“Legendary” is episode sixteen of season one of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow and the season finale.
In the previous episode, “Destiny”, the Legends destroyed the Oculus, the means by which the Time Masters spied on and modified the timeline (that modifying could be why Rip’s family never survived). This resulted in the death of Snart, who sacrificed himself. Although Ray was the one Rip saw die and Rory volunteered, only for Snart to knock him out.
So, the Time Masters no longer have free reign to alter time as they wish – or even see it. Nor does Rip have the ability to see it any longer either. Vandal Savage is still loose, with Kendra and the Carter from 2166, and has killed Rip’s family. And he now has a timeship. So Savage thinks he no longer needs the assistance of the Time Masters anyway; he no longer needs to rule the world as he has the ability to change it. Then there’s the Thanagarians, who are supposedly going to destroy the world.
The Waverider arrives back in Star City, 2016, and the Legends disembark. Rory asks what they are doing back. Rip replies that Savage has a timeship and with the timeline unclear thanks to their destruction of the Oculus… and Professor Stein continues, saying that Savage is lost to history. So Rip has brought everyone home. They tell him it isn’t over, they will find Savage again. Rip asks them then what. How do they kill Savage? Savage has both Kendra and Carter, and that’s assuming they are still alive which Rip is less than certain of.
Ray says they aren’t giving up but Rip tells him he is going to return to the Refuge and retrieve their younger selves and return them to the timeline. Sara asks if they are supposed to go back to their old lives and pretend that none of this ever happened. Rip admits that will be a tad difficult… because Rip had to bring them back to May 2016, not January. Jefferson is not happy and Sara wants to know what caused the change in plans. Rory tells Rip that if Rip is getting back onboard, so are they, poking him as he says it. Or trying to; Rip is a hologram. Rip admits he never actually left the Waverider, which takes off. Rip’s projection apologises for what he asked them to do and how it all came to nothing. Afterwards, Rory says he never liked Rip.
Sara arrives at the Arrow HQ and only her father is there. She tells Lance that she tried calling but no-one was answering. Lance tells her that Damien Darhk is causing problems, and that everything is not okay. Darhk escaped from prison and everyone tried to stop him. Laurel did not survive.
In Central City, someone zaps a guard with Snart’s cold gun and Rory calls him an idiot, they were in the clear. Rory’s new partner says that he was coming after them. As they have a car and the person chasing didn’t, Rory tells him it was a waste of ammo. With sirens in the distance, the other tells Rory that the cops are coming; is Rory going to yell at him some more or are they both going to get out of there. Rory’s answer is neither. He shoots his new partner with his own weapon, collects the cold gun and returns to the car. In the driver’s seat is a man wearing a balaclava. He greets Rory, then removes his balaclava – it’s Ray. He thought they should talk. Rory tells him to drive.
After they get away, Ray says to Rory that Rory didn’t waste any time getting back into his old habits. Rory likes stealing stuff; it makes him feel good. So what does Ray want? First, Ray wants to apologise, sort of, for Snart’s death. It should have been him; Ray was the one supposed to die. Rory tells Ray it wasn’t his fault, it was Snart’s. Ray wants them to keep an eye out for each other. As to why. Guess.
Professor Stein is at home with Clarissa; he has become quite knowledgeable about history. He admits he developed a passion for it recently. Clarissa asks if that was during his sabbatical, for the professor hardly ever talks about it. Stein replies that he left some very important work unfinished.
Stein and Jefferson arrive where the Waverider was, and Jefferson says that the ship isn’t going to be here. They saw it take off. Stein agrees that indeed they did, but in doing so the Waverider left – and Ray finished off with its quantum signature. Which is what he’s been trying to tell Rory. Ray has a beacon, Stein a quantum entangler. Mick considers this boring and asks if they are going to contact Hunter. At which point Sara arrives as well. Rip is currently watching holos of his wife and son on the Waverider when Gideon apologises for interrupting. No, she has not located Savage. She has received a transmission from Star City, 2016.
Ray and Stein are talking, trying to figure out if it worked, when the Waverider arrives. Rip thought he made is intentions perfectly clear; the Legends want him to clear about theirs. Rory hits Rip on the shoulder, checking that he is actually there. Rip is told he isn’t ditching them; once the mission is complete they can go their separate ways. Rip, when asked, admits he hasn’t made any progress tracking Savage since he left. But not has he got into bar fights in the Old west and 1975, put dwarf star technology into the hands of terrorists or got turned into a scary bird monster. Rory tells him that the Waverider is not taking off without the rest of them.
Kendra is running through some woods when she bumps into a G.I. She’s in Saint-Lô, France, in 1944. The soldier asks what Kendra is doing; she tells him she was being held captive. Not by Nazis. Something worse. Kendra notices the G.I.’s helmet – and notices as in recognises it, as she’s seen it before. She asks the man if he’s got anything to write with, and scribbles something on a pad. She then asks for the helmet and puts the note inside. Savage appears at this point and kills the G.I. then chokes Kendra unconscious.
On the Waverider, Sara punches Rip and holds a knife to his throat. She tells Rip he knew of Laurel’s death, that’s why he dropped her off five months later. She wants Rip to take her back to save her sister. Rip can’t allow that. Ray comments that Rip should have a good reason and, as Sara glances away, Rip stuns her. Back to the matter of Savage, he could be anywhere in time and space. Jefferson says that narrows it down a lot, then apologises as he knocks over a helmet. Guess which helmet. Jefferson asks Rip if the helmet was always over where he was and Rip starts telling him that no, it lives elsewhere. Then asks everyone if they moved the helmet. They didn’t. So Rip explains chronometric repositioning. Temporal changes reverberate through the timeline, physically moving an object from one place to another. And Rip finds Kendra’s note.
Kendra is captive and Savage has awoken Carter too. Carter says he knows Kendra and Savage comments that his mind is not fully gone after all. Carter tells Savage he’s going to kill him; Savage replies that he’s had 4,000 years to do that with no success. Savage is taking samples of both their blood. He tells them that it’s the key to unlocking Thanagarian technology, the aliens species that gave all three their powers. The Thanagarians sent three meteorites, technology beyond human understanding, that will be activated by their blood. Savage intends to erase time itself and go back to 1700 BC. He won’t be content to whisper in the ears of powerful men any longer. This time he will be the power. He will be a god. Which ranks up there with claims to being invincible as stupid things to say.
On the Waverider, Rip enters Sara’s quarters and asks her to please try very hard not to kill him. Sara wants his help saving her sister. Rip cannot do this. And he explains why. If Sara goes back, Damien Darhk wouldn’t just kill Laurel; he’d kill Sara and their father as well. Taking the team back with them would not change the outcome. Sara doesn’t think she can do this without Laurel; Rip tells her she can.
Savage is currently standing in a road blocking a German convoy. He is told to move out of the road but there’s something on the truck he needs. Savage is told to move or get shot. He laughs, the soldiers open fire and Savage starts taking them out. Then Rip and the others show up as well. Firestorm arrives at Savage’s timeship and frees Kendra. Before freeing Carter, he asks Kendra if Carter is still nuts; she tells him Carter’s okay now. The three escape but Kendra gets shot out of the sky by one of Savage’s soldiers; somehow he appears to have brought quite a few of them along.
Carter doesn’t remember the Waverider and Rip tells him they haven’t really got time to go into it. They need Carter’s assistance. Gideon has footage of Savage taking a meteor from the convoy, one of a type that Jefferson has seen before as Savage had one in 1955. During the fight, Firestorm managed to turn a soldier’s gun into something else, transmutation according to Stein. Jefferson wants to do it again but they fail. Stein says they need a Nazi. Still, third time lucky. Then realises what Savage is going to do.
The professor tells the others that Savage is going to detonate each meteor in a different time period. Which would destroy the world. Destroying the world in three different times would create a temporal paradox. Which would result in a timeqake. Which would return the Earth to the time of the first boom. Which would be 1700 BC. Savage, being immortal, can be in three different times at once. This does provide an opportunity though. For immortal can simply mean ‘not died yet.’
Not exactly a cliff-hanger ending but something new leading into season two and “Out of Time”.