LEGENDS OF TOMORROW comes together in our ‘Pilot, Part 1’ recap!
All it takes is a handy knockout device and Rip Hunter has gathered his possible team of heroes, the Legends of Tomorrow!
Rip explains that the earlier Flash/Arrow tango with Vandal Savage is null and void because he needs to be killed specifically by Hawkgirl or Hawkman, which means he’s able to reincarnate (Thanks, Malcolm Merlin!) and take over the world in 2166.
Ina series of short scenes, the team nominees all decide to take part for different reasons. Sara wants to be a hero for once, Captain Cold and Heat Wave want to thieve and steal in easier times, and mostly everyone else wants to escape and make a difference on a grand adventure. The only holdout is Jax, so Dr. Stein just drags him along.
And oh hai, Eobard Thawne’s computer Gideon is also the computer on the Waverider!
The first mission is in 1975. The gang is tracking down Professor Aldus Boardman, an expert on Vandal Savage who may have a theory on where to find the vicious criminal so the team can bring him down… and who is doing to die under suspicious circumstances in the next 24 hours. Except the whole team isn’t in on the mission, because Rip tells Sara, Leonard, and Mick to stay behind and Jax refuses to go.
Instead, the first three wind up in a bar, getting in a epic throwdown to the tune of “Love Will Keep Us Together.” Poor Jax gets stuck in the Waverider alone, failing to get Gideon to bring him home.
Professor Boardman is a straight-up fangirl of Hawkgirl, Hawkman, and their legend. It’s a bit awkward, because we all know he’s about to die. And then he reveals that he’s their son from another life. *weeps uncontrollably*
Kendra decides that the best way to save her son is to bring him on to the Waverider with them. But a mysterious assassin is attacking Jax and the Waverider when the gang returns and naturally, Aldus Boardman is grievously injured in the fight. Sara, Leonard, and Mick make it back from the bar in just enough time to help.
After giving Kendra a ring belonging to his mother, aka her in a past life, he eventually dies abroad the ship. After discovering that the assassin, Chronos, was sent by the Time Masters, the team demands some answers from Rip. It turns out that Rip left the Time Masters and picked the team to help him avenge a personal vendetta against Vandal Savage (he killed his family!) because they’re inconsequential to history. OUCH.
After much consideration, the team decides to stick with Rip. Not because they’re happy with him, but because they want to make themselves legends in their own way.
AND OFF WE GO TO FIGHT VANDAL SAVAGE!
