“Shogun” is episode three of season two of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.
Ray and Professor Stein are on the Waverider; the professor wants to know how Nate is doing. If he has had any side effects from the Nazi superserum that Ray injected Nate with in the previous episode, “The Justice Society of America”, to stop him dying from haemophilia. Ray says not; he removed all the Nazi parts first. Someone drops from the ceiling behind them as they speak. Stein thinks that’s good, as it would be a tad inconvenient having a monster roaming the ship. Then Amaya knocks them both out. Amaya then takes out Sara – rather easily – and Jax. Mick is looking for some knives when Amaya holds one to his throat. Amaya accuses Mick of killing him; Mick asks her to be more specific. He lasts a bit longer against Amaya but she is about to stab him. When a metal man takes her out. Nate. Mick asks Nate what the hell happened to him; he really doesn’t know.
Ray explains, now that everyone has recovered, that he altered the serum he injected Nate with to give him skin like an alloy of steel and also increase his strength by four. Mick thinks ‘Steel’ is a cool name. Nate agrees – especially as his grandfather was Commander Steel. Nate doesn’t know how to do it on command though; Sara tells Nate that Ray will teach him. Even though the serum didn’t come with an instruction manual. She is going to chat to Amaya in the brig.
Sara wants to know why Amaya tried to kill Mick. Not that she doesn’t understand the appeal. Amaya says that Mick killed Rex and stole the Askaran Amulet. He didn’t; it was the Reverse-Flash, but Amaya came as Rex was dying (Rex dying is why he vanished when talking to the Legends) and all he could gasp out was time traveller. And the Legends are the only time travellers Amaya knows. Sara tells her that Mick didn’t do it – he hasn’t been off the ship since they dropped Amaya’s team off at the JSA. Amaya explains Rex’s last words and Sara says they have been tracking someone trying to alter history. Possibly the same person that gave the serum to Krieger. Sara will let Amaya out as long as she promises not to hurt Mick. Unless he really deserves it.
Nate is excited about gaining powers. Jax and Ray are going to help him try to change. Ray says that Nate changed because of a heightened adrenal response, so Ray plans to duplicate this. By blasting Nate with part of his suit. Amaya is asking Sara why they can’t save Rex; Sara tells her that the killer is a time traveller – they’d simply go back earlier and kill Rex again. They need to ID who they are up against. Amaya refuses to go back until Rex’s killer is brought to justice. Sara assures Amaya they are professionals. They know what they are doing. Which is punctuated by bangs coming from elsewhere.
Sara and Amaya find Ray in the Atom suit blasting Nate, who has transformed. Amaya queries the professionals but and Sara tags an ‘ish’ on the end. Then Nate hits Ray, knocking him into the hatch which opens (this is why airlocks were invented). Nate gets sucked out and Ray follows. As the others try to regain control of the Waverider, Amaya wonders how they haven’t managed to kill themselves yet. Mick tells her the day is still young.
Nate falls out of the timestream landing in the Kanasai Region of Japan in 1641. Which is likely not a great time to be a foreigner in Japan. Nate recognises the period – he is a historian – thinks it’s cool, than collapses into the crater he formed when he fell out of the sky. Ray has made his own crater and is confronted by four soldiers. He swallows a translation pill and tries asking them about Nate, but another knocks him out from behind. Nate awakens on the back of a cart; the woman whose cart it is says she found him at the bottom of a crater like he dropped out of the sky. Nate – who speaks Japanese – tells her that’s crazy. He sailed here. On a ship. The woman, Masako, brings Nate to her home. Masako’s father, Ichiro, is not so happy to have Nate and asks what will happen if the shogun discovers they have been aiding a foreigner. Ray is being interrogated by said shogun about his armour. Armour that the shogun says is his now. Masako is finding Nate strange and when she mentions the shogun Nate says it must be Tokugawa Iemitsu . A brutal warlord by all accounts. And, it seems, the person Masako is marrying tomorrow. Not what she wants to do.
On the Waverider, Sara, Mick and Amaya are going to find Nate and Ray whilst Jax and Stein fix the ship. Mick and Amaya squabble until Sara has had enough and threatens to maroon both of them in a time of her choosing. Together. Jax has finished repairing the ship and the professor checks with Gideon, who says that all 36 compartments of the ship are in optimal condition. Which Jax questions. Rip had Jax go over every inch of the ship’s 35 compartments. So there must be a secret compartment that Rip didn’t tell him about. Stein wants to go look for it. Jax reminds him they still have to fix the time drive. And they will. After.
When the shogun’s men come to Masako looking for foreigners, Nate decides to confront them. He says to tell the shogun the wedding is cancelled. Nate goes up against the head samurai – and totally fails to change. The man stabs Nate – not fatally for some reason – then leaves. That could have gone better.
Sara is following the signal from Ray’s Atom suit and Mick is talking about ninjas. And Chuck Norris. Amaya tells Mick that just because Mick saw ninjas in a film doesn’t make them real. Sara says she has to agree with Mick on this one. Amaya asks if she really believes that there is a secret brotherhood of men trained in the art of assassination. To a former member of the League of Assassins. Sara says she’s basically a ninja. Amaya misses the JSA. When they find the Atom suit, the shogun is wearing it. They have to make a retreat, accompanied by Ray.
The professor is still looking for the hidden compartment on the Waverider. Jax wants to fix the ship – until a hollow panel is found. Behind the panel is a secret hatch with a lock. Stein says that Rip really didn’t want anything getting in there. Or, Jax suggests, something getting out – if there’s one thing Lost taught him, it’s not to open secret hatches. So of course they are going to open it.
Back in the past, the others are going to go up against a shogun in an Atom suit. Nate says something that Masako finds profound. It’s from a wise sensei. Yoda. And there’s also a message, mostly unheard, from Barry Allen.