In the year 2166, Rip Hunter, a member of the Time Masters,
witnesses the death of his wife and son by dictator Vandal Savage. In order to
change that history, he defies the Time Masters to gather a team to fight off
Savage in the past before he gains power in the future. Over time, he gathers
Ray Palmer, Sara Lance, Kendra Saunders, Carter Hall, Martin Stein, Jefferson
Jackson, Leonard Snart, and Mick Rory to fight with him, claiming that, in the
future, they will be legends. Though some are initially reluctant in the trip,
all soon join him in the fight, especially Kendra and Carter whose destinies
are tied to Vandal Savage. However, their mission is made more complicated when
the Time Masters send their own soldier Chronos to stop the legends.
In their efforts to stop Savage, however, Carter is killed
in battle, leaving Kendra the only member capable of killing the immortal man.
Their search then takes them through 1975, 1986, and even 2046 as they try to
find and interrupt Savage’s rise to power. Unfortunately, Rory betrays the team
to pirates invading their ship the Waverider.
Rip forces Snart to take care of Rory, and Snart does so by leaving Rory behind
on their travels.
The continuing journey leads them to 1958 where they find
Savage experimenting on a metal meteorite, similar to the one that gave Carter
and Kendra their powers. While the team is able to stop Savage’s experiments,
an attack from Chronos forces the team to escape, leaving Ray, Kendra, and Sara
behind in the 1950’s. Sara returns to the League of Assassins, but Ray and
Kendra use the time to grow closer.
Two years later, the Waverider
returns to pick up the three, forced to face off against the League of
Assassins to reunite with Sara. In the struggle against Chronos, they are
shocked to discover that Chronos is actually Rory, trained by the Time Masters
to be their soldier. With him in captivity, the group once again attempts to
fight against Savage in 2147, before he took power in the world. When they fail
to prevent Savage’s ascent, Rory informs them of worse news: the Time Masters will
send Hunters to eliminate the team for their resistance.
The team escapes to hide in 1871, but the Hunters locate
them and attack the Western city they inhabit. With the help of Jonah Hex, they
successfully take on the Hunters but not before they learn of the Time Masters’
new plan to kill the younger versions of the legends in order to defeat them.
Initially, they recover Rory and Sara’s younger selves but eventually resort to
finding their infant selves to protect themselves against the Pilgrim. As they
defeat the Pilgrim, Rip sends their younger selves to a safehouse outside time
with his adoptive mother. With their younger selves outside time, however, they
only have a short window before they are erased from time. In the meantime, Ray
and Kendra decide to further their relationship by agreeing to marry each
other.
With no time left, the team heads to 2166 in order to take
on Savage directly. In searching for Savage, Kendra discovers her old bracelet
in the possession of a female officer, a device that can be used to kill
Savage. With the local rebels’ help, they kidnap the woman, who turns out to be
Savage’s daughter, and melt the bracelet onto Carter’s mace to develop a
weapon. The mace is successful against Savage, but the villain reveals that he
has the current incarnation of Carter Hall, brainwashed to serve him. If Kendra
killed Savage, she could lose Carter again. Although Kendra refuses to kill
Savage under these circumstances, the team takes Savage and Carter under
captivity.
With Savage’s influence in manipulating time, Rip believes
that the Time Masters will be lenient on their crimes if they present Savage.
However, Savage attempts to manipulate his way out of the prison, feeding into
Ray’s insecurity about his relationship with Kendra following the return of
Carter. When Kendra attempts to reach Carter, Ray is goaded into a fight with
Savage, leading to his escape. In his fight, Savage tries to kill Kendra which
ultimately leads to Carter regaining his memory. Although Carter is stabbed, he
manages to survive as the Waverider arrives
at the Vanishing Point, the setting of the Time Masters. There, the Time
Masters reveal their alliance with Savage and order him to be sent back to
2166, leading to the capture of the rest of the team.
Under captivity, Rip discovers that Savage ultimately unites
the world against an attack from the planet Thanagar in 2175, though Rip
refuses to leave Savage off the hook for his crimes. The Time Masters also
reveal the Oculus, a device they have used to manipulate time over the years,
including the actions of the team. In an attempt to move against the Time
Masters, Sara and Snart break out the team and attempt to destroy the Oculus.
While they successfully take out the device, the destruction kills Snart who
sacrifices himself to protect Rory. Meanwhile, Savage escapes with Kendra and
Carter in tow.
Rip returns the team to 2016 in order to complete the
mission on his own, but the others refuse to leave the mission. With Kendra’s
help, they locate Savage but only manage to rescue Carter before Savage escapes
once again. Fortunately, regaining Carter gives them insight onto Savage’s new
plan which is to create a paradox over three different times using the
Thanagarian meteors to send the planet back to the dark ages where he will
rule. Splitting up, the legends face against Savage in 1958, 1975, and 2021
with the radiation of the meteors allowing anyone to kill him. The legends
manage to kill Savage and destroy the meteors, ultimately fulfilling their mission.
Once complete, Rip returns a reunited Kendra and Carter to
2016 while the rest of the team plan to assist Rip in maintaining the timeline
without the help of the Oculus. However, right before they leave, they are
confronted by Rex Taylor of the Justice Society of America.
Season Two
Probably the most impacting thing from the previous season
is the introduction of the Justice Society of America. The Arrowverse has long teased the development of a superhero team, but
season two of Legends of Tomorrow appears
to focus on the development of the team itself. With the extensive cast, it’s
easy to create a team even without the Green Arrow or the Flash, but an actual
superhero team recognized in both the past and the future has a lot more going
for it than a group aiming to stop a future dictator.
For one thing, the group of Legends is already expected to
expand with colorful list of characters. There’s Hourman, whom we already met
in the finale, Commander Steel, Vixen, Obsidian, and Doctor Mid-Nite. And those
are just the ones who were already revealed. From the surprise reveal at the
end of the previous season, it’s not entirely impossible for another surprise
appearance. At this time, however, it’s unlikely for every one of these heroes
to appear onscreen at the same time as the Justice Society, but, with all of
them official, there is always that possibility.
Even more impressive is the addition of not only the Justice
Society but the Legion of Doom. Made up of villains from both Arrow and The Flash, the evil group appears to be the perfect parallel to the
Legends. Also, this level of villains provides a decent balance of the grand
role of Vandal Savage. In this case, although the show lost one of DC’s
greatest villains, they gained four equally threatening ones. However, there
has yet to be a detailed explanation as to the grouping of these villains, some
of whom are already dead. In other words, there is sure to be an extensive
follow-up on the concept behind the Legion of Doom.
Finally, the show still has the remaining members of the
team to focus on as the series continues. Rip Hunter is now in the position to
try and maintain the timeline on his own terms. Sara and Rory will eventually
have to confront their relationship with Snart when he returns as a villain. Not
to mention, Ray will likely continue to work towards his hopes of being a hero,
and Jax and Stein may continue to work off of each other. In light of this, the
show doesn’t exactly rule out the reappearance of Kendra or Carter, even if
only for an episode. One thing’s for sure, Legends
of Tomorrow is not short of any character stories.
While Arrow and The Flash focus on the individual
heroes, Legends of Tomorrow season
two could be the show that really focuses on the team. With a major four-part
crossover with the rest of the Arrowverse
on the way, it will only get bigger from this point.
Photo Credit: CW/DC
