Legends of Tomorrow: Season 1, Episode 16 - Legendary

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





Plot

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

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


Influences

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


Goofs

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

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

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

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


Performances

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


Artistry

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

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


Trivia Of Tomorrow

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Technobabble

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Dialogue Triumphs

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

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

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

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

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


Continuity

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vandal Savage speaks German.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Location

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


Untelevised Adventures

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


The Bottom Line

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

Legends of Tomorrow: Season 1, Episode 15 - Destiny

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



Plot

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


Influences

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


Goofs

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

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


Performances

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


Artistry

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


Trivia Of Tomorrow

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

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


Technobabble

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Dialogue Triumphs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Continuity

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Martin Stein invented the sequestrian manifold.

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

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

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

Snart knocks Rory out so Rory and Sara can escape.

Sara kisses Snart before escaping with Rory.

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

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

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

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

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


Location

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


The Fridge Factor

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


The Bottom Line

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

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

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

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



Plot

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


Influences

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


Performances

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

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


Artistry

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


Trivia Of Tomorrow

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

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

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


Technobabble

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

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

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

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

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


Dialogue Triumphs

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

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

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

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

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


Continuity

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ray ends his engagement with Kendra.

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

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

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

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

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

Rip takes a laser blast for Kendra.

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

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

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


Location

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


The Fridge Factor

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


The Crisis Factor

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

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

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

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


The Bottom Line

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

Legends of Tomorrow: Season 1, Episode 10 - Progeny

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



Plot

The crew travel to the future of the nation of Kasnia, to assassinate one of Vandal Savage's most powerful allies before he can become a threat. There's just one problem - said ally is a 14 year old boy! As the team is split upon the morality of the mission, Sara talks to both Snart and Rory about their relationship together and Ray and Kendra learn something that may change their prospects for a future together.


Influences

The main plot of the episode is based around a classic moral conundrum, commonly referred to as The Baby Hitler Problem - i.e. is it ethical to kill a tyrant before they become a tyrant in order to prevent future suffering?  Ray Palmer even refers to the issue by this name and the concept has been used as the basis for countless science-fiction and time-travel stories, including a few episodes of Doctor Who. The episode also draws heavenly off the JSA comics of Geoff Johns, which made use of the villain Per Degaton, only with his forces attempting to kill various heroes before they became a threat to him. This seems to be a plot point in the episode to come.


Goofs

It seems odd that Snart would have no trouble with killing a potential tyrant in this episode, given Snart's actions to prevent Sara from killing back in 105 and his own inability to kill Heatwave under equally desperate circumstances.

For that matter, Sara's blase early attitude toward killing a potential tyrant seems to fly in the face of her characterization in last week's episode, where she was allowed to leave The League of Assassins because she was conflicted about the nature of their work (i.e. killing evil people before they did great harm.). And then she sudden;y changes her mind and is all rah-rah-redemption at the episode's halfway point.

The existence of The Hunters begs the question of why The Time Masters don't employ said Hunters to deal with Vandal Savage, who seems to be a bigger threat to humanity than Rip Hunter and his crew. Particularly given how ineffectual The Legends are in this episode when it comes to changing the time-stream and accomplishing their goals.


Performances

The interplay between Caity Lotz and Franz Drameh at the start of the episode, when they riff on Professor Stein, is rather nice. We haven't seen much interaction between the two of them and it's nice that they get that little moment together.

A much stronger scene is the one between Caity Lotz and Dominic Purcell, where Sara - still seeking signs that anyone can be redeemed given her own desire to find peace with her dark past - unloads on the one person on the ship more in need of redemption that herself.

The best moment in the episode, however, may be the interplay between Caity Lotz and Wentworth Miller as Sara tells Snart he should try talking to Rory so the damage between them might be healed... if there's a chance of healing at all.

Arthur Darvill gives a great performance - verbal and physical - as we see him ponder killing Per Degaton and then ultimately decide on the path of mercy.


Artistry

The action sequence in the fifth segment, where the team fights the armies of Tor Degaton is incredibly effective and a nice balance of CGI, fight choreography and practical effects.


Trivia Of Tomorrow

The nation of Kasnia (or Kazina) first appeared in the DC Animated Universe. It was located somewhere in the Balkans or Eastern Europe and its history was loosely based upon the nation of Yugoslavia, suffering from a number of civil wars through its long history.

One Justice League episode - Maid of Honor - focused upon the nation of Kasnia and involved Vandal Savage and his attempts to take control of the country (and then the world!) through an arranged marriage to the country's princess.

This is not the first time Kasnia has appeared in the reality of the DCTVU. It was also the setting of the third-season Arrow episode Suicidal Tendencies.

In the original DC Comics, Per Degaton was a time-traveling Nazi who attempted to use various time-manipulating technologies to win World War II for the Axis Powers. He was repeatedly thwarted by the Justice Society of America, whom he then focused on destroying.

Per Degaton's powers included the power to time-travel at will, intangibility (due to being out of phase with the time stream), a limited precognitive sense that allowed him to see the immediate future, the ability to create "chronal duplicates" (i.e. clones) and time disc weapons that allowed him to speed up or slow down the flow of time around those who made contact with a disc.

The DCTVU version of Per Degaton appears to be an ordinary tyrant with no special powers.

In this episode, it is revealed that Ray Palmer has a brother named Sidney.  In the comics, Ray Palmer did have a brother, but his name was Danny.


Technobabble

By 2147, Ray Palmer's design for the ATOM suit has been altered into autonomous units - i.e. robot policemen.

Rip Hunter makes use of a pair of special contacts that allow him to fool the rental scanners used to identify stockholders in the Kasnia Conglomerate.

Snart uses a pair of smart glasses that give him a variety of information at the objects he looks at.

Ghosting is a 21st century slang term for pretending to be dead and not responding to another person's texts or instant messages.

Gideon has the ability to monitor the dreams of anyone who sleeps upon The Waverider.

The Waverider's jump-ship has a range of 8,000 miles.

The Hunters are a group of mercenaries, entirely mechanical, employed by The Time Masters to eliminate those who they consider to be a threat to the established timeline.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Regarding Rip ordering Snart to "deal with" Rory.)
Rip: Your quarrel should be with me and not with him.
Chronos: Ha! Well, if it makes you feel any better, I want to kill both of you.

(Rip explains that Savage set Per Degaton up as a dictator, only to kill him and take his place.)
Kendra: Okay. So we don't have what we need to take out Savage. But maybe we can figure out a way to stop his rise to power.
Rip: By depriving him of his springboard, Per Degaton.
Sara: Okay. How do we do that?
Rip: It's quite simple really...
Snart: (sighing) We kill the little bastard ourselves.

Ray: Great. We've gone from infanticide to child abduction. Progress.

Ray: I can't believe it! I'm like the Werner Von Braun of robots!
Jax: The who?
Stein: The Nazi scientist who invented the V-2 rocket. He built it using slave labor and then used it to level London.
Ray: Except my robots will be used to one day level the entire world!
Jax: Ray, dude. Do you not think you're focusing on the wrong thing here? I mean, you have a kid you didn't even know about.
Stein: Had a kid. In this particular time period, his offspring would be long since dead.
Ray: Thank you. As if I wasn't already feeling bad enough...

Chronos: (as Sara enters the cell block) Ah. Finally. Someone who's willing to do a man's job.
Sara: Not why I'm here.
Chronos: It's almost funny. How you guys keep parading in here like it's some kind of confessional or something.
Sara: That's also not why I'm here.
Chronos: Okay. I'll bite.
Sara: Everybody's out there arguing over whether or not we should kill this kid because nobody thinks he can change. Which made me think of you. (sits) You know no one thinks that you can change.?That's why you're in here.
Chronos: The reason I'm in here is if I get out, I'm gonna give Snart some payback he's not walking away from.
Sara: He saved your life.
Chronos: He wussed out on killing me. Not the same thing. He marooned me!
Sara: It's not like he had many choices. You know, while you were busy selling us out to a homicidal time pirate, Leonard and I almost died. He was thinking about you. He told me about your partnership. Your friendship.
Chronos: Did it make you weepy? You think it's gonna make me weepy?
Sara: He's your friend. A loyal one. You should know that.
Chronos: (sarcastically) Thank you. I'll work it out with him, soon as I can.
(Sara stands and starts to move away.)
Chronos: Oh. Killing a kid? Not very hero-like.

(Snart's sitting in the cargo hold, throwing a blue ball against the wall and catching it repeatedly as Sara enters)
Snart: No luck finding our homicidal captain?
Sara: Gideon's still searching, but I have a feeling Rip's not gonna be found if he doesn't want to be.
Snart: So what are you doing down here?
Sara: Don't you think you at least owe him a conversation?
Snart: We had our conversation while he was Chronos. And he made his feelings about me very clear.
Sara: And what about your feelings?
Snart: About you?
Sara: (smirking sarcastically) About Mick.
Snart: I don't have any feelings about Mick.
Sara: (sighing and sitting down) Look, it didn't seem that way when we were dying in the engine room of hypothermia.
Snart: Look, if you want to ease your guilty conscience, that's your business. But he's still the same son of a bitch he was when you all wanted me to put him down.
Sara: I wasn't the one who mentioned marooning Rory. You did. It's obviously still weighing on your conscience. So stop being an ass and go deal with it.
(Sara gets up and leaves the room.  Snart throws the ball across the room but doesn't bother trying to catch it this time.) 

Rip: I've said to myself time and time again that there is nothing I wouldn't do to save my wife and son. But now I know that there is! My reticence to kill you, Per Degaton, is not weakness. It is goodness! And if there is a shred of goodness inside of me, then I have to believe that there is a shred of goodness inside of you! Be the man that your feather wants you to be! Not the man Savage wants you to be.

Chronos: What do you want?
Snart: People seem to think we should have a heart-to-heart.
Chronos: We don't have hearts. Where does that leave us?
Snart: I've got a dozen reasons for killing you. You've got a dozen and one for killing me, so...
Chronos: All the talk in the world's not gonna change a thing.
Snart: Exactly. Here's my proposal. I open this cell. We let our fists do the talking.
(Chronos stands up and moves closer to the cell door.)
Chronos: When I kill you?
Snart: You take the jump ship and make your escape. Live out the rest of your life anywhere you like.
Chronos: Hmmm. And if you kill me... well, it's better than being locked up in this place like some kind of circus freak.
Snart: I take that as a yes?
Chronos: Sound the bell.

Rip: Did I do the right thing, Gideon?
Gideon: Not committing murder is generally considered "the right thing" Captain.
Rip: In this instance... I wonder.

(Both Snart and Chronos are collapsed on the cell floor.)
Snart: We had a deal, Mick. Kill me and you walk. It's what you want, isn't it? To get off the team?
Chronos: I don't know what I want anymore. Truth is, it doesn't matter.
Snart: What are you talking about?
Chronos: Whether I stay or leave, I'm dead. We're all dead.


Continuity

Kasnia was first seen in the DCTVU in A317, as the site of a mission for the Suicide Squad.

The Kasnian Conglomerate rules over most of Eastern Europe, between Italy and Turkey, in 2147.

2147 is considered the zenith of humanity's advancement.

Wool is still worn 150 years in the future, at least in The Kasnian Conglomerate.

Jax hates wool clothing.

In 2080, many world governments collapsed, giving way to corporations taking control of whole land masses.

Kasnia is the point from which Savage launched his rise to power in 2167.

Theft is refereed to as a violation of Ordinance 12 in the Kasnian Conglomerate.

In 2147, Vandal Savage is employed by Tor Degaton - leader of The Kasnian Conglomerate - as a tutor for his son, Per Degaton.

In 2152, Per Degaton killed most of the population of the Kasnian Conglomerate after releasing The Armageddon Virus.  He was later killed by Vandal Savage, who used his power base as a springboard to taking over the world.

The STAR Labs corporation took over Central City. Since then, The Kasnian Conglomerate doesn't get many visitors from Central City.

The descendants of Ray Palmer's brother Sidney Palmer founded the company which eventually became the centerpiece of The Kasnian Conglomerate.

Joseph and Edith Broadman were the alias Carter and Kendra's 1920's incarnations adopted in an effort to get away from Vandal Savage.

Sara is apparently having erotic dreams about the nurse she briefly romanced in 108

Sara refers to her chat with Snart regarding his friendship with Heatwave in 107.

The Legends actions in this episode do nothing to stop Savage's rise to power. Indeed, their actions accelerate the time-table with Per Degaton killing his father five years before he died of natural causes and Savage acting as his proxy on the Board of Directors until he reaches the age of maturity. This causes the release of The Armageddon Virus to happen five years earlier as well.

Chronos elects to help The Legends, reasoning he's dead already since he failed to stop them.


Location

Kasnian Conglomerate - 2147
Kendra has several flashbacks to her life somewhere in the United States in 1920


Untelevised Adventures

Rip tells the rest of the crew of how Per Degaton grows in the 22nd century's version of Hitler, before his empire was usurped by Vandal Savage.


The Fridge Factor

Sara is somehow taken-hostage by Vandal Savage off-camera, who then attempts to trade her life for Rip Hunter's.


The Crisis Factor

Honestly, the whole episode is a shaggy-dog story. Our heroes are completely ineffectual. In fact, their efforts to fix things only make things worse.


The Bottom Line

Easily the worst episode of the series to date. If it weren't for the great character scenes anchored by Caity Lotz, this episode would be a complete mess. As it is, the whole affair is as bleak and depressing as Batman v. Superman. Half the cast is written out of character and apart from Rory/Chronos seemingly reforming, not a blessed thing changes as a result of the episode's events apart from Vandal Savage taking power even faster than before.

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.

Superman Annual #3 - A Review

There's two good comics contained within Superman Annual #3. One details the new origin of the immortal conqueror Vandal Savage, tying his origins indirectly into the Superman mythos.  The other showcases the problems Clark Kent faces as he continues to try and help people as Superman, despite his waning powers, lack of a secret identity and Lex Luthor running Justice League.

Unfortunately, these stories ultimately exist only as a set-up for the latest big crossover. And that proves to be to their detriment. It's apparently not enough to tell a story which shows that the meteor that empowered Vandal Savage came from a comet that was redirected from Krypton. We can't just tell a story where Clark Kent tells a teary-eyed Lana Lang that he can't just quit being Superman, even without his powers. It's all just build up for yet another excuse to boost sales.


It's a shame because there's some truly great writing on display in this issue.  The Vandal Savage story is just plain fun. And the modern story proves the point that what makes Clark Kent Superman isn't his powers - it's his ability to inspire other people to greatness. It also subtly disproves Lex Luthor's postulation  - that Superman's existence will cause common people to stop striving to be better - as Lex begins exploiting his power and authority to keep Clark Kent from trying to advance himself. Rarely has Luthor's evil and Clark's goodness been so well and simply exemplified.

The artwork, sadly, isn't quite so evenly handled.  The artwork for the Vandal Savage story is grand, showing a good deal of variety as we follow Savage through the ages.  The artwork for the Clark story, while skillfully done, utilizes a gritty, more realistic style that doesn't really seem appropriate to the story at hand.



Superman Annual #3 is a model for everything that is right and wrong with DC Comics since the New 52 revamp. There's a number of brilliant innovations and reimaginings of classic concepts and this comic showcases the ideal that the hero aspect of a character is more important than the super one. Yet all of that is undercut by a relentless grittiness that is grim for its own sake rather than to make the light shine brighter and the fact that this story exists only as introduction to yet another sales gimmick.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 4, Episode 8 - Legends Of Yesterday

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



Plot

With Cater Hall and Kendra Saunders hidden on a remote farm, Team Arrow and Team Flash begin work on a plan to deal with the immortal Vandal Savage. At the same time, Oliver Queen begins to investigate his long-lost girlfriend - and her son - in secret.


Influences

The JSA and Hawkman comics of James Robinson, David Goyer and Geoff Johns (modern origin of Hawkman and Hawkgirl) and the Green Arrow comics of both Kevin Smith and Mike Grell (the theme of fatherhood and the idea of Oliver wanting to have a son)


Goofs

Merlyn's threat to kill Oliver if anything happens to Thea rings kind of hollow since the actions sparking the threat (i.e. not doing what Vandal Savage says) will almost certainly result in Oliver's death anyway.

Felicity says it will take a while for her to find a way to play the Betamax tape Diggle gets from ARGUS. It literally takes her about five seconds. Did a scene get cut here?

Oliver addresses the ex-girlfriend who gave birth to his son as Samantha, yet she's credited as Sandra Hawke on the IMDB page for the episode. (Officially, her name is Samantha from this point on. It seems likely this may have been changed during filming for some reason.)

Whatever her name is, Oliver's ex's demand that he not tell anyone about his son - not even his girlfriend - is incredibly unreasonable and nonsensical given her desire to keep Ollie and his crazy world out of their life.


Performances

Strangely enough, the supporting cast doesn't get as much to do here as they did in Part One. So there isn't as much opportunity for everyone to shine and most of the cast is just there for most of the episode. That being said, the interplay between Carlos Valdez and Ciara Renee continues to be the best part of the episode, with Stephen Amell's performance in dealing with his sudden fatherhood running a close second.


Trivia

As our heroes arrive at the remote farm house, Thea comments that she thinks she saw this in a movie. This is a reference to Avengers: Age of Ultron, where The Avengers did indeed take refuge at Hawkeye's family farm.

Vandal Savage instructs The Flash and Green Arrow to bring Carter and Kendra to Jurgens Industrial. This could be a nod to comic writer and artist Dan Jurgens, who has written and drawn Green Arrow in the past.

The man on the tape Diggle finds - Dr. Aldus Boardman - says he is a professor at St. Roch University. St. Roch was the town in which Carter Hall and Kendra Saunders reestablished themselves in the 2002 Hawkman comic. St. Roch is modeled on New Orleans and named after a district in the city's 8th Ward.

Nth Metal is a semi-mystical element native to the planet Thanagar in the DC Comics Universe. Nth Metal has a number of properties, including the ability to negate gravity, heal wounds, protect against extreme heat or cold and increase the strength of a person wearing an object made of it. It was Nth-metal belts which allowed Hawkman and Hawkgirl to fly and may have been responsible, in part, for bringing about their reincarnation.

In the original comics, Vandal Savage's immortality came about because of exposure to a radioactive meteorite as a primitive caveman.

In the revised origin for Hawkman and Hawkgirl written by James Robinson, David Goyer and Geoff Johns, the spirits of Prince Khufu and Chay-ara were reincarnated numerous times across the ages, with the treacherous priest who killed them - Hath-Set - also reincarnating to kill them.

These two origins are merged somewhat in the DCTVU. Here, Vandal Savage - a seperate character in the original comics - is revealed to have been Hath-Set and his immortality was fueled by his sacrificing the two lovers whenever they were reborn instead of being reincarnated as the comic version of Hath-Set was. His immortality is also fueled by the "sky rocks", which are said here to made of Nth Metal - the unique properties of which also had a hand in fueling the reincarnation of Prince Khufu and Chay-ara.


Technobabble

Caitlin, Cisco and Felicity guess that Insulated gauntlets with magnetic shielding might disrupt the staff's magnetic polarity.

Egyptians used meteorites in their craftsmanship.

The two gems in the Staff of Horus are composed of what Cisco dubs Nth Metal. They glow in close proximity to each other.Cisco theorizes that two pieces of Nth Metal might neutralize one another. He can synthesize a compatible isotope out of the meteorite Barry retrieves and coat the gauntlets with them.


Dialogue Triumphs

Oliver: Well, while the Geek Squad works...
Felicity: Heard that, honey!
Oliver: While they work to get the staff away from Savage, we need to know everything there is to know about him.
Thea: Well, I Googled "reincarnated nut jobs" and came up with nothing.
Carter: Kendra and I would be the reincarnated nut-jobs. Savage is merely immortal.
Thea: Really?!  Welcome to the new normal!

Felicity: Are you okay?
Oliver: Well, we're up against an immortal madman armed with a magical staff. So I do have a few things on my mind.
Felicity: Yeah, but  you were acting fine with everything when we were home. And now that we're here in Central City you've just been not... you.
Oliver: Well, maybe it's too bright and sunny for me here?!

Kendra: You know, we should talk.
Cisco: Never in the history of romance have those words ever meant anything good.

Green Arrow: Thank you for coming. I know this is more than a little crazy.
The Flash: Yeah, well, your friend with the creepy ring asked so nicely. Please tell me we're not going to negotiate with terrorists? Or, you know, 4,000 year-old bad guys?
Green Arrow: Just think of this more as a fact-finding mission. Maybe Savage slips up and gives us something we can use to our advantage.
Merlyn: (scoffs) Thea said you were being a little more humorous lately.
The Flash: I'm sorry - how do you know so much about Savage, anyway?
Merlyn: I don't know anything about him, Mr. Allen.  No one does. And that is why I'm afraid of him.
(Vandal Savage emerges silently from the shadows)
Vandal Savage: That's not the only reason to be afraid of me... I assure you.

Vandal Savage: The only way for you and yours to live through this is to render unto me what is mine. Turn over Prince Khufu and Priestess Chay-ara within 24 hours or I will lay waste to this city, killing everyone that you hold dear. (Savage turns to Green Arrow) And after that I will travel to your home. And do the same thing there.
The Flash: I'm just curious - did you rehearse that speech in a mirror this morning or is this all off the cuff?
Vandal Savage: (chuckles) Why would you risk the lives of your friends and family for two strangers? 206 times I have killed him. What hubris possesses you that makes you think you can prevent me from doing so again?
The Flash: Not hubris. Hope.

(Barry has just told Cisco that he saw a time ghost of himself)
Cisco: Okay, um, all right, look...don't panic! A) You don't know that you time-jumped for a bad reason. It could be a good one, right? B) Now that you know you time-jumped, you might not do it, right? So knowing the future, might change the present, which might change the future.
Barry: ... what?
Cisco: My head hurts.

Kendra: Everyone in there is willing to die to protect us. You don't think that's a little bit insane?
Carter: No. I think it's noble. I think it's what makes them all heroes.
Kendra: Yeah, well, heroes or not, I'm not letting anyone die for me!
Carter: Then don't. Be the person... the woman... the warrior you are meant to be. The one you always have been.

Oliver: Look, Felicity...
Felicity: Stop! I cannot hear another lie!
Oliver: It's more complicated than that...
Felicity: God, Oliver! You are the only person on this planet who considers the truth complicated! Just to be clear, I don't care that you have a child. I can't believe that you have a child that you didn't tell me about. I care that you lied to me just now!
Oliver: You know that my whole world just exploded? And I think that I'm entitled to a... a minute to process that by myself.
Felicity: You somehow managed to go tot he CCPD to track down Barry. So you didn't keep it to yourself. You kept it from me. When were you planning on telling me?
Oliver: ... I don't know.
Felicity: If you loved me.... if you trusted me, telling me this wouldn't be such a burden. It would be a relief! But you don't trust me! You never will! And how can I be with someone who doesn't trust me?!

Vandal Savage: It's wonderful to see you again, my love.
Kendra: I will never be your love!
Vandal Savage: I know. (draws a knife) That always makes this easier.

Kendra: Ever since I emerged, I've been remembering our first life in Egypt. But I've been telling Carter I can't remember anything because... because I don't want to accept that I'm some reincarnated Egyptian warrior priestess!
Cisco: Okay. Yeah. That's pretty heavy. But it's also pretty amazing! I've been through this. You know I have. And what you're going through right now... this is a gift! It's a miracle that most people don't get to experience!
Kendra: Yeah, well it feels like a nightmare.
Cisco: Yeah, but that... that is a chocie! You can choose the other things... to remember who you are. Or who you were.

(Barry moves to hug Barry but Ollie raises his hands to stop him)
Ollie: (chuckling) I'm not really a hugger.
Barry: Yeah, tell me something I don't know. But the thing is I am fast enough to just hug you without you knowing, so you might as well let me.
(The two hug)
Ollie: Yeah. Thanks.
Barry: That wasn't so bad, was it?


Continuity

Chay-ara was a priestess of Horus.

Caitlin refers to how the first Arrow Cave was discovered by the police in 318 and the second was uncovered by Double Down in 403.

According to Carter, he and Chay-ara have to seek out their helmets in each of their new lives.

Samantha's son is named William. Ollie palms some of his hair from a ball-cap after "accidentally" knocking it out of Samantha's hand.

Vandal Savage claims to have taught Robin of Locksley how to use a bow and that he taught Savage how to not feel pain.

According to Carter, Vandal Savage killed two million people in 1887 during the Huang He Floods to get to him and Kendra.

As in F115, Barry sees a "ghost" of himself while running at super-speed, as he did right before the first time he time-traveled.

Barry conducts a DNA test that confirms that Oliver is William' father.

Oliver finds out about the deal that Moira made to pay his ex-girlfriend one million dollars to lie about miscarrying.in A222. He also discovers that the check was never cashed and that Samantha is determined to keep Oliver out of her son's life.

Ollie tells Barry to "run, Barry, run". This is the same catch-phrase Eobard Thawne used to tell Barry when encouraging him to run faster.

Barry time-jumps while trying to outrun the blast from the Staff or Horus that destroys Central City and kills all of his friends. He arrives just at the beginning of his meeting with Ollie, Merlyn and Vandal Savage.

In the new timeline, Barry tells Ollie about everyone dying, Kendra's powers and the special-gauntlets failing and warns Ollie about his conducting the DNA test in secret. He tells Ollie what he guessed about Ollie having fathered a child.

This leads to Ollie asking Cisco to triple-check the gauntlets and advising him to talk to Kendra instead of leaving Carter to train her.

This leads to Kendra having a full vision of her original death and remembering the strange "sky-rock" metal used by Hath-Set.

This leads Cisco to use the same metal on the gauntlets to counteract the Staff of Horus.

And that leads to Oliver deciding to take the whole team into the field rather than just himself, Barry, Carter and Kendra.

Kendra and Carter leave to go to St. Roch.

Cisco makes Kendra a medal of Nth Metal with a micro GPS chip embedded in it.

Oliver winds up agreeing to Samantha's terms - she will allow him to see William but only if he agrees to tell no one - not even Felicity - that he is William's father. And William will only know him as mommy's friend.

Merlyn gathers up Vandal Savage's ashes at the episode's end, saying that Savage will owe him one.


Location

Most of the episode takes place in Central City.

The flashbacks take place in the Middle Kingdom of Ancient Egypt, during the time of Ramses The Wise.


The Fridge Factor

Felicity, Laurel, Thea and Caitlin are left on the sidelines for most of the episode.

There's so much wrong with Kendra being dependent on either Carter or Cisco to access her powers reliably.


The Winick Factor

You'd think Ollie would have learned his lesson by now about trying to keep secrets from his loved ones and that agreeing to Samantha's terms would be really stupid.


The Bottom Line

It isn't bad but it's a bit of a disappointment after Part One. Carter still isn't developed very well and the Cisco/Kendra romance ends as quickly as it began. Oddly enough, Barry and Cisco take center stage for most of the episode while the rest of Team Arrow is side-lined. And the subplot with Ollie and his illegitimate son seems forced and serves no purpose other than to set up a future wedge between himself and Felicity.

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 2, Episode 8 - Legends of Today

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




Plot

When Kendra Saunders finds herself being stalked by a strange man, Barry steps in to help Cisco's new girlfriend out. The three of them travel to Star City, where Team Arrow agrees to keep an eye on her... right until she is kidnapped by a winged man!  At the same time. Harry Wells and Caitlin Snow develop a serum to increase Barry Allen's speed and try to test it on an unwilling Jay Garrick.


Influences

The JSA and Hawkman comics of James Robinson, David Goyer and Geoff Johns (modern origin of Hawkman and Hawkgirl) and The Flash comics of Mike Baron (Velocity 9)


Goofs

It's a little unbelievable that Cisco - given how much of a geek he is about the superhero thing  - would forget to NOT call Barry by his real name in public.

Why does Barry run to get Ollie his archery gear instead of charging Savage?  For that matter, why does he only get Ollie's archery gear and not Thea's?

It's a little out of left-field that Jay Garrick - who has been presented as a straight-forward scientist until now - should believe in The Speed Force as a semi-mystic living element.


Performances

Honestly, the whole cast is on fire here. But the chemistry between Carlos Valdez and Ciara Renee is particularly noteworthy. Valdez has been given a lot of good material to be more than something besides comic relief this season and the romance between himself and Kendra is believable and wonderful. It will be interesting to see how Carter Hall changes that dynamic.


Artistry

The special effects of Barry racing Savage's knives are impressive, even by the standards of the show.

The fight scenes are all fantastic, but I specially liked Green Arrow vs. Hawkman.


Flash Facts

Kendra Saunders first appeared in the 1999 JSA comic. Kendra's great-aunt, Shiera Saunders, was the original Hawkgirl and Kendra took up her legacy. Or so she thought. It was revealed later, over the course of the Return of Hawkman storyline and the Hawkman comic that followed, that Kendra's soul had passed on after a suicide attempt and was replaced with the soul of her great-aunt, while stall maintaining Kendra's personality and memories.

It was also revealed that Shiera's soul - as well of that of her husband Carter Hall (a.k.a. the original Hawkman) - had been reincarnated hundreds of times since the days of Ancient Egypt. Originally they were Prince Khufu and his consort Chay-Ara. Their souls became trapped in an endless cycle of reincarnation and reoccurring deaths at the hands of a treacherous priest - Hath-Set - who was also continually reincarnated and destined to kill them.

The story of Carter Hall and Kendra Saunders in the DCTVU is virtually the same as in the modern JSA comics, save that Chay-Ara is specifically referred to as a priestess rather than a queen. As in the comics, Kendra did not believe in the reincarnation at first and resisted Carter Hall's attempts to convince her that they were soulmates and reestablish a romance with her.

No explanation is given for how Kendra and Carter's wings function in this episode, though they are retractable and their emergence when falling is reflexive in nature. They are not technologically based, as the wings of their Golden Age counterparts were but neither do they seem to be biological as the wings of the Silver Age alien Hawkman and Hawkgirl were.

Vandal Savage first appeared in Green Lantern #10 as an enemy of the Alan Scott Green Lantern. A caveman exposed to the radiation of a strange meteor, Savage was blessed with enhanced intelligence and immortality. Since that time, he has lived many lives and claims to have been many of history's greatest conquerors, leading whole armies in an effort to take over the world.

The DCTVU version of Vandal Savage seems to be largely the same as his comic-book counterpart. The biggest difference is that his immortality is tied to his continually murdering the reincarnated spirits of Chay-ara and Khufu. In this, Savage has replaced the villain Hath-Set, but otherwise acts just like the Vandal Savage of the comics. Another minor change is that this version of Savage acted as an adviser to history's greatest generals rather than being said generals.

Velocity 6 - the drug that Caitlin and Harry develop - appears to be a nod to Velocity 9.  Velocity 9, in the comics, was a drug that granted super-speed but also caused premature aging, exhaustion and eventually death. It was developed by the post-Crisis Vandal Savage as a means of making money to fund his criminal empire. It was eventually developed into a non-lethal formula.

Felicity looks at Barry's sketch of Vandal Savage and says he's "kind of rocking the Dothraki look". This is a reference to a barbarian tribe from the Game of Thrones books and TV show but may also be a reference to a disproved rumor that Jason Momoa - the actor who played Dothraki chieftain Khal Drogo - would be playing Vandal Savage in the movie Batman v. Superman. He was, of course, cast as Aquaman.

The woman Oliver seems to recognize at CC Jitters is Samantha Clayton - a parallel to the comics character of Sandra Hawke. In the comics, Sandra Hawke was a former girlfriend of Oliver's who became pregnant and gave birth to his son without his knowledge. This son - Connor Hawke - eventually became the second Green Arrow.  Samantha's son is named William.


Technobabble

Felicity designed a magnetic arrow that is powerful enough to pull the guns out of several criminals hands.

Caitlin compares Harry's idea for a formula to increase a speedster's top speed to adding nitrous oxide to increase the power of an combustion engine.

Barry determines that one person was responsible for all the deaths at the docks based on the blood pattern. The knife used contained a cryptocrystalline - flint most likely. He later matches one of the knives Savage tried to use to kill Kendra and confirms that they are indeed flint. He also determines they are centuries old.

Cisco's schematics for the new Arrow Cave called for copper wiring. This is why the new Arrow Cave suffers repeated power outages.

Harry Wells' Velocity formula is meant to temporarily enhance The Speed Force within a speedster's system in the same way nitrous oxide can increase the speed of a motor vehicle.

Caitlin says Wells' failures were due to his thinking of Barry's speed in mechanical terms rather than bio mechanical terms. Speedsters consume massive amounts of oxygen to increase their speed. In order to boost his speed, they need something that will introduce more oxygen into Barry's system, like an oxygen generator.

Specifically, they need a chemical that is rich in oxygen that would release it as a nearly pure gas as it decomposes. They decide upon sodium chlorate. At that point, all they need is heat to release the oxygen, which a speedster naturally generates when they run.  It is worth noting, however, that sodium chlorate is highly toxic in the real world and it is the basis for several chemical herbicides.


Dialogue Triumphs

Barry: I've been running a lot lately. Trying to go faster than I've ever gone before. Because there's someone out there who's better, faster and stronger than I am. And I need to be ready. But no matter how much I try or how hard I push myself, I keep running into the same problem...

(After Savage magically slips from his handcuffs and places them on the ship's captain who arrested him)
Cop: Who taught you that?! Houdini?!
Vandal Savage: Actually, I taught him.

(Green Arrow shoots an arrow into the middle of the crowd of HIVE agents.  Damien Darhk looks up to see Green Arrow, Speedy and John Diggle standing on top of the truck they were robbing.)
Damien Darhk: Huh. You brought arrows to a gun fight.
Green Arrow: What guns?
(power hums from the arrow in the ground, drawing the HIVE agents's guns to it) 
Damien Darhk: (laughing) Oh!  That was actually pretty clever!  Kill them.

Felicity (in a parody of Oliver's "Arrow" voice): 'Felicity, the magnetic-arrow gag will never work.' (switching to her normal voice) Ha! Yes it will, my love! Because I am really smart! And guess what, Oliver? It did work!
Oliver: (over the comm) Felicity? Honey? It's a little hard to fight with you doing that in my ear!
Felicity: (gasping) Oh I totally forgot that this was an open line!  Keep doing what you're doing! Make smart decisions!

Thea: It's The Flash?
(Oliver nods)
Thea: Did I know we knew The Flash?
(Oliver nods again)
Thea: We know The Flash. Okay. I didn't know we knew The Flash.

Felicity: (To Kendra) I'm Felicity
Kendra: I'm Kendra Saunders. I'm Cisco's...
(Kendra looks to Cisco.)
Cisco: She's, uh, my, uh, new beautiful friend. Who kisses me. Occasionally.
(The mother of all awkward silences ensues)
Thea: Right... umm.. I'm Thea.

Barry: I've got to say this isn't the same... Arrow team I'm used to seeing. Or the same Oliver Queen. You seem really...
Oliver; Happy?
Barry: Happy, yeah...
Oliver: I am happy. I finally have everything that I've ever wanted. Being with Felicity has given me a real sense of peace. Something I haven't had in a long time.
Barry: Didn't you tell me that guys like us don't get the girl?
Oliver: Yep. I was wrong.

Felicity: (in response to Cisco and Kendra being metahumans) Oh, I did not see that one coming!
(The power suddenly goes out. When it comes back on, Malcolm Merlyn is standing there)
Merlyn: Oh, I think there's a lot you didn't see coming.

Kendra: If what everyone's saying is true - and it's beginning to seem like it is - my whole life just changed. And I am so not ready for that!
Cisco: I hear what you're saying. I do. When I first learned about... my powers, I remember feeling that exact same feeling. And sometimes I still feel that way. And all I can say is... every day it gets a little bit more normal. I promise you.

(As they're fighting Hawkman)
Green Arrow: We need to expose his wings.
The Flash: I'm open to suggestions.
Green Arrow: Oh, now you're listening to me?
The Flash: It's your city, Oliver!
Green Arrow: All right.

Carter: Chay-ara!
Kendra: My name is Kendra Saunders.
Carter: In this life. And I am - was - Carter Hall. But that is not who we are.
Kendra: What does that mean?
Carter: You're Priestess Chay-ara. I am Prince Khufu. And we're lovers. Soul mates. We've been partners for 4000 years. We're drawn to each other in each life, and after we die we reincarnate to find each other again and again and again.

(As Carter refuses Team Flash and Team Arrow's help)
Cisco: You're 0 for 206 and you still think you're her best bet?
Barry: Okay, so what we need to do is just find Savage and get rid of him.
Carter: Well.. you can't get rid of him, my friend.
Barry: Oh yeah? Watch us!
(Merlyn suddenly steps out of the shadows)
Merlyn: It might be harder than you think.
Barry: Is- is that the only way this guy knows how to enter a room?

(Vandal Savage emerges, holding the Staff of Horus)
The Flash: We're too late.
Vandal Savage: Something you're not used to saying very often, I'd imagine.

(As Savage is taking shots at them with the Staff of Horus)
Green Arrow: Any ideas?
The Flash: Oh, now you're listening to me?
Green Arrow: It's your city!

Vandal Savage: I used to enjoy slow deaths. Now I just find them boring.


Continuity

At the start of the episode, Barry clocks 1375 mph on the treadmill. Caitlin says his top recorded speed was just over Mach 2 (1522 mph) when he time-traveled at the end of Season One.

Harry Wells estimates that Zoom is 3 to 4 times faster than Barry.

Vandal Savage claims to have taught escapology to Harry Houdini. He may have used true magic to escape his bonds.

Kendra enjoys cooking.

Chay-ara is a Coptic name. In other words, ancient Egyptian.

Cisco refers to Oliver and his allies as Team Arrow - the same nickname used by Felicity.

Barry is aware of the existence of magic and knows something about what Team Arrow has been fighting in Star City, specifically saying that there's something mystical about Vandal Savage and that Oliver has more experience with that.

John Diggle throws up every time he is moved with super-speed.

Felicity refers to Barry having his back broken by Zoom in 206.

Barry has some talent as a sketch artist.

The picture of Vandal Savage Felicity finds was from 1975.

Harry Wells' background is in technology, not bio-chemistry.

Merlyn is now aware of Barry's secret identity.

Cisco tells Barry about his vibe from 207 of Kendra as the flying woman in armor.

Thea's blood lust -  a reoccurring plot element from Season Four of Arrow - is referred to here when she seems to fatally shoot Vandal Savage.

Cisco reveals his powers to Kendra and Team Arrow.

Jay Garrick describes The Speed Force as a living thing and a gift that cannot be enhanced or replicated.

According to Merlyn, The League of Assassins' records say that Vandal Savage was an adviser to both Genghis Khan and Julius Caesar.

Barry throws lighting to taser Hawkman, as he last did in 206.  He also creates a whirlwind to ground Hawkman in the same way he created an air cushion to catch Linda Park in that episode.

Patty tracks Harry Wells to STAR Labs and shoots him.

Reference is made to Dr. Tina McGee seeing Harry Wells robbing her lab in 204.

Apparently Harry Wells knows a Dr. Tina McGee on Earth 2.

Vandal Savage has killed Chay-ara and Khufu 206 times. He becomes more powerful each time he does so.

Vandal Savage seeks an item called The Staff of Horus.  In A405, Oliver Queen had an encounter with The Orb of Horus.

Carter says that suddenly falling usually triggers the "emergence" of the wings and memories of Khufu and Chay-ara.

Ollie theorizes that Kendra is drawn to significant items from her past the same way Carter and Vandal Savage were drawn to her and that the reason she moved to Central City was because the Staff of Horus was there somewhere.

Barry refers to his fight with Grodd in 207 and his traveling through time, as he did in 123 and 115.

Barry also refers to how he lost his powers until he focused on who he truly was, as in 107.

The Velocity 6 formula works on Jay Garrick, who takes it to phase the bullet out of Harry Well's chest.  He refuses to ever use it again, however.

Oliver is not a regular church-goer, saying it's been some time since he's been in one when he and Barry arrive at St. Mark's Cathedral in Central City.

It's been eight months since The Flash drink was introduced at CC Jitters.

Oliver sees Samantha and her son at CC Jitters as he and Barry get a drink together. He last saw her at CC Jitters in F108. Before that, she was seen in A222 where it was revealed that Moira Queen bribed her to tell Oliver that she'd lost their child and move away.


Location

Star City


The Bottom Line

Easily the best team-up episode of all these characters to date. The only real flaw is that there isn't much time to introduce Carter Hall and Kendra seems to buy into her destiny way too quickly. Still, the script is solid and the performances are believable. And Vandal Savage is established as the sort of villain you just love to hate and a credible threat right away.