*SPOILERS AHEAD*
We open up to find the team still trapped in 1975 and Kendra is in far worse shape than they had previously thought. Shards of the dagger and moving towards her heart and a time jump would kill her, leaving the team in a precarious position. Rip gets Jax to try to repair the smaller ship that the Waverider houses while Sarah talks Rip about going after Savage. With Savage immortal, Sarah employs some League techniques and they decide that since they can’t kill him, they’ll slow Savage down by hitting him in the pocketbooks.
Ray decides to use his suit to shrink down and stop the knife shards from killing Kendra despite Stein’s warnings. Rip and Sarah plot to take down the bank where Savage hides his money while Rory and Snart steal a key from Rip in order to carry out their own plans. Ray begins to clean out Kendra’s bloodstream, but his suit is unable to withstand the stress of the task. Sarah and Rip have just as much luck at the bank as they are immediately made. Luckily, Sarah is a total bad ass and she makes quick work of everyone in bloody fashion, stopping just short of killing everyone because Rip needs someone to help him find Savage’s money.
Rip goes on a ‘holier than thou’ tear against Sarah after witnessing her merciless capabilities. Sarah fills Rip in on what the Lazarus Pit did to her, letting him know she thinks herself a monster. Snart and Rory corner Jax in the smaller ship and bribing him with flying the ship, Jax agrees to fly them to Central City to steal some gems. Stein goes to Ray with information to help him save Kendra, but Ray is haunted by losing his fiancé again, despite them going through this already in Arrow last season. Rip and Sarah interrogate the banker, looking for Savage’s money and the banker reveals that Rip could have killed Savage 4,000 years ago but couldn’t. They eventually get out of him that Savage is holding a ceremony to desecrate the remains of Carter, so Rip and Savage go to assemble the team to attack Savage head on.
In Central City, Snart and Rory easily steal the emerald and Snart’s true plan comes to light. He plans on giving the emerald to his father so he won’t go to jail trying to steal the gem for himself, thus altering the Snart family’s future. Stein goes to Ray and gives him a pep talk about how he actually remembers Ray being his student and that Ray’s brilliance always made Stein question his own. Ray confides his fears in Stein and gathers the courage to save Kendra. Sarah and Rip capture one of Savage’s followers and sneak in to the ceremony using him as a cover. Snart goes to his childhood home to deliver the emerald and runs into his younger self when he is held at gunpoint by the younger version of his father. Snart gives him the jewel and gives him some information from the future before leaving him with some threats of violence.
Rip and Sarah infiltrate the party and while they do some reconnaissance while dancing, Rip imparts some words of wisdom on Sarah, trying to help her reconcile the killer inside her. The pair of them find Carter’s remains where they, obviously, have walked into a trap. Stein helps Ray as he re-enters Kendra’s body and uses his new found confidence to destroy the dagger pieces, saving Kendra’s life. Ray calls Stein out on not really remembering him as a student and Stein admits that he needed to give Ray a push but that Ray just needed to have the confidence in his own abilities.
Rip and Sarah are ushered into the ceremony room so they can witness the ‘true source’ of Savage’s power and they face down the villain himself. Savage monologues a bit and reveals he plans on taking Carter’s blood and sharing it among his followers, extending their lifespan. Kendra channels in to what’s happening, alerting Ray and Stein to Rip and Sarah’s peril. Savage toys with Rip, keeping the picture of his wife and child, in essence setting up the future Rip is trying to change. Ray and Stein try to mobilize the team, but the other half is still out and he sends them the coordinates so they can meet them.
Just as Savage’s monologue hits its crescendo, Rory, Snart and Jax show up and break up the party. As they get Carter’s body out, Sarah handles the cult members while Rip takes on Savage. Rip gets the upper hand, slicing Savages throats in the name of his wife and child. Now, Rips families futures are set, Rip putting them in Savage’s line of fire himself while Sarah manages to control her bloodlust and not savagely stab someone to death.
With Kendra now recovering, they have to focus in on finding out where Savage shows up next in history. Snart’s intervention into his father’s life doesn’t change the timeline as his father is arrested trying to sell the gem. The team hold a funeral for Carter and Rip gives a moving eulogy as they all say goodbye. Before takeoff, Rip apologizes for not telling them about his previous encounter with Savage and they band together as a team and they head out for their next timeframe to fight Savage – 1986.
This hasn’t been a great week for DC’s heroes on TV. What’s more alarming, is that Legends seems to be struggling to find its legs. Yes, there certainly have been high points, but overall, the show seems to having trouble hitting its stride. With a cast so big, I can understand the hectic pacing and the need for fast moving storylines, but it’s really coming at the cost of character development. Snart and Rip had some miniscule development this week, Snart in particular, but Sarah and Ray rehashed character points from their time on Arrow while Jax, Stein and Rory seem to be relegated to the B crew. It’s fine to have bigger stars in an ensemble, but it really limits your options when you simply leave half of your cast as filler pieces.
It also doesn’t help when your storylines themselves are struggling. I had a hard time getting invested at all in this show so far because they have to cram so much into small segments for each character that there’s no emotional weight to anything that’s happening. In fact, there hasn’t been any really believable parts of the show yet for the same reason. I haven’t really bought into anything they’ve tried to sell me – not the arms deal, not their cohesion as a crew, not the reasons they go forward… the only thing I can really buy into so far is Vandal Savage as a villain. He’s a solid villain which is important since he’s the through line for the whole series, but if the rest of the show could catch up, that would be great.
A few other niggling points to bring up. This week on Arrow, while talking about Thea’s bloodlust, Malcolm referenced how John Constantine got Sarah her soul back, sating her bloodlust. Which then seems weird that her bloodlust was her entire story arc on Legends this week. Ray’s fiancé story was also the linchpin for the entire introduction of the ATOM suit, so why are we bringing this back up if he’s already deal with all that? Also, Carter’s still dead, so that’s a surprise. I guess that leaves it open to him coming back with no memories, so that puts Kendra in the awkward spot of having developed feelings for someone who doesn’t remember her and then neither of them remember their past lives. That could be interesting, at least. I’m still just waiting for him to come back, though it seems silly that he would come back in the same body…
Anyway, I still really want to like this show. After all, it did bring more Caity Lotz into my life! But the show really needs to get it together. First off, they have to set up some ground rules for time travel. Like, an Englishman speaking modern English 4,000 years ago to an Egyptian who doesn’t even question it, let alone have an issue understanding him. Things like that need to be addressed. Second, they have to figure out their storytelling technique. This cast is about as big as Arrow and Flash combined, so the same storytelling techniques aren’t going to cut it. They have to find their own way of using the cast and storylines effectively. Because they are really struggling with it right now.
I still have hopes that this show can find its stride and be a show that is comparable in quality to Flash and Arrow. They have all the pieces, they just need to put them in an order that works out best for their show and stop trying to emulate their predecessors so much. Next episode, the team ventures into the Cold War era and the next phase of their adventure begins.