Legends of Tomorrow: Season 1, Episode 8 - Night Of The Hawk

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




Plot

The team tracks Vandal Savage to Harmony Falls, Oregon in 1958. There, they uncover a string of murders that scream of Savage's involvement. As Professor Stein and Sara go undercover at a local hospital and Jax begins questioning the local teenagers, Ray and Kendra play house... only to find out that Vandal Savage is their new neighbor!


Influences

Pleasantville (time-travelers influence an idealistic 1950s town, name-dropped by Jefferson), Back To The Future (time-traveler copes with an idealistic 1950s town, referred to by Ray), Gremlins (monster terrorizing a small town) and every single 1950's B-Movie where a strange local doctor menaces the local teenagers, a corrupt sheriff does nothing about it, meteors from space cause strange things to happen, etc.


Goofs

You'd think that Rip Hunter would think better of a) asking Ray and Kendra to masquerade as a couple and b) asking Jax to try and question a pretty white girl in the 1950s. What makes this doubly vexing is that Rip warns Jefferson about being careful when going out on his date with Betty!

The CGI for Jefferson's transformation into a Hawk-creature and back is not the best.

Granting that it's part of the B-Movie aesthetic that this episode is purposely trying to evoke, what exactly is Savage hoping to accomplish by building an army of uncontrollable hawk monsters?


Performances

Casper Crump has hammed it up a bit as Vandal Savage in the past. In this episode, however, it works. Partly because Savage is clearly struggling at playing normal and it adds to the humor of the episode. And partly because the attitude works given that Savage is literally playing at being a mad-scientist.

Franz Drameh is given a fair bit of meaty material this time, which play at the inherit conflict of the character of Jackson Jefferson. Namely, that he is an idealist turned cynic who can't quite rid himself of his ability to hope for something better. On the one hand, he is justly skeptical as Professor Stein talks about the glories of the 1950s. On the other hand, he's enough of an idealist to be upset about how casually Snart was apparently able to kill his best friend. It's a credit to Drameh's skill that he is able to simultaneously play the heart of the team and the jaded youth wise beyond his years.

I love the chemistry between Caity Lotz and Victor Garber. It's comedy gold as Stein enjoys bossing Sara around just a little too much and Sara throws the snark right back at him ("Literally for DAYS") whenever she gets a chance. And then the two get a nice moment when they talk about Sara's romancing a young nurse.


Artistry

The direction by Joe Dante perfectly captures the 50's B-Movie feel the script requires. No small wonder given that he directed Gremlins!

The make-up for the hawk-monsters is rather good.


Trivia Of Tomorrow

Vandal Savage uses the alias Dr. Curtis Knox in this episode. This was also the name of a character from the TV show Smallville - an immortal scientist who was studying people who gained powers from Kryptonite exposure and harvesting their body parts in an effort to make his wife immortal as well. Writer Bryan Q. Miller said they had wanted to use Vandal Savage for the episode, but were unable to due to rights issues with the character at the time.

The secretive ward where Savage is keeping his experiments is Hall H. This was confirmed by the LOTWritersRoom Twitter account to be a reference to Hall H at the San Diego Comic Con - the largest single room in the convention center and the one usually reserved for big media events.

When Snart and Rip are examining the wounded Betty in The Waverider's med-bay, the lights Gideon shines on them turn their dark suits and hats blue and green respectively.  The effect leaves them looking somewhat like The Green Hornet and The Spirit - two costumed heroes who dressed in a green suit and a blue suit with a matching fedora respectively.


Technobabble

Professor Stein, lying about his credentials as a psychiatrist, says he did his doctoral thesis on socio-pathology in relationship to serial murder.

The wounds Betty suffers are consistent with those made by talons - not a knife.

An analysis of Betty Saver's blood reveals traces of silicate metals - i,e, an Nth Metal Meteorite.

The meteorite Savage is experimenting with and injecting young people with is turning them into half-man/half-hawk hybrids.

With Gideon's help, Stein develops a gene-therapy to restore Jefferson and the other teens Savage infected. He says they should know right away if a genome bonding occurs.


Dialogue Triumphs

Rip: Nice work, partner.
Snart: You're not my partner. There's only one person I ever trusted on this job. And we all know how that turned out.

Stein: Seeing white-picket fences and perfect family houses...it's enough to make one nostalgic.
Sara: Or nauseated.
Stein: Oh come on, Ms. Lance. Even someone as jaded as yourself cannot deny how idyllic this time was.
Jax: Yeah. If you were white.
Sara: And a man. And straight. And -
Stein: Okay, okay. I get the point.
Jax: Dude, even if this town wasn't full of small-minded idiots, it would still be creepy as hell. I used to watch all these old horror movies with my mom and they all started off in places like this. See, first it's all perfect? And then BOOM! Some alien monster beast thing starts killing kids on Lover's Lane!

Stein: Well, now I see what's going on. While I've been busy working, you were busy seducing that young woman.
Sara: Actually, I was liberating her. With an option to seduce her later.
Stein: And then what? This poor young woman will have to remain in the sexually repressive 1950s, long after you've returned to a timeship and disappeared from her life forever.
Sara: You know what, Doc? I would love for someone to drop into my life and tell me that the future's going to be a better place.

Savage: Do you believe in fate?
Kendra: Fate is a prison. When free will is gone, what's left?
Savage: Destiny.

Rip: I'm sorry, Mr. Palmer. I'm unfamiliar with the term "man cave."

(Upon seeing Jax dressed up for his date for Betty)
Ray: Is tonight the Enchantment Under The Sea dance?

Stein: She's talking about an Nth Metal meteorite!
Snart: Say something that makes sense.
Stein: It seems Mr. Fuller has come into contact with a meteorite with mutagenic properties
Snart: ... try again.

(Stein explains that the meteorite turning people into monsters is similar to the one that gave Kendra her powers)
Snart: And I'm guessing it's not curable?
Stein: Well, I-I suppose if the talons which lacerated her left some mutagenic reside, I could-
Snart: (testily) Yes or no?
Stein: (equally testy) Perhaps.

Sara: In the meantime, we need to get ready to back Kendra up. She's going into the asylum to meet Savage tonight.
Stein: (dryly)  Another opportunity for you to see Nurse Carlisle.
Sara: (sighs) Yeah. And apologize.
Stein: I warned you, Ms. Lance. Rushing a repressed woman from the 1950s into the free-wheeling, sexual mores of the 21st Century...
Sara: Actually, I was the one who freaked out.
Stein: ... oh.
Sara: Ever since I... got brought back to life, I haven't really...experienced much in the way of feelings. And then when Lindsey kissed me...
Stein: ... it was like you were being kissed for the first time. How romantic.
Sara: It was more like terrifying. That's the thing that sucks about feelings is.. you realize how much you can hurt someone. Or get hurt.

(Ray is dressed as a patient. He is listening in to Kendra and Savage on an ear-piece. Sara is close by in a nurse's uniform, with Rip on-hand dressed as an orderly.)
Ray: Nurse? Nurse, I keep hearing voices in my head. My wife with another man. It's driving me crazy!
Sara: Well, maybe you should learn to trust your wife a little bit more. (To Rip) Orderly? Show our new patient to his room. And don't hesitate to give him a sedative if he doesn't calm down.
Rip: Right away, nurse!

Snart: I'm sure the kid is fine.
Stein: Jefferson and I, as you know, share a psychic connection but, for some reason, I can't seem to reach him. (sighs) I've grown so accustom to our partnership. To suddenly be without him is disquieting.
Snart: I know the feeling.


Continuity

As noted in The Pilot, time-travel can cause temporary physical illness and the effects become more extreme the further you travel. In this case, Professor Stein reports his vision going blurry in his left eye and Jax develops triple-vision.

The Amon Dagger - not seen since 102 - makes an appearance. Ray steals it so that Kendra can use it to kill Savage.

Chronos appears for the first time since 105.

The episode ends with Ray, Sara and Kendra still stuck in 1958 as The Waverider is forced to take-off without them.


Location

Harmony Falls, Oregon, USA - March 1958.


The Fridge Factor

Kendra does wind up needing Ray to save her from Savage. She later apologies for thinking she could fight him alone, though Ray also apologizes for playing the protective husband.


The Crisis Factor

Sara's romantic subplot is full of unfortunate implications. The largest of these is her seemingly promoting the stereotype of the promiscuous bisexual, wanting to have a casual fling with a woman who she'll have to abandon once they leave this time period. It's doubly unfortunate if you're a fan of Arrow and consider that - at the time of her death - Sara was in a committed relationship with Nyssa Al Ghul and the series never depicted her asking about Nyssa (who was in the dungeons of Nanda Parbat when Sara came back from the dead) or seeming to give much of a damn about her one way or the other.


The Bottom Line

It's good for what it is as a tribute to classic B-movies. Unfortunately, the script tries to do too much and while there's a number of effective scenes that develop the relationships between characters who haven't had much chance to interact (Stein/Sara, Snart/Stein and Snart/Jax in particular), the fact remains that everything seems a little rushed and nothing gets developed as well as it should have.

Legends of Tomorrow: Season 1, Episode 7 - Marooned

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




Plot

Desperate for a lead on Savage, Rip responds to a distress call from another Time Master, in the hopes of using their computer to update Gideon with the latest chronological data. Unfortunately, the distress signal turns out to be the ruse of some very clever space pirates. Now, with half the team held hostage and Rory turned traitor, it will fall to Professor Stein to save them. Meanwhile, back on The Waverider, Sara and Snart become trapped in the cargo bay and Ray and Kendra will have to act quickly to save them before the life-support fails.


Influences

Star Trek (the plot of the episode Space Seed, the training test Rip and Miranda go through resembles the Kobayashi Maru and various tropes and references throughout), Star Wars (Jax says "I have a bad feeling about this." in reference to the movies, the Time Master code of conduct regarding romance is similar to that of the Jedi, various other references), the 1969 movie Marooned (the title, the subplot where Sara and Snart must be rescued before the life support fails mirrors the plot of the movie), the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (Snart's solution for dealing with Rory) and various pirate story tropes.


Goofs

Snart's story about how he and Mick Rory first met in a juvenile detention center contradicts a story from The Flash: Season Zero which depicted the two meeting for the first time as adults.

Gideon addresses Ray as Mr. Palmer rather than Dr. Palmer, when Sara asks if he is okay.

When did Snart get a chance to recharge his cold gun between the time he and Sara escape and the time Rory leads the pirates onto The Waverider?

Sara and Ray seem to be fighting pretty well for two people who had just suffered severe hypothermia.


Performances

This whole episode is Arthur Darvill's time to shine. From the opening scene in which Darvill does some wonderful silent acting watching the hologram of Rip Hunter's dead family, through the flashbacks where Captain Hunter is torn between love and duty to the final scene where you see the hope fill his face as Captain Baxter agrees to help him, Darvill is outstanding throughout.

While the episode cheats on his action sequences, there's something infectious about the joy Victor Garber conveys as Professor Stein plays space hero that you can't help but smile at.

The interplay between Sara and Snart as they are freezing to death is another nice moment between Caity Lotz and Wentworth Miller.

While the episode as a whole may be Arthur Darvill's showcase, the last two minutes are all Wentworth Miller's alone.


Artistry

The CGI for the ships are grand stuff for a Network TV budget.

The transitions between the present and Rip's flashbacks are brilliantly edited.

The fight choreography during the fight between the Legends and the pirates is good. What makes the whole sequence great, however, is the editing which links all the various fights together in one fluid gesture, as the slamming of one body signals the cut to a similar move elsewhere.


Trivia Of Tomorrow

Structurally as well as thematically, this episode is full of nods to Star Trek. The distress call masking a trap plot was used more than a few times. Ditto the device of one of the crew mutinying and joining with the villain of the week. Rip refers to the group going to the Acheron as a boarding party.

The actual plot of the episode closely resembles that of the episode Space Seed. That episode also centered around the heroes responding to a distress signal and a member of the Enterprise crew betraying her allies to join the forces trying to take over the ship.

Professor Stein makes reference to being a fan of a comic called Rick Starr: Space Ranger when he was ten. While there was never a Rick Starr: Space Ranger title, Rick Starr was the secret identity of a DC Comics sci-fi hero who was known as Space Ranger. First appearing in Showcase, he later became a feature character in the sci-fi anthology comic Tales Of The Unexpected and later appeared in Mystery in Space.

The training simulation we see a young Rip Hunter and Miranda Coburn run through in Rip's first flashback bears a slight resemblance to the Kobayashi Maru - a test given to officers at Star Fleet academy in Star Trek. The test places officers in a no-win situation and is meant to be a test of character. One candidate- James Kirk - became the only person to pass the test by hacking the computer so it was no longer impossible to win. He was praised for his original thinking, much as Miranda was, though it doesn't appear the Time Master test was meant to be an no-win situation.

Jax quotes a frequently repeated line from the Star Wars movies - "I've got a bad feeling about this."

The leader of the Time Pirates is named Captain Jon Valor. In the classic DC Comics, Captain Jon Valor was the name of a historical hero known as Black Mask. He was a privateer, who sailed under the command of The King of England and fought pirates. He was later revived as a ghost pirate in the 1990's Starman series, where he was known as The Black Pirate and the resolution of his death curse was a major plot-point of the series.

Ray quotes the "Stardate" line used to begin Captain's Log entries on Star Trek.

Ray and Kendra name-drop the characters of Captain Kirk, Captain Picard and Lieutenant Sulu from Star Trek.

Ray also mentions Han Solo from Star Wars.

Rip Hunter makes mention of The Imperiex Onslaught. In the comics, Imperiex was the embodiment of entropy and the main villain of the Superman: Our Worlds At War storyline.

Rip Hunter also mentions Kanjar Ro, claiming that "Captain Palmer" once out-ran him. In the comics, Kanjar Ro was an alien tyrant and all-around bad guy, who frequently fought The Justice League and The Green Lantern Corps.

The Time Master's code forbidding personal attachments is similar to the Jedi code prohibiting love from the Star Wars movies.

The sequences in which Sara and Snart cope with the cold of the hold and the scenes in which Ray begins to suffer the effects of oxygen deprivation mirror similar scenes from the 1969 movie Marooned, which dealt with a team of astronauts stranded in orbit on a dead ship. More than likely the episode title is a nod to the film as well.

Gideon tells Kendra that the odds of Ray having survived as long as he did in the cold of space without air are 3720 to 1 against. These are the same odds C3P-O quotes to Han Solo regarding how likely it is to navigate an asteroid field in The Empire Strikes Back.

Rip's exchange with Captain Baxter about the importance of love feels like the sort of thing Captain Kirk would have said at the end of a classic episode of Star Trek.

The ending with Snart and Rory echos the ending of Of Mice and Men, where the quick-witted George kills his slow-witted friend Lenny who has become a real danger and moved beyond his ability to manage.


Technobabble

When a Time Master ship returns to Vanishing Point, its CPU is updated from the temporal database. In short, the software is updated.

The Waverider is capable of traveling in outer space as well as through time.

A self-destruct code is used to disable the Acheron's temporal navigation system.

Ray did not design the ATOM suit to function in space. It proves capable of protecting him, though the oxygen supply is not enough for him to function for very long without becoming light-headed.


Dialogue Triumphs

Hunter: I vowed to save my family, but I'm failing them. (sighs) Perhaps I'm not the Time Master they need.
Stein: You must be. You're the only one they have.

Rory: I'm sore because I was recruited for my unique ability to light things on fire.!Now, I'm locked in the one place where I can't light things on fire - a spaceship!

Rory: The sooner we end Savage, the sooner I get back to where I belong.
Stein: Prison?
Rory: Any prison on Earth's better than this one, Professor.

Jax: To quote every Star Wars ever made, "I've got a bad feeling about this."

Hunter: You don't know my crew. They're iron-willed and battle-hardened. The most formidable warriors to navigate time and space.
(Cut to Ray, in the Captain's chair on The Waverider)
Ray: Captain's Log. Stardate 837.9. We're awaiting word from the away team on board The Acheron...
Kendra: I hate to break it to you, but you're no Captain Kirk. You're Picard.
Ray: But Picard was cautious... pontificating... sort of sexless.
Kendra: Tell that to Vash! And for the record, Picard was way hotter than Kirk.
(Cut to Snart and Sara, who have been watching this whole exchange.)
Snart: Ugh. Mick had it wrong. This ship isn't a prison. It's a torture chamber.

Sara: I suppose this feels like a day at the beach for you?
Snart: If I had to pick a way to die, freezing wouldn't be the worst. (pauses) What's it like? Dying? I imagine you've got a unique perspective.
Sara: You know, it's funny. I mean, you'd expect it to be terrifying? Just panic and fear?
Snart; What did you feel?
Sara: I guess... lonely? (thinking) Yeah... like everybody I loved was a million miles away. (pauses) I mean, I don't like you, but at least I'm not dying alone.
Snart: Closest I ever came to dying was... uh...the day I met Mick.
Sara: Why does that not surprise me?
Snart: Nah, it wasn't like that. It was my first day in Juvie, I was 14, and the smallest kid in there by far. Some of the older kids wanted to make sure I knew it. So they jumped me. I fought back but one of them had a shiv. And I figured that was it. Until Mick stepped in. And they didn't mess with me after that. He's been standing up for me ever since.
Sara: Let's just hope he's standing up for Rip and Jax now.
Snart: Well, who else is going to take on those pirates?
(Cut to Professor Stein as he walks through an airlock and dramatic "space-hero" music plays. A guard sees him and chases Stein into a room. We hear the sound of a struggle and when the doors reopen, Professor Stein is standing there, holding the guard's gun and wearing his hat.)
Stein: That'll teach you to mess with a nuclear physicist!

Rory: I may have the IQ of meat, but I know how to cut a deal.

Snart: Nothing quite like dying to make you think about all the mistakes, all the wrong choices.
Sara: Is this Leonard Snart coming to God in his final moments?
Snart: Hardly. Just... wishing I could take a few things back. (sighs) I should have left Mick in future Star City.
Sara: Why didn't you?
Snart: Without me to keep him in check. Mick can be a scary guy
Sara: Agreed. Hate to break it to you, but even if we make it out of here alive ... you're still going to have a problem on your hands. And I've seen enough to know that Mick is in a dark place. And he's not coming back.

Baxter: You're one to talk about loyalty.

Hunter: Oh, but I am, Captain Baxter. And not because I pledged an oath to serve as a Time Master. But a long time ago I made a far more important oath. When you call me a failure, Captain Baxter, you're right. Because I failed both my wife and my son. For betraying the Time Council, I have absolutely no regrets. But failing to save my family? That is something for which I'll never forgive myself. 

Sara: (To Ray) Are you okay?

Gideon: Mr. Palmer nearly died.
Snart: Welcome to the club!

Snart: What are you doing, Mick?
Rory: Getting us home. Are you in?
(Snart steps forward and draws his gun.)
Snart: Yeah.
(Snart glances back to Sara, Ray and Kendra.) 
Snart: Time to choose a side, I guess.
(Start turns to look at Rory and the pirates.)

Snart: Chosen.
(Snart blasts one of the pirates.)
Rory: Bastard!
(Rory fires his flame gun and the Legends fall back down the hallway and around a corner.)

Baxter: I still don't understand why you're doing all this.
Hunter: Before all this started, I don't think I would have either.
Baxter: We protect history. Safeguard time itself. There is no higher calling.
Hunter: It's called love.

(Snart drags Rory's body into a forest clearing. He kicks him in the side, waking him.)
Rory: I told you that'd be the last time you hit me!
Snart: You were right.
(Rory looks up and sees Snart, holding his cold gun.)
Rory: That the plan? Take me out in the middle of nowhere? Where no one can find the body?
Snart: I wish there were some other way, Mick. But you're dangerous. A liability to the team.
Rory: Team?! You and I were a team! What happened to you?!
Snart: People change.
Rory: You think you're some kind of hero? But deep down you're still the same punk kid I saved in juvie! You haven't got the guts! You wanna kill me? Kill me! Only one of us is walking out of here alive.
(Snart and Rory state each other down. Snart has a pained look on his face - the most emotion we've ever seen him express.)
Snart: You're right.
(We zoom in on Snart as he fires his cold gun, gritting his teeth as he steels his gaze.)


Continuity

As the episode opens, Rip has been holed-up in his quarters for one week.

Snart refers to the events of 106 and his refusal to lave Rory in Star City 2046.

The Acheron is the flagship of the Time Fleet. Her captain is Eve Baxter. Her AI is named Gilbert.

Professor Stein dreamed of being an astronaut as a boy, but his poor eyesight made it impossible for him to get accepted at NASA.

The ship AI of the simulation in Rip's flashback is Gary.

Rip met his wife when they were both Lieutenants in the Time Masters. Their relationship was discovered, but Rip was allowed to stay after his wife took full responsibility for the relationship and resigned her position.

Time Master protocol requires all Time Masters to take on new names, so that their families, descendants and ancestors cannot be targeted by criminal time-travelers.

The alias used by Rip's wife was Miranda Coburn.

Rip Hunter is famous enough as a Time Master to be known by sight by the time pirates.

Ray and Kendra are both Trekkies. Sara and Snart are not.

Snart met Rory at a juvenile detention center. He was 14 and the smallest kid there.

Ray is allergic to cats, dogs and almost any animal without scales. As a child, he had a Burmese python named Slinky.

Ray does not have a favorite color or a favorite member of The Beatles.

Kendra knows CPR.

The data Gilbert gives Rip, suggests a 99.8% probability that Vandal Savage will be found in Harmony Falls, Oregon, USA in March of 1958.

Ray and Kendra share their first kiss.

Snart kills Rory at the end of the episode.


Location

Deep Space - Unknown Time
Vanishing Point
Unknown Time, Unknown Place for the final fight between Snart and Rory.


The Bottom Line

A solid episode that feels more like a science-fiction epic than a superhero show, but that's all too appropriate. It is not without its flaws but it gives Rip Hunter some much needed definition as a character. And the ending may be the single most powerful conclusion to any episode in the DCTVU to date.

Legends of Tomorrow: Season 1, Episode 6 - Star City 2046

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




Plot

When an attack by Chronos forces The Waverider to make an emergency landing in Star City 2046, the team is confronted with an image of a future where they fail to stop Vandal Savage and never return home. This potential Star City is a lawless hellhole where crime and corruption run rampant. For most of the team, it's a disturbing reminder of the price of failure. For Heatwave, however, it's paradise.

Now, as Jax and Ray ponder a romance with Kendra while repairing the ship, Sara will go off the reservation to learn more about the future of her city. Specifically who is the new Green Arrow that is fighting a one-man battle to save Star City? And whatever happened to Oliver Queen?


Influences

The Dark Knight Returns (an older, one-armed Oliver Queen, fighting the god fight alone), Escape From New York (the general aesthetic of Star City in this dark future) and the Green Arrow comics of Chuck Dixon (character of Connor Hawke).


Performances

Caity Lotz shines the brightest once again in this episode, easily carrying the weight of the episode on her shoulders. For obvious reasons the main focus of the story is on Sara and Lotz proves more than capable of holding that focus. It's an odd thing given her intended role on the team, but Sara has quickly become the moral heart of the team, calling Rip on his BS about not getting involved.

Stephen Amell plays an entirely different Oliver Queen in this episode but - as with the various versions of the character he's played on Arrow - he does it well.


Artistry

The fight sequences are all top-notch, particularly Connor Hawke holding his own against all the Legends and the final sequence with an older Green Arrow fighting the new Deathstroke.

The set-design for post-apocalyptic Star City looks great.


Trivia Of Tomorrow

In the comics, Connor Hawke was Oliver Queen's illegitimate son by ex-lover Sandra "Moonday" Hawke. A free-spirited hippie and daughter of a Korean immigrant mother and African-American soldier father, Sandra never told Oliver about their son. Oliver would not learn about Connor until years later, shortly before his death. Connor had been raised in a Buddhist ashram, and taught the ways of aikido archery, though he was a more proficient martial artist than he was an archer. Connor then took up the name of Green Arrow to honor his father's legacy, eventually earning membership in The Justice League.

In the New 52 Earth 2 reality, Connor Hawke is also the name of a hero called The Red Arrow. Curiously, this version of Connor Hawke bears a physical resemblance to the comics version of Roy Harper, being a Caucasian man with red hair.

The DCTVU version of Connor Hawke is John Diggle Jr. He adopted the name Connor Hawke, believing himself unworthy of his father's name after he failed to save his life at some unspecified point. The significance of this is not explained.

The new Deathstroke is identified by the name Grant Wilson and is confirmed to be the son of Slade Wilson. In the comics, Grant Wilson was Slade Wilson's eldest son, who underwent similar treatments to the process that turned Slade Wilson into a super-soldier under the supervision of HIVE. Dubbing himself Ravager, he sought to destroy The Teen Titans.

The DCTVU version of Grant Wilson isn't given much of a definitive background. We learn that he lead an army against Star City in 2031 and that most of the city's heroes were killed in the battle that followed and that Oliver Queen lost his left arm.

The design of 2046 Oliver Queen is a nod to his portrayal in the classic graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns. That story, also set in a dark future, featured a one-armed, senior-citizen Oliver Queen, who was apparently the only active independent superhero until Batman came out of retirement.

Heatwave dubs two of the members of his gang Fonzie and Kenicke. Fonzie was a character from the show Happy Days. Kenicke was a character from the musical Grease.  Both characters were meant to be 1950's tough-guys.

Oliver says that all of Smoak Technologies old equipment is being kept in a warehouse on Adams and O'Neil. This is a nod to artist Neal Adams and writer Dennis O'Neil, who worked together on the now legendary Green Lantern/Green Arrow run that redefined Oliver Queen as a modern-day Robin Hood.


Technobabble

In addition to the propulsion system being "jacked" as Jax puts it, The Waverider also suffers damage to the Neuromorphic Interface for Gideon's logic and navigation matrix. Without it, Gideon cannot function.

Palmer Tech was working on a self-learning, Neuromorphic Cortex in 2016.

Connor Hawke's costume is made of high-density Kevlar, capable of repelling bullets at point-blank range.

At one point, Ray works on repairing something called a quantum manifold.



Dialogue Triumphs

Rory:  You know what I think? I think you think too much.

Sara: I'm coming with.
Rip: No, no you are not. You're too emotionally connected to the city. We've been over this.
Sara: I'm over you. You got us on a mission to change the timeline for yourself. And you won't even let us look at our futures? Now, I know this city better than anyone else, and you're gonna need me out there. So either I'm coming with, or we can find out if the Time Masters are as good at teaching people to fight as the League of Assassins.

Rory: Ah, isn't the future great?
Snart: We really should be getting back to Rip and Sara.
Rory: Why?
Snart: 'Cause I'm not looking to put down roots here.
Rory: Why not? It's everything we've ever wanted. I got a gang that does everything I tell them to. I got a fur coat. I got a chalice!

Sara: Everyone thinks that you're dead.
Oliver; They're not wrong. (to the new Green Arrow) Put the arrow down, John. You're embarrassing yourself.
Sara: John?
Oliver: John Diggle Junior.
Connor: My dad is dead because I couldn't save him. I don't deserve his name. I'm Connor Hawke.
Oliver: So you won't take his name, but it's all right to parade around in someone else's outfit?
Connor: Well, someone has to, because last time that I checked, you were dead.

Stein: Is there something wrong, Ms. Lance?
Sara: Well, all my friends and family are dead, except for Oliver Queen, who happens to be dead inside and missing his left arm.
Rip: Sara, I have told you-
Sara: That this is just a potential future and that it's all gonna go back when we return to 2016... if we return. But what if we don't? We all know Carter's not coming back! It's not like we have the safest line of work.
Jax: I think if Sara wants to stay and help that then we should. I mean, that's what we signed up for: to be heroes.
Stein: I agree with Jefferson.
Rip: Yes, of course you both do, because neither of you understand the pitfalls of changing the timeline. Meddling with the future is arguably more dangerous than changing the past, because it is still in flux.
Sara: Your wife and son's death are in the future. You want us to change that.
Rip: Do not play that card with me.
Sara: So what? Are you only willing to risk the timeline if it's your own family?
Rip: I am not just trying to save my family and I'm not just trying to save one city, but the entire world! I'm not the one being selfish, Sara.
Sara: Go to hell.
Rip: Most likely.

Oliver: Thought I told you to go.
Sara: Grant Wilson has Connor. They're gonna kill him.
Oliver: He knew what he was signing up for and you know there's nothing I can do to help him.
Sara: That's not the Oliver Queen that I know.
Oliver: Maybe I'm not that person anymore. Look at me, Sara. I'm literally half the man I used to be.
Sara: Then that's the half this city needs. He's got too many men, Ollie. I can't do this by myself.
Oliver: What about your friends?
Sara: I'm on my own... unless I'm not.
Oliver: Come on, Sara.
Sara: I never got the chance to ask Connor why he wears the hood. But I know why. It's because this city will always need a Green Arrow.

Oliver: That's good shooting, John.
Connor: It's Connor.
Oliver: Either way, it's Green Arrow.

Rip: I'm just working on determining our next destination. I've considered your suggestion of Hell, but I think I'll give it a miss for the time being.
Sara: I just wanted to say thank you for sending the team to back me up.
Rip: As it turns out, you were right.
Sara: That must have been hard to say.
Rip: Of late I've discovered that I still have a lot to learn, I admit. Including the fact that every future is worth fighting for. That said... this mission is going to continue to present us with difficult choices, and I need to know that you are a member of this team.
Sara: I guess so.


Continuity

In a past life, Kendra worked as a shipyard welder in 1944.

Stein refers to meeting his past self in 102.

Snart refers to Rory and Palmer becoming buddy-buddy in 105.

Snart refers to pulling a heists on a Blackhawk armored truck. Blackhawk Securities first appeared in A111.


Location

Star City - 2046.


Untelevised Adventures

Reference is made to an Uprising in 2031, in which most of the heroes of Star City died.

Snart refers to pulling a heist on a Blackhawk armored truck and a job a the Del Ray Security Exchange with Rory at some point in the past.



The Bottom Line

Generally enjoyable, though we could have spent more time developing the future Star City and less time on Ray and Jax suddenly competing over Kendra - a move that seems to have come out of nowhere and seems rather tasteless given how recently Carter died. Connor Hawke and Grant Wilson are barely touched upon and it would have been nice to have some explanation for why John Diggle Jr. chose that alias.

Legends of Tomorrow: Season 1, Episode 5 - Fail-Safe

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



Plot

With Atom, Heatwave and Professor Stein in the clutches of the Russians, Vandal Savage's plans to create his own Firestorm are alarming close to becoming a reality. Snart will lead the rest of the team to rescue them but Rip Hunter gives Canary a secret mission - kill Stein if it looks like he can't be rescued!


Influences

John Ostrander's Suicide Squad (the general theme of intrigue and espionage, villains turned into reluctant heroes as well as the 1980's Cold War setting), Gail Simone's Birds of Prey (the theme of Canary grappling with her humanity and the temptation to use the lethal skills she has learned),  the TV series Prison Break (character played by Wentworth Miller trying to break a character played by Dominic Purcell out of prison) and Rocky IV (Rory refers to this movie when threatening the Russian soldiers)


Performances

Again, the show shakes up the pairings to allow the ensemble cast a chance to play off different members of the cast.  Rory and Ray, Kendra and Jax, Snart and Sara. The chemistry is brilliant throughout and there isn't a weak link among them nor one note hit false.

That being said, once again Wentworth Miller and Caity Lotz steal the show.  Their interaction as Snart and Canary is amazing and it's interesting to watch these two characters - both outsiders and criminals with a code - play off of one another because of everything they have in common and - in the case of this episode - everything they don't. It's interesting that both are on the same journey to become something better, though they are approaching it from different ends, with Canary trying to regain the humanity she fears she's lost and Snart aspiring to the nobility he's never truly been able to claim unconditionally as a gentleman thief.


Artistry

The fight scene in which Canary takes on six men at once in the locker room as Rip Hunter fights a man who outweighs him by a fair amount is another brilliant fight-scene for Caity Lotz, Arthur Darvill and the fight coordinators and director.

The special effects for the dogfight in space-time in the final section of the show are phenomenal for a television show.


Trivia Of Tomorrow

Carlos Valdez, who plays Cisco Ramon on The Flash, has a quick cameo in Professor Stein's hallucination as the eager student asking him for more details of how The Firestorm Matrix works. He appears to be dressed in 1980's fashions, with a sport coat over a bright T-shirt with pink jeans and slicked-back hair in a pony tail.

"Menia Ispravcit Rasstrel" means "Execution Will Reform Me" in Russian.

Snart notes that this is not his first prison break. This is a nod to Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell having starred in the TV series Prison Break. 

Dr. Vostok's form when she becomes Firestorm and is about to meltdown resembles that of the heroine Firehawk, who has the same powers as Firestorm and blue-fire hair.

In 1986, the drinking age in Russia was 12.


Technobabble

The Firestorm Matrix is naturally unstable, with the thermocore reacting exponentially to the rate of fission in the host body.  The quantum splicer was created to address that problem.

Jax tore his anterior cruciate ligament during the STAR Labs particle accelerator explosion.

The quantum splicer decelerates the rate of fission and decreases the core body temperature of Firestorm.


Dialogue Triumphs

Stein: I'm so happy to see that you're taking an interest in my work.
"Cisco": Well, what can I say, sir? Nuclear physics are my passion.
Stein: (pausing thoughtfully) Sir? The Cisco I know never dwelled on formality. What's more, your hair is different - your wardrobe neat... your comportment gentlemanly.
"Cisco": (laughing) Oh yeah. You like? I just subscribed to GQ.
Stein: Huh. A snide attempt at humor. Almost Cisco-like. (shaking his head) Almost.

Sara: I just took out six men. You guys couldn't handle one?

Russian Gangster: Koshmar is not a hotel for petty criminals. If your friends are there, they must be insane, ruthless animals.
(Cut to Ray and Rory being escorted into a cell block.)
Ray: (smiling at the prisoners, who give him the death glare in response) Hey! Howdy!  How you doing?

Snart: This isn't my first prison break.

(Snart walks in on Canary, retrieving various weapons from her luggage.)
Snart: Impressive how many weapons you can fit into that outfit.
(Wordlessly, Canary tosses him a small case. Snart opens it and sees the shrunk Atom suit.)
Snart: And how much stupidity Raymond can squeeze into this one.
Canary:  The plan is to save him too. Not just Stein and your partner.
Snart:  Oh, I'm going to save Raymond, all right... so I can beat some sense into him. And what about you?
Canary: And what about me?
Snart: Clearly I'm not the only one with a side mission. What did Rip keep you after class to talk about?
Canary: He wanted to go over a few details of the plan.
Snart: He wants you to take out the old man, doesn't he? It's the obvious play. It's also heartless.
Canary: The plan is to save Stein. And if, for whatever reason, we can't, Rip showed me what will happen to my home in 2016. To our families. If Stein breaks, the damage is irreversible.
Snart: Been on a lot of heists. And even when things got rough, I never took out one of my own.
Canary: Well, this isn't a bank heist.
Snart: First, he left my partner twisting in the wind. Now he's going to have you ice Old Silvertop. We're all just pawns, Sara.  C'mon. I'm the crook. You're the assassin...
Canary: He's not just asking me to kill! He's asking me to save the future! And if, for whatever reason, we can't save Stein, then I'm going to do what needs to be done.

Canary: Remember, we get Stein first.
Snart: And if the plan fails, you'll kill him. You want my advice?
Canary: No.
Snart: Don't use your gun. Do it with your hands. Do it while you're looking right into Stein's eyes.
Canary: You're talking about a member of our team!
Snart: I just don't want YOU to forget who we're talking about.

Colonel: So... are you still planning - what did you threaten before? To go Rocky IV on my ass?
Rory: (laughs) I changed my mind.
(The Colonel turns on the elcticity, shocking Rory and Ray)
Rory: Ivan Drogo lives at the end of the movie.

Savage: If 4,000 years of life have taught me one thing, it is patience.

(Ray has just interupted The Colonel's torturing Rory.)
Rory: What are you doing, Boy Scout?
Colonel: Yes, Boy Scout - what are you doing?
Ray: Nothing compared to what I did to your mother last night.
Colonel: You have quite a mouth on you.
Ray: So did she.

Canary: All right. This duct should take us to solitary. We get to Stein-
Snart: Yeah, I'm not going.
Canary: That's the plan.
Snart: That's Rip's plan. My priority is Mick.
Canary: Fine. Forget it. So much for your code... crook.
Snart: Any time, assassin.

Rory: Of all the dumb things I've seen in my life, you getting that guy to beat on you takes the cake.
Ray: You're welcome.
Rory: You think you proved something back there?
Ray: I proved I wasn't scared.
Rory: You proved you make a great pinata. He could have beaten you to death.
Ray: Well, some things are more important than survival. Like standing up for what you believe in. Your principles. Your team. Must be something you're willing to die for.
Rory: The perfect score.
Ray: Well... only difference between us is how we define "score".

Stein: My country is, by no means perfect. But at least we are free to criticize our government, vote in free elections and love who we choose.  I hate to break this to you Dr. Vostok. You are on the wrong side of history.
Vostok: For now. But you will help us change history.

Jax: (having just run 120 yards in 12 seconds, despite popping his knee) Barry Allen who?

(Canary is lining up her shot on Stein. Her finger is just about to squeeze the trigger when Snart speaks over the radio.)
Snart: Sara, don't do it.
Canary: I don't have a choice. It's the only way to save Star City. The future...
Snart: That's how a killer thinks. And that's not you anymore.

(Kendra is planting explosives in one of the Russian labs when Savage enters the room.)
Savage: Rip Hunter must be a fool to send you into my arms. Come with me, Chay-ara and I will find a way to prolong your life.  We will live together in eternity.
Kendra: No.
Savage; (smirking) No?
(Rip Hunter comes up behind Savage, leveling his laser revolver against his head.)
Kendra: My answer will always be 'no'.
(Rip Hunter nods to the exit.)
Rip: Go.
(Kendra nods and leaves.)
Savage: You want to kill me again? Doesn't this game ever get too old for you, Gareeb?
Rip Hunter: It's Captain Hunter if you don't mind.
Savage: Oh.
Rip Hunter: I'm here to make sure you never build a Firestorm... And my watch, actually. You stole it from me in a pagan blood ritual back in 1975? Ring any bells?
(Savage begins to reach for his pocket.)
Rip Hunter: Ah-ah... slowly.
(Savage places the watch on the counter. Rip Hunter takes it.)
Savage: I have no desire to kill you. I want you alive. I want you to see the world burn. I have looked so often at your wife and son these last 11 years. Miranda and Jonas. Their faces etched into my mind. And when I finally get to meet them, I will let them know that you and your friends are responsible for their suffering.
Rip: Not if I see you first.
(Rip turns around and exits the lab... slowly pulling the detonator for the explosives from his pocket and setting if off.  Savage is caught in the ensuing fireball.)

Jax: (To the Soviet Firestorm) I know you're in there, Grey!
Dr. Vostok: And he's begging for you to save yourself.
Jax: I'm not talking to you! I was talking to Professor Stein!
(Vostok laughs)
Jax: Your mind is stronger than her's, Grey! I get it! I know why you've been so hard on me! You don't want to lose me like you lost Ronnie! And that's why I know you're not gonna let her kill me.
(Vostok tries to throw a fireball at Jax... but it isn't working.  Somehow.)
Jax: Cause I've had you inside my head. And I know what a tough, old son-of-a-bitch you can be! So you've got to fight her. Because you and me? We're Firestorm, Grey! You and me!
(Stein suddenly erupts out of The Soviet Firestorm/)

(Rory is passing shots of vodka to everyone else.)
Rory: Courtesy of Yuri The Bear.
Canary: How did you even have time to steal this?
Snart: There's always time to steal.

Stein: A toast - to the first time we haven't completely ruined the timeline.

Snart: To Rip. To things not going according to his plan.

Canary: Stein doesn't know, does he? That I almost killed him?
Rip: That I advised you to kill him.
Canary: It's funny. When I was in the League of Assassins, failure to follow through on a hit was unforgivable. A thousand times worse than death. (sighs) Maybe I'm losing my edge?
Rip: Or gaining a new one. The fact that you didn't pull the trigger speaks volumes. You know, the safe move would have been to kill Martin with The Cold War hanging in the balance. I would like to think it was your... humanity that stayed your hand.
Canary: I'd like to think that too.  But I had some help.
(Canary looks thoughtfully at Snart, who is sitting across the room.)


Continuity

Vandal Savage refers to the events of 102, when Stein attempted to buy a nuclear warhead from him.

Savage knew Joseph Stalin and cites him as one of the most skilled interrogators in history. He notes that Stalin's preferred target area were the bridge of nose, shoulder blades and right underneath the chin. He still has a small hand-ax, which was given to him by Stalin as a gift.

Sara suggests contacting The Bratva (The Russian Mafia) in order to get information on how to break into Labor Camp 54. Both Oliver Queen and Sara Lance had connections with the Bratva on Arrow.

Not surprisingly, Snart hates saunas.

Jax refers to a story Professor Stein told him about Ronnie Raymond sending him a message by cutting into his own arm.  This occurred in F114.

In the alternate future where the Soviets gain access to Firestorm technology in 1986, Star City becomes the seat of the American resistance. It falls in 2003.

Stein claims to have been obsessed with Russian culture in his youth and that he regretted not seeing it before it collapsed.

Rip Hunter reclaims the watch that Vandal Savage stole from him in 103.

Chronos attacks the team in The Temporal Zone, forcing them to crash-land in Star City in the year 2046.

The Palmer Technologies building in 2046 Star City now bears a logo for Smoak Technologies, suggesting Felicity Smoak finally took over the company in everything including the name at some point.

The team is confronted by a Green Arrow who is not Oliver Queen.


Location

Soviet Union - Moscow, Koshmar, Labor Camp 54 - 1986
Temporal Zone
Star City - 2046


The Bottom Line

A perfect follow up to last week's episode and darn near perfect in every other respect.

Legends of Tomorrow: Season 1, Episode 4 - White Knights

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


Plot

The trail to Vandal Savage leads behind the Iron Curtain in 1986.  Rip tasks Ray Palmer with establishing friendly relations with a Soviet scientist in order to learn what Savage is up to, but it is Leonard Snart who takes charge after Palmer leaves her cold. At the same time, Sara begins to train Kendra in controlling her anger in combat, an argument between Jax and Professor Stein threatens the Firestorm union and Rip Hunter considers an offer of clemency from his favorite teacher.


Influences

John Ostrander's Suicide Squad (the general theme of intrigue and espionage, villains turned into reluctant heroes as well as the 1980's Cold War setting), Ocean's Eleven (the Pentagon heist scequence), The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy (the ingested translators are reminiscent of the Babel Fish), Time Cop (Mick Rory refers to the movie - about police who monitor the time stream - in reference to the Time Masters) and Rocky IV (Again, Rory refers to this movie - about a simple American boxer competing with a Russian super athlete - when threatening his Russian captors)


Goofs

Ignoring that it would defeat the point of the whole heist sequence and giving the whole team something to do, Ray does have a point about it being much easier for him to just shrink down and break into The Pentagon.

How did Firestorm get into the Pentagon unnoticed? It doesn't seem like he has the phasing powers the character has in the comics.


Performances

Again, the banter between Brandon Routh and Wentworth Miller is the comedic high-point of the episode. The two have wonderful comedic timing and play off of each other perfectly.

The interplay between Caity Lotz and Ciara Renee is quite good.  Nice to see the show's only two female leads finally getting a chance to interact.

Dominic Purcell has mostly been used as comic relief thus far. But this episode does give him a chance at showcasing a slightly deeper side to Mick Rory. At the very least, his conversation with Rip shows that he is more than dumb muscle.



Artistry

The heist sequence at The Pentagon is very well directed.


Trivia Of Tomorrow

Ray Palmer says at one point that he always wanted to be a spy.  Brandon Routh actually did play a spy on the TV series Chuck.

Rip sarcastically refers to Kendra as "The Winged Avenger." This was the nickname for both Hawkman and Hawkwoman, in much the same way that Green Arrow is "The Emerald Archer" or The Flash is "The Scarlet Speedster".

Valentina Vostok first appeared in Showcase #94. A member of the Soviet Air Force in 1977, she stole an experimental plane in order to defect to the USA. Unfortunately, the plane malfunctioned and she crash-landed on the same site where the original Doom Patrol had died. Her body absorbed the energy being that had once lived inside the body of the hero Negative Man and she gained the power to turn herself into a being made of pure energy. She fought crime with the Doom Patrol as Negative Woman for a time, until she lost her powers. She went on to take a job with the US Secret Service and eventually became a part of the spy organization Checkmate.

Reference is made to a place called The Vanishing Point. In the comics, The Vanishing Point was the home base of The Time Masters, located one millisecond before the end of the universe.


Technobabble

A telefax - or tele-facsimile -  is a high-tech (by mid-1980s standards) method of sending information through phone lines. Ray describes it as an e-mail on paper.

Jefferson accidentally causes an alarm to go off after ignoring an electromagnetic pulse and touching a neutral wire, causing power to pass directly through him. Stein is about to explain the basics of alternating current power before being cut off by the alarm.

Gideon is capable of generating low-end EMP capable of wiping all of The Pentagon's magnetic media, including security footage.

Rip has a set of ingestible translators, wihich attack to the larynx via neural interface. Anyone who swallows one can, with the assistance of Gideon, speak and understand any language.

Incorrectly shutting down the core of a nuclear thermal core can result in strangeness, black holes and uncontrolled fusion reactions capable of destroying the universe.


Dialogue Triumphs

(As Rip Hunter is explaining his plan for breaking into The Pentagon to steal a file.)
Ray Palmer: (sarcastically) Because this is so much easier than just shrinking down and stealing it.

(After Snart palms a keycard from off of an officer, raising it up deftly to show it to Ray.)
Ray Palmer: That's a nifty little trick.
(Without a word, Snart raises his other hand, revealing a palmed wallet.) 
Ray Palmer: Really? We're trying to save the world and you're lifting wallets?
Len Snart: It's called multitasking.

(Ray observes the Russian fighter jets converging on their position.)
Ray Palmer: Wow, it's a MiG-21. No one's ever been this close to one before.
Len Snart: ... are you quoting Top Gun?
Ray Palmer: Maybe.

Professor Stein: (entering the bridge, following the crash) If it were up to me, they would revoke your pilot's license!
Rip Hunter: "They" are more than welcome to, considering I don't have one.

Rip Hunter: Dr. Palmer, you will engage Vostok at the ballet, whilst you, Mr. Snart... you're going to be his wingman.
Len Snart: Oy.
Ray Palmer: Better go bone up on Vostok's CV.
Len Snart: I guess I'll bone up on the ballet. (looking at the computer) Gideon? Bone me.

(After Ray gets rejected byVostok)
Len Snart: Damn. That was cold, even by Russian standards.

Kendra Saunders: Two months ago, I was a barista. I had no idea I had some psycho hawk goddess inside of me. And then I meet Carter and he convinces me to let her out... and now that he's gone... I can't control it. So thanks for the offer, but I won't risk letting that monster out again.
Sara Lance: That monster inside you is not gonna go away. You have to learn how to control her.
Kendra Saunders: And how, exactly, do you expect me to do that?
Sara Lance: (tossing Kendra a staff) Let's find out.

Rip Hunter: Mr. Rory? How would you like to accompany me on a little mission?
Mick Rory: Will I get to use my gun?
Rip Hunter: A near-certain likelihood.
Mick Rory: Lead the way, Captain.

Len Snart: Sorry, is this man bothering you?
Valentina Vostok: Do not trouble yourself. I am not a damsel in distress.
Len Snart: Good, because I'm not a white knight.

Len Snart: You enjoy the show, Raymond?
Ray Palmer: I think I've got frostbite in some not-so-fun places from waiting out here. Did she tell you what kind of weapon Savage is building?
Len Snart: Didn't come up. Such a romantic evening, I didn't want to spoil the mood.
Ray Palmer: So other a steamy good night kiss and a possible case of hypothermia, we've got nothing!
Len Snart: I wouldn't say that.(holding up a piece of plastic) It's Valentina's security badge for a place called Luskavic Labs. Whatever weapon she's building for Savage, we'll find it there.
Ray Palmer: I guess I should just be happy you didn't swipe her wallet.
(Snart holds up a lady's wallet.) 

(Chronos sneaks up on Rip Hunter, planting a gun to the back of his head.)
Druce: I'm so sorry it had to turn out this way, but The Council cannot risk keeping you alive.
Rip Hunter: Such a shame. I won't be able to tell Mick he was right.
Druce: Mick?
Rip Hunter: My colorful friend? Who was convinced you were planning on killing me.
Druce: Your friends seem to have abandoned you. But no matter. Chronos will track them down.
Rip Hunter: Can't believe you brought this stooge to do your dirty work. I never had you pegged as a coward, Druce.
Druce: In that case, I promise to stay here to ensure that your punishment is carried out properly. I wouldn't want you to die alone.
Rip Hunter: Who says I'm alone?
(Firestorm and Heatwave emerge from the forest and start firing.)

Mick Rory: Ah, the med-bay!  Where a morphine drip awaits me!

Professor Stein: We've all made sacrifices. But can't you see that this mission, stopping Savage, is bigger than any one of us?
Jefferson Jackson: I am so sick of you using that tone. When are you gonna learn you are not my father?
Professor Stein: I'm sorry you lost him at such a tender age, but if your father were here, right now, he'd be saying what I'm saying. Just grow up, Jefferson! The future of the world is at stake, and if you insist on getting yourself killed, as terrible as that might be for your mother, or me, who, incidentally, would also die, I am more concerned with the billions of people who will die because of your... arrogant adolescent ego!
Jefferson Jackson: (quietly) Okay.
(Jefferson leaves the room as Ray Palmer just stares at Professor Stein.)
Professor Stein: Please don't... don't... Don't say it. I was cruel and unjustified, and I... I said those things just for the sake of hurting him.
Ray Palmer: Why aren't you telling that to Jax?
Professor Stein: I had to hurt him, Raymond it's the only way I can get through to him. I've tried everything else.
Ray Palmer: Well, he's just a kid.
Professor Stein: So was Ronald, and look what happened to him.
Ray Palmer: Your former half of Firestorm.
Professor Stein: Yes. I can't... I... I can't go through this again. I can't lose another. The reason I'm constantly lecturing Jefferson is because I'm the one who brought him along, and if something happens, I'm the one who has to go back to 2016 and tell his mother that her little boy is never coming home. And I would rather die than do that.

Kendra Saunders: Let's go. "A warrior trains every day," remember?
Sara Lance: I'm not a warrior, and I tried to kill you the last time we did this, remember?
Kendra Saunders: "Tried" being the operative word. Look, you want to know my theory?
Sara Lance: No.
Kendra Saunders: I think your problem is the opposite of mine. I need to learn to embrace my inner hawk goddess, but you... you need to learn to embrace your human side.
Sara Lance: And what if that side of me is gone? What if she doesn't exist anymore?
Kendra Saunders: Well, only one way to find out.
Sara Lance: What, are you baiting me?
Kendra Saunders: No. I'm training you.

(Rip Hunter enters the room to find Snart sitting at a table with the defused core before him.)
Rip Hunter: Ugh, thank God you managed to grab it.
Len Snart: Where was my backup, Captain? Half the team is gone...
(The cold gun begins to power up.)
Len Snart: Because of you.
Rip Hunter: Only if I'd have sent the other half in to save them, they'd be captured too, and where would we be, hmm? Savage would have both halves of Firestorm, a dead Kendra on top of a dead Carter, everything he wants. It would be the end to our little crusade, and, most likely, the world. So before you pull that trigger, ask yourself what would you have done?
Len Snart: That is a pretty cold calculation, Rip. Almost criminal.
(Snart suddenly stands up, angrily.)
Len Snart: Except we criminals have a code "You never leave one of your own behind."


Continuity

Kendra's eyes glow red when she goes berserk.

Druce was one of Rip Hunter's teachers in The Time Masters. He said Rip was one of his best students and his personal favorite.

Jefferson's mother is a widow. He lost his father at a young age.

Professor Stein is immune to the effects of radiation but still quite vulnerable to bullets.

Ray Palmer was an Eagle Scout.


Location

Washington DC - 1986
Moscow - 1986


The Fridge Factor

Ignoring the problematic implications of two strong women warriors needing to control their respective rages, it does seem a bit off that Rip Hunter is mansplaining how to handle things to Sara and Kendra.


The Bottom Line

Great dialogue. Great performances. And a great cliffhanger.

Legends of Tomorrow: Season 1, Episode 3 - Blood Ties

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



Plot

The team remains trapped in 1975 as Kendra recovers from her injuries. When her condition worsens, Ray Palmer with have to push his ATOM suit to its limits as Professor Stein helps him to perform surgery on Kendra... from inside her body!  At the same time, Rip and Sara devise a plan to delay Vandal Savage's rise by attacking his financial holdings. And Snart and Rory steal The Waverider's jump ship to take a trip to Central City and steal a valuable emerald. But are Snart's motives simple greed?


Influences

The Fantastic Voyage and countless classic Atom stories where Ray Palmer helped to perform surgery on a person from inside their body (these stories predate The Fantastic Voyage, but it's probably the most famous use of the trope), Doctor Who (Rip's reaction to Sara's carrying weapons is reminiscent of The Fourth Doctor and his dealings with barbarian companion Leela, Rip's guilt complex over the lives he's indirectly responsible for destroying mirror that of The Doctor in his post-Time War adventures), the One Year Later storyline (Vandal Savage as a cult leader), Marv Wolfman's Teen Titans comics (Savage's cult and their rituals seem to be inspired by the comics version of Brother Blood) and the movie Eyes Wide Shut (the imagery of Savage's party guests, with hooded robes and masks, Rory even name-drops the movie as he's untying Sara).


Goofs

Ignoring the causality problems caused by killing a man in the past before he does the things that inspire you to go back and kill him (we'll just assume The Time Masters have a way around that), why would Rip Hunter go back in time and try to kill Vandal Savage AFTER he'd gained his immortality? Even granting that Rip didn't learn about the conditions needed to kill Savage later, you'd think it would have been easier to go back before that point and try to kill him then.


Performances

Caity Lotz and Arthur Darvill do a fine job of playing off of one another. After getting short-shifted on Arrow, it's gratifying to see Lotz finally be given a chance to explore some of the conflict of Sara's character and the problems she's been having since being resurrected in depth.  Her scenes with Rip make for an interesting parallel - the woman consumed by the deaths she's caused as a trained killer and the man consumed by all the deaths he caused through his own inability to kill.

Victor Garber and Brandon Routh have a similar double-act here, as the two academics who have the most in common out of most of the teammates and yet seem to have the hardest time getting along. On any other show, the sudden change in tune might ring false - with the gung-ho hero anxious to show off his new toy suddenly losing faith in himself and the old scholar who prefers theorizing to bold actions suddenly insisting they try anything in order to save Ksndra's life.  In this case, however, it works and the changes in heart ring true for both characters given Ray's confidence issues and Stein's natural heroic instincts kicking in once his scientific interest is aroused.

Wentworth Miller's scene giving advice to himself as a child manages to be touching... despite said advice being to be a self-serving bastard.


Artistry

The music during the sequences where Ray shrinks and enters Kendra's body is a nice variation on "The Atom" theme. And the CGI in these sequences is top-notch.

The fight scene in the bank with Sara and Rip fighting the banker/assassins is brilliantly directed and the music matches the scene perfectly. Great stunt work on the part of Caity Lotz and Arthur Darvill, too.

The scene in which Snart confronts his abusive father is well-directed, with the swinging lamp being a particularly effective piece of imagery.

The whole sequence where Snart, Rory and Jackson become the cavalry and Rip faces off against Savage while Sara takes on Mr, Blake is perfect. Music. Fight Choreography. Everything.


Trivia Of Tomorrow

Rip Hunter makes a reference to Superman and Batman, saying that in the course of his duties he has seen men of steel die and dark knights fall.

This may also be a reference to the storylines The Death of Superman and Batman: Knightfall, where Superman died and Batman had his back broken.

While Ray revealed that his fiance's name was Anna on Arrow, he never mentioned her last name. In this episode, he gives her full name as Anna Loring. In the comics, Raymond's long-time love interest and eventual wife was a lawyer named Jean Loring. However, this name was unavailable for use on Arrow due to the name being used as an in-joke for Moira Queen's lawyer during Season 2 of Arrow.

Savage's cult seems to be partly inspired by the comic book version of Brother Blood. A cult leader who frequently contested with The Teen Titans, there were two men who went by the name of Brother Blood.  The first aged at a slower rate than normal humans and drew power from the faith of his followers. The second was a vampire who drew strength from the blood he consumed and could replicate the powers of any metahuman whose blood he sampled. Both enjoyed the benefits of a large number of fanatical followers.


Technobabble

The Jump Ship is a small vessel located in the belly of The Waverider, used for small expeditionary trips.  It is capable of going Mach 3.

Sara determines that the staff of the Brumberg Bank are trained killers based on a variety of factors. Among them are the receptionist having a silenced Beretta under her desk, a burn scar on the backs of the necks of two men indicating they are South African mercenaries and the banker they speak to has callouses on his hand consistent with someone who been trained as a Kuroda swordsman.

Stein says that Ray was, as one of his students, able to solve the Ehrenfest Theorum in under an hour.  Ray later realizes he never did this until two years after he took Stein's class.

Savage determined that he could use the blood of Khufu and Chay-ara's bodies to give 100 years of extended life to his followers through a ritual.


Dialogue Triumphs

Jefferson: Can't we just time-jump into the future where they've got the stuff to fix her?
Rip: This ship is that very same future and has thus far been unsuccessful in saving her!
Snart: Kendra wouldn't survive the time-jump anyway.
(Rip spins around and glares at Snart as if to say "How do you know that?")
Snart: I pay attention.

Rip: I've seen darker days. I've seen men of steel die and dark knights fall and even then I accomplished my mission no matter what.

(After Rip puts Jackson to work on fixing the jump ship.)
Rory: What about the rest of us? Do we all just sit?
Rip: Capital idea, Mr. Rory. You're not nearly as thick as most people say.
(Rip leaves the room in a huff.)
Rory: Thick?  Does that mean stupid?

Sara: Take away Savage's fortune and he's just a regular guy with a really long lifespan.

Ray: The ATOM Suit. I can shrink down, slip into her blood stream and use the photon canons to vaporize the knife fragments.
Stein: You'd be pushing the suit's limits. We should run some tests - make sure this is the best plan of action.
Ray: This isn't the ivory tower, Professor. We don't have time.
Stein: Listen to me, Raymond-
Ray: I'm not your student anymore.
Stein: You were never my student!
Ray: Just because you don't remember me -
Stein: If you HAD been my student, I would have taught you the principles of scientific analysis. Not this... bravado!
Ray: There isn't time.  I'm going in.

(As Ray is searching for the first fragment in Kendra's blood)
Stein: It's the size of an iceberg. It seems highly unlikely that you could miss it.
Ray: Heh. That's probably what they said on the Titanic.

(After Sara throws a knife into the throat of the receptionist, killing her instantly.)
Rip: I thought I specifically said no weapons!
Sara: You can thank me later.
(Sara draws another knife from somewhere and stabs another guard in the neck. She then lifts her skirt, to grab a throwing dagger from a sheath on her thigh.)
Rip: Exactly how many knives do you have?!

Rip: What the hell happened back there?
Sara: You know I'm a killer. That's why you put me in your little group.
Rip: I didn't just witness a killer at work, Sara. What I saw was an animal!
Sara: You are the last person on this ship to judge anyone!
Rip: This is not judgement, Sara. It is concern.
Sara: I thought you knew how I was resurrected? And what it did to me?
Rip: I know you were restored by something called The Lazarus Pit.
Sara: Well, apparently there's a downside to being brought back to life. My friend Thea calls it "a bloodust". And I think that's being too generous. And so is calling me an animal.... I'm a monster.

Jackson: Wow. Carter is dead. Kendra is this close to joining him. And Vandal Savage is still alive and out there doing God knows what! And all you can think about is stealing some diamond?
Snart: It's an emerald.
Jackson: (scoffs) Is there anything you think about other than yourself?
Snart: Yes. Money.
Jackson: Nah. I'm not helping you guys steal anything. So if you want to shoot me, then shoot me.
Rory: (drawing his flame gun) Can I shoot him?
Snart: You've got a pair on you, kid. I respect that.
Rory: So no shooting?

Stein: Raymond, you mustn't be discouraged.  We're scientists! We learn from failure and we keep going!
Ray: Kendra isn't a lab experiment. She's a person.
Stein: I know. You need to have confidence this will work.
Ray: Well... I don't. I can't save her.
Stein: Based on what evidence? Are we not empirical thinkers, Dr. Palmer?  Exactly how many people have you lost?
Ray: (quietly) One.
Stein: Who did you lose?  Someone close to you? (quieter) Who was she, Raymond?
Ray: For someone who doesn't remember me, you sure have a lot of personal observations to offer.
Stein: Fine. Don't talk to me. (firmly) But fix the suit. It's the only chance that poor girl has.

(After Rip tells her the story of how he failed to kill Savage in the year 1700 BC.)
Sara: Killing is never easy. Especially for a good man.
Rip: The man killed my wife and son. And God knows how many other wives and sons. And yet I couldn't... (sighs) Killing people doesn't make you a monster, Sara. But having the chance to avenge your family and not taking it?  That does.

Rory: Now that's what I call a clean heist!
Snart: And thanks for not setting the museum on fire, partner! And you - thanks for being our get-away driver.
Jackson: Speaking of, let's get the hell back to the ship.
Snart: Oh! One more stop!
Rory: What are you talking about, boss?
Snart: 1629 Handley Avenue.
Jackson: What's on Handley Avenue?
Rory: It's where we grew up. That's why you wanted to steal the Maximillian Emerald?
Snart: Mick! Enough!
Rory: You wanted to give it to your old man, so he wouldn't go to jail trying to steal it for himself.
Jackson: Your father was a thief, too?
Snart: And unfortunately not a very good one.
Rory: Didn't Rip say something about not messing with the timeline?
Jackson: You could accidentally blink yourself out of existence. You're screwing with history here, man.
Snart: Yeah, well history screwed with me first.

Snart: Don't ever let anyone hurt you. Ever. (touching his forehead) Here. (reaching out to touch his younger self's heart) And especially not here.No matter what, you always have to look out for yourself. Okay? Understand?

Savage: (looking at the picture of Rip's family) I don't remember killing them... yet. It seems like I have a lot to look forward to.

Rory: (as he's untying Sara) Well, this is different. I didn't have you pegged as the "Eyes Wide Shut" type.


Continuity

Sara refers to her training under Ra's Al Ghul.

Sara has been trained as a Kuroda sword-fighter.

Jackson is a good enough mechanic that he can figure out how to repair 22nd century vehicles provided he has a copy of the owner's manual.

Raymond refers to the death of his fiancee, first revealed in A309.  Her full name is given this time as Anna Loring.

The Gareeb is a legendary figure spoken of by the followers of Vandal Savage, whom tried to kill Savage shortly after he gained the gift of immortal life. Rip Hunter was The Gareeb, and he tried to kill Savage just after he became immortal.

The Maximilian Emerald which Snart steals was originally stolen by his father in 1975. He was caught, however, and sent to prison.

Snart's address as a kid was 1629 Handley Avenue.

Stein claims that he did remember Ray from his Quantum Mechanics class in 2002 - he just enjoyed taking him down a peg pretending he didn't. He further states that Ray was one only student he'd ever had who made him feel inadequate. It is later revealed that he was lying to boost Ray's confidence so that he could save Kendra's life.

Snart's reason for going after The Maximilian Emerald was to prevent his father from becoming abusive towards his family - a trait he developed after being in prison for five years following his attempt to steal The Maximilian Emerald.

Kendra is able to sense Sara and Rip are in danger due to their proximity to Carter's body, through the bond between her soul and his.

Miranda was the name of Rip's wife. He accidentally lets that information slip to Vandal Savage.

Professor Broadman and Carter are buried together.

Snart's efforts to save his family amounted to nothing, as his father was still arrested- this time for trying to fence the stolen gem two days later. He got the same sentence and his threats to do hurt his father if he ever raised a hand to his family apparently didn't change Snart's past.


Location

Ancient Egypt - 1700 BC
Leipzig, Germay - 1975
Central City, 1975


The Bottom Line

Greatness. Pure greatness. There's a lot going on in this episode and all of it is balanced flawlessly. The switching of the usual pairings (Rip teamed with Sara, Stein steamed with Ray and The Rogues working with Jax) works effectively and allows the ensemble a chance to play with their characters in some different ways.  This has officially become my favorite of the many DC Comics TV shows in production right now.

Legends of Tomorrow: Season 1, Episode 2 - Pilot, Part Two

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



Plot

A tip-off to Vandal Savage's whereabouts leads the team to try going undercover as arms dealers in 1975 Norway. Things go south quickly and a piece of Ray Palmer's ATOM suit winds up in the wrong hands. To prevent a paradox will require the help of an unlikely source - Professor Martin Stein's younger self!

Meanwhile, Carter and Kendra discover that one of the weapons that can kill Vandal Savage has recently reappeared. As they try to remember the incantation needed to work the dagger's magic, Snart and Rory head out to steal it... with a suspicious Ray Palmer along for the ride.


Influences

The Hawkman comics of Geoff Johns (Carter and Kendra's odd relationship) and Back To The Future (the theme of accidentally causing a relationship not happen due to Time Travel, the fading effects used to show Martin Stein's wedding ring fading in and out of existence.)


Performances

Caity Lotz shines bright in this episode. She said in a recent interview that she was looking forward to playing a more hopeful, fun-loving Sara and it's clear that she's enjoying herself immensely. Indeed, her portrayal of the Canary here is probably the truest any actress has come to capturing Gail Simone's take on the character.

The scene where Ray Palmer and Len Snart bond while disabling a security system is a nice scene for both Brandon Routh and Wentworth Miller.


Artistry

The fight scene at the arms deal equals - and in some ways surpasses - the famous long-shot fight scene from the first Avengers movie. The blending of special effects and fight choreography is flawless.

Sara's solo-fight scene vs. Savage's men in the lab is a nice bit of stunt work for Caity Lotz.


Trivia Of Tomorrow

When meeting his past self, Professor Stein uses the alias Elon Musk. Musk is a famous inventor, explorer and investor.

Martin Stein's younger self brags about being a five-time winner of The Carlin Award. This may be a nod to DC Comics longtime executive editor Mike Carlin.

Stein's line - "It's deja vu all over again." is a saying frequently attributed to Yogi Berra.


Technobabble

Rip Hunter explains that they cannot go back and change events in which they've already participated, saying that time would fold in on itself, creating a temporal vortex.

The Waverider has a special fabrication room that can fashion temporally-indigenous clothing.

Savage is selling a variable-yield nuclear warhead capable of producing a blast equivalent to one megaton of TNT.

The medical bay of The Waverider has a cryogenic storage facility for holding human remains.

Ray's ATOM suit shrinks because it is made of an alloy that mimics the intra-molecular compression of a dwarf star, thus emitting alpha particles. This allows them to track the missing part of Ray's suit to Vandal Savage's lab.

Lapidary hieratic - the language used to inscribe the incantation on The Amon Dagger - is an ancient language lost to the ages. Only the clergy of Ancient Egypt knew it.

The piece of Ray's armor which Savage recovered contains a miniaturized missile-guidance system capable of delivering high-explosive ordnance.

Among the equipment on The Waverider is a tachyon manifold.

Gideon describes Kendra's injuries as a sharp force injury resulting in rupture of several major blood vessels.


Dialogue Triumphs

Rip Hunter (opening narraton)  In 2166 an immortal tyrant named Vandal Savage conquered the world and murdered my wife and child. I assembled an elite team to hunt him throughout time and stop his rise to power. Unfortunately, my plan is opposed by the body I'd sworn allegiance to: The Time Masters. In the future my friends may not be heroes, but if we succeed, they will be remembered as legends!

Snart: Arms dealers and terrorists aren't exactly our kind of people. (smirking as he looks at Sara) But they're the next best thing.

Palmer: First thing we need to do is work up a plan.
Snart: Got a lot of experience infiltrating criminal gatherings? Didn't think so. I'm calling the shots.
Hunter: Actually, I'm in charge, in case any of you have forgotten.
Snart: No, I remember. I just don't care.

Guard: You don't look like an Amhad Ahmed Izz-Al-Din.
Snart: I'm Arab. On my mother's side.
Stein: (angrily) Is there a problem?  I don't like delays. Do you know who we are? My associates and I are the operational arm of "Scimitar". The Lombardo Square Bombing, 1963. Murder of Henri Terron, Canada, 1970. Koenig Airport Massacre, 1971. Bottom line: you don't want to doubt me
(The guard nods and waves them through)
Rory: (whispering to Stein) You're a special kind of crazy. I like it!

Snart: We're just going to get our nuclear warhead and be on our way.
Auctioneer: Not without paying first.
Stein: Once we've validated that the warhead is operational. Personally, I find it highly unlikely that you were able to accumulate enough fissionable material is this era to fashion a workable nuclear device.
Savage: "This era?"
Stein: Figure of speech.

Rory: Can I burn some stuff now?
Snart: I wish you would

(The guard from before grabs Stein)
Stein: Now would be a good time!
Guard: Yeah! To kill you!
Stein: I wasn't talking to you!
(Ray Palmer, in his ATOM suit, flies out of Stein's pocket and cold-cocks the guard)

Jackson: Okay. What now?
Stein: We wait for the warhead to go off, at which point you're going to have .06 seconds to absorb the massive release of atomic energy.
Jackson: Your plan sucks! You know that, right?!

Palmer: (sarcastically, to Snart) Well, I'm really glad you were the one calling the shots.
Snart: I had it under control until the Professor started picking fights with the PLO.
Hawkman: (to Stein) You let your ego endanger our mission.
Stein: No, Mr. Rory's temper got completely out of control.
Rory: I thought we were friends, Professor?
Hawkgirl: At least there's one less nuclear bomb on the planet,.
(Rip Hunter slow-claps sarcastically as he enters the room)

(showing a hologram of modern Central City in flames as a result of Savage stealing Palmer's technology)
Hunter:  This is Central City in 2016. At least it WAS. I'm not sure what the neo-fascists who took control of it are calling it these days!

Hunter: Now, as for the dagger...
Palmer: You need someone to steal it.
Snart: (deadpan as he snatches the article regarding the dagger) Okay. Fine. Whatever. I'll do it.

Jefferson: (looking around at the students ) People actually wore this crap?
Stein: People smoked a lot of pot in the '70s. It clearly had a deleterious effect on the fashion of the era.

(Kendra gasps as she wakes up from a vision of herself and Carter in the past, getting intimate)
Kendra: We were together. Like, together-together.
Carter: Well, I have been telling you that you and I should be destined...
(Carter leans in to kiss Kendra but she pushes him away)
Kendra: What are you doing?!
Carter: What part of "destiny" do you not understand?
Kendra: The part where I have to stop thinking for myself.

Minion: The group that disrupted the arms auction. Any idea who they were?
Savage: A man in a robotic suit, weapons that shoot ice and fire? Suffice it to say, they're not from around here. I would assume the future.
Minion: That's impossible.
Savage: So is immortality.

(As Stein's younger self leaves the room)
Sara: I cannot believe that that is you!
Jackson: Seriously, I had no idea you were ever cool.
Stein: I wasn't cool. I was an arrogant little snot!
Jackson: Was?
(Stein begins digging around in the lab drawers.)
Sara: What are you doing?
Stein: Looking for my younger self's particle tracker. Keep an eye on the door, and when I get back, stop flirting with me.
Sara: You were the one flirting with me!
Jackson: Look, what's the big deal? I mean, younger you isn't married yet, so technically it's not cheating.
Stein: October 1975. This is right when I meet my future wife, Clarissa. So obviously we wouldn't want my former self tempted by a sexy assassin from the future.
Sara: Awwww, you think I'm sex-
Stein: Do not finish that sentence!

Sara's silently grabbing the joints as she, Stein and Jackson flee the younger Stein's lab.

(As Snart finds a secret panel and begins working on the electronics inside)
Palmer: How did you know how to do that?
Snart: When I was a kid, my dad brought me along on jobs. I had little hands. I could get into tiny spaces, do whatever he needed me to do, like... rewiring a security system.
Palmer: In another life, you could've been an electrical engineer.
Snart: Guess I dodged a bullet. You think I want to be like you?
Palmer: You make being a tech billionaire sound like a bad thing.
Snart: You spend all your time and money inventing a super-suit,and what do you do with it? Fly around like some incredible shrinking schmuck trying to save the world.
Palmer: And robbing banks for a living... I suppose that's more important?
Snart: It's sure as hell more satisfying.
Palmer: Thinking like that is what makes you a criminal.
Snart: No, it makes me a survivor. And there's gonna come a day when you wish you were too.
(Snart looks at the panel in annoyance as Ray looks over his shoulder)
Palmer: Here. (he takes the tool from Snart and points at a section of the panel) You flip the solenoid, saves you the trouble of rewiring it.
Snart: I take it back, Raymond. You're not completely useless after all.

Carter: Look, 4,000 years is a long time, and maybe I've been taking us for granted, expecting you to fall in love with me because that's what you've done the last 206 lifetimes, but you're right. Does not make us destiny.
Kendra: More like... probability.
Carter: Look, Kendra. You don't have to love me in this lifetime. As many lifetimes as it takes. I know you're worth the wait.

Chay-ara: "And though my soul departs the Earth, I count my days till my rebirth.
I will wait across eternity for my love to come back to me"

Firestorm: It's all good. Savage is down.
Hawkman: Savage is not defeated by earthly means.
Firestorm: Well, I hit him with a nuclear blast, so, you know, not that earthly.

(As the two walk the Ivy Town Univeristy campus)
Stein: Apparently it's true that the guilty return to the scene of the crime.
Hunter: Oh, don't be so maudlin. Look at your hand.
(Stein looks down at his hand, where his wedding ring has solidified)
Stein: How...
Hunter: I contacted your younger self and encouraged him to attend the faculty mixer. Turns out one of the professors brought along his niece.
Stein: You risked the timeline for me.
Hunter: Hardly seemed fair for you to sacrifice your wife in order to save mine from Savage's future. One thing that time travel teaches you is that time changes, people don't.
Stein: A painful realization I've recently come to.
Hunter: I have traveled countless ages into the future. We're still asking ourselves the same question: Why are we here? I believe that we're here to learn, Martin. Be glad that you still can.
Stein: Thank you, Mr. Hunter.

Stein: How's Kendra?
Sara: The same.
Jackson: So what now?
Hunter: Now? Now it's up to you.
Snart: To do what, Rip? Last I checked, every time we try to do anything, it all goes to crap.
Hunter: Oh, once again I must disagree with you. Thanks to Miss Lance, Dr. Palmer's future technology is no longer in the hands of Vandal Savage's black market weapons designers.
Stein: But it didn't do anything to change the fate of your world.
Hunter: No. Vandal Savage will still rise to power in the year 2166.
Jackson: And your family will still die?
Snart: So what you're really asking is, do we want to fish or cut bait? Return to 2016 and live out the rest of our lives as insignificant losers or...
Palmer: Make another play at becoming legends. Figure out how to end Savage and save the world.
Stein: Preferably, without causing any more nuclear explosions.
Rory: Savage has my attention.
Snart: Look, we didn't know Carter from Adam, but if you take out one of my crew, you better pay the price.
Stein: Surely Captain Hunter has a sound plan. (looking at Jackson) What about you?
Jackson: You're asking me?
Stein: I didn't give you much of a choice the first time, did I?
Jackson: Well, I say we kick Savage's ass. For Carter.
Sara: For Carter.
All: For Carter.
Stein: So, Captain. Where are we going next?


Continuity

Mick Rory hates flying.

Len Snart is a capable pickpocket.

Damien Darhk - the main villain of Arrow Season 4 - is among the many terrorists at the arms sale.

Vandal Savage has a sixth sense that allows him to sense the nearby presence of Carter Hall and Kendra Saunders through their mystic connection.

The dagger which killed Carter and Kendra in their first life - The Amon Dagger - can be used to kill Vandal Savage, in conjunction with an incantation that is inscribed upon the dagger.  Kendra and carter learned that these objects could be used to kill Savage in F208.

Sasha Mahnovski is the alias Vandal Savage uses in 1975. He pretends to be Russian.

Professor Stein was a casual marijuana smoker when he was a young professor. At age 25 he had two PhDs and was working on his third.

Young Stein brags about winning The Carlin Award five times. In F113, his older self was similarly snobby about winning The Conway Prize three times.

Len Snart's father taught him how to rewire a security system when he was a child.

Vandal Savage has learned every hold and pressure point imaginable after 4,000 years of life.

The inscription on The Amon Dagger is a love poem. In order to kill Savage, the dagger must be wielded by Chay-ara and the poem must be recited.

Carter Hall is killed by Vandal Savage.

As the episode ends, the team is stranded in 1975 until Kendra can heal.


Location

Norway - October 19, 1975
Ivy Town - October 1975


The Fridge Factor

Kendra's sudden declaration of love for Carter and belief in their destiny in the wake of his death comes off as sort of creepy given Carter's own behavior earlier in the episode, despite his apology and assurances that he can keep his distance and


The Bottom Line

Somehow, the second-half of the pilot improves upon the first. The action sequences are of cinematic quality in terms of special effects and blocking and the ensemble cast are playing off of each other beautifully. Damn near perfect.