Violet recaps Season 1 Episode 4 of Legends of Tomorrow, titled White Knights, where the team travels to 1986! Following the recap, both Josh and Violet share their thoughts about the episode.
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Episode Recap of Legends of Tomorrow, Season 2 Episode 4: White Knights
The team arrives in Washington, D.C. in 1986 — the height of the Cold War. The plan is to go to the Pentagon to get the original file on Vandal Savage that has since been redacted. Snart and Ray pose as janitors, as Snart steals a key card from and officer, and hands it off to Sara. She and Kendra use the card to access the Records room, while Heat Wave provides a distraction — arm wrestling. FIRESTORM’s role is to divert the power long enough for Sara and Kendra to exit with the file. However, the power overloads, and Kendra and Sara get caught at the restricted exit. Sara and Kendra are forced to fight, and Kendra turns into Hawkgirl and loses control. Rip Hunter calls for the team to abort the mission. FIRESTORM retrieves Kendra and they all go back to the ship. There, they find out that Vandal Savage is in the Soviet Union, so they head there.
On the way, they realize they are being followed by Chronos. But Rip Hunter has a plan — cut the engines just as they enter Soviet air space, which drops the ship just in time for Soviet heat seaking missiles to hit Chronos’s ship. Meanwhile, the Waverider is forced to make a crash landing. Luckily, the ship is still fully operational following the landing.
The file identifies a new project that Savage is working on called Svaros, which is the god of fire. A woman named Valentina Vostok is working on the project. Ray wants to approach her as a scientist to find out what she knows. Rip gives Ray and Snart ingestible translators, which allows them to speak Russian. Ray and Snart are assigned to catch up with Valentina at the ballet.
Sara talks to Rip about Kendra’s being out of control. He assigns her the job of helping get Kendra’s warrior side under control, though Sara says it’s a bad idea.
Ray approaches Valentina outside the Bolshoi theater, but she isn’t interested in talking to him.
Sara tries to get Kendra to train with her, but Kendra doesn’t want to risk letting the monster out again. However, Sara tosses her a stick, and they spar.
Meanwhile, Gideon informs Rip that Chronos is still alive, and that his ship went down just outside Moscow city limits. He goes to investigate, and brings Heat Wave with him.
Ray tries to talk to her again, but she doesn’t seem to want to talk to him. Snart comes to her rescue, and she asks him to walk her home.
Rip and Rory track Chronos into the forest. However, instead of Chronos, they find Time Master Druce. Rip sends Rory away so he can speak to Druce, who explains that Chronos was killed in the crash, and he was sent to recover the ship, as well as lure Rip there with the temporal anomaly. Druce offers Rip a deal: return with him, and he will be acquitted of all charges, while the team members will be returned to their time lines unharmed. Rip says he’ll consult with the team, and Druce tells him to meet him back there in an hour. Rory warns Rip that Druce is planning on killing him.
Sara and Kendra continue their training. Kendra unleashes Hawkgirl, then quickly apologizes. However, Sara’s bloodlust gets activated, and she begins to choke Kendra. Luckily, she realizes what she is doing, and runs off.
When Snart walks Valentina home, she seems very interested in him, and invites him in. However, he says he can’t. They share a kiss, and she goes home. Ray comes out from where he was hiding, and Snart reveals that he was able to steal Valentina’s key card for Luskavic Labs, as well as her wallet.
Rip returns to the ship and informs Jax and Stein about Druce’s offer. He then returns to meet with Druce, and says that he came to his senses, and hopes he can forgive him. However, Druce has doublecrossed him. Chronos steps out and holds a gun to his head, as Druce explains that the Council can’t risk keeping Rip alive. FIRESTORM and Heat Wave appear and attack Chronos, as Druce gets away. Chronos also is able to get away. Unfortunately, Jax is injured.
Back at the ship, Stein and Jax get into an argument. However, after Jax goes to the med bay, Stein reveals to Ray that he picked the fight and hurt him on purpose in order to get through to him. He doesn’t want to lose Jax like he lost Ronnie.
Kendra complains to Rip about Sara’s bloodlust, but Rip tries to encourage Kendra to help Sara. Kendra goes to Sara and says that she thinks her own problem is that she needs to learn to embrace her Hawk inner goddess, while Sara needs to learn to embrace her human side. Sara gives in and they spar.
Stein volunteers to go on the reconnaissance mission to Luskavic Labs while Jax rests. He makes sure to take a translator tablet. At Luskavic Labs, he pretends like he was sent to inspect the facility. The key card works. Once inside, he discovers that what Operation Svaroc is: they’re trying to build Soviet FIRESTORM.
Stein notices that they’ve already built a thermo core. He knows it’s the key to building others like him, so he declares that he’s not leaving without it. All he needs is someone to take the core offline so he can remove it safely and shield it. Ray and Snart take responsibility for this job, and knock out some guards. Ray notices Valentina approaching the core containment unit. He doesn’t want to expose Valentina to the radiation. Snart isn’t interested in saving her, but Ray convinces him to.
Snart confronts Valentina, who notices that Stein is in the core containment unit. He explains that Stein knows what he’s doing, since he invented it. He also informs Valentina about what Savage is up to, but it turns out she already knows, and she pulls her gun on him. Stein gets close to removing the core, but Valentina threatens to kill Snart unless Ray puts it back online. Snart tells Ray not to turn it back on, because she’ll kill him anyway, but Ray gives in and puts it back online. Stein decides to try to get the core it anyway.
However, just before he touches it, Jax communicates with Stein, warning him to stop, that his body can’t handle this alone. Stein grabs it anyway, and is able to release the core and put it safely in a container. Upon exiting, he is met by several Soviet soldiers, and Valentina, who is still holding her gun to Snart, says they have much to discuss.
Valentina says Savage would like to meet Snart and the rest of his friends. However, HeatWave shows up just then, and fighting breaks out. Rip tells them not to let Valentina leave with the thermocore. Snart rushes down and retrieves it, then demands backup. However, Rip tells him to retreat, and that for now the others will have to fend for themselves. Snart runs back to the ship with the thermocore, while Valentina and the soldiers take Ray, Rory, and Stein into custody. Valentina says they don’t need the thermocore anymore since they have Stein now.
Back at the ship, Snart complains to Rip about the lack of backup, saying that even criminals have a code to never leave one of their own behind. Rips gathers the others and tells them what’s going on. The good news is that Savage will keep their friends alive, but the bad news is they’re being held in an impenetrable gulag.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 1 Episode 4 of Legends of Tomorrow: White Knights
Overall, I’ve been enjoying Legends of Tomorrow, but there were several aspects of this episode that kind of annoyed me. It was like they kept coming up with conflicts to turn members of the team against each other, for the sole purpose of making them grow back together again even stronger. To me, these efforts were pretty blatant and came off as cheesy. I also had a little trouble keeping track of when the team members were actually speaking Russian, and when they were speaking English. One might assume that anytime the team members talked to a Russian person, then they were speaking Russian. But if that’s true, why did Valentina peg Snart as American? Lucky guess?
Additionally, usually one of the most amusing and fun things about time travel shows and movies is seeing the contrast between present day technology and fashion and that of the era to which the time traveler travels. The episodes that took place in the 1970s did a pretty good job of this. However, I didn’t get a feel for any of that while in this 80s episode. All we really got was the reference to the “telefax” and the general historic setting of the Cold War. So I was a little disappointed on that front.
On a different bit, more and more, it’s seeming like Captain Cold is emerging as the group’s hero, which I hadn’t expected, but am enjoying. It was an interesting twist to see Valentina shoot down “pretty boy” Ray and instead go for Snart, and to see Snart charming the female officer enough to be able to snag both her key card and wallet. Then there were his heroics at the end, which will probably be employed even more in the rescue mission.
Oddly, we didn’t see Vandal Savage at all this episode, but I’m guessing we will next episode. Of course, they gave us a cliffhanger at the end of the episode, but hey, it works on me because it keeps me invested in continuing to watch the show!
Josh’s Thoughts: Legends of Tomorrow, Season 1 Episode 4: White Knights
I am enjoying Legends of Tomorrow so far. I am a little worried though—so far each episode has been a little repetitive. It seems like every plan that Rip Hunter lays out, the team ends up screwing up somehow, and they have to figure out to fix the problem. This episode at least has the stakes a little higher—Heat Wave, Ray Palmer and Professor Stein are currently in the hands of the USSR.
I am wondering what this thing that Hawk Girl/Kendra is having. She seems to be getting all rage-y like Sarah, but is adding in the glowy red eyes too. Is that just a part of her goddess thing?
It looks like the remaining team members have their work cut out for them. They have to figure out how to bust the captured members out of the gulag, probably one of the scariest internment camps/prisons ever to exist.
Scenes from Legends of Tomorrow, Season 1 Episode 5: Fail-Safe
Here are scenes from the next Legends of Tomorrow episode, titled Fail-Safe:
I havent started watching yet, but from what I hear they arent doing a good job, hopefully they find a way to turn it around.
The show is getting better. However, I am growing tired of the same formula each week. There’s always some forced conflict amongst the characters that doesn’t add anything to the overall story arc. Although, I did like this story line and felt it was nice to focus on someone different than Hawkgirl.