“I’m not even going to pretend to understand any of this” Jackson’s father says as he hears from his future son about their shenanigans. I have to say that I totally agree with him on this one! I am hard pressed to think of a crazier episode of a television series that I’ve seen as of late, or maybe ever. With that being said, does the episode work? Surprisingly, it does (if you don’t think about it too hard). This Legends of Tomorrow episode begins with the Time Masters’ assassin, Pilgrim, journeying to Central City in 1990 to take out her first target, a young Heatwave. Finishing burning down his family’s house, killing all of them in the process, Mick sits across from the house and watches it burn. This of course gives the Legends the opportunity to dress as firefighters and lay in wait for Pilgrim to arrive, which she does. Palmer, fully clad in his Atom armor, pops up and saves young Rory and takes him to the Waverider.
From here, the team realizes that Pilgrim’s next stop is Star City, as she’s targeting a young Sara Lance, giving a nice part for Paul Blackthorne to appear as Arrow’s Quentin Lance. In a nod to Terminator, Pilgrim storms the police station with the Lances, but is once again cut off at the pass as the Legends whisk young Sara away after fighting off Pilgrim. Unfortunately, it’s here that the team loses track of Pilgrim and has no way of finding her. Gaining a brief, hilarious scene of young Mick and Sara interacting with one another -- with slaps to boot -- the team is able to figure out where Pilgrim is thanks to the internal injuries that are appearing on Ray. Ok, before we delve further into the episode, let’s talk about time travel. I don’t think anyone in the show has any idea how it works here. Why would Ray being hit in 2014 create fresh bruises on Palmer on the Waverider? Why does killing the baby of the criminal on trial in front of the Time Masters at the start of the episode not instantly make them forget about said criminal? The laws of time travel constantly turn on a dime here, and if you think about it too much, your head will explode.
Anyway, Firestorm quickly saves Ray Palmer in 2014 and onto the Waverider they go. As present Palmer begins recovering from past Palmer’s injuries, he figures what better time than now than to pop the question to Kendra. Fair enough! From here, the team comes up with the most batshit plan you could create: they’ll travel back in time and snatch themselves up as babies from their cribs in order to protect them from Pilgrim! You have to admire the writers of the series to come up with such a ludicrous series of events and it just shows the possibilities that this show can have, even if they’re crazy! Cue Kendra and Sara pretending to be nurses to snatch up baby Captain Cold. Rip Hunter and Heatwave get in on the action by traveling to 1950 and taking Martin Stein immediately following his birth. These series of events did lead to a heartwarming scene with Jackson chatting with his father, who died while on deployment, while struggling with whether or not he should change the future for his own benefit.
After finding all of their younger selves, mostly as babies, they travel to the only safe house that Rip can think of: his mother’s place. Yes, Rip’s mother also works for the Time Masters and runs an orphanage created for the sole purpose of raising their future employees. Unfortunately, their plan doesn’t go the way they thought, as Pilgrim shoots the team a message that she’ll begin stealing the team’s loved ones from the past unless they surrender themselves. With little recourse, Rip offers himself up as tribute and says he’ll bring his younger self to Pilgrim in order to stop the team from having ever existed. While all this time chicanery is taking place, Kendra has once again turned down Ray’s advances on the behest of the warnings from her wild west self.
When the team confronts Pilgrim in an abandoned Time Master outpost, they offer young Rip Hunter but then attempt to take down the assassin in quite the display of action. To be honest, it was a really neat effect when everyone was frozen in time mid-attack, making for some fun visuals. As Pilgrim tries to deliver the final blow, young Rip begins stabbing the hell out of her and all the attacks from the team hit her at once. Taking a hint from the Wicked Witch of the West, Pilgrim turns into dust and the team licks their wounds. It’s time for amnesia pills as the team says their goodbyes to their past loved ones, with Ray and Kendra having another chat only this time, Kendra says yes to the proposal! With everything back in order, Rip unfortunately lays out the bad news that they have run out of time as the episode ends.
This was an insane, but ultimately very enjoyable episode. As long as you leave your brain at the door and by absolutely no means try to think about how time travel works in this series, you’ll be fine!
Rating: ★★★★ Very good
Notes of Tomorrow
- Nice to see Hunter keeps a collection of old cereal on his ship. I could go for some Fruit Brute myself.
-This episode had so many time paradoxes, it’s almost insurmountable to think about! Seriously, I just cannot stress that enough. (Editor's Note: Literally the one rule that Rip sets up for them is that they can never interfere with anything from their past or time will collapse on itself. Guess that doesn't actually matter! Not surprising, since Rip is the worst time master).
-Heatwave in the doctor’s coat is worth the cost of admission by itself.
- Ray: “Come with me if you want to live, I’ve always wanted to say that.”
- Sara: “I think at some point you just learn to live with a sword over your head.”
- Sara: “Who wants a relationship based on honesty and communication? BLEGH!”
- Sara: “My God, she’s…”
Heatwave: “Quite the badass!”
-Ray: “Can anybody here me?”
Snart: “NO!”
-Heatwave: “You’d better not drop my future criminal partner.”
-Heatwave: “I think you feel in love with the flames dancing in your hand.” (That’s some great delivery)
-Young Rip: “Try to snuff me out eh? You don’t know me at all!”
-Rip: “God I was a mean little bastard.”
-Heatwave: “Just pulled younger me’s head out of his ass!”
