In the first part of the Pilot Episode of this Arrowverse series, Time Master Rip Hunter gathers a team of heroes and villains to help prevent a Bad Future in which Vandal Savage has taken over the world. They travel back in time to 1975 to speak to Professor Aldus Boardman, the world's only expert on Savage, but when they arrive, they're menaced by a Bounty Hunter from the future.
Tropes:
- The '70s: The main time period visited, specifically 1975.
- As You Know: One of the Time Masters reminds Rip about his duties as a custodian of time, not someone who interferes with it.
- Bait-and-Switch: Rip is shown asking the Time Masters for permission to change the timeline. He's then shown going into the Waverider to tell Gideon the meeting "went exactly as expected" and they're to proceed. It later turns out the Time Masters refused Rip permission so he did this on his own.
- Bar Brawl: Sara was involved with this twice. Her introduction scene shows her stopping an Attempted Rape, while the second was with Snart and Mick while the rest of The Team is investigating Boardman in The '70s. They enjoy it immensely.Mick: I LOVE THE SEVENTIES!
- Becoming the Mask: The team discovers Rip lied to them about the whole "legends" thing to gain their help as according to his history, none of them truly matter to the timeline. However, Sara notes that this quest to stop Savage can change them into being those legends for real.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Asides from Savage, this episode also establishes the Time Masters as the antagonists, as they are sending Chronos to capture Rip Hunter.
- Bounty Hunter: Chronos, the temporal bounty hunter that the Time Masters send after Rip when he goes AWOL.
- The Bus Came Back: Mick Rory comes back having not been seen since "Rogue Time" during The Flash's first season (minus a brief dream sequence at the start of Season 2).
- Cannon Fodder: Rip used this as the selection criteria for the team, since their limited impact in history meant they were basically expendable.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: When Heatwave asks why the team shouldn't kill Rip for lying to them, Rip points out that Gideon won't listen to any of them and they'll be stuck in limbo.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Per Degaton will be important much later in the story.
- Continuity Cameo: Oliver shows up for two scenes with Ray, while Laurel shows up to give Sara her new Code Name and costume.
- Defiant to the End: A woman and her child does not show any signs of fear or submission towards Vandal Savage, and they are murdered for their defiance.
- Disintegrator Ray: Chronos killed two innocent witnesses after he deems their existence inconsequential to the timeline.
- Downer Beginning: The series opens with a Bad Future, Savage is fated forever to have/will killied Rip's wife and son, and half a dozen characters we've come to know and love are doomed to absolute obscurity.
- Everyone Went to School Together: It turns out that Ray Palmer was once a pupil of Prof. Stein. Downplayed in that Stein does not remember him, and Justified in that they're both at the top of the same field, and Stein is slightly jealous at being over-shadowed in his old age by a brilliant former pupil.
- Famous, Famous, Fictional: Rip Hunter compares some would-be world conquerors to Vandal Savage:Rip: Caesar, Hitler, Per Degaton...rank amateurs compared to Savage!
- Foreshadowing:
- A short-term example: Chronos checking to make sure that his innocent victims are unimportant to the timeline before killing them hints at the fact that he was sent by the Time Masters, one of the few organizations that would concern themselves with that.
- Rip's mention of Per Degaton.
- When Gideon asks Rip how his meeting with The Time Masters went, he doesn't say that they agreed to his suggestion, he only says that it went "exactly as expected", hinting at the fact that they rejected his plan and will be coming after the Legends.
- Forgotten First Meeting: Ray was Prof. Stein's student, but the latter couldn't remember. Ultimately subverted, as Stein was overcome by a bit of ego due to how brilliant Ray turned out to be.
- First-Episode Twist: Rip Hunter lied about the team being legends in the future. The boy killed by Vandal Savage in the intro is Rip's son.
- I'm Standing Right Here: When Ray asks Hunter if it's a good idea to leave Snart and Rory on a timemachine.Mick Rory: Hey Haircut. Deafness wasn't one of the side effects.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Sara, Snart, and Mick decide that they need one after their first time jump and are left behind on the ship.Sara: I say we go get weird in the Seventies.
- Informed Attribute: Ray's I Just Want to Be Special speech includes how people don't give a crap about his life and his work, despite the fact that Starling City was renamed Star City like he proposed in the Season 3 premiere of Arrow when the world thought he died. For the matter, him buying Queen Consolidated was given heavy media coverage throughout Arrow Season 3.
- It's Personal: Rip Hunter is after Savage since Savage killed his wife and son.
- Just Think of the Potential!: Cold says this word for word to Heatwave by getting him to think of all the famous artifacts they could steal in the past if they took up Rip's offer.
- Kick the Dog: Chronos murders two innocent bystanders just for being at the wrong place at the wrong time, smugly adding how they aren't important for the timeline.
- Killed Offscreen: Prof. Boardman succumbing to his wounds happened offscreen.
- The Last Thing You Ever See: Rip says that he wants his face to be the last thing that Savage sees before he dies.
- Luke, You Are My Father: Carter and Kendra learn that Professor Boardman is actually their son in their previous life.
- The Missus and the Ex: Oliver and Ray seems to be close now. Oliver is currently engaged to Ray's previous beau.
- Mysterious Mercenary Pursuer: Chronos wears an identity-concealing armor and pursues the Team doggedly through time and space in order to capture Rip.
- Mythology Gag:
- While enumerating would-be world conquerors Rip mentions Per Degaton, a time-travelling despot himself, who clashed with the Justice Society of America (and Rip in recent stories) numerous times in the comics to try and conquer the past and future.
- Rip's ship is the Waverider, named for the early-90s time-traveling hero Waverider from Armaggedon 2001.
- Firestorm is now shown working in Pittsburgh, where the comic book character originated and made his home for years. Likewise, the Hawks are in St. Roch, created in the 2000's for a Hawkman series.
- Ray Palmer is revealed to be a former student of Prof. Stein. In the comics, Ray Palmer is the professor of Ronnie Raymond (Stein's original Firestorm co-pilot in both the comics and Arrowverse).
- Noodle Incident: Stein and Snart's dialogue seems to imply they've met offscreen.
- Not in This for Your Revolution: Cold and Heatwave stay on the team just for the opportunity to kill people and steal stuff.
- Obstructive Bureaucracy: The Time Master Council continues to turn a blind eye on Vandal Savage's world conquest despite the fact that it can cause the end of history and the timeline they have sworn to protect.
- Odd Friendship: Snart and Mick hit off it pretty quickly with Sara.
- One-Man Army: Chronos takes on the entire Legends roster and forces them to retreat.
- One-Steve Limit: Invoked. Snart (a.k.a. Captain Cold) seems pissed when Rip addresses himself as "The Captain" of the ship.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: On learning that Rip has lied to them about who he is, who they are, and what they're doing, the highly refined Professor Stein and the not refined Mick Rory find themselves in agreement.Mick: Gimme one reason we shouldn't kill you.
Stein: Ditto the arsonist. - Outliving One's Offspring:
- Played with. Prof. Boardman is revealed to be Carter and Kendra's son in their previous life and dies at the end of the episode.
- Played straight with the boy Jonas, who is revealed to be Rip's son.
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Out of Order: Chronologically, this episode takes place after the Arrow episode for the following week. - The Reveal: The mother and son that Vandal Savage killed in the opening are Rip Hunter's wife and son.
- Rousing Speech: After The Reveal that Rip lied to them and they're not really "Legends", the entire team feels down. Suddenly, Jax gives one to Stein while Sara gives one to Ray and The Rogues. Everyone's morale is up afterwards.
- Screw Destiny: Sara convinces the Team to stay with Rip and prove to history that they do matter in the long run.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Rip's decision once the Time Master Council decides not to intervene in Savage's conquest.
- Scully Syndrome: During Boardman's explanation of the connected origin of Savage and the Hawks, both Stein and Palmer find the idea of curses and blessings from deities (ie. magic) to be silly and instead latch on to the idea of the meteorites carrying some sort of mutagen that altered the three.
- Ship Tease: This episode begins the tease between Sarah and Snart. They flirt a bit on their way out the ship in '75, treating it as a date, and she asks him to dance ("No thanks, I'll watch".)
- Shout-Out:
- "We go out for one lousy drink and you guys pick a fight with Boba Fett."
- Earlier two guys also refer to Chronos as being like Darth Vader.
- Jefferson asks Gideon if the Waverider can fire "photon torpedoes."
- In the flashbacks to ancient Egypt, there's a suspiciously familiar statue of a bird.
- Small Role, Big Impact:
- Vandal Savage killed little Jonas after he spat on the dictator. If Jonas and his mother didn't get murdered by Vandal Savage for their defiance, the Time Master Rip Hunter himself wouldn't take matters into his own hands and recruit the assemble cast for Legends Of Tomorrow.
- Also, the team themselves. Rip chose them because none of them had a major impact on the timelime but are now trying to alter history itself to stop Savage's rise.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: The aformentioned Bar Brawl? Set to the strains of The Captain and Tennille's "Love Will Keep Us Together".
- Spiteful Spit: Jonas spits on Savage's face in defiance.
- Squee: Prof. Boardman is full of delight when he sees Rip's laser gun.
- Stable Time Loop: Hawkman and Hawkgirl's attempt to save Professor Boardman (their past life's son) from dying in 24 hours is what get's him killed in the first place. Though Rip tells Kendra not to feel too bad, time is always wanting to happen, and even if they had left Boardman he still would have died.
- Temporal Sickness: Time travel causes a laundry list of unpleasant side effects, including nausea, vertigo and temporary blindness. Rip neglects to mention this until after they make the first jump.
- Those Two Guys: There were two witnesses that saw the Waverider launching into the sky. Unfortunately, that's the last time we'll ever see those two guys.
- Training Montage: The Lance sisters are shown sparring in the new Arrow bunker.
- Tragic Keepsake: The dying Professor Boardman gave Kendra his necklace before he succumbed to his wounds. The necklace holds a wedding ring from Kendra's life in the 1920's.
- Unexplained Recovery: We don't find out what Malcolm Merlyn did to resurrect Savage. Carter merely states that Savage can regenerate from a single cell.
- Wham Line: The moment Professor Boardman sees Kendra one last time:Boardman: You were as beautiful as I remembered you, mother.
