“Compromised” is episode five of season two of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.
It’s Miami, 1987, and it looks to be channelling Miami Vice. Damien Darhk is in the middle of a drug deal. Only his payment isn’t cash but an axe. Which, he explains to those buying the drugs, is a ceremonial axe belonging to the bodyguard of Emperor Nero. And says the name of the axe is where the name ‘Fascist’ comes from. At which point the cops show up and start shooting. Darhk looks more annoyed by this than anything else and draws a gun. Then all the cops are taken out by a blur as Eobard Thawne shows up.
Darhk says that it’s 45 years since Thawne hired Darhk to nuke New York, in “The Justice Society of America”. Thawne says for Darhk, yes, but not for him. Old friend. Darhk says old is fair, but friend needs to be earned. Thawne says that he is after a partner. He knows what Darhk is planning – and how it works out. Why not help reshape history instead? Darhk asks what’s in it for him, and Thawne says actual power, not just the symbols of it.
On the Waverider, Jax is saying to Professor Stein that they could make history better. Stein tells him that even small changes could have unforeseen consequences. They are trying to fix problems, not cause them. Sara, when asked, says her heart agrees with Jax. But that’s not what Rip entrusted them to do. Jax says they simply clean up other people’s messes. That they are time janitors. Which is not glamorous, when phrased like that. Still, Stein has a point.
At the end of the previous episode, “Abominations”, Rory gave Ray Snart’s cold gun. Now he’s trying to teach Ray how to use it. It isn’t going well. Ray says that he could improve it. Rory says it’s fine the way it is. That Ray needs to be cool, like Snart. To find the pain, the darkness, the anger within.
Amaya comes across Nate who is working on a side project. Temporal aberrations cause timequakes so Nate is working on a device to locate their epicentre so that they can fix aberrations before they happen. Amaya asks if it’s a time seismograph and Nate says that is an awesome name that he is totally going to steal. Nate wants to know about his grandfather by Amaya is a bit offish, saying the JSA didn’t encourage fraternisation. Although when she discovered that Rex was dying, her reaction did not appear cool and professional. As she is leaving, the time seismograph starts working.
The location is Washington, D.C., the date is December 7th, 1987. The precise location is the white House. Professor Stein says that is the day before Reagan and Gorbachev sign the INF treaty. He was in town for the summit. Amaya says she will reach out to the current membership of the JSA and Sara tells Nate to accompany her. As the rest of them break into the most secure residence in the country. Easier than it sounds – it has tours.
Amaya complains to Nate about the shoulder pads in the outfit she is wearing. Which are to make women appear more masculine. She was sure that men and women would be considered equals by now. Nate tells her never to lose that optimism. Where they are heading looks to be an abandoned warehouse but which Amaya says hosts the most elite training facility in all of history. Not only does it not impress from the outside, it doesn’t from the inside either. For it looks abandoned. Amaya doesn’t know what happened to the JSA. Nor does Nate; he may be a historian but everything related to the organisation is classified. Someone is watching them though.
Stein is in the White House talking to Jax about the era – Whitney Houston and Star Trek: The Next Generation – when they spot himself. The younger version. Jax and the professor hide; Stein does not understand it as he was never inside the White House. And uses this to reiterate his point about interfering in history. Rory encourages Ray to swipe some of Reagan’s jelly beans when they see Damien Darhk. They hide and tell the others that they think they have found the aberration. Stein asks Sara not to do anything rash. She doesn’t pay attention.
Amaya and Nate are looking through the JSA papers. She thought that fighting Hitler would unite the US and the USSR. Boy, was she wrong. Then the lights go out and something swirls around. Amaya uses her powers to see in the dark. The shape forms into an old man in front of Amaya and she calls him Todd before Nate knocks him out. He is actually Obsidian and he asks Amaya why she abandoned them.
At the White House, Sara encounters the Secret Service then Ray and Rory show up to help. Ray crosses the streams of the cold and flame guns (crossing the streams? What is this, Ghostbusters?) and there is an explosion. That is the one rule they are supposed to follow. Firestorm shows up and they end up making the news. Afterwards, Jax has a go at Sara about attempting to change history when it benefits her and Rory at Ray over the cold gun. Stein thinks their time travelling nemesis is also involved, the one who killed Rex, and is concerned that Amaya may go off the rails as well if told. Killing Darhk before his actual death could have major consequences.
Nate is fretting he has killed Obsidian. He is whispering to Amaya in case he isn’t dead as he could use the sleep. Obsidian says he isn’t an invalid, just old. He explains what happened to the JSA. In 1956, Eisenhower sent the rest of the team on a mission to Leipzig. None returned. There were concerns about whether Obsidian could be trusted (for, it can be worked out, daft reasons). Then they get called by the Waverider.
Amaya is told about Rex’s killer and Darhk is having a secret meeting in the park that night. Rory and Ray are sent out because Sara doesn’t trust herself near Damien Darhk. In the car, Rory says he was wrong about Ray acting more like Snart, because it reminds Rory of his dead friend. Rory has trouble coming out with the words. He is having feelings. Darhk is meeting with a member of the KGB, not the Reverse-Flash. A package will be delivered during the state dinner. Then young Stein shows up as well interrupting the meeting. That’s an oops which result in him getting stabbed.
Stein is still not impressed with his younger self. Even though he used to be his younger self. Darhk has some sort of side deal going with the KBG and a package during a state dinner does not sound good. ‘Package’ so often means ‘bomb.’