We open the season with Historian, Dr. Nate Heywood (season newcomer, Nick Zano) forcing his way into Oliver Queen’s office trusting that the Green Arrow, a friend of both Sara Lance and Ray Palmer, will believe him better than anyone else about the seemingly destructive fate of the Waverider. And after a little convincing, Oliver joins Heywood on an undersea adventure to discover the wreckage of the ship to see if they can’t find any solid evidence to prove Heywood’s theories about our heroes being displaced throughout time.
But when they get down there, all that remains on the ship is its alleged lone survivor, Mick Rory in Stasis. And it’s up to him to unravel a tale fit for a legend.
Through Mick’s recanting we learn that the team had, as they swore to at the end of Season 1, decided to fix the time aberrations being caused by the ripple effects of the loss of the Time Masters (and maybe some of their less wise choices while working their way towards Vandal Savage). We flashback to their Musketeer style adventure as the crew attempts to protect Louis the XIII from an assassination attempt. Here we get our first taste of how some things never seem to change as Mick is still robbing people, Sara is still the biggest lady killer on the crew (get it girl!), and no matter how many times Rip tells them not to Jackson and Ray can’t seem to get through a single mission without using their powers or future tech.
Though they aren’t the only ones bringing a laser to a sword fight as the would-be assassins are using laser shooting, highly futuristic guns, and don’t seem all that shocked by the appearance of a tiny man in an armored suit, or two men bonding together through fire, flying around the castle.
Of course, that’s not the only thing that hasn’t changed. Even though the team has bonded in the past (or would it be the future?) they still can’t seem to find that sweet spot of communication that drives them forward instead of tearing them apart (not to say they don’t have some awesome fight scenes together). Rip is still continuously lecturing them for the mistakes they make (which to be fair is a lot), and they still haven’t fully accepted that maybe as the new protectors of time, they too are now bound by the rules the Time Masters once faced.
But more than anything, the one aspect of the team that hasn’t changed is that the missions (no matter how noble on paper) are driven by a member seeking revenge at any cost. And this season it looks like that mantle will be picked up by Sara as she hunts down Damien Darhk in hopes of avenging her sister, Laurel’s death. If Sara can get to Darhk in the past, maybe she can save Laurel from the fate waiting for her in the future. But does this mean that like the Rip of Season 1, Sara will be blind to everything else the team is facing? Will she put their lives in danger for her own mission?
So far, it seems like it. The first chance she gets to go after Darhk, during the Legends’ attempt to stop him from coming into possession of an Atom bomb designed by Einstein’s ex-wife, she refuses to listen to Rip’s calls for her to fall back and help Ray before the entire mission is compromised. Sara’s continued battle for her personal vendetta may be the direct cause of them not only being unable to stop the bomb from being taken but its inevitable use against them.
It’s because of that inevitability that the Legends were warned by Rex Tyler, aka Hourman, not to journey to 1942 in the first place. But here they are, and there the bomb is, and Rip is left with the ultimate decision any captain must make: save the crew or save the world.
Sending each of the team members into a different point in time, with the exception of Mick, who is too injured and is therefore put in Stasis to remain safe (which obviously worked since we saw the future first), Rip stays behind and is seemingly destroyed but not before recording a final message for the team: “History is yours now my dear Legends.”
And indeed it is.
But what will they do with it?
With the help of Heywood, Mick is able to rescue each member of the team from their corners of history. And, ever the optimists, they return to the 1940s once more in an attempt to save Rip by stopping the creation of the atom bomb Darhk uses before it happens. But it isn’t an alive and well Rip they discover once their mission is complete, but some unfamiliar faces. A team of heroes working together. A team not exactly thrilled to see the Legends in their time. The Justice Society of America.
It’s a season opener so of course we don’t get to see much more than the trading card style shots of the members of the JSA posting up in their power positions (looking wicked awesome), but we already know that they are weary of the Legends and will no doubt be holding them captive in the ‘40s until they figure out who they are dealing with. And with the way the crew of the Waverider is still struggling to work together at times, watching a bonded team of heroes interact might be just what they need to help them save Rip.
And they are definitely going to need the extra help since our closing teaser showed us that Darhk isn’t working alone this time. Just like the Legends, the villains of our multiverse are coming together. We already know that Reverse Flash is Darhk’s partner, but who else will be joining the Legion of Doom? And when should we expect to see them?
Are our Legends really ready to take on a team of the all-time worst baddies, or are they getting in way over their heads? As Rip said, individually they are flawed and unruly, but perhaps together they will be that great team their captain believes them capable of. Perhaps then they can save not just Rip, but the world.
Either way, Season 2 is off to a fantastically, adventurous start and with the JSA and the Legion of Doom on the horizon this season definitely has the potential to be legendary.
Written by Shannon Brewer, LoT Beat Writer -- Click to read Shannon's posts
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