“Destiny” is episode fifteen of season one of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.
In the previous episode, “River of Time”, the Legends successfully brought Vandal Savage before the Time Council at the Vanishing Point. That was about all that went well. Rip had proof that Savage was interfering with the timeline and so – the Time Masters let Savage go to be returned to his own time, as he was needed in 2166, locked Rip up and sent others into the Waverider to secure everyone else. This was not quite the surprise it was supposed to be; something had seemed off with how the Time Masters had been behaving. Snart and Sara are still free because Snart’s concern about things had them heading to a hiding place before anyone located them and Professor Stein had sent Jax back to 2016 in the jumpship to try and cure Jax’s time radiation poisoning that was causing him to age very, very quickly.
This episode opens 5 months earlier. Well, 5 months and probably a bunch of years, for it’s Star City 2016. Rip is giving his recruitment speech to the future Legends that he gave them in “Pilot: Part 1”, showing them the future of the world. After Rip leaves, they discuss it. Snart and Rory walk away. Sara is undecided. Jax is not interested. Professor Stein follows Jax and asks him to sleep on it then come to Stein’s office in the morning. Jax walks away – then returns from another direction. The professor asks Jax how he changed his clothes so fast. The answer is time travel – this is future Jax. Jax tells Stein that he needs help; the team is in trouble.
At the Vanishing Point most of the team is imprisoned. Stein is coughing and, when asked if he’s okay, the answer is no – he needs to merge with Jax regularly to maintain nuclear cohesion. Rory is not imprisoned, for the Time Masters have other plans for him. As Chronos. The Time Masters are going to put Rory through the induction process again. Brainwashing, and brainwashing that kills most and leaves the rest, according to Rory, mindless goats. Ray points out that when Snart talked to Rory when he was Chronos, he wasn’t mindless. Not any more than usual anyway, according to Kendra. Rory focused on one thing. It kept him sane. That thing was vengeance, how much he hated all of the others. Guards arrive and escort Rory away and release Kendra from her cell. She hawks up, taking several down but another shoots her in the back.
Rip is escorted to see Druce. He has a query – Druce knows what it is. Why is Rip still alive. Two of Rip’s crew are still at large; Druce promises to spare the others if Rip tells him where they are. Rip remembers Druce’s offer in the USSR back in “White Knights”. When Druce planned to kill him. Druce says that Rip was a fugitive from justice after all; Rip thinks they have different definitions of justice. That’s because, according to Druce, Druce’s view of the timeline reaches further than Rip’s.
In 2175, not a decade after Vandal Savage conquered the world, Earth was attacked by a warlike alien race called the Thanagar. Without Savage uniting the world under a singular rule, the world ended up in flames. Rip says that was Savage’s work and Druce tells him no, it’s what happens when Savage is not there to lead the world. All human life is wiped out and even the Vanishing Point falls to the Thanagar. Rup thinks that Druce is as mad as Savage, if he thinks that Savage is the world’s only hope. Druce says he is; they’ve looked. But he doesn’t expect Rip to take Druce at his word. There is something else he wants to show Rip.
Snart and Sara are still on the Waverider in a hiding spot Snart discovered when he first came on the ship; he had looked to see if there was anything that was worth stealing. Snart wants to leave; when Sara brings up Mick he says that given what Rory told him about the Time Masters, Mick is probably not Mick any longer. Sara isn’t going. Besides, even if they wanted to go, they are in a hangar surrounded by an entire armada of timeships. Snart suggests they blast their way out, but Sara is not going without the others. Snart points his gun at Sara. Who dares him to shoot. Then a telephone rings. A rather old-fashioned one. The caller is Gideon; she is still alive and so are the rest of the team. For now.
Kendra, when she comes to, is on a timeship with Savage, who tells her that Carter is along as well, in stasis. Savage has an appointment he needs to keep. With destiny. No, that didn’t sound remotely arrogant. Rory is strapped to a chair and another Time Master, Declan, addresses him as Chronos and tells him he should be familiar with this procedure. It was not as thorough the previous time as it should have been, but even with a partial induction, Chronos was their greatest hunter.
Druce escorts Rip to what he calls their holy of holies, the Oculus Viewing Chamber. The Time Council’s most powerful window on the past, present and future. The source of all their information on the timeline. No captain knows about the Oculus, its existence, and its greatest secret, is known only to the High Council. The Oculus gives the Time Masters the ability to shape time as they see fit. It allowed them to help Savage consolidate his power through the use of time travel. And, Druce says, Rip has been helping Savage too.
Thanks to Rip’s efforts, Savage was not imprisoned for selling a nuclear weapon in 1975. The USSR was prevented from winning the Cold war in 1986, thanks to the events of “Fail-Safe”. Carter’s death allowed Savage’s closest lieutenants to live extended lives. The Time Masters redirected things, including Rip, to the outcome that history requires. Druce tells Rip to see for himself and Rip looks. He sees, and he sees the future. Not a prediction of the future, Druce tells him, but as it will be. Choice and free will are illusions; the only place where free will exists is at the Vanishing Point. No matter what Rip does, the future will happen. Rip is angry and Druce tells him they counted on his anger. But something was needed to spur Rip on – so the Time Masters ordered Savage to kill Rip’s family.
Rip is returned to his cell. He tells the others that the Time Masters showed him the truth. That the Time Masters were controlling the Legends, they were following a script laid out by them. And he saw Ray’s death.
Back in 2016, Professor Stein wants to know what trouble the team is in. Jefferson doesn’t know, but he’s getting something from his psychic connection. He can’t tell Stein about the future though. When the professor asks who says so, Jax tells him that Stein did. Besides, they have bigger problems than the dangers of future knowledge.
Declan apologises to Rory how painful the induction process was. Some of his memories were rooted deep and it took effort to root them out. Declan asks Rory to say his name and Rory eventually replies ‘Chronos.’ He is released and put back in armour. Chronos is told that his first task is hunting down Sara and Snart. Who are currently sneaking around the hangar placing devices on the other timeships. Snart thinks this is a bad plan. Sara tells him it’s Gideon’s. Snart does not think that helps her argument.
In the cells Stein is feeling pessimistic. Rory is being brainwashed. The professor is about to have a nuclear meltdown. And Rip thinks the future is already written. Ray thinks that they are quitters. Rip tells him that there is no escape from their cells and they are out of allies. With Snart and Sara still on the loose, Ray thinks they still have a chance. On the Waverider, Gideon tells the two that the time drive is back online. The ship departs the hangar and Druce orders all the other timeships to pursue. But, as they start up, the planted devices activate and the computers on all the timeships start singing then settle back to the ground.
Druce tells the remaining Legends that, as Snart and Sara have gone, there is no reason to keep the others alive. A guard enters and Druce tells him to kill them all. That wasn’t why the guard entered though; the Waverider‘s destination has been located. It’s the present. The Waverider starts shooting up the Vanishing Point and Snart arrives to free them. Then Chronos arrives and Declan tells him to shoot. So he does. He shoots Declan. Looks like induction failed again.
With everything being scripted out by the Time Masters, this causes a lot of second-guessing by the, now free, Legends. For all they know what they are doing is just what the Time Masters want. There is one thing though – only in the Vanishing Point does free will exist, according to Druce. Which would mean that they are free to do what they want.