(Scenes from Legends of Tomorrow Season 3, Episodes 3 and 5)
Things have been relatively well in the aftermath of Captain Lance and Agent Sharpe's showdown on the Waverider. Neither the latter, Agent Green, nor Director Hunter has reappeared in days. That doesn't mean the Legends are off the hook. The Time Bureau is dead set on keeping a beady eye on them. Apart from that, the Legends are focused on determining the cure for the instability within Miss Jiwe's totem.
I have spoken too soon; there is a distress call from 2042 Seattle. Agent Green is frantically gibbering about a female metahuman killing people. He has based the urgency for assistance on it being a "code 9-9". I quickly leak the audio for the captain. She decidedly goes to help him, taking Dr. Palmer, Mr. Jackson, and Mr. Rory along with her. After he was sanctioned aboard to detail the case, they replay the footage of the hydrokinetic woman executing the ARGUS guards in a van without using any weapons. Mr. Rory, who hates law enforcement with a passion, is distinctly fascinated. On a different note, the videotape indicated her main focus: offing the prisoner who was in the van. The captain asks me for a scan of ARGUS' log to identify the escapee in question. I have forwarded her most plausible destination to the group. They proceed to forge ahead before the metahuman does.
They eventually return without the truant, Miss Zari Tomaz, or Dr. Palmer, who is still on her tracks. I was trying to brief the captain on Dr. Heywood and Miss Jiwe experiencing side-effects from the Lyoga root I had synthesized per his request. She needed it to trek on a vision quest. The group is, however, annoyingly preoccupied with another setback. Miss Tomaz has left them in the dust. Mr. Jackson is irked that she conned them with a sob story involving her brother to obtain a "magical necklace" from ARGUS. "When we find that chick, I'm going to kill her," the captain expresses.
"I like her," Mr. Rory asserts. He does like tough-as-nails women.
Agent Green stops the captain. "When you say, 'kill her', what you really mean is..."
"Kill her," she reiterates. "And slowly."
"No, no, no, no, we have to restore the timeline," he disputes, "which means getting Miss Tomaz back to the ARGUS Black Site where she belongs and tracking down your time assassin." He insinuates with a trill of annoyance, "Oh, and cleaning up the prison debacle." Although he shares the same remonstration for the Legends, he isn't quarrelsome or waspish like everyone else at the Time Bureau.
"Don't worry, Gary. We got this." They tread past him, surely unfazed by his qualms.
"Geez Louise, this disaster keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger." The exasperated representative presumably departs after that conversation.
In the parlour, Captain Lance is looking over the schematics for the ARGUS site on the screens. Mr. Jackson enters, asking, "What are you doing?" The bravado she flashed in Agent Green's face is gone.
"Well, I hate to say it, but Gary is right," she replies. "We've got to put Zari back in the bottle."
"Look, she's not exactly my favorite person either right now, but you didn't see how it was back there." The captain swerves around. "The way ARGUS was treating those people—"
"She played us, Jax," she reminds him. "We're lucky that it's not us in that prison instead."
"She had a water witch travel through time to hunt her down. Did Zari really act any differently than you would have in that situation?" Chances are she'd act the same way. "I'm just saying. Do we really want to be the people who put her back in a meta prison? Is that who we are?" No and no.
Out of the blue, Dr. Heywood staggers in with his hand over his eyes. "I can see through my hand," he claims.
The captain draws near him bemusedly. "Are you on drugs?"
He removes his hand and gazes at her face awe-inspiringly. "Your face. I want to touch your face." He stretches his hands out.
Jax quickly averts him from her before she hurt him. "Okay, bud. Not a good idea."
She exclaims, "Gideon!" I update her about him being under the influence. He adds that it was out of support for Miss Jiwe. It's sweet he still cares for her despite their separation. He tries to assure them it's safe and the Zambesi tribe do it frequently. She instructs Mr. Jackson to get him to his quarters, rehydrate him, and fetch him his fidget spinner. He pinches her arm as she walks out. She reacts with a quick slap.
"I told you, bro. Let's go," Mr. Jackson mutters as he escorts him to his quarters. Drugs clearly make Dr. Heywood edgy, but he is comical in this state.
Meanwhile, Miss Jiwe is asleep in the medbay. I actuate the neural monitor on her and sneak a peek in her dream. Her ancestor bestows a cryptic message to her: "The strength of the totem grows as the strength of the threat you must face increases." She forewarns her that she will need Miss Tomaz's help and protection. Is she implying that Miss Tomaz's necklace is really a totem?
Dr. Palmer calls in for reinforcement an hour later. The "water witch" has crossed their paths. Conversely, we are having a predicament in the temporal zone. The Waverider is being tailed by a larger timeship owned by the Bureau. I bet Agent Green told them about Miss Tomaz. Everyone (who's awake) immediately straps in the passenger seats. "Maybe picking a fight with the Time Bureau wasn't the best strategy," Professor Stein remarks.
"Yeah, well, they fired on us first," Mr. Jackson justifies.
I apprise, "And if they continue to do so, we will sustain critical damage in less than five minutes." I stand corrected following another direct hit. "Four minutes." Miss Jiwe has recovered and is updated on the scenario at hand. Captain Lance beckons them to aid Dr. Palmer, except the professor and a still drugged Dr. Heywood. After I have confirmed their stealthy evasion and the loss of the rear deflectors, the captain hounds the enemy ship. Its pilot is none other than Agent Sharpe. Color me shocked.
"What are you doing," she entreats. She looks bewildered without losing her strictness.
"Being true to who we are," the captain answers. "My team doesn't roll over on their own."
"Zari Tomaz is not one of your own." Yet.
"Either way, we're not gonna let you, ARGUS, or anyone else put her behind bars for who she is."
The Waverider charges in the Bureau's direction. Neither are unwilling to recede. "So, you'd rather kill your team and mine." Well, Agent Sharpe, you've blasted my rear deflectors.
"Collision in 10 seconds, Captain," I signal.
"Last chance, Miss Lance," the high achiever orders. She stalwartly ignores her and the professor's implorations. "Change your course!"
"I'm good," the captain rebuffs.
"Impact in 3... 2... 1..." The Time Bureau ship escapes to a random time zone at the last minute. Captain Lance prescribes me to ensure that they have really ducked out. The professor is quite shaken by the tribulation, so Dr. Heywood opts to make him tea to soothe him. I'm very positive Agent Sharpe isn't going to let the captain's risky endeavor slide.
In time following the others' disembarkation, Captain Lance asks me whether the coast is clear. I've gladly confirmed our time jump was undetected. The bad news is Agent Sharpe interfacing her in the parlour, validating my foresight. "Oh, hey, Ava," the captain greets with a sly grin. "How was your day?"
"You do realize that that little stunt of yours could have destroyed us both." She is not wrong about that.
"You tried to kill us first." Yeah, she did.
"No, I tried to warn you first, but you don't take warnings." How was firing at us a warning? "Do you?"
"Now, you're starting to get it," Captain Lance smirks. I think she likes vexing her.
"Well, this isn't a warning. It's a promise," the perfectionist contemptuously upholds. "If I ever track you down again, you and your band of idiots will be exiled to the dawn of time." She ends the transmission, admonishing, "Whatever leniency Hunter gave you is over." She so wants to be the top dog.
I verbalize my assessment of Agent Sharpe. "What a *itch." And no, I did not mean 'witch'.
The captain scoffs, "You took the words right out of my mouth, Gideon. Plot a course to 2042."
The next two weeks are free of any disturbance from the Bureau. Dr. Palmer and Mr. Jackson are working on severing the telepathic link between the latter and the professor, who has recently welcomed his grandson. He injects a serum in his arm, which enables the pending isolation. The possible side-effects are tipped: facial swelling, possible queasiness, and short-term memory loss.
In another news, Miss Tomaz has joined the Legends officially. It is for the best since her eventual collaboration with Miss Jiwe is a puzzle piece in defeating Mallus. On the other hand, the newest Legend doesn't plan to stay. She tells Captain Lance, Miss Jiwe, and Professor Stein over breakfast that she wants to go to 2041 to save her family from their conjunct demise. The captain discourages the lovely yet morally complicated request. "I thought you can change the past," Miss Tomaz naively assumes.
Miss Jiwe clarifies, "We can correct the past and the future, but we don't change it."
"Why not?"
"Because doing so could cause unforeseen, possibly even disastrous consequences," the professor explains. "It's a temporal butterfly effect, if you will."
A nettled Miss Tomaz flares, "Try not doing something that would save your brother."
"Does a sister count," the sympathetic captain asks her. The darkish-headed novice silently pulls back after observing her tacit declaration. At that point, Dr. Heywood's voice blasts through the speakers, requiring everyone's attendance to the parlour for today's mission. He has an outline full of misplacements displayed on the monitor. Have I forgotten to mention that he was caffeinated on coffee due to lack of sleep? "Nate, why are we staring at an anachronism map?"
"Because, Captain, I did a deep dive on the data, and the anachronisms we created at first glance seem scattershot... random. But since history is cause and effect, I decided to do a little experiment. I folded a linear timeline onto itself following the mathematics of the golden ratio." He directs them from the screen and leaps into the bridge. He stops at the cockpit console and is disgruntled by the lack of effects. "Damn it, Gideon. That was your cue."
I have overlooked that he has prepped me for the demonstration. "My apologies, Dr. Heywood." I transmit the creation of his experiment. It replicates the map; however, the bluish white orbs are now structurally bracketed.
"Ah, see, the anachronisms form a pattern," the professor determines as the others circle around the panel. "Should have guessed. Though time may be broken, like all matter in the known universe, it still possesses a mathematical harmony."
"Not exactly," Mr. Jackson disputes. He gestures at the pair noticeably embedded in a red glow. "Uh, what about those two?"
"Those two are outliers," Dr. Heywood answers. "The first one is Seattle, 2042."
"Where the assassin tried to kill me," Miss Tomaz interjects, eating her plate of pancakes. Not a fine moment, of course.
"Right, while cool—not the part where, you know, you almost got killed—it's not as cool as the other one. London, 1895." He digests in three words: "There's a vampire." This tickles Mr. Rory's fancy, whose attention is glued on his copy of Dracula by Bram Stroker. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. The others are more cynical. "Half a dozen men were snatched off the streets, only to have their bodies dumped three days later completely drained of blood."
"Vampires," Mr. Rory grumbles, wielding a handmade stake. "Waited my whole life to kill one."
"Do you just carry that around all the time," Mr. Jackson questions him.
"My whole life."
"There's no such things as vampires," the professor tiffs. "Increased immigration at the fin de siècle and the fear that good Englishwomen would lose their virtue to foreign predators is responsible for these ludicrous stories." I'm not saying that vampires exist, but what else can do something like that?
"I say we go see what's so interesting about this anachronism," Captain Lance suggests. She, Mr. Jackson, Mr. Rory, Dr. Heywood, and Dr. Palmer are on the investigating group upon landing. A half an hour later, they arrive back with an unexpected visitor: a solo Director Hunter. He greets Miss Jiwe in the bridge, "I was surprised to hear that you'd rejoined the team."
"It's surprising to me too."
"I trust we're not under arrest," the professor queries.
"Far from it."
"What... Rip, where the hell did you come from? Where'd he come from?" Looks like Mr. Jackson is experiencing short-term memory loss. Dr. Palmer equivocates the former's confusion as the reverie of a scientific mind and escorts him out of the bridge to analyze the GPS data on the uncovered savvy watch. The professor follows them, aware that something's not right. Amid confrontation, his daughter calls in and wants him to sing a lullaby for a crying Ronnie. He does so, excusing himself. The touching moment reinforces Mr. Jackson's decision. I can't blame him.
Meanwhile, Miss Jiwe goes to see Miss Tomaz in her quarters about the latter's denied petition. She assures that her late brother would want her to have the air totem, calling it her birthright. Miss Tomaz is irritable that the subject of her family is laid out when she is told their deaths are set in stone. In the heat of the ensuing contention, their totems briefly glimmer and beam at the other in recognition. Miss Jiwe discloses their connection is why she asked her to join the Legends and didn't return to her village.
In the parlour, Director Hunter pours himself a glass of whiskey. He says to the captain, Mr. Rory, and Dr. Heywood, "Not to be overly sentimental, but I've missed this place."
The feeling is understandably one-sided. "We'd love to reminisce with you, but your Time Bureau's on our tail." Especially one willful agent.
"Makes us slow to help you out," Mr. Rory adds.
"I'll get down to it then." The ex-captain clears his throat. "When I permitted the Legends to keep the Waverider..."
Dr. Heywood specifies, "Nobody permits us to do anything."
"...I had an ulterior motive," he finishes, taking a sip.
"Why does that not surprise me," Captain Lance sneers. Director Hunter immediately blows the lid on Mallus. According to him, the mysterious threat is a "phantom" whose name is "whispered across time and in every language". He is "an evil so ancient and powerful that the Time Masters dared not speak his name". He sounds like a certain fictitious villain whose name has that similar effect. Anyway, Director Hunter infers that he has an expanding number of supporters comprising individuals across the timeline. He verifies the anachronistic outliers as Mallus' handiwork too. The Time Bureau hasn't handled the situation because it's "a bureaucracy" that "lacks the imagination to understand this particular threat". Director Bennett has also negated the former's crusade, which is why he is "crawling back to his ex" after being dumped by his "hot new girlfriend", as Dr. Heywood phrases it. They refused to help Hunter at first, but they reconsider after he offers a deal: in exchange for their assistance, he'll have the Bureau end their pursuit of the Legends. It's a promising bid, even though Mr. Rory vocally distrusts "the Englishman".
Dr. Heywood, who was supposed to be bait, has been taken posthaste during the associated expedition. The others are corralled in the parlour when he phoned in through his comms. He doesn't know where he is, but he just had a chat with Professor Stein's "weird lookalike evil cousin." Nearly everyone's eyes are on him as he says this. "Great-great-grandfather, to be exact," I enlighten, showcasing a flyer of Sir Henry Stein, a famous stage actor. The professor is awestruck by the infinite possibility of encountering an ancestor of his. Based on his family folklore, the removed progenitor is regarded as an eccentric for his career preference. He's also an apparent fanatic in occultic matters; in fact, the elder Stein intends to feed Dr. Heywood to his "master". He describes his whereabouts as "an operating room" with "a spooky-ass red moon painting on the wall". Director Hunter retrieves a small notepad from his back pocket. It encompasses some of his research on Mallus. He reads, "Beware the blood-red moon, when the door that separates death from life will be opened." The verse is the first line of an oath taken by the Order of the Shrouded Compass; a secret society made of London's aristocracy notorious for its engrossment with occultism. One such belief is a total lunar eclipse holds magical properties. Sure enough, there's one happening tonight.
Much to Mr. Rory's dismay, the elusively haunting vampire was, in truth, a double syringe. Interesting. The biggest twist of the night arrives after Dr. Palmer and Mr. Jackson received a consult from Mr. Curtis Holt from Team Arrow. Said "master" is bloody Damien Darhk. Director Hunter and Captain Lance bicker over what the objective should be: stopping the revival or not. The former eventually relents, pinpointing himself as the one "who has lost perspective". He leaves and, on his way out, commands me to invoke the Gentleman's dreadnought. I know he has abdicated his position as captain, but I still owe him loyalty. The Legends are obliged to demolish the cargo bay with shock missiles to nullify the code.
After the chaos has quelled, Mr. Jackson rescinds his game plan. Professor Stein, who had learnt about the underlying motive, conversely opts to go along with it. Misses Jiwe and Tomaz settle on encouraging their mystical connection. Everything is not all pleasant because lives were lost during the battle at the resurrection. "Those Bureau agents are dead because of you," the captain attests to Director Hunter.
"They understood the risks of their profession," he rationalizes. Were those people expendable to him? "But we have learned so much from the events of last night. Next time..."
"There won't be a next time, Rip," she angrily vents. "You show up out of nowhere, practically begging for our help, and then you betray us. You've gone rogue from every organization that you've been a part of. 'Cause you don't trust anyone." She's right. The Time Masters, the Legends of Tomorrow, and now, the Time Bureau. He has defected from them in the end. "I don't know how I could ever trust you."
"Sara," he pleads, "I need you with me now more than ever."
She gives him her two cents' worth. "Do you remember when you told me you had nothing left to teach me? I guess you had one final lesson." He turns around to see a time portal opening in the bridge. Agent Sharpe enters, accompanied by Director Wilbur Bennett and Agent London. He faces back at the captain in disbelief. "How to be a cold s.o.b." She steps away from him.
"Director Hunter, you've called in your last chit," Director Bennett lambastes with his two pliant juniors standing behind him. "I should never have sanctioned last night's mission."
"But the mission proved Mallus is real," he persists. Single-minded to his own detriment.
"Explain it to the tribunal. In the meantime, you are being detained and suspended from active duty."
Agent London physically restrains Hunter. "You can't detain me," he protests, trying to resist. "I... I created the Bureau."
"Then, you of all people should know that no one is exempt from its rules." He's unfortunately correct.
A desperate Hunter addresses Agent Sharpe, hoping she'll bail him out. She disappointedly shakes her head and approaches the captain instead. "Thank you for notifying us of Director Hunter's whereabouts." Finally, a 'thank you'.
Her nonchalant rival cares about one thing directly. "Now the Legends are free to fly the skies?"
"Affirmative." The ice queen coolly remarks, "The Time Bureau has bigger things to worry about than a bunch of idiots." The federals head out with a defiant Hunter warning Captain Lance that Mallus is preparing for war and sustaining that the Legends are the only ones capable of defeating him. The Bureau is off their cases at last. Then again, one of them is bound to make a reemergence.
A/N: Agent "London" is unidentified in the actual episode.