Legends of Tomorrow: Season 7, Episode 3 - wvrdr_error_100 not found

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

Plot

Fearing for the safety of the other Legends, Astra, Spooner and a now human Gideon race after them. Unfortunately, a mysterious virus overwhelms Gideon, leading Astra and Spooner to combine their powers and take a psychic journey into Gideon's mind and her memories of the Legends' adventures. 

Influences

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Inception. (general dream logic and concept of memories fighting to avoid being erased or altered as someone travels through a dreamscape, Spooner specifically mentions Christopher Nolan movies.)


Performances

Honestly, it's hard to single out any one of the cameos as the best, but if pressed, we'll give it to Victor Garber just because it's was always a delight when the show gave him an excuse to sing.

Amy Pemberton does a fantastic job as the various versions of Gideon


Artistry

The lighting of the various dream versions of the Waverider helps to subtly drive home the dream like quality of the various flashbacks.


Trivia Of Tomorrow

This was the 100th episode of Legends of Tomorrow.

The title card for this episode shows the title cards of every season of Legends of Tomorrow so far.

This episode was directed by Caity Lotz, who plays Sara Lance.

Several actors who left the series returned to make cameos in Gideon's memories, along with one villain who has apparently returned to be the chief villain of Season 7.

Franz Drameh used his natural British accent while playing the memory version of Jax who helps defend Gideon from the Virus. 

The real Jefferson "Jax" Jackson was last seen in 318, where he briefly rejoined the Legends five years after he left the team.

Arthur Darvill's final performance as Captain Rip Hunter was also in 318.

Wentworth Miller's final performance as Len Snart was in 217. However, he did return to play the Earth-X version of Captain Cold, Leo Snart, during the Crisis on Earth X event and voiced a Waverider AI named Leonard from Earth-74 during Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Victor Garber was last seen playing Professor Martin Stein in 308.

Brandon Routh and Courtney Ford last played Dr. Ray Palmer and Nora Darhk in 508.

Falk Hentschel last appeared as Hawkman in 116.

Raffi Barsoumian last appeared as Bishop in 615. However, the version of Bishop he plays here is one year older than his last appearance and is the younger Bishop briefly recruited by the Legends rather than the older, repeatedly cloned Bishop who was the chief villain of Season 6. 

According to Caity Lotz, the karaoke party scene, the holidays party scene and the line up of the Legends welcoming Gideon to the team were all improvised, with the original "curtain call" of all the guest star Legends having originally been written to be on the Waverider bridge instead of the hallway. (Lotz apparently decided to move it after everyone agreed it looked way too much like the end of Rent.)


Technobabble/Arcana

Astra knows a spell that will allow her and Spooner to enter Gideon's mind, but they will need her to guide them back out.

The prefrontal cortex houses short term memories.

In a typical mindscape, the subconscious mind takes the form of a fortress and guards the long-term memories.

Time Master time ships are confirmed to be intended for one permanent occupant. This is why the Waverider only has one bathroom, despite having been outfitted to have multiple bedrooms by Rip Hunter.

The memory Jax is able to rig up some kind of anti-viral system that manifests as an energy gun. Blasting a corrupted memory with it restores them to normal.


Dialogue Triumphs

Astra: So you're Jax?
Memory Jax: Yup. The better-looking half of Firestorm and the ship's mechanic extraordinaire at your service, ladies. So I take it you two are Legends then?
Spooner: You know, they never told us you were British.
Memory Jax: Yeah, I'm not, this is just how Gideon decided to remember me for some reason. But I don't mind... I mean, everything sounds better in a British accent, don't it?
Astra:  Debatable.

(The memory Jax explains what they need to do to restore Gideon's memories.)
Astra: So you're gonna send us inside Gideon's head, even though we're already inside Gideon's head?
Memory Jax: Yeah.
Spooner: There's a reason why I skip Christopher Nolan movies. Let's just not overthink things.
Astra: Yeah, okay

(Upon seeing Sara in her original White Canary costume.)
Astra: White suede? That's gonna stain.

Memory Sara: I got to say, Gideon, you run a tight ship.
Gideon: Oh, that's Captain Hunter's job. I'm not in charge here.
Memory Sara: Guy's got his work cut out for him. I don't know why you'd choose to captain a team like this.

(As Gideon is looking at the Waverider controls, Astra walks over to the study and the liquor cabinet.)
Spooner: What are you doing?
Astra: Just because we are stuck in her brain doesn't mean I can't pickle mine.
(Astra swigs from the bottle and immediately starts gagging at the taste.)
Gideon: I recall during this memory that Dr. Palmer had replaced all the ship's alcohol with kombucha.
(Astra hisses in annoyance as she tries to keep spitting the taste from her mouth.)

Gideon: Always hoped I'd get to go on a Legends mission in real life. Always hoped it'd be one of the westerns, but this is fun too.

Memory Gary: Now, when you're eating a person, I recommend starting with the limbs and then working your way to the head.
(There is an awkward silence.)
Memory Gary: A gingerbread person. I mean, clearly, I don't eat real people.

Gideon: You can't hide from me. I'm in control now.
Blue Gideon: Whatever those two told you, you can't believe it. Remember, they're the enemy. 

Gideon: You're wrong. 

Blue Gideon: So you're going to shoot me. 

Gideon: No, because you're not my enemy, either.

Blue Gideon: I don't... I don't understand. 

Gideon: Of course, you don't. As powerful as you are, you're just a set of algorithms, a closed system. There's so much you can't understand. But you are a part of me because all of the clashing emotions, all the good moments, and the pain we survived despite ourselves, all of that helps us evolve. That's what the Legends are shown me. So we're going to coexist, but I'm steering the ship from now on.
Blue Gideon: Do you even know what you're doing? 

Gideon: No, I really don't. But I'm excited to figure it out. 
(Gideon walks through the hologram with confidence. On the other side of the bridge, Rip Hunter is leaning against the wall, waiting for her.)

Memory Rip: And you won't be doing it alone. 
(Rip opens the door to the hallway. Astra, Spooner and the Memory Jax are waiting for her.)

Spooner: That-a-girl!
Astra: Now, listen, we are all just trying to figure out this being human thing together.
Memory Jax: It's not always going to be easy.
Spooner: And you know, sometimes you'll feel like you're out of your mind.
(Spooner puts an arm around Gideon and guides her down the Hall as more figures emerge from the rooms to join them.)
Memory Nora: Or that the darkness is too much to bear.
Memory Gary: But it's worth fighting the darkness to discover who you really are.
Memory Zari 2.0: Yes. And not just for yourself.
Memory Behrad: So you can create a better world for everyone.
(Behrad holds up a bag full of edible gummies and offers them to Gideon, but Zari bats them away.)
Memory Snart: Now, you're gonna make some mistakes.
Memory Stein: There's no formula to guide the way.
Memory Hawkman: No destiny to surrender to.
Memory: Ray: It's not about being perfect. It's about doing what you know is right.
Memory Nate: And having a hell of a good time doing it.
Memory Ava: That's what it means to be alive.
Memory Sara: And to be a Legend. Welcome to the team, Gideon.
(The memory of Sara shakes Gideon's hand as Gideon smiles softly and looks down the hall as the memories of all the heroes she's traveled with regard her and she realizes she's truly one of them, as light envelopes her and she wakes up in the barm.) 

(Bishop has just rebooted his copy of Gideon.)
Blue Gideon: Greetings, Captain. I am Gideon. How can I aid you in eliminating anachronisms from the timeline?
Bishop: Oh, you want to eliminate some anachronisms? I've got just the band of idiots to start with.

Continuity

As the episode opens, Spooner, Astra and Gideon are somewhere east of Odessa, following Gideon's feeling as to where the other Legends are.

Gideon is now able to speak normally.

Spooner is able to tell time using the sun 

Astra knows how to steal a car.

Strawberry Rhubarb is Astra's favorite type of pie. 

Gideon passes out after she thinks to hard about the paradox of being morally unable to steal a pie but needing food to survive to accomplish the greater good of preventing the Legends from dying.

Gideon claims the pie Astra wanted her to steal was historically significant, having been baked by Miss Adelaide Van Zandt who went on to win the blue ribbon at the Pasaco County Fair pie baking contest because of that pie.

Gideon's psychic landscape resembles the Waverider, but with Matrix-style code outside the ship rather than the usual green clouds and energy waves of the Temporal Zone.

In 2213, on the day of the AVA Clone launch, Bishop reveals to his Assistant Ava clone that he's been having visions of strange lizard people that he thinks are memories but they are tied to a strange object he found in his lab coat one year earlier.

Bishop's visions are of the Zagurons from 615.

Bishop later determined that this object was a highly advanced hard drive. Over the course of the year since he met the Legends, Bishop was able to reverse engineer an interface for the hard drive, but still couldn't understand the code that he found on it. The code begins with the string GIDEON_OS.

Spooner and Astra are greeted by a memory of Jefferson "Jax" Jackson who has a British accent, because Gideon seemed to remember him having an accent like hers.

The memory Jax claims that he spent the most time with Gideon out of all the original Legends, which is why he hadn't been deleted like the other Legends, as he was buried too deep in her subconscious. 

Memory Jax explains that Gideon's short term memories have been erased and something is trying to erase the long term memories as well. If this should happen, it would be like a factory reset, with Gideon having all of the knowledge and power she did before but none of the memories she acquired while working with the Legends. In order to restore Gideon's access to her memories, Astra and Spooner will have to find her consciousness and guide her through those memories she considered most important.

The first memory they visit took place sometime after 601, while Spooner was still in a coma shortly after her first encounter with the Legends. Gideon held onto it because it was the first time she had been convinced that love was more important than logic, after Gideon questioned Ava as to whether abducting Spooner was the best way to track down Sara after she was abducted by aliens.

Spooner has been traveling with the Legends for one relative year, according to Memory Jax.

The second memory they visit took place sometime between episodes 101 and 102, with Captain Cold, Sara, and Hawkman nearly coming to blows as Ray is fixing breakfast in the Waverider galley and Gideon talking them down. Gideon held on to this memory as it reminded her that as crazy as the various Legends could be, they were ultimately friends.

 
The third memory they visit takes place sometime immediately after 307, as reference is made to confronting Gorilla Grodd during the Vietnam War and Martin Stein's recently becoming a grandfather. In it, an unusually cheerful Stein sings a duet of "Good Morning" from Singin' in the Rain with Gideon. The memory Ray does not join in, saying that music from Singin' In The Rain just reminds him of Gumball - the baby Dominator he adopted in 304 - and makes him sad.

The virus attacking Gideon's memories is revealed to be another version of Gideon - one who was reset to factory specifications, who sees Gideon's affection for the Legends as a sickness.

The other Gideon is dubbed Blue Gideon by Spooner.

Gideon has recovered enough of her memories that she is able to pilot the Waverider manually, leading her to start flying the memory of the Waverider back to her subconscious and Jax.

The fourth memory they travel to takes place sometime during 101 and features Rip Hunter informing the Legends, after their first night on the ship, that they all have to share one bathroom.

The Blue Gideon is revealed to have disguised herself as Rip Hunter and lures Gideon away from Asttra and Spooner.

The Blue Gideon is revealed to be a copy of the Gideon OS which Bishop activated in 2213 and reprogrammed to destroy the Legends.

Bishop's memories of the Legends are restored after Gideon asks what happened to the Legends. He then remembers that he copied Gideon's OS then wiped her memory so she couldn't tell anyone and hid the hard drive on himself, only to forget about it when they erased his memory.

Blue Gideon is able to corrupt Gideon's memories. This causes the Legends in the memories to start attacking Astra and Spooner.

Blue Gideon forces Gideon to remember the death of Behrad in 509, the death of Rip Hunter in 318, the death of Captain Cold in 115 and the death of Martin Stein in 308.among other moments of the Legends' suffering, claiming to have shielded Gideon from the pain of human grief so she could focus on the team's mission objectives.

Blue Gideon offers to take away the pain, erase the memories of the Legends and tries to get Gideon to agree that they can destroy the Legends after that, as they are the real enemy.

Blue Gideon reveals one memory which Rip Hunter repressed - that he reprogrammed Gideon to make protecting the Legends her first priority, rather than protecting the timeline, as the original Gideon claimed Rip Hunter's plan to use the Legends to fight Vandal Savage was too volatile and the Legends risked causing more damage than they could fix.  

Memory Jax, Astra and Spooner fight their was past corrupted memories of Behrad and Zari 2.0, Nate and Zari 1.0, Ava and Sara.

After being left depressed and not wanting to be human by Blue Gideon's assault, Astra and Spooner cheer Gideon up by guiding her into a memory of a party the Legends threw to celebrate all the major holidays at once, including all their birthdays.

The party took place sometime during the first part of Season 5, after Zari 2.0 joined the team in 505 but before Ray and Nora Darhk left in 508, as the Legends in attendance included Sara, Ava, Nate, Behrad, Zari 2.0, Gary, Ray and Nora. 

They journey into another memory from the same time period, where Ava, Zari 2.0 and Nora were holding a book club meeting and Gideon told them that John Constantine had taken a jump ship to go to the midnight premiere of a Harry Potter movie in secret. (They declare John a total Slytherin.)

The final memory they journey into is of a karaoke party held on the Waverider. Sara, Ava, Ray, Ava and Zari 1.0 are present and reference is made to the team just saving the world,  The presence of Ava and Nate and Zari's interactions suggests this story is set somewhere in Season 4. Gideon wound up singing "Love Will Keep Us Together."

Gideon confronts the Blue Gideon and says she will be controlling herself now. She is greeted by memories of the other Legends, along with Astra and Spooner, who tell her that they will be with her to help her figure out what it is to be human.

In 2213, Bishop erases the memories of his copy of Gideon and reprograms her to destroy the Legends.

Location

Odessa, Texas -1925
A psychic landscape based on Gideon's mind.
Vancouver, British Columbia - 2213


Untelevised Adventures

Through flashbacks through Gideon's memories, we see (in chronological order)

Rip Hunter informing the Legends that the Waverider has only one bathroom. (101.)

Rip Hunter reprogramming Gideon to put the Legends' safety over keeping the timeline stable.(101.)

A fight almost breaking out between Hawkman, Captain Cold, The Atom and White Canary ( 102.)

Gideon and Martin Stein singing a duet together (sometime after 307)

A karaoke party on the Waverider (sometime in Season 4)

A party where the Legends celebrated all the major holidays at once.(sometime between 505 and 508.)

Gideon and Ava talking about how love is more important than logic. (601)

The Bottom Line

Everything you could hope for in an anniversary episode.

Legends Of Tomorrow: Season 3, Episode 6 - Helen Hunt

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





Plot

Their latest experiments to free Professor Stein from The Firestorm Matrix result in Stein and Jax switching bodies. Unfortunately, the team has no time to fix the problem. Tracking an anachronism to 1930s Hollywood, The Legends are surprised to find two film studios warring over the most beautiful woman in history, Helen of Troy! They are also surprised by the arrival of an old enemy...


Influences

Various body-swapping comedies, particularly Freaky Friday (which Ray mentions by name) and the legends of The Trojan War (Helen of Troy, Sara uses a Trojan Horse to enter the mansion were Helen is held)


Goofs

Given that Troy was located in what is today the nation of Turkey, it seems unlikely that Helen of Troy would be a pale, blond-haired woman.

No explanation is given for why a bisexual woman like Sara Lance isn't as taken aback by Helen of Troy's beauty as the heterosexual men around her. (Perhaps Helen truly is cursed and the curse is heteronormative?)

While it's possible that things are different on Earth One in The DCTVU, in our world Hedy Lamarr was signed to a contract with MGM in 1938 after being discovered by Louie B. Mayer in Paris in 1937. As such, she would not have been at liberty to film a Helen of Troy movie at Warner Brothers and would hardly have had to resort to working as a phone operator in the studio office!

Wonder Woman lore purists may complain that it should be impossible for The Waverider to fly to Themyscria as the whole island is meant to be magically enscrolled by The Greek Gods. (Given the role The Greek Gods had in messing with The Trojan War, however, it's likely they either looked the other way or Zari - being a woman - was allowed to breach the barriers.)


Performances

Franz Drameh and Victor Garber do a fine job playing one another's respective regular roles.


Artistry

The costumers and set designers did a great job capturing the feeling of 1930s Hollywood.

The editing between the twin battles of Darhk/Sara and Kuasa/Amaya is fantastic.


Trivia Of Tomorrow

The episode opens with the usual narration being read by Amaya.

The series usual title-card is replaced with a black-and-white number.

The episode title is a play on the name of actress Helen Hunt, who is most famous for winning The Oscar for Best Actress in 1998 for the movie As Good As It Gets.

Legend has it that Helen of Troy was the most beautiful woman in history. Said to have "a face that launched a thousand ships", her abduction by Prince Paris of Troy from the home of her husband, the Spartan king Melenaus, sparked a ten-year conflict known as The Trojan War. This was due to a contest held by various rulers as to who would marry Helen and an agreement of all the participatory nation-states - The Oath of Tyndareus - that they would aid one another in battle.

Opinion is split between Historians as to whether or not there ever was a real battle that inspired the legends of The Trojan War. Indeed, until fairly recently, there was some argument as to whether or not The City of Troy ever existed. Some believe the Troy of legend was a town located in what is now modern Turkey.

The actress whom the real Helen of Troy replaces in the role of Helen of Troy is Hedy Lamarr. Once called "the most beautiful woman in film" (a title that was used for one 2012 biography), Lamarr had brains to match her beauty (as Stein notes) and invented the Spread Spectrum technology that led to the invention of modern wireless communications.

While Hedy Lamarr had not made any American films in 1937 (in our reality, her Hollywood premiere was the 1938 film Algiers), she was far from the desperate actress we see in this episode. After fleeing to Paris to escape her abusive husband in Austria, she was signed to a contract with MGM by Louis B. Mayer, who brought her to America in 1938. At the time she was still well known in Europe for her role in the 1933 German film Ecstasy, which is mostly remembered today for featuring a then 18-year old Lamarr swimming and running in the nude.

Hedy Lamarr did later play Helen of Troy (among other roles) in the 1954 Italian film The Loves of Three Queens.

The island of warrior woman Zari drops Helen of Troy off on is confirmed to be Themyscria. Also know as Paradise Island, Themyscria is the island home of the Amazons in the DC Comics Universe. This marks the first confirmation of Themyscria and The Amazons existing in The DCTVU.


Technobabble

Using Professor Stein's research, Ray develops nanites which should latch onto the Firestorm Matrix within Professor Stein. This, coupled with a polymer Ray constructed, should allow him to transfer that into Jefferson.

Hedy Lamarr theorizes that what has Jax and Stein mixed-up is a case of quantum entanglement, where the particles in one body are mirrored in an atomic companion.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Upon learning that Jax and Stein have switched bodies.)
Sara: Must be Tuesday.

(The team finds out they have to go to Hollywood in 1937.)
Jax: Maybe now I might actually get to meet some celebrities.
Stein: And how would you even know? The oldest movie you've ever watched is some ridiculous farce called Police Academy!

Nate: Helen, and her lover, Paris, set off a ten-year war that launched thousands of ships and sent tens of thousands of men off to their death. All in the name of her beauty.
Zari: You make it sound like it's her fault. Men always find a reason to fight. That's not on her.
Rory: Depends. How hot is she?
Nate: (trying to sound non-nonchalant) I mean, she's alright. (whispering) She's really hot!

(Sara finds out that Damien Darhk has positioned himself to become Helen of Troy's agent.)
Sara: What the hell are you doing here?
Darhk: (innocently) Aside from collecting my 15%?

Helen: Please don't take me away.
Sara: I'm sorry, but this isn't your home, Helen.
Helen: Do you have any idea what it's like on the plains of Troy? This land of Hollywood is far from perfect, but at least these men aren't killing one another in my name.
(Several cars pull up in the driveway as men emerge carrying guns.)
Amaya: Not yet, anyway.

Helen: I don't want to overstep, but may I ask what gods gave you such incredible powers?
Zari: Uh - the gods didn't give us powers. Well, they maybe kinda did for Amaya and me but the Captain is a self-made woman. Sara trains ever day. She's a total bad ass.
Helen: She's a captain too? It gives me hope knowing that you come from a time where women have the same opportunities as men.
Zari: Yeaaaaaah. I wouldn't say that.

(Sara challenges Damien Darhk to a duel)
Darhk: You do realize I don't need magic to kill you.
Sara: Funny. That's what Oliver Queen said right before he killed you.


Dialogue Disasters

Darkh: (To Hedy Lamarr) Oh, I assure you, I am something far more ruthless than a Hollywood agent. (grins and whispers) If that's possible.


Continuity

The two studios fighting over Helen of Troy are Warner Brothers and K&G Pictures.

Jax is a fan of the Police Academy movies. Stein is not.

In the altered timeline, Helen of Troy goes on to star in Casablanca and The Philadelphia Story.

Hedy Lamarr was Martin Stein's boyhood crush.

Kuasa reveals herself to Amaya as a totem barer. She says The Water Totem has now merged with her.

Upon hearing the name Kuasa, Ray seems to recall his encounter with her during Season 2 of the Vixen animated series.

Clarissa Stein and Martin Stein gave each other a "pass" on their marriage vows - i.e. one acceptable affair with one person of their choosing, in order to spice things up. Clarissa chose Jean Claude Van Damme. Martin, thinking the whole thing silly, chose Hedy Lamarr.

With her career path changed by the anachronism, Hedy Lamarr never develops the technology which goes on to inform the technologies that power The Waverider.

Madame Elanor - the psychic from 305 - is confirmed to be Nora Darhk, Damien's daughter. She is revealed to have the same death-touch power and telekinesis he exhibited during Season 4 of Arrow. She also has the ability to catch and redirect the energy of Mick Rory's flame-thrower and the blasts from The ATOM suit.

Kuasa reveals herself to Amaya as her granddaughter before being stabbed and driven off by Helen of Troy.

Sara is placed in a coma by Gideon following Nora Darhk's attack. She is expected to recover fully, however.

Ray tries to tell Amaya about Kuasa but she asks to remain ignorant of everything regarding her. She says she knew nothing about Kuasa's existence - not even that Mari had an older sister.

After reading that the historical record said that Helen disappeared halfway through The Trojan War but that it didn't change anything, Zari drops Helen of Troy off on Themyscria in the same time period.


Location

Hollywood - 1937 AD
Themyscira - 1253 BC


The Fridge Factor

Averted with style, as the ladies among The Legends do all the heavy-lifting to save the day.


The Bottom Line

Compared to last week's episode of The Flash, Helen Hunt delivers its feminist message with subtlety and grace. It's still hugely problematic, built as it is on stereotypes of men being unable to function around a pretty face, even with the suggestion (but no confirmation) that it is all due to a magical gods-given curse. The flubs regarding Hedy Lamarr's life in the script somewhat undercut the care taken elsewhere to get the period details right. Still, for the sake of confirmation that The Amazons exist in The DCTVU and a portrait of Hedy Lamarr that focuses on her importance as a scientist rather than merely being "The Most Beautiful Woman In The World", it suffices. 

Legends Of Tomorrow: Season 3, Episode 5 - Return Of The Mack

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


Plot

When Nate thinks he's found a pattern to the anachronisms, the team heads to London in 1897 to track down a time-traveling vampire. They're surprised to find Rip Hunter waiting for them and even more surprised that he wants to rejoin the team - a revelation that Sara is conflicted on for multiple reasons. Meanwhile, Professor Stein discovers that Jax and Ray have been working on a way to free him from The Firestorm Matrix and he is surprisingly unhappy about it. And Amaya tries to bond with Zari and work out how their two respective necklaces are meant to interact.


Influences

General penny dreadful and Gothic horror tropes, the films of Vincent Price (Rip makes a reference to Vincent Price movies, Victor Garber's appearance and performance as Sir Stein seem to be modeled on Vincent Price), Sherlock Holmes (Rip Hunter's analysis of the vampire victim's body, Rip quotes Holmes, saying "The game's afoot"), Bram Stoker's Dracula (classic vampire themes, Mick is seen reading the book) and the various legends regarding the murderer dubbed Jack The Ripper.


Goofs

How does Damien Darhk have his magic powers back? They were dependent on an idol that is no longer in his possession.


Performances

There's a wonderful bit of non-verbal acting on Caity Lotz's part as Zari talks about using The Waverider to stop her family from being killed. You can tell immediately that Sara is thinking about Laurel and her death at the hands of Damien Darhk that she's powerless to avert.

Victor Garber has a nice dual role as Sir Henry Stein, channeling Vincent Price to play an unsettling yet oddly charming nobleman.


Artistry

It should not work, and yet somehow, the entire fight scene set to Return of the Mack does work.


Trivia Of Tomorrow

This episode opens with a new narration delivered by Rip Hunter.

The episode title comes from a 1996 single by British R&B singer Mark Morrison, which is replayed throughout the episode.

The word Mack has multiple meanings. In America, it's a slang term for a smooth-talking man, particularly one who seduces women. The same term is used in England, where it's also used to refer to a Mackintosh coat - a certain style of long raincoat, similar to the one favored by Rip Hunter.

There was a total lunar eclipse over London, on May 19, 1895.


Technobabble

The serum that Ray develops to break the psychic connection between Jax and Sten has several side-effects including short-term memory loss, facial swelling and some slight gastrointestinal distress.

By folding a linear timeline onto itself, following the mathematics of the golden ratio, Nate was able to find a pattern to the anachronisms.. apart from two outliers.

All matter in the universe possesses a mathematical harmony, according to Stein.

Ray identifies the source of the sudden music in the London morgue as a 2016 PalmerTech 7G Smartwatch.

Digital Digest Magazine gave the 2016 Palmer Tech 7G Smartwatch encryption software a five-padlock rating.

The scientist in Sir Stein's employ invented a two-pronged needle that leaves marks that resemble the traditional puncture-marks left by a vampire.

Ray has the formulae for building a thermocore written on the blackboard in the lab when Stein finds out what he and Jax are working on.

Gentleman's Dreadnought is a code Rip Hunter programmed into Gideon that seals The Waverider up from the outside, trapping anyone who is on-board inside the ship. He uses this to keep Sara from coming after him when he plans to allow Damien Darhk to be resurrected.

Rip Hunter has access to some sort of device like a flash-bang grenade which temporarily slows time around him or allows him to move at super-speed temporarily. We see him use this during the fight with Damien Darhk, which enables him to knock bullets out of the air in mid-flight.


Dialogue Triumphs

Rip Hunter: (voice over) Time Travel is real/ And so are its consequences. When a terrible time paradox put all of history in peril, an elite team was formed. Their job - to protect history and repair these so-called anachronisms. Unfortunately, this is not that elite team. And yet, this team of misfits and outcasts is determined to fix the history which they have broken - not because they are heroes, but because they are Legends!

(Ray and Jax are discussing Jax's bond with Stein through The Firestorm Matrix)
Ray: You guys have been psychically bonded for over three years.
Jax: Yeah, and it's been no picnic, let me tell you. Last time I got laid, afterward Grey said to me (in impression of Stein) "Well done, Jefferson." I mean...!
Ray: ... could have done without knowing that.

Jax: (excitedly) Ray! It's 9 AM and I'm not craving grapefruit!

Rory: (suddenly holding a wooden stake) Vampires. Waited my whole life to kill one.
Jax: (shocked) Do you just carry that around all the time?!
Rory: My whole life.

(As the team walks down a London street, dressed as Bobbies)
Jax: There's a strong smell of garlic
Rory: It's tied around my neck.
Sara: Yep. You're a regular Van Helsing.
Nate: (To Rory) That's from Dracula.
Rory: I'm reading it. Don't tell me the end.

(Rip is explaining why he sought The Legends out to a skeptical Rory, Nate and Sara)
Rip: For the last five years, I've been chasing a phantom. A name whispered across time and in every language - Mallus!
Nate: The Phantom Mollusk? An evil shellfish?
Rip: Mall-us! An evil so ancient and powerful that The Time Masters dared not speak his name. I believe that he is recruiting allies from through time to his cause. Now, anachronisms are the result of your breaking time -
Rory: (pointing to Sara) It was her idea.
Rip: But these outliers. They are most certainly the work of Mallus. And The Time Bureau is a bureaucracy and lacks the imagination to understand this particular threat. And Director Bennett objects to my crusade.
Sara: (smirking) Hmm.
Rip: ... I'm alone out here.
Nate: So, what I'm hearing is, your hot new girlfriend dumped you and now you're crawling back to your ex?
Rory: (chuckling lowly) And I'm no one's side piece.
Sara: (smiling cutely) You know, I think they're onto something here. (in a sweet voice) Look... sweetie. We would love to take you back, but we don't know how we could trust you again.
Rip: Would circumstances be any different if I were to call off my hot new girlfriend's pursuit of you?
(Nate and Sara look at each other and hum as if considering it.)
Sara: (offering her hand) Deal.
(Rip takes Sara's hand and shakes it.)

Rory: Vampires don't sparkle.

(Upon seeing Sir Stein and his resemblance to Professor Stein)
Rip: Truly uncanny.
Sara: (in a mock British accent) It's that 'stache that's astonishing!

Zari: (taking off her necklace, passing it to Amaya) You know, I don't even want this anymore. Whatever is going on with it or with us? I don't care.
Amaya: That totem is your only remaining connection to him.
Zari: It's not a connection. It's a reminder.  That I should have been the one who died.

(Damien Darhk levitates above The Order of The Shrouded Compass and The Time Agents, having just disarmed them all with a wave of his wrist. He then glances at his wrist.) 
Damien Darhk: Who stole my watch?

(Stein and Jax have agreed to explore finding a way to make Jax Firestorm without Stein together.)
Stein: T.S. Elliot once said "Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." So - when do we start?
Jax: As soon as I, uh, fix that giant hole in the cargo bay.
Stein: Well, good luck with that.
Jax: Yeah.

(Rip is reading through his notebook on Mallus. Sara enters the room.)
Sara: We need to talk.
Rip: By now you know me better than to expect an apology.
Sara: Agents are dead because of you!
Rip: (cooly) They knew the risks of their profession. (excited) But we learned so much from the events of last night! Next time-
Sara: There won't be a next time, Rip! You show up out of nowhere, practically begging for our help. And then you betray us? You've gone rogue from every organization that you've ever been a part of! Because you don't trust anyone. I don't know how I could ever have trusted you.
Rip: Sara, I need you with me, now more than ever.
Sara: You remember how you told me you had nothing left to teach me? I guess you had one final lesson.
(A time portal opens behind Rip. Three Time Agents, including Ava Sharpe, exit. Rip looks at Sara, stunned.)
Sara: How to be a cold son of a bitch.


Continuity

The psychic and empathic connection between Jax and Stein is strong enough that Stein was able to sense when Jax had sex. It has also resulted in Jax picking up Stein's snack cravings, such as a desire for grapefruit every morning at 9 am.

Ray successfully severs the psychic connection between Jax and Stein.

Amaya's usual breakfast is a bran muffin.

Stein's usual breakfast is a grapefruit half.

Sara's usual breakfast is oatmeal.

Mick Rory wears glasses to read.

Rory's usual breakfast is multiple beers.

Nate detects a pattern to the anachronisms, apart from two outliers - Seattle in 2042 (where they picked up Zari) and London, England in 1895. It is here he discovered reports of six men being murdered, their bodies drained of blood.

Rory has always dreamed of killing a vampire and carried a sharpened wooden stake in case he ever got the chance.

Rory is just now reading Dracula for the first time, despite being surprisingly well-versed in the lore of fighting vampires.

Stein's lullabies are the only thing that get his grandson, Ronnie, to sleep.

Sir Henry Stein was Professor Stein's great, great grandfather. He was an actor, knighted by Queen Victoria and considered something of an eccentric outside of his abducting people to feed a vampire.

The Order Of The Shrouded Compass was an infamous secret society among the aristocracy of London who were obsessed with the occult. They also believed in the magical properties of a total lunar eclipse.

"Beware the blood red moon when the door that separates death from life will be opened." is the first line of an oath made by The Order Of The Shrouded Compass. For some reason, this line is among Rip's notes regarding Mallus.

Madame Eleanor - the American mystic hired by Sir Stein - seems to be a true psychic. She speaks to Zari as if she were her brother and reveals that Zari abandoned him as they were fleeing ARGUS agents. She is later revealed to be an agent of Mallus and he speaks through her to Rip Hunter.

Rip refers to episode 103 and how he and Sara infiltrated The Grayhill building together.

Since they can't hack the Smarthwatch, Ray and Jax analyze the finger prints on it. They find four sets - one belongs to the coroner, the second belongs to Ray, the third is unidentifiable and the fourth belongs to Oliver Queen. Later, Mister Terrific identifies the third print as belonging to Damien Darhk.

Zari's brother's name was Behrad.

Mallus claims to be a god and says that no one can look on his true form and live.

Damien Darhk's resurrection has somehow restored his memories of the events of Season Two of Legends of Tomorrow.

Zari is able to summon the Wind Totem back to her hand. She later claims to have felt her brother's presence.

Clarissa Stein prefers to eat her grapefruit with salt.

Jax gets Ray to restore the psychic connection between Jax and himself.

Zari is seen playing Mortal Kombat in her personal quarters. This is a nod to 304 where she said she never got to play video games like the ones Ray played as a child.

Director Bennett is another of the Directors who run The Time Bureau.

The Time Bureau is overseen by a tribunal whom even its directors must answer to.

Rip Hunter is detained an suspended from active duty. Before he is taken away, he warns Sara that Darhk's resurrection was only the beginning and that The Legends must be ready to stand against Mallus for the sake of all history.


Location

London, England - 1895


The Bottom Line

The best episode of the season so far and a definite contender for one of the ten best ever.

Legends of Tomorrow: Season 3, Episode 1 - Aruba-Con

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


Plot

The Legends defeated The Legion of Doom, but their actions have caused a fracturing of the time-stream that has unleashed thousands of anachronisms and paradoxes. Before they can get to work on fixing the problem, Rip Hunter (who had just left them moments earlier from their perspective) returns with agents from a newly formed Time Bureau, who relieve them of The Waverider.

This suits Mick Rory just fine, as he finally gets to take his long-delayed trip to Aruba and forget about the whole "saving the timeline" thing... right up until the point that Julius Caesar shows up intent on conquering the beach!


Influences

Army of Darkness (the scene of Sara working retail is like Ash and his job at S-Mart), the Men In Black movies (the mind-erasing device and the general look of The Time Agents), the play Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare (Caesar quotes a line from it during his speech to the toga party, Nate quotes it when questioning Sara) and the movie Back To The Future II (the heroes have to stop a villain who used a book from the future to change history after allowing said book to wind up in the hands of said villain in the first place.)


Goofs

It's hard to believe The Legends would just walk around a dinosaur-filled Los Angeles in their civies as nonchalantly as they do in the opening scene.

Funny as it is to see Sara working retail and granting that it's done entirely for comedic effect, it seems hard to believe she couldn't have gotten a better job, especially in Star City. Even if Oliver Queen or her dad couldn't get her a job on their security detail because of nepotism laws, surely they could pull some strings to get her work in a similar field!

If nothing else, you'd think Sara would be able to come up with a new identity for herself with her assassin training, particularly given how easily she's able to acquire the means of breaking into The Time Bureau.

It's also hard to believe that Ray Palmer, who built himself up from nothing with his tech company, has been reduced to doing grunt work with some dating app company.

Kid Flash unmasks in front of a bunch of criminals to talk with Nate?

Julius Caesar refers to Ate vexing him. Ate was the Greek goddess of ruin and folly - not Roman.

Why did The Time Bureau allow Amaya to stay in 2017 until she decided to return to 1942 on her own? Isn't she an anachronism?

It's highly coincidental that Sara just happened to steal a Time Bureau agent's badge for no real reason after a one night stand.

Given that The Time Bureau now have the technology to open direct portals between two points in time without the need for a ship, why did they need to take King Arthur back to Camelot from The Spanish Civil War through Star City in 2017?

You'd think Ray of all people would know better than to ask if Sara needs help in a fight. She kicked his ass handily in the last episode.


Performances

Once again, Caity Lotz steals the show and shows why this series has become her vehicle.

The interaction between Franz Drameh and Victor Garber is fantastic, with the two playing off the conflict between Stein and Jax perfectly.


Artistry

The fight scenes of Sharpe and Sara working to fight the Roman Centurions is nicely shot.


Trivia Of Tomorrow

The episode opens with a quick recap of the last season. We are specifically reminded that Rip Hunter left the team, officially naming Sara Lance as Captain of The Waverider, that Amaya elected to stay on the team despite what recorded history says due to her love of Nate Heywood and that the team crash-landed in 2017 Los Angeles after a time-quake, at which point they discovered several buildings out of their proper place... and live dinosaurs roaming the streets. .

The episode title is a pun on The Rubicon - a shallow river in Northern Italy, which Julius Caesar famously crossed in 49 BC. Since then, the phrase "Crossing The Rubicon" has come to refer to "the point of no return" or any action that might be seen as risky or revolutionary with no alternatives but total defeat or complete victory possible as an outcome.

Roman law at the time prohibited any general from crossing into Roman territory at the head of an army. Julius Caesar defied this law by crossing The Rubicon, moving southward from Gaul and marching upon Rome. This started what is known as Caesar's Civil War and eventually led to the foundation of The Roman Empire with Julius Caesar as Dictator.

The Time Bureau is a unique organization, new to the DCTVU. In terms of focus, they seem similar to The Linear Men - a group which monitored the time-stream for paradoxes in the Post-Crisis DC Comics Universe, who recruited Rip Hunter in the wake of the destruction of The Time Masters.

When Sara is powering up The Waverider, she says "engines to power, batteries to speed." This is a nod to the phrase frequently said by Batman and Robin in the 1966 Batman TV show when starting The Batmobile, though there it was "atomic batteries to power, turbines to speed."

Professor Stein says "Great Caesar's Ghost!" upon seeing Julius Caesar in the flesh. This is a nod to the catch-phrase of Perry White, the editor of The Daily Planet in the Superman comics, who used "Great Caesar's Ghost!" as a polite exclamation whenever upset.

Julius Caesar's speech to rally a toga party to his cause features the line, "The cowards die many times before their deaths. The valiant never taste death but once!" This is a paraphrase of a line from William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar - "A coward dies a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once."

The photo that Gideon supplies for the mock dating profile Ray creates as a distraction is an actual photo of actress Amy Pemberton, who provides the voice of Gideon.

Ray and Nate pay homage to the original Ghosbusters, quoting Bill Murray's misquote of Julius Caesar - "We came. We saw. We kicked its ass!"

Nate quotes Shakespeare - Et tu, Sara?" - when Sara elects to return to The Time Bureau rather than put Caesar back where he belongs themselves. "Et tu" is Latin for "And you also?" The line "Et tu, Brute" is said when The Senators are killing Caesar on the floor of The Senate and the last to draw a sword is Brutus, whom Caesar considered one of his closest friends.

In the timeline formed when Caesar is not assassinated, The Roman Empire lasts another 2000 years and conquers The New World. What was the United States is labeled "Magna Hesperia" on the new map. In Latin, this means "Great Western Land". The map also identifies several areas with Latin names including Civitas Angeli (City of Angels) near Los Angeles, Flos (Flower) in Florida, Sola Stella (The Only Star) in Texas and Procidens Aqua (Falling Water) near Niagara Falls.

Nate says "dormi strictum amicus" before knocking out a guard. This means "Sleep clenched his friend." in Latin. Or, as Nate loosely translates it, "Sleep tight, buddy."

In the final scene of the episode, Amaya is seen using The Anansi Totem to summon several animal spirits at once, using them to attack a group of British soldiers. This is a new power for Vixen, who has previously only been depicted summoning one spirit at a time to draw upon their power.


Technobabble

An anachronism is a person, place or thing outside of it's natural place in time.

Ray Palmer has developed a new way of shrinking organic matter and streamlined the technology so that it can be worn more effectively.

Ray discovers that Gideon has been in sleep mode for five years when they steal The Waverider. He is able to revive her by diverting her power back to the core.

Temporal Linguistic Dysplasia is a condition where a time-traveler arrives in a time able to speak the native language. It's a frequent side-effect of historical displacement. This is why Julius Caesar is able to speak English.


Dialogue Triumphs

Sarah's daydream sequence where she fantasizes killing her boss.

Ray: My miniaturization technology has the potential to actually make the world a better place!
Alan: If that were true, it would be an app. If it doesn't live on a phone, it's not the future, Ray.
(Alan walks away from his desk. Ray just stands there, still in shock.)
Ray: (quietly) Well, I've actually been to the future.  Like, three times.

(Mick looks up to see who is blocking his light while tanning. He sees a Roman officer on horseback.)
Mick: And who the hell are you supposed to be?
Ceaser: I am Gaius Julius Caesar of Rome!
Mick: Ah. Thought I recognized you. Knocked-off one of your casinos in Vegas.

Nate: You sure this is where they're at?
Sara: I bumped into one of Rip's Time Agents a while back. He may have left his badge at my place.
Ray: He left it at your place?
Sara: All right. Maybe I lifted it off of him in the morning.

Nate: (to Time Bureau agents) I didn't know Men's Warehouse gave group discounts.
Ava Sharpe: What's wrong with you people?! Do you want to get shot?!
Nate: Totally rather get shot than look like a Sears model.

Sara's non-verbal reaction and hiding of her face when she sees King Arthur. (Remember how she was the inspiration for Sir Lancelot?)

Rip Hunter: All humility aside, we are the most important security organization that no one's ever heard of.

(Mick struggles with two suit-clad Time Agents)
Mick: Get off me you damn missionaries!

Gideon: Hello, Legends.. What did I miss?
Ray: Well, we're about to steal a ship, go grab Julius Caesar in Aruba - all before history completely collapses.
Gideon: So, it's business as usual, then?

Jax: Come on, Grey. A chance to meet Julius Caesar and fix history!
(Stein sighs cynically.)
Jax: Look, we have a time ship! We can get you home in time for dessert!
Stein: That's what I told Clarissa the last time I left...
Ray: (cheerfully) And when you came home you had a surprise daughter!
(Jax nods as if this proves his point.)
Stein: Your point?
Nate: The point is... sometimes we screw things up for the better.
Sara: (deadpan) That's a good motto. We should use that.

(As Sara is knocking-out Julius Caesar.)
Jax: Yep. I'd say our work here is done.
Stein: And to quote the great conqueror himself, "We came. We saw-"
Ray and Nate: "We kicked Caesar's ass!"
(Ray and Nate high-five.)

Jax: (quietly and jokingly, to Sara): Nice work. I'd have done it faster.

Rip: I trust you'll use your best judgement.
(Rip's hologram disappears.)
Jax: Ha! Does he not know this team?!

(Caesar steps forward, putting his hands on Sara's shoulders.)
Caesar: It cost me eight years and countless centurions to conquer Gaul. But with an Amazonian queen like you by my side, I could make short work of the rest of the world.
Sara: Conquering the world does sound nice...
(Sara places a hand on Caesar's chest and pushes him back.)
Sara: ... but I don't need you to do it.

(Stein announces his intention to remain among The Legends to Jax.)
Stein: I shanghaied you into our first voyage. I forced this life upon you. I can hardly ask you to give it up now.
Jax: But... your life?  Your family?
Stein: I'll make it home for the birth of my first grandchild. As for my family... they're on this ship as well.


Continuity

It has been five years since Rip Hunter last interacted with The Legends from his perspective. From their perspective, Rip left The Waverider 15 minutes ago.

During those five years, Rip Hunter has worked to establish The Time Bureau and their more advanced time-travel technology. He elected to disband The Legends personally since he was responsible for forming them.

Sara Lance has been declared legally dead twice.

According to Ray Palmer's new boss, Felicity Smoak ran Palmer Technologies into the ground.

Nate spent the last six months fighting crime as Steel in Central City, independent of Kid Flash and Vibe. He claims to be the second most popular superhero in Central City, behind The Flash.

Nate also broke up with Amaya, who was allowed to stay in 2017. Apparently she dumped him and decided to return to 1942 on her own following a conversation with Rip Hunter. According to Rip, going back to her proper time was her idea, not his.

The Time Bureau has an office in Star City in 2017.

King Arthur, last seen in 212, makes an appearance, being dragged through the Star City Time Bureau office in 2017 after having somehow made an appearance during The Spanish Civil War.

The Waverider has been re-purposed as a training simulator for newbie Time Agents. The simulation they are seen running is based on the events of 214, where The Legends had to save the Apollo 13 astronauts. They are told tomorrow's class will have them stopping a nuclear missile from attacking New York City - a disaster The Legends averted in 201.

Mick has apparently acquired several STDs recently. For some reason, The Time Bureau has sensors that can detect this.

The other Legends are convinced Mick is telling the truth about seeing the real Julius Caesar after Mick tries to use a golden Roman aureus from the first century B.C. in a vending machine.

Jax and Professor Stein still both live in Central City, though they haven't been socializing outside of a weekly bonding session required by their powers as Firestorm.

Jax has dropped out of college, despite being on his way to getting a Masters in Engineering in two years.

Lily Stein is pregnant. Apparently she had a boyfriend (now future husband) with whom she was on an academic sabbatical in Rome. She had just returned home to tell her parents in person.

Sara is capable enough a fighter to defeat Julius Caesar in single combat.

Julius Caesar was taken out of time the night before he crossed The Rubicon in 49 BC.

After reading Nate's history book on Rome, Caesar still moves to conquer Rome but declares the first thing he will do upon getting there is kill Brutus and Cassius - the two Senators who plotted his assassination years later. This eventually leads to Ceasar founding a Roman Empire that lasts over 2000 years and conquers The New World.

Mick steals a Time Courier (i.e. time portal generator), a communications device and a memory-eraser from Rip Hunter.

Rip explains to Agent Sharpe that he is allowing The Legends to retain The Waverider and to work for The Time Bureau because they may be the best weapon they have against Mallus - an unspecified threat that is coming at some point in the future, who apparently became a threat because of The Legends.

In the final scene, we see Amaya in Zambesi, using her necklace to summon several animal spirits, who maul Belgian Imperial soldiers intent on attacking her village.


Location

Los Angeles, California - 2017.
Star City - 2017.
Silicon Valley - 2017.
Central City - 2017.
Aruba - 2017.
Cisalpine Gaul - 49 BC.
Zambesi - 1942.


Untelevised Adventures

Apparently Ray, Sara and Nate have been continuing to work as vigilante heroes over the past six months.


The Crisis Factor

There are several moments of The Legends being played up as incompetent in order to make The Time Bureau look more efficient. Nothing quite tops Nate failing to notice Julius Caesar stealing his book, however.


The Bottom Line

Illogical and nonsensical as it is at times, this show is still just plain fun. The episode establishes the new status quo with only a few hiccups along the way, such as how quickly The Time Bureau is able to solve the massive cliff-hanger from the end of the last season. The cast still sells it all through sheer charisma and the show sets up enough solid mysteries to provide some forward momentum beyond the usual "crisis of the week" storylines.

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 3, Episode 17 - Duet

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

Plot

Team Flash is surprised when Mon-El and Hank Henshaw emerge from a breach with an unconscious Supergirl in tow.They tell everyone about The Music Meister - a new telepathic villain who put Kara under his spell. Soon Barry is similarly enscrolled and both heroes find themselves trapped in a world right out of a musical. And if they hope to get out of this one gracefully, they're going to have to sing and dance their way to the end of the story!

Influences

The Mayhem Of The Music Meister! episode of Batman: The Brave And The Bold, the MGM film version of The Wizard of Oz (various lines refer to songs from it, Barry notes that the people around them in the dream world look like people from his and Kara's lives) and various Mr. Mxyzptlk stores from the classic Superman/Supergirl comics (Music Mesiter's powers and general M.O.)

Goofs

Very little about The Music Meister makes sense in terms of powers, power limits and motivations. But hey, it's a musical, so don't worry about it.

Performances

The entire ensemble does a great job with the musical numbers.


Artistry

The set design, costuming and lighting of the musical dream world are fantastic.

The original songs are toe-tapping numbers that will stick with you after the episode is over.

Flash Facts

Grant Gustin (who plays Barry Allen), Melissa Benoist (who plays Supergirl) and Darren Cris (who plays The Music Meister) all previously appeared together in the musical comedy/drama Glee.

The Music Meister was originally created for the cartoon Batman: The Brave And The Bold. A powerful telepath who was bullied for his love of singing and musicals as a child, he discovered that he could control the minds of other people by singing. This resulted in the people under his control bursting out into song, as if they were in a musical production. The episode in which he appeared - The Mayhem Of The Music Meister! - was nominated for an Emmy and frequently places in the top rankings on lists of Television History's greatest musical episodes.

Precisely what The DCTVU version of Music Meister is never explained. J'onn says he was an alien, but his species is never identified. He is able to steal both Barry and Kara's powers and clearly possess some kind of telepathic abilities - presumably how he is able to know so much about everyone and their secrets. He claims his motivations are purely to help mend Barry and Kara's broken hearts. This makes him very much like Mr. Mxyzptlk, whom Kara has already fought once. Oddly enough, nobody else makes this connection in the episode.

The songs featured in this episode include Singing In The Rain from Singing In The Rain, Moon River from Breakfast at Tiffany's, Put A Little Love In Your Heart by Jackie DeShannon and More I Cannot Wish You from Guys And Dolls.

The backstage area where Barry meets Kara features several posters for Thurston The Great Magician. This is a reference to Howard Thurston - a stage magician who was certainly the most famous of his time and one of the "Royal Dynasty" of magicians.

John Barrowman - who plays Malcolm Merlyn on Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow - appears in the dream world as club owner/gangster "Cutter" Moran.

Jeremy Jordan - who plays Winn Schott on Supergirl - appears in the dream world as Grady The Piano Player.

Carlos Valdes - who plays Cisco Ramon on The Flash - appears in the dream world as Pablo The Waiter.

Victor Garber - who plays Dr. Martin Stein on Legends of Tomorrow - appears in the dream world as Digsy Foss's husband/ Millie Foss's other father (who is never named in the whole episode!)

Jesse L. Martin - who plays Joe West on The Flash - appears in the dream world as crime boss Digsy Foss.

Candice Patton - who plays Iris West on The Flash - appears in the dream world as Millie Foss.

Chris Wood - who plays Mon-El on Supergirl - appears in the dream world as Tommy Moran.

The original song - Superfriends - was written by actress/singer/songwriter Rachel Leah Bloom, who is perhaps most famous for her work on the show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

The original song - Runnin' Home To You - was written by Pasek and Paul, who also wrote the 2017 Academy Award winning song City of Stars for the movie La La Land.

Technobabble

Kara's vital signs are low after a few hours in The Music Meister's trance.

Caitlin determines that the Speed Force levels in Barry's cells and the amount of solar radiation in Kara's body have been severely depleted by their comas. She speculates that their powers are being drained by The Music Meister.

Dialogue Triumphs

Barry: Who are you exactly?
Mon-El: My name's Mon-El. I'm Kara's...(struggles before spitting out the word) friend.
(Barry just raises an eyebrow.)
Mon-El: We're more... more than... friend?
(Barry looks to Wally.)
Mon-El: We've been kissing a lot.
Caitlin: Oh! She never mentioned she had a boyfriend.
Mon-El: It's a recent thing, so...
J'onn: I thought you two broke up?
(Mon-El looks away as everyone goes awkwardly quiet.)
H.R.: (laughing nervously) I'll tell you what. I know enough not to mention the break-up between Barry and -uh-
Iris: (quietly) H.R.?
H.R.: Sorry...

(Kara and Barry speculate on where they are and how to escape.)
Barry: We just need to figure a way out.
Kara: (smiling) I guess I could click my heels together three times?
Barry: Yeah!
Kara: I was kidding.

(Wally runs into the lab. Everyone is watching Music Meister on a monitor trying to break into a bank with his stolen heat vision. Cisco has changed into the leather jacket for his Vibe costume.)
Mon-El: We've got to bring him in.
Wally: No. Not we. Me. I'm the reason Barry got whammied.
Cisco: We win and we lose as a team. I'm coming with you.
J'onn: I'm coming too.
Cisco: Look, John - I respect this whole special agent situation you've got going on, but this problem right here needs someone with...
(Without saying a word, J'onn shape-shifts into his Martian form.)
Cisco: ... green skin and a sick-ass cape.
J'onn: Call me The Martian Manhunter.
Mon-El: I think you'll find that J'onn is a lot more than just a pretty face.

Millie: Dads, there's no reason to be concerned!
Barry: (stunned) Dads?

Millie's Dads: (in unison) You got a problem with that?
Barry: No. I love musicals. So...

Barry: Wow. Things really are easier in musicals.

Barry: I'll be there in the nick of time if you're ever in a spot.
Kara: And if you're not there in time, you can just go back in time, and give it another shot.
Barry: (spoken) I'm actually not supposed to do that any more.
Kara: (spoken) Oh. Okay.

Continuity

This episode immediately follows the events of S216.

The episode opens with a flashback to Barry's childhood, where he is seen watching Singing In The Rain with his mother.

Kara did not say anything about Mon-El to the heroes of Earth One during the Invasion! storyline.

Kara and Barry are powerless in the dream world.

According to The Music Meister, Kara and Barry created their shared dreamworld together due to their shared love of musicals.

Cisco is revealed to have the power to vibe other people into the dreams of other people.

The Music Meister escapes, with no explanation as to who or what he is.

Kara and Mon-El seem to be back together again as a couple.

Barry proposes to Iris again. She accepts.

Location

The opening flashback takes place at some point in Barry's past before his mother died.

The Bottom Line

Those hoping for a full musical ala the Once More With Feeling episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer may leave this episode sorely disappointed since there's only two original songs and nothing within the context of the original action of the show. Those hoping for something as funny as the classic Brave And The Bold Episode with the cast being forced into a kick-line will be likewise let down. Taken on its own merits, however, this is a solidly amusing episode... except for my own personal opinion that there's better chemistry between Kara and Barry than their respective love interests.

Legends of Tomorrow: Season 2, Episode 8 - The Chicago Way

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



Plot

The Legends follow the trail of a Time Aberration to Chicago in 1927, not knowing they've been set-up by Eobard Thawne, Damien Darhk and the latest member of their team - Malcolm Merlyn! When Stein is placed in danger, Sara must choose between saving his life and completing the mission. At the same time, Mick Rory is confronted by an old friend who questions his recent life choices.

Influences

The 1987 film The Untouchables (inspiration for title, general aesthetic and numerous references)


Goofs

This episode is set in October of 1927. While Elliot Ness was a special agent for the Treasury based in Chicago at that time, he did not begin working for the Prohibition Bureau of The Justice Department until 1928.

While this can be blamed purely upon the desire to tell a good story and basing this episode off of an infamously inaccurate film adaptation of a historically inaccurate book, the truth is that Elliot Ness had nothing to do with busting Al Capone on tax evasion charges.  Ness and his Untouchables were assigned to hound Capone's businesses that violated Prohibition while other agents looked into Capone's taxes. It was an investigation headed by U.S. Attorney George E.Q. Johnson and IRS agent Frank Wilson which led to Capone's downfall.


Performances

The episode MVPs are Caity Lotz and Victor Garber, as their respective shoes from the first part of the season wind up on the other foot, with Stein now pleading that it can't hurt to change the past and Sara as the voice of reason for history being preserved. Garber also has a good, if brief, turn playing the disguised Thawne.

There's also a nice bit of non-verbal acting on Franz Drameh's part as Jax seems to realize something is off about Stein upon his return... like the absence of their usual connection.


Artistry

The writing of this episode is brilliant. Not only is there a lot of witty dialogue but the role-reversal between Stein and Sara is brilliantly played with.

Props to the costume designers for some truly elegant work on the period costumes.

The choreography of the Sara/Merlyn fight is great.


Trivia Of Tomorrow

Amaya reads the opening narration at the start of this episode.

The title of this episode was taken from a line from the 1987 film The Untouchables, which was about legendary lawman Elliot Ness and the hand-picked team he used to take on gangster Al Capone.

The quote is "You wanna know how to get Capone? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's The Chicago Way!" This also seems to describe the cut-throat tactics employed by the villains in this episode.

There's several other references to The Untouchables, including Ray's comment that Elliot Ness looks nothing like Kevin Costner (who played Ellot Ness), Nate introducing Ray as his associate Bob DeNiro while impersonating Ness (actor Robert DeNiro was also in the movie) and Ray doing a Sean Connery impression while paraphrasing the famous line about bringing a knife to a gun fight.

Also referred to as The Holy Lance, Holy Spear, Lance Of Longinus and Spear of Longinus, The Spear of Destiny is - as Thawne says - the spear that was used to pierce the side of Jesus Christ during the crucifixion. Many holy sites claim to have the Spear of Destiny in the real world and a number of legends - comparable to those regarding The Holy Grail - have sprung up around the spear and it's mystic powers. One of the more popular legends is that Adolf Hitler was obsessed with the spear and started World War II in an effort to reclaim it.

In the DC Comics Universe, this was literally true and Hitler's possession of the spear prevented the Allies-aligned superheroes from being able to take action against him, due to the spear's power giving Hitler the ability to control the mind of anyone who stood against him.


Technobabble

Elliot Ness is underwater long enough to develop hypoxia - tissue damage caused by a lack of oxygen. Gideon is advanced enough to treat this, but it does take long enough that Nate has to impersonate Elliot Ness.

The slang term speakeasy referring to an illegal bar came about because one had to "speak easy" in order to learn the location of such an establishment and remain quiet inside of one so as not to attract attention.

Thawne uses some kind of futuristic technology to torture Stein and take on his appearance. This device apparently works on a molecular level, actually changing Thawne into Stein physically.

The Spear of Destiny is the spear that was used to pierce the side of Christ during The Crucifixion. According to Thawne, The Spear can be used to rewrite reality.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Al Capone and some of his men emerge from a warehouse on a Chicago dock.)
Darhk: Mr. Capone?
(Capone and his men turn to see Damien Darhk and Eobard Thawne, in his Reverse Flash costume.)
Darhk: It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance.
Capone: I canceled tickets to the opera 'cause I heard there were new players in town. No one told me it was Halloween.
(Capone's men laugh. Thawne and Darhk chuckle a bit too, agreeably.)
Thawne: Well, it's more like... Christmas.
Darhk: (To Thawne) That's - I like that. It's very good. (To Capone) See, my associate and I have come with a proposition. We've seen how you run your empire and we're impressed. But there's room for improvement.
Thawne: We'd like to offer our services.
Capone: I got a better idea. How about I show you how things are done in my town?
(Capone's men raise their guns. Both Darhk and Thawne sigh. Clearly they saw this coming but hoped to avoid what must come next.)
Darhk: You or me?
Thawne: Ohhhhhhh....  I've got-
(Red lighting rips between Capone's men as Thawne briefly disappears. Capone's men also disappear, one by one. Thawne reappears where he was standing a second later.)
Thawne: -this.
(Capone looks around, playing it cool but clearly surprised.)
Darhk: By now you've probably surmised that my friend and I aren't from around here.
Capone: What do you freaks want?
Darhk: To help! I thought I made - (To Thawne) Did I not make that perfectly clear?
Thawne: New enemies are coming to Chicago and they will endanger your enterprises.
Capone: And you're saying you two can help me out?
(A third man emerges stealthily from the shadows.)
Merlyn: Actually, there's three of us. Pleasure to meet you. My name is Malcolm Merlyn.

Stein: I've always wanted to visit The Roaring Twenties, right in the middle of Prohibition!
Rory: That means no drinking. That's not good.
Nate: Well, actually under Capone Chicago was a hotbed of vice. There was illegal drinking. Gambling. Prostitution.
Rory: Well then! Let's fire up a tub and get there.

Snart: Oh, how the mighty have fallen!
(Rory chokes on his beer as he looks up to see Snart standing in the doorway of the med-bay.)
Rory: Leonard! (shaking his head) I must be losing my mind
Snart: Of course you are. Why else would you still be here, taking orders like a well-trained puppy? You're not right in the head, Mick! That's why I'm here. To set you straight.
(Snart crosses the doorway and disappears. Rory begins chugging down the rest of his beer.)

(Nate and Ray are arguing over who should be taking the lead in planning in Sara's absence.)
Rory: Enough! If you want to nail Capone and Rex's killer, we can't do it by playing a boy scout or a historian or a policeman. We do this my way! Like a criminal!

Merlyn: It's been a long time, Sara. You look good for someone who's come back from the dead.
Sara: Why am I not surprised that you and Damien Darhk would find each other?
Stein: What do you want with us?
Merlyn: You have something we need. And while my partners think I'm a fool for trying, I would like to broker a deal with you. You have in your possession an amulet. Give it to me and I will give you nine years of your life back.
Sara: What are you talking about?
Merlyn: Oh, maybe Oliver didn't tell you, but I was the one who arranged to blow up The Queen's Gambit. That was the day everything changed for you, Sara. Hundreds of dominoes tumbling... Dr. Ivo... Slade Wilson... The League of Assassins. Losing your sister?
Sara: And you losing your son.
Merlyn: We both get clean slates.
Stein: Why don't you just ask your speedster friend to take you back in time?
Sara: Because Malcolm's just his errand boy, sent to retrieve the amulet. Why is it so important?
Merlyn: What does it matter? I'm giving you and your sister a chance to live normal lives. To go back - maybe go to college? Meet a nice boy - or a girl - and settle down.
Sara: No thank you. I was never meant for those things. And I know that now. And besides, you can't just go back and change things like that.
Merlyn: (laughing) Why not?
Sara: Because Time is sacred. And it can't be changed to suit any one person's desire without harming the lives of countless others.
Merlyn: But you wouldn't remember any of this, would you? You would be blissfully unaware of time travel. Of loss. Of heartbreak. You'd be happy. And isn't that what matters most in the end?
(Merlyn starts to walk off.)
Sara: Hey Malcolm?
(Merlyn freezes.)
Sara: I'll take a nightmare that's real over a dream that's a lie.

Stein: I have a daughter.
Sara: A what?!
Stein: A full-grown human progeny, who I never even knew I had. This beautiful, brilliant-
Sara: And not real!
Stein: At first, no. But then I remembered! I remembered the countless nights I spent pacing the neighborhood, trying to get her to sleep. The- the- way my heart melted the first time she smiled at me. (chuckling) The distress she caused her kindergarten teacher when she insisted on singing the periodic table instead of the alphabet! I remembered all of it!
Sara: But none of that happened to you.
Stein: But the memories are real. They are a part of me now. She is a part of me now. And I love her.

Thawne: I'm not going to lie to you. This - um - little toy usually leaves the subject... well, dead. But I've adjusted it so that you should only feel a little bit of pain. In theory.

(After Amaya calls Rory over the comms)
Snart: Awww. sounds like a sweet little angel, whispering in your ear. Problem is angels always want you to do the right thing and doing the right thing gets you killed. I should know. You wanna stay alive? Best listen to the devil.

Snart: What's next, Mick? Long walks on the beach - just the two of you?
Rory: For a figment of my imagination, you're really beginning to be a pain in my ass.
Snart: Look, I get it. She's easy on the eyes... tough in the fight.
Rory: She's just a friend. The only friend I have. Since my last friend blew himself up.
Snart: Care for a little advice?
Rory: From a dead guy? No.
Snart: Don't let the new girl rope you into her death wish. This whole 'sacrificing yourself for your friends' thing isn't as fun as it sounds. Trust me.

(Jax knocks Thawne off his feet with a blast of the speedster gun.)
Thawne: My speedster weapon! Impressive!
(In the blink of an eye, Thawne is back up, Jax is disarmed, and Thawne is strangling him with one hand.)
Thawne: Unfortunately, for you, the effects are only temporary.
Jax: What did you do with Stein?!
Thawne: Oh, I wouldn't waste my energy worrying about him right now.
Jax: Whatever you're gonna do, do it now!
Thawne: In a rush to die, are we?
Jax: (choking) I wasn't talking to you.
(A second too late, Thawne sees a shrunken Ray Palmer jumping off of Jax's shoulder and growing rapidly larger, hitting Thawne with the full force of his weight.)

Ray: (Sean Connery voice) Isn't that just like a thug? Brings a Tommy gun to an ion blaster fight?

(Merlyn is rifling through Rip's study. Sara drops down silently from a duct above him. Merlyn smirks, still somehow sensing her presence.)
Merlyn: The League taught you well. But unless you hand over the amulet, I'm going to have to teach you a few new lessons.
Sara: Those who cannot do, teach.

Amaya: You were right. The bad guys really do have more fun.
(Amaya kisses Mick on the cheek.)
Amaya: Not that you're a bad guy.
(Amaya leaves the room as Snart appears.)
Snart: I hope it was worth it. All this for a kiss on the cheek and a cheap bottle of booze. That speedster could have killed you, Mick. What then?
Rory: I'd be dead like you.


Dialogue Disasters

Ray: You know, if this is the week the Feds get Capone's ledger, why does it take four more years for them to take him down?
Nate: Because it's the federal government.


Continuity

Jax refers to 203 and how a training accident in the cargo bay damaged the ship.

Jax was an only child.

Amaya read her mother's old magazines as a girl and dreamed of Chicago during the 1920s.

Nate notes that The Chicago Police Department of the 1920s was probably the most corrupt in history.

According to Gideon, in the altered timeline where Elliot Ness died, Al Capone became Mayor of Chicago. He spent October 24, 1931 - the day he was supposed to go to jail for tax evasion - kicking off Oktoberfest.

According to Nate, Shipping Dock 39 was where Capone disposed of people he wanted to get rid of with "Cement Shoes". It became known as Cadaver's Cove.

Amaya wanted to be a cop as a young girl.

Mick begins to have hallucinations of Snart mocking his efforts to befriend Amaya and reform himself.

Jax tells the rest of the team about the secret armory he and Stein found in 203 and how it contains a special gun that can stop a speedster.

Merlyn refers to the events depicted in Season 2 of Arrow and how Sara Lance's life was changed by his blowing up The Queen's Gambit nine years earlier.

Sara learns about Lily Stein.

Thawne uses the device he used to become Harrison Wells in F117 to impersonate Stein.

Nate notes that Al Capone is very organized and has neat handwriting.

Ray does a decent Sean Connery impression.

Thawne refers to killing Rex Tyler in 202.

Thawne claims to have invented the anti-speedster gun Jax and Amaya use against him.

Thawne abandons the fight with Amaya after an alarm on his watch goes off.

Sara agrees to trade the amulet for Martin Stein's life.

Amaya stole a bottle of booze from Al Capone's warehouse as a gift for Mick.

The two amulets Thawne was seeking are really part of one amulet. Together, they create a portable planetarium of sorts which Thawne calls a compass.

Thawne tells Merlyn and Darhk about the legend of The Spear of Destiny and how the first step to finding it is Captain Rip Hunter.

The final scene shows a film director in 1967 Los Angeles who looks a lot like Rip Hunter, only he has an American accent.


Location

Chicago - October 17, 1927
Los Angeles - 1967.


The Bottom Line

A worthy mid-season finale that answers just enough questions to satisfy yet creates enough new mysteries to keep us drooling for the next two months. January 24th can't come fast enough.

Legends of Tomorrow: Season 2, Episode 7 - Invasion!

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




Plot

With their friends freed from The Dominator mothership, The Legends elect to send a team to 1951 to capture and question a Dominator as to the reasons of their invasion. Meanwhile, back in 2016, a shadowy government agent approaches the superheroes with an offer they can't easily refuse. And Martin Stein is shocked to discover the source of his visions - an aberration he accidentally created back in 1987!


Influences

The Superfriends cartoon (appearance of the STAR Labs hangar resembles Hall of Justice), the film Independence Day (battle against multiple alien ships), the Men In Black movies and the Netflix series Stranger Things ("Agent Smith" and his fellow government men in the black suits), The 1988 DC Comics crossover event Invasion! and various Gardner Fox Crisis comics.


Goofs

How exactly can Martin Stein go back in time to prevent his daughter from coming into existence? His younger self is unlikely to listen to instructions to not have sex wife for the next year and is unlikely - at this point - to listen to anything his older self says in any case.

Stein's behavior is a little off in this episode. Given his past squeamishness regarding violence and taking lives, it seems out of character for him to be so clinical regarding the idea of erasing a person from existence - much less his own flesh and blood! It's also odd that he refers to Barry as "your friend" when talking to Caitlin, when Barry is just as much a friend to him as anyone else on the show.

Also, logically, if Lily Stein developed the nano-weapon used to defeat The Dominators, won't Stein's erasing her from history cause The Dominators to win the Invasion war?

It's rather hard to get invested in the possibility of Barry Allen sacrificing himself to save humanity when we see commercials for next week's The Flash in the middle of the episode. (This isn't a goof on the episode, but it's still rather annoying and could have been easily avoided.)

Just how does Stein mass-produce enough of his pain-causing device to plant an individual one on every Dominator on Earth?  Did he return to The Waverider and use the facilities there while outside of time before Sara and Cisco took off to catch the metabomb? We know he didn't ask Barry for help. (Maybe Caitlin Snow called in Wally West, handed him a screwdriver and told him to go to it?)


Performances

As with The Flash part of this crossover, it's hard to single out any one performance given the ensemble nature of this production. However, if pressed to narrow it down to one or two, I'd say it's a tie between Victor Garber's performance as Martin Stein and his conflict regarding his sudden fatherhood and Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon coming to peace with Barry's accidental wrong-doing.


Artistry

The special effects used to bring The Dominators to life are of cinematic quality.

The fight between Green Arrow, White Canary, The Flash, The Atom and the Men In Black - both in terms of special effects and choreography.

The fight between the heroes and The Dominators is the stuff of... Legends.


Trivia Of Tomorrow

This episode was the fourth part of a four-part crossover between all of The CW Network's DC Comics superhero shows.

As the title suggests, the main inspiration for this four-part crossover event between all of the DCTVU shows was the 1988 crossover event Invasion!

Invasion! was based around the idea that an alliance of alien worlds - led by The Dominators - attacked Earth due to their concerns that Earth's growing metahuman population would become a threat to their planets.

The Dominators in the original comics had yellow skin, a red circle in the middle of their foreheads, claw-like fingernails and sharp fang-like teeth.

The DCTVU Dominators look much the same, save that their skin is more grey than yellow. Also, the comic book Dominators wore clothing whereas the DCTVU Dominators do not.

The abandoned STAR Labs hangar/hall used as a based of operations by the combined teams resembles The Hall of Justice from the classic Superfriends cartoon.

Nate discovered video footage of The Dominator's first invasion of Earth in Redmond, Oregon in 1951 that the US government covered up. This is a reference to a famous real-world UFO report that was debunked by the United States Air Force.

Cisco and Felicity quote the Ciara song One Two Step when describing The Waverider ("automatic, supersonic, hypnotic, funky fresh...").

The meta-bomb developed by The Dominators is taken directly from the Invasion! storyline. One of the Dominator scientists isolated the gene that gave ordinary humans super-powers and developed a weapon - the meta-gene bomb -  that would kill or severely weaken any humans who possessed the meta-gene. Unfortunately, this weapon ran counter to the plans of the Domianators to enslave Earth's metahuman population. The scientist was tortured for what he had done and eventually turned against his race. Ironically, the bomb's detonation wound up causing multiple metahuman's genes to activate, thus creating more superheroes!

In the DCTVU, the meta-bomb is a weapon that will kill every metahuman on Earth.

At the party at the end of the episode, Felicity comments that seeing Kara in her street-clothes is like looking in a mirror. On Supergirl, Kara wears glasses and ties her hair back in a ponytail when she's in her secret identity. Felicity also usually wears her hair in a ponytail and wears glasses.

Ray comments that Kara looks almost exactly like his cousin. This is a joking nod to the fact that Brandon Routh - who plays Ray Palmer - played the role of Superman in the movie Superman Returns.

Nate uses the phrase "Strange visitors from another world" at one point. This is a nod to the old 1940's Superman radio show and the introduction to the 1950's Adventures of Superman show - both of which described Superman as a "strange visitor from another world."



Technobabble

Cisco says the construct on the bow of The Waverider could be a Time Sphere. He also says the ship would require a quantum neural chipset and would make use of deep-link nets.

Stein says he doubts they could fashion a weapon of sufficent force to overcome The Dominators. He suggests attacking them with something infinitesimally small.

Amaya describes the first Dominators invasion as an RIF mission - Reconnaissance In Force.

The tranquilizers used by the MIBs prevent Nate and Amaya from using their powers.

Lily Stein complains that she can't stabilize a nano-molecular reaction.

Eventually, Lily figures out that the nano-molecular reaction won't stabilize because the replication is sequential  - not exponential. The reaction requires greater complexity.

Stein mass-produces a small device that, when placed on individual Dominators, will cause indescribable agony.

Cisco builds an inter-dimensional extrapolator for Kara - a device that creates small breaches, that can be used to cross between her Earth and the Earth One any time she wants. The device also has a communication function, so that she can call them.


Dialogue Triumphs

Oliver: I would like to minimize your involvement in this.
Kara: Why? Because I'm an alien? I also happen to be your biggest weapon!
Oliver: You are an unknown quantity and this is not personal.
Kara: Except that's exactly how this feels.
Oliver: Kara, when I started living this life, it was just me. I was going up against human threats. That I could handle. Then it was metahumans. And I can handle that. Now, I learn that there are multiple Earths and I was brainwashed on board an alien spacecraft -
Kara: I'm sure that was unnerving.
Oliver: I don't get unnerved.  But when I go up against something new, I push back. Right or wrong, it is who I am and it was what I do. I'm asking for a little bit of space because I have to draw the line somewhere. I need to claw back a sense of normalcy. Please... stay here.

Cisco: We made it!  This is the '50s! Sick!
(Felicity keels over and vomits.)
Nate: Severe time jumps can cause nausea, temporary deafness...
Felicity: (tries to speak but total gibberish comes out.)
Nate: ... linguistic disorientation...
Felicity: (more gibberish)
Mick: (pointing to Cisco) You. Clean it up. We're going to go kidnap an alien.
Cisco: (chuckling) Okay. I know I did not just travel through time so we could stay on the ship.
Mick: (To Felicity) Ponytail? You're staying on the ship.
Felicity: (angry gibberish)
Nate: I'll take that as "Have fun storming the castle."
Cisco: Oh? For real? You're gonna used Princess Bride against me? Against me?!
(Felicity falls to her knees and throws up again. Cisco grabs her ponytail and holds it up.)
Cisco: It''s okay. I've got you, girl.

Cisco: You know all this time traveling, fighting aliens... this is stuff I used to dream about as a kid.
Felicity: Yeah. Me too.
Cisco: But it doesn't feel like a dream. It just feels weird.
Felicity: Well, exactly! And it's only going to get weirder. So that's why we've got to be able to rely on our friends.
Cisco: I really wish I could right now, Felicity. But he's not my friend.

Caitlin: You know, you're really taking this whole absent-minded professor thing to a new level.
Stein: I don't know what you mean.
Caitlin: Your daughter - ever since you've come back, you've treated her like a total stranger!
Stein: That's because she IS a total stranger!
(Caitlin looks at Stein shocked)
Stein: I'm sorry. It's just that... when I last left 2016, that... young woman did not exist.
Caitlin: Wait... you're saying that Lily belongs to another timeline? That, when Barry created Flashpoint-
Stein: Unfortunately, this is all my fault. You see, a month ago I interacted with my younger self back in 1987 and unwittingly motivated him ... me... to sire a child. So it's because of my carelessness that this... time aberration exists.
Caitlin: She's not an aberration! She is brilliant and funny and a lot like you. Just a little less uptight.
Stein: Please...stop talking about her like this. She is not a real person.
Caitlin: She is a real person. She's your daughter.
(Realization dawns on Caitlin's face.)
Caitlin: Wait... when we finish fighting the Dominators, you're going to go back in time and... erase her?
Stein: No. I am going to restore the timeline. Unlike your friend Barry, I have the luxury of fixing my mistakes.

(Cisco and Nate are suddenly standing on a deck in the Dominator mother-ship. The Dominator Cisco saved turns to regard them.)
Dominator: What an unusual gift. You appear to be a meta-human as well...
Cisco: Yeah, well, I figured you'd cut me some slack seeing as how we saved you back in 1951. Remember that?
Dominator: Much has changed on your planet in the last 60 years. The threat of your kind has become imminent.
Cisco: Listen, E.T. - we're not a threat! Metas are protecting this planet.
Nate: And besides, the guy who tortured your ugly ass back in 1951 was human.
Dominator: But what happens when a man like him inherits abilities like yours? We have seen it happen on countless other worlds. Which is why we must exterminate your kind before the scourge of your planet becomes the scourge of ours.

Barry: This isn't up for debate. It's not even a close call. Turn myself over to The Dominators, they leave the rest of the world alone. Simple.
Felicity: No, it is not simple!
John: Barry, it doesn't matter what you've done. You can't do this.
Barry: It has been a honor and to know all of you. To fight alongside of you. Now it's up to you to keep our home safe.
(Barry turns around and starts walking to leave the hangar.)
Oliver: Barry! I'm not letting you leave.
Barry: No offense, Oliver but you and what army?
(Barry turns back around to see assorted members of The Legends, Team Arrow, Team Flash and Supergirl staring at him.)
Kara: This one.
(Barry looks at them all, clearly touched.)
Mick: Listen Red - I don't like you. But when you've got a crew, you don't take a hit for the rest.
Barry: That... was actually pretty inspiring. I mean, up until the point that Mick compared us to a bunch of criminals
Amaya: According to the Dominators, we might as well be.
Nate: And maybe they're right. Maybe we do more harm than good. But this is our chance to find out.
Cisco: We're not letting you sacrifice yourself. There's no way. I don't care if that's what it means to be a hero. You're not a hero to me.... you're my friend.

(Felicity is watching the progress of the battle from a monitor at STAR Labs)
Felicity: Good job planting Professor Stein's nanoweapons, but we've still got Dominators all over the country. This looks like a job for Supergirl!
(We see Kara flying across the ocean just as we see Barry running across the countryside.)
Barry: (dryly) Thanks Felicity. I'm not the least bit insulted.
Felicity: Uh- sorry! I meant Supergirl AND Flash. This is totally a job for the both of you. That's what I meant! Supergirl and... Flash.

(Kara - now dressed in her street clothes with her glasses and her hair in a ponytail - walks past Felicity and Ray)
Felicity: It's like looking into a mirror.
Ray: Yeah, you know what's funny? She really kind of looks like my cousin.

Kara: Either of you ever save the world before?
Barry: Mmm-hmm.
Ollie: Last year.
Kara: It doesn't gets old, does it?
Barry: Nope. It sure beats screwing up the world.
Kara: Hey You're too hard on yourself.
Oliver: That's what people usually tell me.
Kara: And for good reason, I'm sure. But, back on my Earth, it's just me and my cousin. Between the two of us, we're more powerful than...
Barry: ...everybody in this room combined?
Kara: (laughing) No, no! That's the point. That's what you've all proven here. Meta-humans or not, super-powers or not... you are Earth's mightiest heroes.
Oliver: Um... I owe you an apology. Keeping you at arm's length was the wrong move. And uh... well, the truth is that this Earth could probably use a Supergirl.
Kara: Well, that's funny. Because I was just thinking that my Earth could use an Oliver Queen. (Kara pauses and looks at Oliver thoughtfully)  I know you said you don't get unnerved... but if you did, I think hardship is what makes us stronger. That's probably why these people look to you as their rock.
Barry: You guys feeling a group hug?
Oliver: No.
Kara: Come on!
(Oliver sighs with annoyance as Barry and Kara both hug him.)

Jax; Alright Grey. Spill. How is it you had a kid?
Stein: I didn't think I had to explain such matters to you, Jefferson.
Jax: Oh, come on! You know what I mean!

Sara: It's weird to think that all of this started with the two of us. You ever think about what it would be like if we never got on that boat?
Oliver: I don't know if I have to think about it. I mean, maybe The Dominators showed us what our lives would have been like?
Sara: I know it was a prison but in a way-
Oliver: In a way, it was a gift?
(Sara nods and the two hug.)
Sara: Stay out of trouble.
Oliver: Yeah.

Barry: We ought to do this more often. Get together, I mean.
Oliver: I don't know if the world could take it.
Barry: I meant, like without the world being threatened.
Oliver: If the world wasn't being threatened... what would we do?
(Cut to Barry and Ollie sitting in a bar, drinking beer together.)

Oliver: I told Kara that I was looking to reclaim some normal. Thinking on it now, I'm... I'm not so sure.
Barry: I know what you mean. We both got a look at what life would look like normal.
Oliver: It would have been happy.
Barry: But not full.
Oliver: No. No, nowhere close.
Barry: (raising his beer) To things not being normal.
Oliver: (raising his own glass) To life being full.
(The two clink their bottles and drink.)


Continuity

Between the end of A308 and the start of this episode, Thea "Speedy" Queen returns to Star City while Green Arrow and Spartan join White Canary and The Atom in returning to meet up with the rest of Team Flash, Team Arrow, The Legends and Supergirl in Central City.

The new President of the United States is a woman.

Amaya, Nate, Mick, Cisco Ramon (from The Flash) and Felicity Smoak (from Arrow) make up the group that goes to 1951.

Sara, Ray, Barry Allen (from The Flash) and Oliver Queen (from Arrow) make up the team that goes to meet with The President.

Professor Stein and Caitlin Snow (from The Flash) focus on the problem of how to fight The Dominators directly.

Martin Stein apparently loved telling Lily the story of The Lion With The Thorn In His Paw to his daughter when she was young.

Dr. Lily Stein spent six years at MIT and holds a doctorate in nanotechnology.

As noted in the past, time jumps can cause nausea, temporary deafness or blindness and linguistic disorientation.

Cisco refers to the events of F307 and his discovery that Barry Allen's attempt to save the lives of his parents through time travel indirectly caused the death of Cisco's brother.

Lily Stein stayed up all night with Martin working on her seventh grade science project. It was the first time she was allowed to drink coffee - much to Clarissa Stein's disapproval.

Martin Stein refers to the events of F308 and how he discovered that the visions he began having in 206 were of a daughter who didn't exist in his original timeline.

The Dominator Nate speaks with in 1951 says the reason The Dominators came to Earth was to study the emergence of meta-humans and determine if they were a threat.

The first Dominator Invasion coincided with the emergence of the JSA. Apparently World War II was the first sizable collection of meta-humans on Earth.

Cisco makes the call to rescue the captured Dominator in 1951.

Cisco and Felicity are able to repair the Dominator pod used by the captured heroes to escape the Dominator mother-ship in A508, allowing the Dominator to return home.

Cisco takes a transponder from the Dominator ship. He thinks he can use it to communicate with The Dominators in 2016.

The Men In Black know that Barry Allen is The Flash. It isn't made clear what other superhero identities they might know. Given that they apparently outrank ARGUS in the chain of command in dealing with The President (based on F308), they probably have access to their records.

The Dominators have the capacity to detect the alteration of time. This is how they knew that Barry Allen was responsible for altering the timeline.

The Men In Black brokered a peace-deal with The Dominators in 1951. The Dominators agreed to leave Earth in peace provided Earth's meta-humans took no hostile actions against them. Barry Allen's altering the timeline to create The Flashpoint Reality apparently broke this treaty.

The Men In Black negotiate a new deal - give Barry Allen to The Dominators in exchange for continued peace.

It is unknown how many metahumans the meta-bomb would kill. It is guessed, however, that it might kill two million non-meta-humans.

Cisco is able to use his Vibe powers to project himself and Nate onto the Dominator mothership.

The metabomb is massive enough that The Waverider is just barely able to hold it up using its tractor beam.

Firestorm is able to transmute the metabomb into water.

The Legends, Green Arrow, The Flash, Spartan and Supergirl are acknowledged by The President, despite the nature of their role in stopping the Invasion needing to remain secret.

Cisco builds a device that will let Supergirl travel between her universe and Earth One. It also has a communicator, so she can contact the heroes on Earth One for help.

Professor Stein asks Jax to keep the nature of his daughter a secret to the rest of The Legends.

Supergirl apparently talked with The President and told her about the Department of Extranormal Operations on her Earth and how they dealt with alien affairs. She apparently liked the idea so much that she was shutting down Agent Smith's agency in favor of creating something similar.

Agent Smith is apparently reassigned to Antarctica.

Cisco and John both forgive Barry for the changes his time-traveling brought about in their lives.


Location

Central City  - November 2016
Redmond, Oregon - 1951


The Bottom Line

For all the build-up over the Dominator invasion, this episode is far heavier on quiet, character-building moments than scenes full of alien-fighting action. Thankfully, this proves to be to the episode's benefit. The ensemble casts of all the shows play well with each other and not one subplot misfires. Hopefully we won't have to wait another year to see all these characters together again.