With the Time Masters gone, the Legends focus on ending Savage once and for all.
Tropes:
- 11th-Hour Superpower: Both Ray and Jax show abilities that they never had before (Firestorm's transmutation and Atom's Shrink Ray), just in time to stop the meteors from going critical mass.
- The '40s: Savage drags Carter and Kendra back to WWII France in order to retrieve one of the meteors, and the Legends go back to save them.
- The '50s: The events of "Night of the Hawk" are revisited as part of Savage's plan, and the team's counter plan.
- The '70s: The weapons auction from part two of the pilot is also revisited.
- Arc Welding: The meteors that gave Savage and the Hawks their power are revealed to be Thanagarian in origin.
- Badass Arm-Fold: Rip does an epic one on top of the Waverider.
- Blood from the Mouth: 2021 Savage after Kendra runs him through with the dagger. Justified, as getting stabbed with a dagger up to its hilt in your chest probably would cause some serious internal damage.
- Bookends: In the third episode, Rip reveals he hesitated to kill Savage before he can get his immortality. Once they get rid of said immortality and Kendra stabs him, he immediately hurls Savage toward a generator to finish him off.
- Brought Down to Normal: Savage is stripped of his immortality as long as he's in close proximity to the meteors and allows the Legends to kill him off.
- The Cameo: That WWII soldier? Sgt. Rock.
- Contrived Coincidence: Kendra just happens to come across the same exact WWII soldier whose helmet will end up in Rip's souvenir collection.
- Defiant to the End: The 2021 Savage uses his last breath to taunt Rip about how in spite of everything, he did manage to kill his family after all.
- Didn't See That Coming: '50s Savage makes it clear that Savage wasn't aware of the fact the meteor radiation would render him mortal.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After thousands and thousands of years of being hunted by Vandal Savage, Kendra and Carter finally have a chance to live a happy and healthy life together as a couple without any fears to hold them back. They specifically choose against going with the others so that they could actually have a life for once.
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom: Vandal's plan involves THREE of these, in different time periods.
- "Eureka!" Moment: When Stein reassures Jax that they can get their newfound transmutation power work, the phrasing "third time's the charm" allowed Stein to figure out what Savage is going to do with the meteorites.
- Expy: Mick's dumb partner with the cold gun is one for Chillblaine, a series of dumb crooks who Golden Glider "recruited" to take her brother's place in the Rogues when he briefly retired.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Subverted. It appears Rip will do this to destroy the last meteor, but time jumps away at the last second.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Savage's plan relies on the power of the Thanagarian meteors. But exposure to those same meteors renders him mortal, allowing the Legends to kill him.
- Hourglass Plot: In the season premiere, Jax was the one who wanted nothing to do with Rip's offer of adventure while Professor Stein Jumped at the Call. Here it's Jax who, with Clarissa's help, tells Stein to take up Rip's offer when Stein just wanted to stay back home.
- Hurl It into the Sun: Rip's plan for dealing with the last meteor.
- I Don't Want to Die: Gideon tells Rip that she is not ready to die when they are hurtling toward the core of the Sun. He agrees with the sentiment.
- If My Calculations Are Correct: Stein deduces that Savage will trigger the meteorites in 1958, 1975, and 2021 based on the alignment of Thanagar and Earth.
- In Spite of a Nail: Rip tells Sara that even if they did save Laurel, she, along with Sara and their father would have been killed by Darhk regardless.
- In-Universe Catharsis: Savage's death is very likely this to all the Legends (especially Kendra and Rip), but it is most explicitly this to Mick. As was mentioned in the pervious episode, Mick wished to get vengeance for Snart's death. Given the time masters were killed by Snart, Mick is more than happy to burn Savage alive as a proxy (and in a roundabout way, Savage is just a responsible for Snart death anyway).
- Internal Reveal:
- Stein's wife finds out about what he's been up to.
- Sara learns of Laurel's death from her father, who in turn tells it to others. Rip, although, already knew.
- Ironic Echo: Savage is constantly calling Kendra "My Love". Guess what she says just as she stabs him with the dagger.
- It Has Been an Honor: Rip to the rest of the team, just before his near Heroic Sacrifice.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy:
- A non-breakup variant. Stein's wife allows him to continue working for the Legends because that's what he really wants.
- A straight example happens in the final scene where Ray wishes Kendra the best after she decides to leave with Carter.
- Kick the Dog: Even as he's dying for the last time, Savage rubs it in Rip's face that he failed to stop Savage from killing his family.
- Kill It with Fire: Rory gets the pleasure of killing the 50's Savage.
- Last Episode, New Character: Rex Tyler a.k.a. Hourman I makes his Arrowverse debut.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: Laurel's death if you don't watch Arrow. Or The Flash.
- Let's Split Up, Gang!: The Legends break into three teams to fight Savage in three different time periods: Mick and Ray in 1958; Sara, Jax and Stein in 1975; and Rip and Carter in 2021 (which doubles as a mission to rescue Kendra).
- Mythology Gag: After the Thanagarians were introduced last episode, the Hawks' backstory is tied into them through the meteor that started it. In the comics, they are Thanagarians. Sometimes.
- Neck Snap: How Sara kills the 70's Savage.
- Oh, Crap!: Of the three Vandal Savages, the final one is the only one who actually has the opportunity to realize he's Out of Continues before his death, and his wide eyed shock makes that clear.
- Out of Continues: The radiation from the three meteors render Savage mortal, allowing the Legends to kill him. Three times in three different time periods.
- Out of Order: Chronologically, this episode takes place before the penultimate episode of The Flash Season 2.
- Papa Wolf: Rip finishes off the last Savage when the latter mocks him for being unable to save his family.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
- Rory gives a good one to '50s Savage before incinerating him.Savage: You can't kill me! I'm immortal!
Rory: Guess you haven't heard the news. - Kendra gives one before running Savage through with the dagger.Kendra: Goodbye, my love.
- Rory gives a good one to '50s Savage before incinerating him.
- Put on a Bus: Kendra and Carter leave the team for a normal life now that Savage is finally gone.
- Reality-Breaking Paradox: Savage's plan comes down to this — by destroying the world in three different time periods, the timeline will collapse and rewind to Ancient Egypt, allowing Savage to conquer the world from the get-go.
- The Reveal: Rip reveals to Sara that had he not recruited her, both her and Quentin would've died alongside Laurel.
- Rule of Three: Savage needs to detonate the three Thanagarian meteors in three separate time periods to trigger a time collapse.
- San Dimas Time: For Savage's plan to work he has to conduct the ritual simultaneously in three different time periods. Similarly, the Legends have to stop him simultaneously, leading them to split up into teams of two to take on each Savage - rather than all of them taking on one Savage, then going to the next time period as a group to take on that Savage, etc.
- Season Finale: The inaugural.
- Sequel Hook:
- The Thanagarians are still out there, and they will invade Earth sooner or later.
- Rex Tyler from the Justice Society appears at the end to warn the team not to get back on the Waverider. And he did so on Future!Mick's orders.
- Shout-Out:
- Rip's rooftop fall fake-out and Badass Arm-Fold are definitely a real-world reference to Back to the Future Part II, and very likely in-universe, too.
- Mick calls Ray "RoboCop".
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Savage is still taunting Rip even after being fatally stabbed, so Rip shoves him into an electrical generator.
- Stupid Crooks: Evidently, at least the temporary partner Mick chose to be the new user of the Cold Gun is this. Mick kills him for his stupidity.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: The Legends take advantage of Savage being rendered mortal to not just kill him, but kill him three times in three different time periods. In particular is Rory incinerating him in the 50s and Kendra impaling him through the chest, then Rip throwing him into a transformer and electrocuting him in 2021. To note, JUST Kendra impaling him would've killed him if he hadn't been rendered mortal.
- Timey-Wimey Ball: Somehow, they manage to kill Savage in three different time periods without creating a paradox or undoing the actions Savage partook in after either of his earlier deaths, or the rest of the series up to this point, for that matter. Sara even lampshades how they're past the point of worrying about the timeline.
- Villainous Breakdown: While obviously none of the Vandal Savages are very happy about their defeats, the '50s one has the most pronounced when Rory beats him in a fist fight, being left seething with fury and screaming about how he's immortal before being burned to death. At least the future Vandal Savage manages to get some painful last words to Rip.
- Wham Line: "My name is Rex Tyler. I'm a member of the Justice Society of America."
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Rip is fully prepared to sacrifice himself in order to save the world and leaves the rest behind so no one else has to die, but Gideon gently points out that she doesn't want to die either.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Sara is furious that Rip knew that Laurel would die and didn't tell her about it.
- Write Back to the Future: Kendra leaves a note in a World War II soldier's helmet that she knows ends up in Rip's collection, letting the team know where she is.
- You Are Too Late: When Sara confronts the 1975 Savage:Savage: You're too late.
Sara: A Time Master's never late. - You Can't Fight Fate: Rip explains to Sara that no matter what she can't save Laurel from Darhk, having painfully learned in the hard way with his own family.
- You Have Failed Me: Mick kills his temporary partner who was using the Cold Gun by using the Heat Gun on him for killing a cop for no good reason (they were almost home-free anyway).
