack...
Rory: What's the point? You own the bank and half the city!
Snart: You mean we own half the city, Mick. We're partners, remember?
(Snart reaches for his phone, which has begun vibrating while he was talking. He glances at it and his smile fades.)
Snart: Hmmm... Seems our next score will have to wait. Thawne is... summoning us.
Rory: Since when do we get summoned?
Snart: Since the man agreed not to erase you and your friends from existence.

Nate: You saved my life?! Why?!
Rory: ... because I'm an idiot.

Nate: This is crazier than any of my crazy theories! You're trying to tell me a group called (making air quotes) "The Legion of Doom" used something called the (making air quotes) "Spear of Destiny" to rewrite reality? Who even names something The Legion of Doom?!
Rory: You did.
Nate: Me?! (scoffs) Now, you only remember the old reality because you're part of The Legion?
Rory: I'm not part of anything. I just made a terrible mistake.

(Nate gets up off the floor after being zapped with the Transreality Multiplexer. His face is oddly calm as he turns around, looks at Mick Rory and then punches him.)
Nate: You son of a bitch!
(Rory grabs his jaw, not knocked back but stunned by how hard the punch was as he looks at the Transreality Multiplexer and then to a completely stunned Ray Palmer.)
Rory: It works!

(Rory zaps Ray with the Transreality Multiplexer. After a second, Ray looks at Rory, becomes enraged and punches him.)
Ray: You!
Rory: (rubbing his jaw) I deserved that.
Ray: Damn straight you did!
Rory: Hey! If it wasn't for me, you'd all be dead!
Nate: Yeah, Mick. Thanks a lot! You trapped each of us in our own personal hell.
Ray: Do you have any idea how many toilets I've cleaned?!  So many!
(Sara and Amaya enter the room.)
Nate: Amaya?
Ray: Sara?
Rory: Hey, dumbasses? They have no clue who you are. They work for Damien Darhk.
(Without a word, Sara withdraws her escrima sticks and Amaya pulls her guns.)

(Sara is shot with the Transreality Multiplexer. She is shaken for a moment and then walks over to Mick Rory before punching him.)
Rory: One more person hits me, I'm gonna punch back!

Ray: I can only imagine how those psychopaths are torturing Rip.
(Cut to Rip, passed out on the floor under a table in the galley of The Waverider, where an ornate, clock-themed, multi-layer cake stands. He is quite clearly drunk.)
Rip: Gideon!  I've discovered the missing ingredient for my recipe! (takes a swig from the bottle he is clutching) Rum!
(Rip tries to put the bottle on the table and succeeds only in dropping it on the floor. He shrugs at this in momentary confusion.) 
Rip: And speaking of which, I'm gonna need you to fabricate me another bottle of it! Ooooh! And some nachoes!

Snart: When your minions bring Mick back, I want to arrange a meeting with Thawne. And when I say "arrange a meeting", I mean -
Merlyn: - one between Thawne and his maker?
Darhk: Cute. A little mustache-twirly for my taste.

(Damien Darhk lifts Sara off the ground with his telekinesis.)
Darhk: I'm going to miss you, Ms. Lance. Having you around to attend to my every whim was too enticing to pass up. Plus it's so hard to find good help these days!
Snart; (sarcastically) Really? Now's the time for a bad guy monologue?

(As Sara escapes with a now unbrainwashed Amaya, all thanks to Damien Darhk deciding to gloat and have Amaya kill Sara instead of just killing Sara himself.)
Snart: Damien? What did I tell you?
Merlyn: (mock-cheerful) For what it's worth, I thought it was a very good bad guy monologue.
(Darhk just simmers in impotent rage.)

(Thawne has just run into the reactor room where The Legends were trying - and failing - to restore Stein's memory.)
Thawne: Well. It looks like you losers managed to remember who you are.
(A flash of red lightning later and Thawne is standing on the other side of the room, holding The Spear of Destiny.)
Thawne: I should have wiped you from existence when I had the chance! Do you have any idea how infuriating it is... to know that Merlyn was right?!

(Darhk and Nate are struggling over The Spear Of Destiny. Thawne wakes up at that moment and they both see his eyes open. There is a moment of silent agreement as Darhk releases the spear and Nate swings, somehow catching Thawne as he's charging them. Thawne goes flying across the room and into a rack of chemicals. Darhk and Nate both laugh in delight and almost high-five before they remember "Oh yeah - you're on the other team.")
Darhk: Perhaps not.
(The two resume fighting.)

Snart: Mick! Hand it over! Like a good boy.
Rory: You mean a good dog. That's all I am to you. An attack dog.
Snart: Now, that's not true. Sure, we both know you're not the sharpest tool in the shed. But that's why we're partners! Remember?
Rory: You're right. I'm not a genius.
(Rory starts to walk toward Snart... then slides The Spear of Destiny along the floor behind him to Amaya.)
Rory: But I'm no one's dog, Leonard. Not anymore.
Snart: Well... I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks.
Rory (to Amaya) Undo this mess.
(Amaya takes up The Spear and begins to chant. Suddenly, she freezes up - literally as a cold blast takes her in the chest and Snart approaches her.)
Snart: I am sorry about your friend, Mick. I know you loved her pieces.
(Snart taps Amaya on the shoulder and she shatters completely. Everyone else stands in shock, except for Rory, who draws his flame gun and stares down Snart. After a few seconds though, he lowers his gun and turns away, walking for the exit.)
Snart: Well, if you want something done right...
Darhk: Well done, Leonard.
Sara: (To Snart) You bastard! (To the rest of the Legion) I'll kill you all!
(Thawne suddenly appears behind Snart.)
Thawne:  Actually, I believe that's my line...


Continuity

In the new reality, Damien Darhk is Mayor of Star City.

Sara and Amaya work for Damien Darhk as his enforcers.

In the new reality, Felicty Smoak - her hair now dyed black - is a vigilante fighting against Damien Darhk. We never find out her code-name but she has a purple costume with a mask, similar to the one worn by The Huntress, and is armed with two of Mister Terrific's T-Spheres.

Darhk has a collection of masks from vigilantes he has defeated. The collection includes the masks of Ragman, Black Canary, Wild Dog, Vigilante, Green Arrow, The Flash and Spartan. He adds the mask worn by Felicity Smoak.

In the new reality, Eobard Thawne runs STAR Labs.

Thawne has The Black Flash trapped in a cell in the main lab of STAR Labs.

In the new reality, Rebecca Merlyn and Tommy Merlyn are still alive. Thea Queen is now a loving and devoted daughter of Malcolm Merlyn. Nyssa Al Ghul is trapped in a miserable, closeted life somewhere in Ohio and his severed hand has been restored.

Thawne destroyed the Kalabros Manuscript, ensuring that he's the only person who now knows how to use The Spear of Destiny. He's also holding onto it... despite Merlyn's objections.

In the new reality, Jefferson Jackson and Martin Stein are employees at STAR Labs with Jax acting as Stein's manager.

In the new reality, Snart and Rory have returned to a life of crime. This time, however, the cops allow them to get away with anything.

From Rip's perspective, a year has passed since The Spear of Destiny was used. He has spent that time in hiding, perfecting his baking skills with Gideon, unaware if any of the rest of The Legends are alive or not.

In the new reality, Dr. Martin Stein still has a wife and daughter.

In the new reality, Ray Palmer is a janitor at the STAR Labs Reactor site.

In the new reality, Donald Trump is President of the United States and good friends with Eobard Thawne.

In the new reality, Nate Heywood has become a crazed conspiracy theorist with a blog that only his mother reads, who goes to Eobard Thawne with his theory that reality was rewritten.

The video game that Ray is playing when Nate and Rory find him seems to be based on Ray's actions during the Invasion! storyline. We see a meter on the screen that says "Dwarf Star Energy" and the character is blasting aliens called Dominators who look like the alien invaders from Invasion.

In the new reality Axel - the rat that Ray gave Rory as a pet in 211 - is a test animal at STAR Labs that Ray liberated for use in his own experiments. In this reality, Ray named him Tesla.

Snart implanted a GPS inside of Mick Rory.

The first thing Damien Darhk did in the new reality was reacquire his magic powers.

Damien says that he was told that he killed Laurel Lance in the original reality but that future never came to be for him. He did, however, kill Laurel Lance again in the new reality.

Ray Palmer has a gluten allergy or, at least, prefers gluten-free bread.

Rory recognizes what Aramaic sounds like because he enjoyed The Passion of The Christ.

Snart kills Amaya before she can finishing using The Spear of Destiny.

Thawne uses his reactor to destroy The Spear of Destiny. He then lets everyone - including his treacherous teammates - go free, since it's more satisfying for him to know that they failed to stop him and have to live out the rest of their lives in the reality he created.

As the episode closes, Martin Stein still hasn't had his memories of the original timeline restored.

Sara declares that their only chance now is going back in time to 1916 and stopping The Legion of Doom from getting the complete Spear of Destiny in the first place.

It is revealed that The Waverider has been shrunk and is disguised as a model on the desk in the main lab area of STAR Labs. Rip Hunter and Gideon have apparently been trapped inside it for the last year.


Location

Star City - 2017.
Central City - 2017.


The Bottom Line

Fantastic. Just fantastic.

Legends of Tomorrow: Season 2, Episode 15 - Fellowship Of The Spear

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




Plot

After retrieving the other half of The Spear of Destiny from The Legion of Doom's hideout in what remains of The Vanishing Point, The Legends travel to WWI. It is here that they team with a young soldier named John Tolkien to find the means to destroy The Spear. The power of The Spear speaks to them all, however, and they must contend with The Legion's latest recruit... Leonard Snart!


Influences

The Lord of The Rings (plot involving heroes seeking to destroy a magic artifact that risks corrupting them, secret writing is revealed when the artifact is exposed to fire, and numerous other nods to the original books by Tolkien and the Peter Jackson films based upon them), Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade (the scene of the team searching an old church for clues to locate a holy relic) and The DaVinci Code (idea of ancient conspiracy built around Jesus Christ and The Crusades).



Goofs

The show uses an establishing shot of The Amiens Catherdal to identify the church where Gawain was buried. In the show, Tolkien says it was built in the 1600s. The real world Amiens Cathedral dates back to the 13th Century and is the oldest Gothic cathedral in France. (Then again, the building is also identified as The Amenis Church so it could be an entirely different one..)


Performances

Dominic Purcell gets a fantastic turn here. After being the comic relief for so many episodes, he gets a chance to display some genuine pathos here as we see his fear at not being quite right in the head after he starts seeing Snart again. Then there's his internal conflict that Snart is right about how his teammates will never view him as anything but a dog to be kept on a leash.


Artistry

The battle sequences do a good job of capturing the horrors of trench warfare.


Trivia Of Tomorrow

Rather than the usual opening narration, this episode opens immediately with a "Previously on Legends of Tomorrow" announcement before showing clips from previous episodes.

The book which Nate refers to - The Burden Of The Purest Heart - Sir Gawain's Secret Treasure by J. R. R. Tolkien - is not a real one. Tolkien did produce what many consider the definitive translation of Sir Gawain and The Green Knight.

As depicted in this episode, Tolkien did serve as a Second Lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers during The Battle Of The Somme.

Nate describes The Battle of Somme as one of the bloodiest conflicts in human history. It was definitely the largest battle on the Western Front of World War I, with over one million men wounded or killed on both sides of the conflict.

As depicted in this episode, Tolkien suffered repeated health problems while enlisted and was frequently removed from the front lines. Eventually he was declared unfit for fighting. Despite this, he maintained his rank after being demobilized in 1920.

As depicted in this episode, Tolkien did not enjoy military life. Even ignoring his continual ill health in the trenches, he preferred the life of an academic and it's quite likely he would have avoided joining the army had the social stigma for young men avoiding volunteering been so great at the time. Indeed, he delayed volunteering until after he had earned his degree - presumably in the hopes that the war would be over before his graduation date.

The Spear of Destiny is said to glow in the presence of Jesus' blood. This is similar to how, in The Lord of The Rings, some Elven blades would glow blue when orcs and goblins were nearby.

The Spear of Destiny urges people around it to use it. This is similar to how The One Ring in The Lord of The Rings attempted to tempt people around it.

The Spear of Destiny can only be destroyed by The Blood of Jesus Christ - the same substance that empowered it. This is similar to how, in The Lord of The Rings, only the fires of Mount Doom - which were used to forge The One Ring - could destroy The One Ring.

A secret message is revealed when The Spear of Destiny is set on fire. The One Ring from Lord of The Rings also presents a secret message when tossed into the fire.

At one point, Stein says one does not simply walk into the middle of a war zone - a nod to a complaint about simply entering Mordor in The Lord of The Rings.

Amaya's argument that they can use The Spear wisely against their enemies rather than destroying it mirrors that of Boromir in The Lord of The Rings.

Rip's speech about the courage of men not failing this day is a nod to Aragorn's speech in The Return of The King.


Technobabble

Stein theorizes that The Spear of Destiny is made of some magnetized compound which acts as its own sealant.

The British army broadcast on a frequency of 3 mHz.


Dialogue Triumphs

(The Legends look over the two pieces of The Spear of Destiny that they have.)
Rip: It's hard to imagine that when joined with their siblings, they're as powerful as God.
Jax: But right now, that's just a useless piece of wood.
(Sara picks up the wooden piece of The Spear.)
Sara: It's not useless. I know ten different ways to kill somebody with this.
Mick: Not to mention it's great for scratching those hard to reach places.
Ray: Please don't tell me you used The Spear of Destiny as a back-scratcher!
Mick: Who said anything about my back?
(Sara drops the piece of wood.)
Stein: Well, as Mister Rory has demonstrated, in the wrong hands, this divine artifact can be put to truly horrific use.
Mick: Yeah!

(Sara comes up behind Mick, who is staring at the place where Snart died.)
Sara: Mick? Mick! Are you okay?
Mick: Am I okay? Why wouldn't I be okay?
Sara: ... I miss him too.
Mick: He blew himself up. For what?
Sara: So the rest of us could live.
Mick: Idiot:
Sara: Mick, we've got to go. (harder) Look, this is a heist. We have to steal the other pieces of The Spear and get out of here. (pauses) You think this is what Snart wants?! You waiting around so that you can get caught?!
Mick: ... probably not.
(Wordlessly, Mick turns around and walks past Sara. She looks back to the point herself before following after.)

(Rip tries - and fails - to shoot his way into the obelisk holding The Legion's pieces of The Spear of Destiny.)
Rip: Your try, Mr. Jackson.
Firestorm: Oh. (pauses as he looks at the obelisk) What's your favorite candy?
Rip: Jellybeans. Why?
(Firestorm slaps Rip on the shoulder and walks over to the obelisk. He touches it and it begins to flash yellow and red. Within a few seconds, the material collapses into a pile of jellybeans along with two pieces of wood. He smiles and gestures like a magician having just accomplished a great trick.)
Firestorm: A little transmutation trick me and Grey have been working on.
(Rip slaps Firestorm on the shoulder and kneels down. He takes one of the jellybeans and looks at it carefully before putting it in his mouth. He clearly enjoys the taste and savors it a moment before grabbing the pieces of wood.)
Rip: Both delicious and impressive, Mr. Jackson.

Thawne: This can't be happening. They're not smart enough for this to be happening...

Snart: My, my my - how the mighty have fallen.
Mick: You said that the last time you appeared. Huh. You picked a hell of a time to show up. I'm kind of in the middle of something.
Snart: Yeah. In the middle of being a good little doggie to those insufferable wannabees.
(Mick closes his eyes and clutches his forehead.) 
Mick: Stay on mission, now. Gotta find this Hobbit guy.
Snart: J.R.R. Tolkien? Why? Hoping for an autograph?
Mick: I don't even know who the guy is! All I know is I gotta find this Hobbit guy who knows the guy that's buried with Jesus' blood. Then we can destroy The Spear of Destiny!
Snart: Mick, Mick, Mick - when have we ever destroyed anything we've ever stolen, let alone the most valuable score in the universe? What have they done to you?

(Snart is trying to convince Mick to use The Spear of Destiny to save his life.)
Mick: You're in my head. You're an... illumination.
Snart: A hallucination?
Mick: That's it.
(Snart punches Mick, bruising his face almost instantly.)
Snart: Now, did that feel like a hallucination?
(Snart leaves, leaving Mick to rub his face in confusion.)

Rip: This darkness will pass.
Tolkien: You speak as someone who has seen the future.
Nate: Haven't all students of history? Those who suffer, heal. Everything destroyed gets rebuilt and our towers grow a little taller every time.
Tolkien: I should like to believe you. Tell me - why do you seek The Grave of Gawain?
Rip: Ehhh... It's a long story.
Tolkien: Well, I enjoy long stories.
Nate: Yeah. He does.

(Mick grabs Stein, gesturing to the bruise on his face.)
Mick: Snart did this!
Stein: I believe you!.
Mick: You do?!
Stein: Of course not! I just don't want you to hurt me!

Snart: Pretty pathetic if you ask me.
(Snart emerges from behind the team, cold gun in hand. Mick looks at him in disbelief. Everyone else is stunned.)
Rip: Mr. Snart?
Mick: Wait... you can see him?
Ray: You're supposed to be dead!
Snart: Yeah, they told me all about how I get soft and die for you losers. I didn't believe them:
Mick: Believe who?
Darhk: (entering from behind Snart) Well, if that's not an entrance line, I don't know what is.
Tolkien: What is going on here?
Rip: The Legion must have traveled back in time and picked up Mr. Snart before he joined The Legends.
Darhk: He told us all about your plan of how you were going to destroy The Spear.
Snart: (mock-cheerful) Thanks for the tip, Mick!
(The rest of the team turn and look at an embarrassed Mick.)
Mick: ... I didn't think he was real!
Darhk: No-no-no! No need to defend yourself. (pauses) Actually, there is. Angriff!
(German soldiers swarm the church and begin firing on The Legends.)

Rip: Attention all combatants! May I have your attention, please? There are casualties on the battlefield. Brave men on both sides who are in urgent need of medical attention. I know that the divisions between us run deep. That they may very well be insurmountable. But I implore both of our armies, for this one moment, to come together as allies and honor a ceasefire so that the injured may be removed from the field of battle. There may come a day when our courage fails us. When we forsake our friendship sand break the bonds of fellowship. But today is not that day! And perhaps in showing our humanity, we might just save it.


Dialogue Disasters

(As The Waverider flies away)
Thawne: Nooooooooooooo!


Continuity

Rip reveals that The Legion of Doom have been operating out of The Vanishing Point.

The pieces of The Spear of Destiny are attracted to each other and can be used to track one another.

Mick flashes back to the events of 115 and Snart's death.

Firestorm has refined his transmutation powers to the point that he can transform the laser-resistant pillar holding The Legion's spear fragments into jellybeans.

"Natum de sanguine, perditus a sanguine" is written on The Spear of Destiny in letters of fire, which are revealed when the spear is burned. The phrase means "Born of blood, undone by blood."

Nate knows Latin.

Nate spent a year in Oxford while working on his Masters Degree. During that year, he dated a woman named Wendy.

Nate theorizes that only The Blood of Christ can destroy the Spear of Destiny.

According to Rip, there are several points in time which a time-traveler cannot risk interfering with. The birth, life and death of Jesus is one of these points.

Nate remembers a paper he read where a young scholar suggested that Sir Gawain did not find The Holy Grail, as legend claimed, but instead had a vial of Jesus Christ's blood.

Darhk says he and Merlyn were sent to locate The Kalabros Maniscript when The Legends raided their base and took their pieces of The Spear.

Mick refers to the hallucinations of Snart he had up until 209.

Nate cannot do a convincing British accent.

Nate played Bert in his middle-school production of Mary Poppins.

Amaya tells Sara that she saw the future of her village, her daughter and her granddaughter.

Laurel Lance told Sara about Amaya's grand-daughter - the modern-era Vixen.

Gawain's burial place is in a cathedral in Amiens.

Darkh reveals that The Legion of Doom took Leonard Snart from a point in time from before he joined The Legends.

Amaya claims to hear the voice of her mother when she is near The Spear. The voice urges her to save their people and their legacy.

Mick claims to hear the voice of his parents around The Spear, only they're begging him not to play with fire.

The location of the blood of Jesus is revealed to be smack dab in the middle of No Man's Land.

The Spear of Destiny glows in the presence of Jesus' blood.

Mick betrays The Legends to join The Legion of Doom. He offers Amaya a chance to go with him but she declines.

The vial holding Jesus Christ's blood is destroyed.

Merlyn locates The Kalabros Maniscript - The Word of God and an owner's manual of sorts for The Spear of Destiny.

The episode ends with The Legion of Doom using The Spear of Destiny.


Location

A battlefield near the Somme River in North-Central Framce - 1916
The Vanishing Point
The Church of Amiens in Amiens, France - 1916.


Untelevised Adventures

We don't see how The Legion of Doom persuaded Snart to join with them.

We also don't see the "not easy" adventure Malcolm Merlyn had to go on to retrieve The Kalabros Maniscript.


The Bottom Line

A great episode with one hell of a cliff-hanger and Dominic Purcell's best turn yet as Mick Rory.