Legends of Tomorrow – Turncoat

By starrymag | February 14, 2017

By: Michelle Lopez

 

Christmas Day 1776. Rip (Arthur Darvill) arms a platoon of British soldiers with semi-automatic rifles while preaching a new strategy for defeating a leaderless revolution, fighting dirty. Thawne (Matt Letscher) applauds Rip’s plan to retrieve the Legends fragment of the Spear of Destiny. He’s killed George Washington (Randall Batinkoff) causing a massive time aberration the Legends cannot ignore. Rip will travel back in time to when they’ll try and save Washington, kill the Legends and grab the spear.

 

Phantom Zone, the Legends are killing time as Gideon (Amy Pemberton) works to locate another piece of the Spear of Destiny. Sara (Caity Lotz) and Jax (Franz Drameh) check in with Gideon for a progress report and in Sara’s case flirt with the supercomputer a little bit. Elsewhere, Ray (Brandon Routh) confronts Mick (Dominic Purcell) about leaving crumbs all over the ship. They’ve got some time mice aboard and Ray’s not happy, but Mick couldn’t care less. In the kitchen, Nate (Nick Zano) and Amaya (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) flirt while making breakfast for the team. Everyone’s morning is disrupted when a huge timequake hits the ship.

 

They assemble in the control room as Gideon informs them the timequake originated on December 25th, 1776. Nate identifies that as the day Washington led the Continental Army across the Delaware. Gideon has a different story and it’s the day Washington was murdered. Sara calls this out as an obvious trap by the Legion of Doom so they’re going to have to be extremely careful to avoid another Chicago incident. The evening of Christmas Eve Washington will be at a Christmas banquet at William Keith’s home so the Legends have a party to crash. Amaya and Nate will pose as newlyweds, Mick as a private in the Continental Army, Ray will recon as shrunk down ATOM, Sara will be her awesome self and Jax and Stein (Victor Garber) will stay behind on Waverider as backup.

 

The team files into the Christmas banquet and begin their search for Washington. Amaya and Nate shock a few partygoers with their alarmingly progressive interracial marriage. Sara downs a glass of Martha Washington’s extra strong eggnog given to her by Washington himself. She tells him they’ve got to leave the party because his life is in danger. Washington plays it off until rifle fire is heard outside. He wants to do the dignified thing and stay to fight, but Sara’s got no time for pandering to Washington’s ego. She hold him at gunpoint while Mick shoves him out the door. Nate and Amaya cover their escape, holding off the soldiers while tiny Ray takes them out with a few knocks to the head. On his way to intercept Washington, Rip sets off a massive EMP which depowers Ray’s suit, Gideon and Waverider. He and his platoon catch up to Sara, Mick and Washington. They hold them at gunpoint, shocking Sara and Mick as this isn’t the mindless moron they last saw – this evil Rip Hunter. He shoots Sara in the gut, grabs Mick and Washington and leaves Sara to die.

 

Operation Save Sara

Jax and Stein carry Sara into the medbay of Waverider. They’re panicking, but Sara is keeping it together. She’s already died once and doesn’t plan on a repeat performance any time soon. Without Gideon they have no way to save Sara so Jax and Stein attempt to form Firestorm and use their energy to recharge the ship. Unfortunately, the EMP knocked out their quantum splicer so no Firestorm for now. Sara interrupts their panic to break the news that Rip joined the darkside and shot her. She puts Jax in charge before passing out from blood loss. Stein sets to work on stabilizing her while Jax addresses the team. Nate and Amaya are going to rescue Washington and Mick while Jax and Ray work on getting the ship running so they can save Sara.

 

Jax and Ray study the Waverider’s blueprints to find a way to get to the breaker that will restart the ship while Stein prepares to perform surgery on Sara to remove the bullet. Rip shows up with his soldiers to break in and steal the fragment of the spear so Ray takes off into the vents to get to the breaker while Jax prepares for some Guerrilla warfare. He sets up a few traps and hides as he hears Rip and company break through the door. Jax lures each of the soldiers into one of his traps and knocks them out, leaving Rip the last man standing.

 

Rip knows Ray is stuck in tiny, Sara is most like dead and Stein is a bit too old to have taken out his soldiers so he begins to hunt Jax. Rip gets close to the location of the spear fragment so Jax gives away his position to lure Rip away. Rip tries to turn Jax to the darkside promising to rewrite history so his father doesn’t die in war, but Jax doesn’t give in and runs off. Rip eventually corners Jax forcing him to leverage his knowledge of the spear fragments location for his life.

 

As Jax takes Rip to the spear, Ray ventures through the vents in search of the elusive breaker. A space rat shows up and begins chasing Ray. Ray screams as he flees which startles Rip enough for Jax to set off another trap and get away. He heads to the medbay to see that Stein removed the bullet and Sara’s awake. The reunion is short lived as Rip shows up, knocks Stein out, and begins to strangle Sara. Jax gives up the spears actual location in exchange for Sara’s life, but Rip kills Sara anyways.

 

Stein wakes up to see Sara dead and pleads with Ray to flip the breaker so he can save Sara. Ray gets away from the rat and flips the breaker repowering the ship and putting Gideon back online. She quickly assesses the situation, sees Sara’s brain cells are still active and gets to work on reviving Sara.

 

Jax is devastated and really pissed off so he decides he’s going to murder Rip as revenge for Sara’s death. He races outside armed with a pistol and confronts Rip as he’s leaving with the spear fragment. Rip isn’t concerned because Jax is a marshmallow, but after a moment’s hesitation Jax lines up his shot. As he prepares to pull the trigger Sara runs up to stop Jax. He’s happy to see she’s alive, but doesn’t understand why she’s trying to protect the man who did technically kill her. Sara’s not there to protect Rip – she’s there to protect Jax from himself. It’s Christmas Day, a day to remember to be our best selves. Jax drops the gun and Rip gets away.

 

Nate & Amaya’s Romantic Adventure

Nate and Amaya make their way through the forest following the trail of the group that took Washington and Mick. They flirt over the Wizard of Oz and discuss what dating was like from their respective time periods. Amaya is from a time when courting was standard procedure and Nate is from a time when chill casual relationships are standard procedure. A noise in the surrounding woods tells them they’re being watched so they head off the trail to a cliff over the Delaware river. A group of Hessians attack them and Nate gets knocked off the cliff and into the river. Amaya knocks out the last Hessian and dives into the river after Nate.

 

Amaya drags a hypothermic Nate to a now empty Hessian campsite where she strips them both out of their wet clothes and they cuddle up to warm back up. Nate is a bit delirious due to the hypothermia and admits that he’s imagined getting Amaya naked, which she seems to be entertained by. Nate wakes up awhile later, notices that he’s naked and rambles to Amaya about cold water affecting certain things she may have seen when undressing him. Amaya wasn’t looking and is ready to get back to their mission, but Nate has another idea. They decide to hook up while they’re on a mission and as far as they know their captain is dying. When they wake up from a short nap they finally head back out to complete their mission.

 

Mick & George Revolutionary Bromance

Mick and Washington are being marched to the British basecamp. Mick is ready to fight their captors and make a break for it, but Washington is a gentleman and plans on handling the situation diplomatically by following the rules of war. Washington plans of bargaining a prisoner transfer to save Mick and he’ll be prisoner of war who’s treated in a manner befitting of his rank. Mick laughs in his face because that type of idealism is going to get Washington killed.

 

When they arrive at the British camp Washington is surprised to see that Lieutenant General Cornwallis (Noel Johansen) doesn’t plan on following the rules of war because technically they’re not at war. The British are there to end a rebellion so Washington will be hanged for treason. George makes a plea to Mick’s life since he’s just a soldier and Cornwallis agrees since he needs someone to deliver news of Washington’s death.

 

In the tent that is their holding cell, Mick tells Washington he’s going to break them out at the next shift change. Washington refuses because he wants to maintain his dignity and standing as a gentleman, he’d rather die than dishonor himself. He believes his “honorable” death will show Britain what the American way is all about. Mick, once again, laughs in his face because America is not about any of those things. America is a country of proud misfits and outcasts who don’t fight fair. It’s a country of people who fight to win and never give up.

 

Cut to a bit later, Washington is on the gallows about to be hanged. Cornwallis asks for his lasts words and he yells out his new battle cry “Kaboom!” Mick and Washington both spring into action and fight back using any means necessary. After a few minutes Nate and Amaya show up to help them deal with the soldiers and escape.

 

Back at the Keith house, Mick and Washington toast “to fighting like an American.” Mick has changed Washington and they hug it out as Washington leaves to go sneak his army across the Delaware.

 

Nobody Fights like Family

On Waverider, Gideon informs Sara that history has been restored with the addition of a Mick statue in DC. Jax stops by to commend Sara for being Captain. He had the job for one day and he’s done. He asks her how she makes the right choice even when there isn’t one. She tells him that you remember the mission and the reason you’re fighting. You try your best to hold onto your humanity and you surround yourself with people who will help you manage it.

 

The team decides to celebrate Christmas and Stein asks Sara, their resident blademaster, to carve the turkey. Ray gifts Mick with the rat that Ray has grown to respect after the whole death chase. Nate pulls Amaya aside to give her a gift which she isn’t completely into. She was under the belief that their hookup was part of the chill casual sex relationship world Nate explained to her earlier. Nate’s disappointed, but attempts to play it off by calling himself the “ambassador of chill,” which is a think no chill person has ever said. Amaya accepts the gift which is a pair of Dorothy’s ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz. Before they eat Sara toasts the team. With Rip being brainwashed and taking their piece of the Spear of Destiny it might not seem like they have a whole lot to celebrate. But they saved America, they’re going to recover the spear and they’re going to save Rip. The Legion may be strong, but they don’t have family like the Legends do and nobody fights like family.