The Legends of Tomorrow meet the Justice Society of America as they team up to stop Baron Krieger.
Tropes:
- Always Someone Better: The JSA to the Legends. Somewhat subverted towards the end though, as victory is achieved through both teams working together.
- Artistic License – History:
- When Sara informs the JSA that Gideon is a talking computer, Rex asks "What's a computer?" He'd be more likely to ask "What's so special about a talking computer?" Computer was a job title in The '40s: someone who does computations. Same for a calculator, another job title: someone who does calculations. Mechanical calculators existed and were great at addition, slow at subtraction, good at multiplication, and kept breaking down when they attempted long division. Acceptable Breaks from Reality time: turning the joke around by basing it on the real situation in the forties would have required too much set-up.
- Also, this episode reinforces the frequent misconception that Hitler was fascinated with relics and the occult, a also perpetuated by Raiders of the Lost Ark and others. In reality Hitler was derisive of anything supernatural.
- Bar Brawl: Third time the team visits a bar and a fight ensues, this time because a Nazi soldier tries to force Ray to do the "Heil Hitler" salute, and unable to bring himself to do it, he just punches the guy out. It gets cut short because the JSA shows up to knock everyone out before it escalates.
- Brought Down to Badass: Even without her magic totem, Vixen is still a master martial artist who can kick some major Nazi ass.
- Brutal Honesty: Mick doesn't even try to convince the JSA that he is more than a criminal.
- The Cast Show Off: Victor Garber's nice pipes are put to good use singing "Edelweiss".
- The Chains of Command: Stein is forced to let Vixen and Ray get captured by the Nazis as a blind attack would be suicide. Hourman is also prepared to sacrifice them if it means winning the war.
- Character Death: The Reverse-Flash kills Hourman to prevent him from stopping the Legends from traveling to 1942.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The JSA kicks the Legends combined asses within under a minute.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Sara wasn't accepted as the leader of the Legends by the JSA (Rex Tyler in particular), because of her gender. Meanwhile, Stein, who is an older white male, was seen as one immediately. Only when he finally stood up for Sara was she accepted.
- Foreshadowing: Sara notices a considerable bruise that Nate got from Steel. Later on, it's revealed that he is a hemophiliac.
- Genius Cripple: Nate is a historical genius who speaks multiple languages, but is also a hemophiliac, for whom even the slightest wounds are potentially fatal.
- Have We Met Yet?: Rex Tyler, who showed up at the end of Season 1 to warn the Legends of getting back onto the Waverider, doesn't recognize them.
- Hero Ball: Ray blows everyone's cover when he refuses to do a Nazi salute in the middle of a Nazi-occupied nightclub.
- His Name Is...: The reason Hourman disappeared before he could give the Legends a full warning is because the Reverse-Flash went back and killed him before he could make the trip, thus retgoneing the later version.
- Hypocrite: Vixen tells Ray he isn’t an actual hero because his “power” is wearing a suit when she herself draws power from a magic totem and some of her teammates use technology to aid them in fighting crime. However she justifies it by saying that even without the totem she is still skilled in martial arts. Later when Ray uses the super serum he was going to give himself to save Nate Vixen changes her opinion, he’s a hero just not a “super-hero”.
- If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!: General Von Runstedt tries to make Ray do the Nazi salute to prove he's a real follower of the Führer. Ray can't do it, and punches the general instead.
- Jerkass: Several members of the JSA are condescending and rude to the legends even when they don’t need to be. Vixen in particular tells the Legends she isn’t impressed with their ship for no reason.
- Knight in Sour Armor: Commander Steel really doesn't want to be an idol for anybody. He also doesn't particularly enjoy being a superhero; he does it so nobody else has to.
- Lawful Stupid: Ray refuses to salute and say "Heil Hitler", leading to a bar brawl and the need to escape the Nazis.
- The Leader: Stein gets chosen as the new leader, though he soon passes it on to Sara.
- Let's You and Him Fight: What happens between the Legends and the Justice Society of America when they first meet, due to the JSA mistaking the Legends for Nazi spies.
- The Load:
- Nate, as the team's resident Non-Action Guy, tries his best to not be one.
- A Downplayed example is Ray who just stood there during the fight between the Legends and the JSA.
- Mythology Gag: The helmet of the Ma Hunkel version of Red Tornado can briefly be seen on the Waverider. It was already been seen on Supergirl.
- MacGuffin: The amulet that the Nazis are after on behalf of the Reverse-Flash.
- Omniglot: Nate speaks six languages.
- Out of Focus: Mick had little to do in this episode.
- Piggybacking on Hitler: The Reverse-Flash gives Krieger a Super Serum, promising him it will win the Axis the war.
- Politically Correct History: One of the Nazis in the Parisian nightclub does make a remark on Jefferson's race, but in real life it would be highly unlikely they would even have let him enter the club. On top of that, we see Vixen dancing with a white guy, which would've been unthinkable in a real Nazi-controlled venue.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The episode emphasizes the Legends being this, in comparison to the "well oiled machine" that is the JSA.
- Rebuilt Pedestal: In the end Nate admitted he liked the real Commander Steel more than his idealized image.
- Ret-Gone: Two notable instances. Hank Heywood's dog-tags, which Nate wears around his neck, disappear, indicating that history has been altered and that Hank and the rest of the JSA prematurely die in 1942. A flashback to Rex Tyler's meeting with the Legends at the end of Season 1 reveals that this happens to him and at the end of this episode its revealed that his disappearance was because the Reverse Flash killed him in 1942, thus erasing the later time-traveling version.
- The Reveal: A flashback to the end of Season 1 revealed that Rex tried to prevent the Legends from going to 1942...only to disappear. Why? Reverse Flash killed him before he could warn them.
- Ripple Effect Indicator: Nate's dog tags, inherited from his grandfather, disappear to indicate he won't survive the next mission, and reappear after the JSA is saved.
- Series Continuity Error: We learned in the first season of Vixen that once the totem has bonded to its user, it cannot be removed while the user is alive, but the Nazis took off this Vixen's totem with no problem.
- Ship Tease: Jax's attraction to Star Girl was obvious from the start, the rest of the episode was dedicated to this between Ray and Vixen.
- Shout-Out:
- Stein gives the exact same advice to his backing musician as in Back to the Future, also about a song from some years in the future.
- Martin, forced into singing by a Nazi general, sings "Edelweiss," which, he claims, is "very popular in Austria."
- Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness: The Legends of Tomorrow and the Justice Society of America respectively.
- Smug Super: The JSA look down on the Legends, who have taken it upon themselves to protect the time stream, for being a dysfunctional rag-tag bunch of misfits while they are a “well oiled machine” of trained superheroes tasked by the government.
- Stealth Insult: Stein sings "Edelweiss", a song about resisting Nazi occupation, in front of a room of Nazis.
- Stock Scream: Wilhelm shows up as a Nazi soldier sent flying by a blast from Ray.
- Super Serum: The Reverse-Flash gives one to Krieger that turns him into a Hulk-like figure. Ray later alters it to save Nate without any such side effects.
- The Worf Effect: The Legends get soundly beaten by the JSA.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Steel gives his grandson a speech along these lines, with a helping of Dare to Be Badass.
