Previously on Legends of Tomorrow, Vandal Savage killed Rip Hunter’s wife and son, Rip went against the Time Masters to create a team of misfits to time travel to stop Savage, Snart is from a family of criminals, Sara has a post-resurrection bloodlust, and Carter got dead.
So, our team is still stuck in 1975 Germany, because Kendra is not doing so great. She’s screaming about Carter, so they sedate her, and realize that bits of the dagger broke off and are ruining her life. Rip still thinks they have a shot at stopping Savage. He says he’s seen “men of steel die and dark knights fall” because the show is only three episodes old, they can’t afford to name drop yet. Sara’s on to him, though.
Rip asks Jax to fix the jumpship, and with Ray and the Prof still watching over Kendra, the Trio (Snart, Rory, and Sara) are left to just sit around. Always a dangerous plan.
Sara decides to follow Rip instead, accidentally using the skills Nyssa taught her to sneak up on him. She says she has an idea to slow Savage down, by striking him where it will hurt: His money.
Rip thinks that’s a great idea because money is power and power is important to Savage, but he wants to go alone; he doesn’t want anyone else to die because of his own vendetta. Sara says they’re all grown-ups on this ship and he literally re-asks them once a day, so they’re definitely here by choice. Snart and Rory want to come (they love banks!), and when they’re refused, Snart lifts something out of Rip’s jacket.
Rip and Sara dress up in ’70s garb again-the costumes are one of my favorite things about this show so far-and they slow-mo walk into the bank, where Sara is either checking out or casing the receptionist.
They use the guise of depositing $10 million coins and find themselves alone in the office. Rip can’t find any info on the computer, only talk of a Vessel of some kind, but Sara urges him to hurry because they’ve been made. (She’s 100% the brains AND brawn of this episode, and I truly hope they keep up with this trend.)
Rip and Sara turn around, and all the bank employees are pointing weapons at them. So Sara starts throwing knives and taking names.
One man teases her for bringing a knife to a swordfight, but she hardly uses her knife to take him down and steal his sword. She’s wild, vicious, and thiiiiiiis close to beheading him when Rip cries out that they need him alive. Sara looks a little nervous about how close she came to going to the murder place.
When they get back to the ship, Rip asks what’s wrong with her; she starts out explaining that she’s just an assassin by trade, but he says it was more than that. It was…animal. So Sara admits that being back from the dead isn’t all sunshine and lollipops. She has what her friend Thea calls a bloodlust. Now, on Arrow this week, Merlyn said that Constantine brought Sara back “whole” and I thought it meant he squashed out the bloodlust, but maybe it’s just not quite as all-consuming and demanding as Thea’s. Or maybe the writers of the two shows forgot to talk this week. Who knows. Either way, poor Sara thinks she’s a monster.
The weather twins go visit Jax on the jumpship and ask for his help stealing an emerald. At first, Jax is pretty resistant, but he hasn’t quite figured out which group within the 8 (er, 7-RIP Carter) he fits into yet, and he reeeaaally wants to fly this jumpship, so he agrees and off they go.
Rip and Sara circle around Mr. Blake, their hostage, asking about Savage. Blake is calm-too calm-and calls Rip “Kareeb” which sends Rip into a panic spiral. He calls Rip Savage’s original enemy and warns Sara that Rip can’t protect her. Rip punches him, partially so he’ll shut up, but probably also partially because Sara can protect her damn self.
Sara wants the truth from Rip, and he admits that he had the chance to kill Savage a long, long time ago (well, technically, it could have been a week ago, also…timey wimey) but he hesitated. Sara understands, killing isn’t easy, especially for someone who’s a time traveler, not an assassin. But Rip insists that HE’S the monster.
Once they’ve got their story stored, they wake Blake up and question him about the Vessel. Blake very helpfully gives them the exact location of the Vessel, which happens to be the body of The Koof. Rip and Sara know it’s a trap, but they also know they have to go. Rip is ready to run off on his own again, but Sara insists they bring the team this time. That’s why he assembled them, isn’t it?
But Gideon tells them that Snart, Rory, and Jax aren’t on the ship anymore.
Where they are is Central City, still in ’75. They successfully steal the emerald they’re there for, but before they can go back, Snart admits that he wants to give it to his father. That way, he’ll never go to jail, and maybe Snart’s life will be better. The other boys are hesitant to mess with history, but Snart is scary, so they comply.
While all this is happening, Ray and the Prof are trying to save Kendra. Ray keeps getting a little trigger shy about shrinking down to go into Kendra’s bloodstream and destroy the dagger shards because of the fiance he lost, but after a few pep talks that were actually kind of romantic, he gets the courage to give it the old college try and saves Kendra’s life.
Rip, Sara and Blake dress to the nines to go to the Vessel Event, but they decide to leave Blake in the trunk.
Snart leads his teammates to his childhood home, and goes in alone. He tries to be stealthy, but a younger version of himself comes downstairs for water. He squats down and looks his little self square in the eye, telling him to protect himself, to protect his heart. As he wraps up his speech, Snart’s father shows up with a gun. Snart sends Snartlett to bed and faces his father, giving him the emerald, hoping it will make him a better man. He says he’d kill him dead if it wouldn’t mean his sister would never be born. (And his sister is Peyton List aka Lisa Snart aka the Golden Glider, so we definitely can’t lose her.) Then he bounces, leaving a confused man in his wake.
At the Vessel Event, Rip asks Sara to dance, and she says she’s not a dancer, which is either someone forgetting the script of the pilot, or Sara really not wanting to dance with Rip. While they’re dancing, Rip tells Sara that she’s not a monster, that she’ll get better, that she’s strong enough to fight it. Sara’s not only strong, though, she’s smart, and she spots some of the mercenaries they’re looking for. They play drunk and get close enough to some guards for Sara to give them a headbutt and a roundhouse kick.
But when they get inside the room, they see that Carter’s body isn’t alone. An entire cult of crazies is there, standing around Prince Khufu like he’s on an alter.
Savage steps out from his crowd of worshippers and says that his followers are what gives him power, not money. He’s excited to be face to face with Gareeb again and explains that Carter’s blood is not only a great source of vitamins but can let some of his followers live for an extra 100 years or so. He finds Rip’s pocketwatch and taunts him, saying he looks forward to killing his family.
Meanwhile, Kendra is on the ship, shouting Sara’s name in a way that I’m sure launched a fic or two. So the Professor comms the Jumpship boys and sends them to save Rip and Sara.
Savage is still doing his villain exposition thing, saying it sucks to be them, with no one to go to hell for them.
But he’s wrong because Rip has exactly that. The boys blast their way in and everyone fights. Rip tells the boys to get Carter’s body and get out, leaving only him and Sara to finish up the fighting. Rip and Savage face off, as do Sara and Blake. Rip slits Savages throat, not hesitating this time, but Vandal promises he’ll be back. Sara is getting hella stabby with Blake, and Rip cries out for her to stop, but when he looks closer, he sees that she was just making him wet himself by playing the knife game around his head.
Back on the ship, Snart finds out that, after all that, his timeline hasn’t changed; his father ended up trying to sell the emerald to an undercover cop and got jail time anyway.
Kendra is awake and better. All they need now is the dagger, but first Kendra needs some time to heal.
But she is well enough for a little funeral. The Legends gather to say goodbye to Carter and Boardman, and Rip says that this is a reminder that one person acting alone can save the world.
Kendra says a final goodbye to her fellow hawk and her former self’s son and hopes to get some solo plotlines soon.
On the Waverider, Rip asks them again if they’re willing to work together, and once again they are in. Next stop: 1986.
What did you think of “Blood Ties”? Does this Sara-centric episode mean we won’t see her for six weeks? What do you think of the show so far as a whole? Tell me all your feelings.
