“Legends of Today” is episode eight of season two of The Flash.
The episode starts with Barry talking about how he needs to run faster in order to catch Zoom. He’s running on the treadmill at S.T.A.R. Labs and Wells and Caitlin are monitoring him. Dr Wells asks Caitlin what the fastest that Barry has run is and she says a little over Mach 2 when Barry ran back in time. Wells says that’s not good. Then tells Barry he’s doing good.
Barry gets off the treadmill and says that he’s not getting any faster. Caitlin starts temporising but Wells bluntly says no. Wells is improving a bit in his attitude but he’s still not as pleasant as Thawne was. Of course, he still isn’t trying to kill anyone either.
Wells tells Barry that Zoom is three to four times faster than him. When Barry asks how, Wells comes up with a bunch of possible reasons; physiology, form, strength, attitude, diet. Which essentially means he doesn’t know. Barry gets a message from Patty and says he has to go. After Barry leaves, Caitlin says that they are out of ideas, that they’ve tried everything Wells has suggested. Wells says, in response, not everything.
A ship is at the docks at night and the harbour police chief welcomes the ship’s captain home and asks if there was any trouble. The captain says no, apart from a stowaway who hasn’t said a word in weeks. The captain hands the chief a coat full of daggers in sheaths in the lining, and the chief asks how many. At which point the stowaway speaks and says that there are 32, and that they will all be polished in blood before long. He continues, saying that he has waited a long time for this hunt, and the captain has brought him very close to his prey.
The captain tells the man that he won’t get very far in those handcuffs the stowaway is wearing only to be told the captain is wearing them instead. Which he is. When asked if the stowaway thinks he’s Houdini, he says that actually he taught him. And kills everyone.
Joe, Barry and Patty are looking at the report from the docks. Joe says that it was a bloodbath and Barry tells him that the killings were all done by one person, going by the evidence. Patty asks if they think a meta-human did it. No-one is sure as yet. Barry found flint in all of the knife wounds, and flint knives are not what you’d call common. As Patty leaves the interaction between her and Barry causes Joe to say that they are so cute when they are not trying to show affection in front of him. According to Patty, they are simply showing professionalism. Joe does not seem to believe this.
Kendra has brought Cisco to Jitters, which is closed. Cisco says that the thought they were going for dinner and Kendra tells him that she couldn’t decide on a restaurant. So she thought they’d make their own and cooked. Kendra wants to know that Cisco won’t run away again and he says not. After all, the last time was in the previous episode, “Gorilla Warfare”, when he touched her and had a vibe about a winged person. Cisco, for some reason, didn’t realise the vibe came from Kendra – even though that’s how he gets them. When they kissed and he had another, Cisco realised that it was a birdwoman, not a birdman, and the source was Kendra.
Then the man from the docks enters. He tells Kendra that she’s just as beautiful in this life as any other, and calls her Priestess Shiera. The man clearly plans to kill Shiera, and will probably kill Cisco as well. Who is sending a distress call to Barry. Who arrives and knocks the man down. The man then throws a knife at Cisco which Barry catches just before it hits Cisco in the heart. So Cisco says ‘Thank god, Barry.’ Nicely blowing Barry’s identity to Kendra. A lot of people know who Barry is now, and more by the end of the episode.
At S.T.A.R. Labs it’s confirmed that the knife used is the same type as the ones used at the docks. They are centuries old and no-one has any idea who the man is. Wells says that the name Shiera is Coptic. As in Egyptian. Barry says that they have to protect Kendra, and they have a few friends who can lend a hand but they need to leave Central City.
Cisco asks Barry if this is necessary as they have fought meta-humans with far worse abilities than knife throwing. Barry doesn’t think the man is a meta-human though; he thinks there’s something almost mystical about him. They use science to combat meta-humans and have no experience against guts like this. The others do. Cisco asks if Oliver and the others will even have the time to help. Barry says how busy can they be?
The answer is quite busy. At A.R.G.U.S. Star City Damien Darhk is, by the looks of it, sucking the life out of someone. He seems to be enjoying himself and says that he could do it all day. Still, he wants a chemical bomb so it’s time to get down to business. Then Green Arrow, Speedy and Spartan show up and intervene. Barry shows up shortly afterwards and whisks the three away to safety. At this point Thea didn’t know that they knew the Flash.
Barry likes the new setup the Arrow team have. Cisco does not; it seems he designed it and sent the specs, and considers some things an insult to engineering. Kendra, who is with Barry and Cisco, wants to know if there are any more surprises. Cisco pleads for no more surprises. He gets disappointed. Barry sketches the knife man and Felicity runs facial recognition and gets a hit. It’s clearly the man – but the photo is from 1975. Oliver starts questioning Kendra with his usual subtlety and Felicity defuses things by suggesting they go home for a drink. Things start getting very messy and the knife man is definitely dangerous. Then someone else shows up and causes yet more problems. Cisco definitely got disappointed.
In Central City, Dr Wells is working on something. He tells Caitlin that it’s a formula he started developing back home when Zoom first showed up. It’s supposed to increase the speed of a speedster, and he meant it to help Jay Garrick. Caitlin refers to it as nitrous oxide for speedsters. Wells says that he’s tried the formula five times and failed five times; that’s the problem when your background is technology not biochemistry. Caitlin, who does have the right background, has an idea and they come up with something that may work. Additionally, the problem with not telling Patty everything was she’s so close to Joe and Barry causes serious problems. She really needs brining in the loop.
This is a major crossover episode with Arrow, and the various series in the Arrowverse are far too interconnected to watch them out of the proper sequence without getting major spoilers for other series. The story continues in the Arrow episode “Legends of Yesterday” the episode’s name is also foreshadowing Legends of Tomorrow.