Rip forces Gideon to release him and destroys the amulet, preventing the Legends from learning where the last fragment of the Spear of Destiny and Nate's grandfather is and causing the Waverider to crash in the Cretaceous.
Tropes:
- Adventurer Outfit: Ray dons an Indiana Jones-esque ensemble for his excursion into the Cretaceous.
- Always Close: Jax manages to reboot the Waverider with ten seconds remaining on the Self-Destruct Mechanism countdown.
- Animal Nemesis: Gertrude was one for Ray during his time in the Cretaceous, as he once ate one of her eggs.
- Beautiful All Along: Both Jax and Sara are astonished at Gideon's physical avatar.
- Because Destiny Says So: Ray's reasons why Nate shouldn't get involved with Amaya - she'll eventually return to Africa and her granddaughter Mari will take up her mantle.
- The Big Damn Kiss: Rip and Gideon's mental avatar share one, as his Mental World collapses. Surprisingly the real world Gideon actually seems to be aware that the kiss transpired and admits to having enjoyed it.
- Bottle Episode: Just like last season, an episode is largely set on the Waverider (or in this case a mindscape that looks exactly like it) with no guest stars, if one doesn't count Gideon's voice actress appearing on screen.
- The Bus Came Back: Gertrude, the Tyrannosaurus rex that was chasing Ray in the season premiere, returns.
- Cargo Ship: If the fans didn't ship Rip and Gideon before they confess their love inside (and out?) of Rip's mind, then they probably do now.
- Continuity Nod:
- Ray makes a few towards Vixen, mentioning Amaya's village getting destroyed, Mari ending up in foster care and himself meeting Mari.
- Ray also mentions his past relationship with Kendra when advising Nate over his budding relationship with Amaya.
- Mick mentions the Time Masters' past attempts to brainwash him.
- The first thing Jax and Sara see inside Rip's mind are Vandal Savage's Praetorian Guards.
- Contrived Coincidence: Discussed. When Ray points out the apparent coincidence that they've arrived 69 million years in the past almost exactly when he'd been stranded there (and as they later find out, also where he'd been stranded) Gideon states it's not a coincidence at all: she'd taken the ship to the oldest destination it had been to.
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!: When Gideon addresses the captain of the ship at the end of the episode, both Rip and Sara thank her for her information at the same exact time, in the same words. Sara just laughs it off and walks away.
- The Day the Music Lied: After Sara gave a Rousing Speech to Rip, the latter seemingly got his funk back and is about while triumphant music plays in the background. Turns out he still doesn't, and the background music ended in a scratching halt.
- Doomed by Canon: Ray explains that Nate has to not allow himself to fall deeper in love with Amaya as it might result to Mari being Ret-Gone'd.
- Double Entendre: Right after kissing Gideon in his mind, the scene cuts to reality where Rip is grasping for air sounding like his grunting.
- Double-Meaning Title: The title references both the old TV series which also featured dinosaurs as well as the madness that is the inside of Rip's mind.
- Fluffy the Terrible: Ray named the local T. Rex "Gertrude".
- Foreign Queasine: Nate is not eager to try Ray's "world famous iguana soup."
- Foreshadowing: Mick tells Stein that the professor won't be around for much longer, so Jax has to be his own man and not have Stein babysit him all the time. While he meant it in terms of Stein's advanced age, the prediction came sooner than he anticipated.
- Gilligan Cut: After being nearly chased out by Gertrude, Nate and Ray remark that the members left at the Waverider must be bored out of their minds at the moment. The scene cuts to Sara and Jax fighting their evil avatars inside Rip's mind.
- Here We Go Again!: Ray is more annoyed than worried when the Waverider crashes again.Ray: So we're crash landing again? Fantastic.
- He's Back!: By the end of the episode, Rip Hunter has finally been restored to his old, heroic self, with all of his memories intact.
- Homoerotic Subtext: Played for Laughs. When Ray says [Nate] can't do it, meaning date Amaya, Nate sarcastically asks if he means resist Ray's charm.
- I'm Standing Right Here:
- At the end, when Nate is whispering to Amaya about how he thinks Gideon is still mad at him about berating her earlier, the latter notes that she can hear him.
- When Nate vents his frustration at the ship's computer, Gideon is annoyed and reminds him of her name.
- Interrupted Intimacy: Ray walks right into Nate and Amaya trying to kiss each other.
- Journey to the Center of the Mind: Using Time Master technology secretly stored on the Waverider, Jax and Sara go into Rip's mind with the goals of both finding the last piece of the spear as well as hopefully freeing Rip from his brainwashing.
- Mama Bear: Gertrude became very upset with Ray for stealing one of her eggs to eat and remembers his scent.
- Mirror Match: Sara fights an evil version of herself in Rip's mind. Jax also faces an evil Firestorm, but since the evil Firestorm has his powers while the real Jax doesn't, he has a bit more trouble.
- Moment Killer: Ray deliberately sabotages Nate and Amaya's romantic moments to ensure Mari's existence.
- Negated Moment of Awesome: After Sara's Rousing Speech, Rip tries to tear down his prison door with a telekinetic push. It doesn't work.
- Noodle Incident:
- Nate and Amaya decide they really don't want to know how Ray obtained male T. rex urine.
- Based on Stein's reaction to the crash landing, Mick has tried to fly the Waverider before, with less than ideal results.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Mick acknowledges this between him and Stein, in that they both, in their own way, have (or in Mick's case, had) a partner they care about. He does this to try to calm down the professor when Jax's heart is beating very fast on his Journey to the Center of the Mind, and get him to "stop treating [Jax] like a kid, and start treating him like a partner," since Stein isn't going to be around much longer, and Jax has to learn to do things himself without him.
- Other Me Annoys Me: Sara is unimpressed with Rip's mental construct of her.Sara: God, I'm a bitch in Rip's mind.
- Override Command: Rip uses a voice code, "Spaniel, Broad, Tricycle," to force Gideon to release him and seize control of the ship, despite her begging him not to.
- Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Sara prior to round two against her evil Doppelgänger.Sara: Looks like we're gonna have to kick our own asses.
- Psychic Powers: Rip has them in his mind.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: Ray's T. rex friend Gertrude doesn't show up for most of the episode, with only her roars being heard. The real reason for this is the show's budget only allowed for a short amount of footage for a CGI T. Rex.
- Recursive Canon: An unusual example. Sara refers to her Evil Counterpart as "Bizarro-Me", a reference to the classic Superman antagonist "Bizarro" that has entered the common lexicon. In Supergirl's world, which exists in the Arrowverse as Earth-38, the name "Bizarro" was specifically coined by Cat Grant to refer to Maxwell Lord's Evil Knockoff of Supergirl (also possibly implying that Bizarro Superman does not exist in this universe).
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: Evil Firestorm's flames are red with an undertone of black.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Evil Firestorm's eyes are red as opposed to his usual Prophet Eyes.
- Ret-Gone: The main reason Ray deliberately acts as a Moment Killer for Nate and Amaya is that he fears this trope will happen to Mari, Amaya's granddaughter.
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: As Thawne & Co. didn't expect her to be much of a problem, Gideon retained her memories and personality within Rip's mind.
- Rousing Speech: Sara gives one to Rip in his mind. It helps snap him out of his funk, but not by a lot.Sara: You sent the JSA on a mission to safeguard the Spear of Destiny. But the Legion has hunted down the fragments, all but one. Commander Steel has it, and only you know where he is. So you gotta get up, 'cause you're Captain Rip. Hunter. And this is your mind, your ship, your rules.
- Science Marches On: Gertrude the Tyrannosaur is portrayed in the way the animal has traditionally been for the last few decades: bare skin and exposed teeth, while recent work has indicated a high probability it had at least some kind of feathers and very probably teeth hidden by lips. Partly justified by the show's budget, as feathers, being complex three-dimensional structures, would likely have been difficult and costly to animate.
- Ship Tease: Rip and Gideon's mental selves share a Big Damn Kiss right before Rip's Mental World collapses. Meanwhile the real world version of Gideon admits to remembering the kiss and enjoying it to which Rip agrees.
- Shout-Out:
- Jurassic Park III, with the urine Noodle Incident.
- Land of the Lost, with the resident scientist having a Sitcom Archnemesis relationship with a T. Rex.
- Cast Away, with Ray having created miniature models of the other Legends for company.
- The method used to get Sara and Jax into Rip's mind is taken straight out of The Matrix.
- Just like Tony Stark, Jax always thought of the resident Robot Girl as a redhead.
- Nate is afraid of snakes, just like his hero.
- Rip has been a companion to someone who also got to kiss his spaceship.In that series he was also married to a particularly stunning redhead.
- A 1914 cartoon by Winsor McCay was called Gertie the Dinosaur.
- Nate likens Amaya to "an attractive Doctor Dolittle."
- Smug Snake: Unlike the human teammates, Eobard Thawne didn't reprogram the version of Gideon in Rip's mind as a potential threat, allowing her to be an ally to restore Rip's heroic self; this of course reflects his relationship with his own Gideon as she has no personality and he has no emotional attachment to her since she's just a tool to him and nothing more.
- Spaceship Girl: Gideon takes on physical form (namely that of her voice actress, Amy Pemberton) in Rip's mind.
- Starving Artist / Starving Student: Discussed by Rip in reference to his time living as one.Rip: It really is rather difficult to put weight on when you're a film student.
- Stealth Pun: Rip and Gideon's visual avatar got a Ship Tease inside the visual avatar of the Waverider.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: When Sara is at a loss for words after seeing Gideon, the latter asks if she means to say she's really "human," but Sara admits she was actually going to say "hot." She admits yes, human also works.
- Thrown Out the Airlock: How Jax defeats his evil mental construct counterpart.
- Trigger Phrase: Evil Rip uses one which forces Gideon to shut down the Waverider.
- Voice of the Legion: All of the evil Legends that manifest in Rip's mind talk in a distorted voice.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Nate is literally afraid of snakes.
- You, Get Me Coffee: While preparing to enter Rip's mind, Rory calls Professor Stein his assistant and demands the latter get him a beer.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: If Sara and Jax die while in Rip's mind, they'll also die in reality.
