“Last Refuge” is episode eleven of season one of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.
In the previous episode, “The Magnificent Eight”, the Legends dealt with the Hunters, who proved rather less than impressive than Rory’s description of them suggested. However, the Hunters had sent (yet another) time-travelling bounty hunter after them – the Pilgrim. Rather than confront the Legends head-on, the Pilgrim goes into their pasts and hunts their younger selves. The episode ended with a young Mick Rory watching a burning house as a woman came up behind him with a gun and fired.
This episode opens at the Time Masters Council. Time Master Druce is telling a prisoner, Kaylex Druzan, that he has been found guilty of time piracy in the first degree and has been sentenced to death by the Omega Protocol. The Pilgrim has made contact with Druzan’s younger self. Druzan collapses to the floor, then evaporates, and the Pilgrim enters the room. Druce gives the Pilgrim her next assignment – the Legends.
A fire engine is by a burning house in Central City, 1990. Snart comments that this isn’t his element and Rory replies it’s his. Rip tells them to watch out for the Pilgrim, as Gideon has calculated there is a 97% probability that the Pilgrim will attack Rory’s younger self at this place and time. All three are dressed as firemen.
Jax and Sara leave the burning house and tell the others that young Rory isn’t inside, but they found his parents, dead. They ask where he is. Young Rory is currently watching the fire from the grass with the Pilgrim standing behind him, as he was at the end of the previous episode. However, the sound of a shot was from Ray transforming to full size and zapping the Pilgrim. And telling Young Rory ‘Come with me if you want to live.’ After which Ray says to himself that he always wanted to say that.
Onboard the Waverider, Jax tells Rory that he told Young Rory that they work for a secret agency called. A.R.G.U.S. and that he thinks Young Rory bought it. Rory replies that of course he did – he’s an idiot. It seems Rory does not have a high opinion of himself. As Rory is leaving, Jax asks him if it’s a good idea leaving his younger self unsupervised. Rory agrees that it isn’t, and tells Jax to have fun as he continues leaving.
Kendra and Sara are sparring and Sara comments that Kendra is taking the threat of the Pilgrim quite calmly. Sara also says that you learn to live with a sword over your head. The talk gets onto the Kendra they met in the Old west, who told Kendra that any relationship she had with anyone but Carter was doomed. Kendra appears to be ignoring the advice of Old West Kendra regarding Ray. That’s because Kendra is following Sara’s advice to ignore Old West Kendra’s advice. and Sara tells Kendra not to listen to her. Kendra has not told Ray yet though. And Sara replies that who wants a relationship based on honesty and communication. Kendra does not feel that a relationship based on an ancient Egyptian curse works much better.
Rory thanks Ray for saving his younger self. Ray wants to know what will stop the Pilgrim going back a week and trying again. According to Rip, it’s all about precision. Multiple attempts could damage the timeline. So the good news is that the Pilgrim will only have one shot at killing each of them. The bad news is that they likewise only have one shot to extract their younger selves from the timline.
Starling City, 2007, where Gideon has calculated there is a 96% chance the Pilgrim will go after Sara. In SCPD, Young Sara is giving her name to a police officer. She tells her father that this is ridiculous; Lance thought it was take your daughter to work day. Yes – if Sara was in grade school. It seems Sara is doing criminal justice and asked to see what the system was like from the inside. She did not mean from a jail cell though, and she is also handcuffed. The next stop is a jail cell.
Sara accuses her father of enjoying this too much. He tells her it’s every father’s dream, to keep their daughter locked up until they’re 30. Or perhaps 40. At this point the Pilgrim arrives and starts taking down the cops pretty easily. Sara tries to run, but she’s handcuffed, so Lance frees her. Young Sara gets cornered by the Pilgrim, but Sara stops the Pilgrim from hurting her younger self as Rory arrives as well. Young Sara recognises her future self as looking like her, but Rory adds ‘Quite the badass’ to what she was about to say. On the Waverider, Young Sara is put in the cargo hold with Young Rory. Rory asks Sara if she’s sure about leaving daddy’s little girl with that punk – Young Rory. Sara tells him that even before the League of Assassins she knew how to handle guys like Rory.
On the bridge, Rip is finding something peculiar. When Kendra asks him to clarify whether this is peculiar or bad, Rip elaborates. Gideon is unable to track the Pilgrim, for the Pilgrim’s temporal wake has disappeared. Ray thinks that this doesn’t sound good. Rip agrees that it’s quite the opposite. Without any way to track the Pilgrim, she could target any one of them at any point in time. Temporal wakes usually cannot be hidden – unless, it seems, you have the Time Masters on your side.
If killed in the past they die in the present – as the late time pirate at the beginning demonstrated. Ray finds it fascinating. They might be dead right now. He might be dead right now. How would he know? Fascinating is perhaps not the first word most would choose to describe the situation. Rip tells them not to panic. There are a few exceptions. Kendra reincarnates, so killing her younger self is rather pointless. Rip is a former Time Master, so removing him from history could be quite dangerous to the timeline.
Snart finds this convenient. Rip has never told the rest about his past and Snart doesn’t trust a man who keeps secrets. According to Rip, the less information they have on him, the less valuable they will be to their, now numerous, enemies. Snart still finds it convenient. Sara makes a comment on them fighting – and she doesn’t mean Snart and Rip. Young Sara has just slapped Young Rory. Sara heads to the cargo hold; Young Sara took offense to Young Rory saying she smelled nice. Sara tells her younger self to keep her hands to herself – but next time hit with the flat. Sara also tells Young Rory that he isn’t Young Sara’s type. Young Sara wants to know why Sara looks like her.
Kendra comes across Ray and he talks about how when things get crazy – which they always are – he goes back to their two years together in Hub City. Ray is about to tell Kendra that, only seconds before Rip and the others came back for them in “Left Behind” he was about to propose when he suddenly collapses to the floor. Gideon, when she examines Ray, tells them that he is suffering from serious internal injuries. Bruises appear on Ray’s flesh as they watch. Gideon has also noticed a temporal anomaly in Ray’s timeline in Star City on December 19th 2014, in Palmer Technologies.
The anomaly, and the bruising, are because the Pilgrim is currently throwing a younger Ray around his office. She is about to shoot when Firestorm appears and throws a fireball at her. Which the Pilgrim stops in mid air. Ray gets Younger Ray and the Pilgrim blasts Firestorm’s fireball back into him. Before she can finish off Younger Ray, Younger Ray mentions his suit and Rip blasts the Pilgrim out through a window. Although it seems Ray had not yet tested that bit, so is pleased that it worked.
On the Waverider, Stein says that it seemed as if the Pilgrim was turning their attacks back on them, reversing time. Apparently this is called temporal micro manipulation; the Pilgrim can control time in her immediate vicinity. Rip’s new plan is to abduct the remaining Legends’ younger selves as babies. Which is considered to be brilliant, morally questionable and suicidal. For if their younger selves are taken out of the timeline for too long, no-one will remember them when they are returned.
During Ray’s near-fatal experience, he essentially proposed to Kendra. And she said yes. Kendra, though, when Sara comes across her, may be having second thoughts. Sara asks is Kendra likes babies; Kendra thinks that’s doubling down on the engagement thing. No, Sara just needs Kendra’s help, then she will try and help her with the Ray thing. Ray overheard this conversation though.
Sara and Kendra are dressed as nurses and they are in a hospital in 1972 Central City. Sara tells Kendra that this will be like any other mission. The mark may be a newborn, but it could be a diamond or a microchip. Kendra thinks Sara is starting to talk like Snart. They find Baby Snart and Kendra starts cooing over him. Sara tells Kendra they don’t have time – then starts doing the same thing.
Young Rory is trying to break out of the cargo hold even though Young Sara tells him they don’t even know where they are. Then she accidentally touches a wall scanner and Gideon confirms her identity, opening a door. The two fail to get anywhere because Rory and the others are there with Baby Snart. Sara tells Young Sara that they are in charge of Baby Snart; when Young Sara tries objecting Sara mentions that Young Sara made $5,00 from babysitting the previous summer. That sounds like a lot to make from babysitting.
Professor Stein is talking about how strange it would be, imagine holding you younger self. Which Rip does not feel would be a good idea; he decides that no-one will participate in their own abductions. A paradox prevention measure. After Rip leaves, the professor says to Jax that it would almost be worth the risk, to experience what their own fathers felt on the day they were born. However, Jax’s father shipped out before his mother went into labour and died two weeks later in Somalia. The young professor is being born in his parents car when Rip and Rory show up, claim to be doctors, take Baby Stein and say that they will meet the two at the hospital.
In Central City, 1993, Professor Stein is talking to Ray. It seems he is a little disconcerted about how easily his father gave him up to two complete strangers. The fifties were a more trusting time, according to Ray – he lived in them. They are here for Baby Jax and Stein sees a man in U.S. Army fatigues in the hospital. He asks Ray to hold off on taking Baby Jefferson, as he needs to find grown Jefferson. For the man is Jax’s father and Stein brings him back to see his father, a father he never met. When the Pilgrim arrives, all that is in Baby Jax’s crib is a message saying ‘Missed Me!’
With all their, relevant, younger selves collected, Rip takes them all to a house. A safe place he says. A woman comes out and tells Rip that she has been waiting, and that it’s good to see him. He agrees – calling her mother. In the house, the professor is saying that if all goes to plan their younger selves will only be here a few minutes and will not remember anything. Ray asks when was the last time things went according to plan and Kendra does not believe they ever did. The woman, Mary Xavier, is Rip’s adopted mother. Although he used to be called Michael. She works for the Time Masters, who fill their ranks by pulling orphans from throughout history. Her first loyalty is to her children though.
Rory has a chat or two with his younger self; it seems Rory had a grudge against, well, himself. Rip also has a chat with his adopted mother. She tells him to do the job. Not as easy as it sounds, though. The Pilgrim seems more powerful, more effective and more dangerous than the Hunters. She’s also rather willing to do whatever it takes to complete her primary objective. Then there is the problem of removing their younger selves from the timeline. The Legends only have a limited amount of time in which to operate now, before the effects of this removal set permanently.