Legends of Tomorrow kicks off right where it left off, with celebrations at the Fixed Point. While the other time travelers are popping champagne, Gwyn and Gideon can’t get in on the festivities knowing their team is out there preparing to face down the enemy. They let this bit of information slip to the other bar patrons and suddenly the whole bar is grabbing weapons, getting ready to join the Legends’ fight.
Gideon gives the team a warning about their unwanted allies. This doesn’t change what the Legends need to do, just means they need to move quickly. The Waverider lands nearby and they’re getting ready to storm the castle when they see who Evil Gideon has chosen to make Robo-clones of: themselves.
Seeing their robot clones, the team hesitates. Sara’s focus is looking for a way on board, but before they can make a move the other time travelers charge in, armed and ready. Evil Gideon, suspecting this is a trap, has the Robo-Legends split up. The Robo-Sara, Nate, and Behrad are tasked with finding and killing all the time travelers in the area while the rest of the team remains on board the Waverider.
Evil Gideon then has the ship take to the air, cloaking it from sight. The Robo-Legends mow down the time travelers. Seeing his robo-duplicate doing the most damage with a rifle, Behrad runs out to try and stop it. It reveals the team to the Robo-Legends and they’re forced to retreat. Ava takes a bullet to the arm while they’re running. Sara orders the team split up, some taking Ava back to the Fixed Point while she and Nate draw their attention.
Evil Gideon orders the Robo-Legends to focus on restoring the timeline. Robo-Nate and Sara go to do just that, but Robo-Behrad notices the trail of blood drops from Ava’s wound. When Nate and Sara realize they’re not being followed, Sara realizes they’re putting the archduke’s assassination as the priority. She runs off to warn Thawne, but by the time she gets there, it’s too late. Robo-Sara has already found him and stabbed him in the chest. Per their deal, Sara is now the protector of this fixed point. She picks up the time cuff that kept Thawne in the loop of the same day and returns to her team.
Robo-Behrad unfortunately gets there first. Following the blood, he finds the hidden entrance to the Fixed Point bar, seemingly cornering the team. He takes aim at the person closest to him, Gideon, but Astra isn’t about to let that happen. She uses her magic before he can fire, slamming him to the wall. He’s damaged beyond the point of functioning. Astra glances back at Gideon, to confirm she’s okay.
When Sara arrives, she tucks the time bracelet out of sight and her first question is about her wife. Gwyn confirms that he dressed the wound and Ava will be fine. Sara then gather’s the team for her plan b. With their stealth plan dead in the water, Sara wants to try to parley with the Robo-Legends. She’s hoping she can convince them they want the same thing. The Legends want to return to their own time and Evil Gideon wants them to stop altering the timeline.
Gideon volunteers to join the peace talks, but Astra insists she wait in the manor. Sara agrees, with the same going for everyone on the team. She’s going into this alone. Using the comms from Robo-Behrad, Sara contacts the Robo-Legends. Gwyn tries to join her, but she pushes him out of the room, telling him to return to the manor.
Sara’s surprised when Robo-Nate is the one who shows up for their meeting, even more when he says he’s the captain. Robo-Nate makes this is a negotiable situation. He only listens to Evil Gideon and she’s told them to kill all the time travelers. Sara isn’t about to stand for a threat against her team. She’s fine with a fight, but even Sara’s skills aren’t good enough to best the muscled-up robot. He kills her with a hit strong enough to send her flying into the next room.
Gwyn, it turns out, did not listen when Sara told him to go to the manor. He was in the next room, but seeing Sara’s body (not yet recovered with her regeneration) triggers Gwyn’s PSTD. For a horrible moment, it seems like Robo-Nate is going to find him. But Gwyn remembers previous moments with the Legends where they helped him through his anxieties and he’s able to overcome this episode on his own. He pulls Sara into the Fixed Point before Robo-Nate can find them.
Once she’s recovered, Sara is at a loss for what to do. She can’t see a plan of action that ends with them coming out on top. Gwyn encourages her, reminding her she is their general and will surely lead them out of this. Sara scoffs because the Legends are far from being the army but Gwyn points out they aren’t that different. The Legends are the ones who helped built him back up after the war broke him down. Gwyn believes they will get through this.
Sara asks him what he would do. He comes up with a plan that relies on the Legends strengths: subterfuge and dirty tactics. The first step is getting on board the Waverider, which thanks to the broken Robo-Behrad, they have the perfect Trojan horse. He’ll take the manor key with him, allowing the Legends to help once he’s onboard. He manages to play just dumb enough that Robo-Spooner and Robo-Gary believe he’s Robo-Behrad in need of an upgrade. They tell him to go Dr. Sharpe.
When he tries to access Gideon, the Robo-Zari stops him. She’s the only one allowed to interface with Gideon, which throws a wrench in the plan. Behrad sneaks into the bathroom to open the portal to the manor. He needs to get rid of the other Robo-Legends, but the only blind spot on the ship is in the bathroom. Gary has a concoction that might just work: a food-poisoning potion. Gideon is excited and wants to help, but Astra insists she remains the manor.
Meanwhile, Sara, Nate, and Spooner are team ‘ruckus’. Their job is to distract the Robo-Legends by causing time aberrations and discord among the public. At first they can’t stir up any trouble, but Gwyn comes up with the idea to introduce future tech into their plan. Including, but not limited to, a singing mechanical fish, the VR headset, and Nate spoiling the Darth Vader twist 63 years before there was a single Star War.
The Robo-Legends show up to flash everyone and remove the aberrations the Legends caused. They’re able to bait more Legends out, but Behrad encounters Robo-Astra and Robo-Ava. He convinces them to drink some of the potio, which sends them both running to the bathroom. Since that is where the manor is currently connected, they end up inside. Gary is able to trick them and pushes them out into Hell.
Back outside, Spooner runs into the Robo-Gary and tricks him into thinking she’s her robo-self. When he encounters the Robo-Spooner, he thinks she’s the human variant and eats her. But not before she pulled a grenade to defend herself, taking him out after she’s been eaten.
In the manor, Gary goes to talk with Astra about her recent outbursts with Gideon. Astra doesn’t realize she’s been mean to Gideon. She sees stopping her from helping in the mission as protecting her. Gary points out that in a way, Astra is like Gideon’s mother and seeing Robo-Behrad almost shoot her couldn’t have been easy. Astra tries to deny that notion, but she does admit she feels protective of her.
Robo-Zari goes to investigate the bathroom, finding the manor. Fancy Zari encounters her and the two get into a fight with your classic ‘I’m the real one’ conundrum when Astra and Gary find them. Our Zari is able to deactivate her robo-self. With all the Robo-Legends off the Waverider, Zari goes to deactivate Gideon with Behrad and Astra nearby as backup and moral support. Evil Gideon realizes she’s an impersonator before she finishes the shutdown sequence. Gideon threatens to suck the oxygen from the ship, at which point Zari decides to take out the AI the old school way, by grabbing as many wires as possible and ripping them out.
It works! Except now the ship is in a free fall. Astra and Behrad work together to make their crash landing more landing than crash. The two share a triumphant kiss when they manage to make it to the ground in one piece.
Sara, Nate, and Spooner celebrate by officially welcoming Gwyn to the team. It was thanks to his plan they got the Waverider. Robo-Sara and Robo-Nate enter the bar right then, so they radio the others for help and Astra gets an idea.
Sara fills in the team on the secret she’s been keeping. She can’t go back with them because she has to be the new keeper of the fixed point. Her team isn’t about to accept that, but Sara has already made her decision. She gives Nate a message to pass on to Ava, asking Ava to find her again and she goes out to confront the robots alone.
Except her team isn’t about to let her do this alone, Nate, Spooner, and Gwyn join her, readying to fight by their captain’s side, but there’s no need. The Robo-Legends get an order to deactivate from Gideon and thankfully they can’t tell the difference between Evil Gideon and our Gideon pretending to be her.
Nate takes the time bracelet from Sara and for a moment I wondered if he was going to take her place. Instead, he reactivates the Robo-Nate, taunting him that protecting the Fixed Point is a task too important for him to do. The reverse psychology works and Robo-Nate takes the bracelet, meaning all our Legends get to go home.
Back on the Waverider, Gideon is so excited she got to help and thanks Astra. Astra apologizes for sideling Gideon this mission and tells Gideon she’s proud of her. Gideon hugs her, saying ‘Thanks mum’ and yes it’s adorable.
Gideon returns to the manor to let Gary and Ava know it’s safe to come on the ship. But the manor isn’t safe; Robo-Astra, partly destroyed by Hell exposure, has found her way back inside and stabs Gideon in the back.
Review
The concept of what makes the Legends has been something this season has come back to time and time again but this episode highlights how they work differently. Love makes this team, at the end of the day that’s the truest thing about the Legends. Here, we see how they show their love.
It’s in the way Sara puts her team, her family, before herself. How she supports Gwyn to step up to the plate with his plan. It’s how Nate unquestionably stands by Sara, even when she tells him not to. It’s in the way how the Legends stand by one another. Even in the way Astra was overprotective of Gideon but learned to trust and believe in her.
And Evil Gideon’s one-sided dictatorship is a stark contrast to the Legends. The Robo-Legends were nothing more than her yes men and it’s why they ultimately crumble to the real Legends.
A very special shout out to Jes Macallan in the director’s chair once again. The next episode puts the Legends in direct conflict with Evil Gideon, so it will be interesting to see how this dynamic of what makes the Legends different from Evil Gideon continues to play out.
Only Legends Could
- ‘We really are our own worst enemy.’
- Zari, about Robo-Nate: ‘He’s clearly overcompensating.’ Gary: ‘Oh no, no. He’s really filling out those pants.’
- Tell they were having fun on set without telling me — Robo-Nate with the Schwarzenegger voice.
- An understated moment was Behrad practicing his ‘Robo-Behrad’ walk in the background while Gwyn was briefing the others on the rest of the plan.
- Zari: ‘My agents warn me against playing villains. But I’ll make an exception.’
- The singing fish being the diegetic music source.
- Once again, shout out to Jes Macallan, this time for directing a scene where she has to rush to the bathroom after ingesting a food poisoning potion.
- My love for tol and smols also extends to platonic relationships, so that Astra/Gideon hug was doubly great.
Images courtesy of the CW
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