"Seriously, you idiots haven't figured this out by now? It all started when we blew up the time pigs — The Time Masters. Now history's all screwed up and it's up to us to unscrew it up, but half the time we screw things up even worse. So don't call us heroes, we're something else. We're legends. [beat] Who writes this crap, anyway?"
— Mick Rory, in the opening narration
The Legends detect an aberration when George Washington is killed on the eve of crossing the Delaware. They travel back to save him, only to find that Rip Hunter is with the Legion, and has outfitted the British with automatic weaponry.
Tropes:
- Air-Vent Passageway: How Mini-Ray navigates through the Waverider to affect repairs.
- An Ass-Kicking Christmas: The Legends time traveled to 1776 on Christmas Eve to prevent George Washington's death.
- Antagonist Title: Directly referring to Rip.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: Rory and Washington during their escape from the Redcoat camp.
- Badass in Distress: Sara spends most of the episode near-death from a gunshot wound due to Gideon being knocked offline. And then her neck gets snapped.
- Bait-and-Switch: After his showdown with Jax ended in a standstill, Rip immediately sees a Trail of Blood. The blood is actually Sara's.
- Batman Gambit: Attacking Washington in the last episode's cliffhanger. The Legion knows that the Legends are sure to go back to that time period to fix history, so they'll just be walking right into Rip's trap.
- Been There, Shaped History: The Legends are annoyed to find that due to his friendship with Washington, Rory is now a forefather of the United States, complete with a statue.
- Big Damn Heroes: Amaya and Nate rescue Washington and Mick from the British, Nate even blocks a bullet with his arm right before it hits Mick.
- Bittersweet Ending: Washington is saved and all the Legends survive, but Rip is still brainwashed by the Legion and they got another part of the Spear. Oh, and there's a monument dedicated to Rory in Washington DC.
- Brainwashing: Rip's true memories were restored by the Legion of Doom, but not before Eobard altered his personality to make him evil.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Mick's opening narration does this by having Mick address the audience and question Who Writes This Crap?!
- Brick Joke: Ray gets on Mick's case about a rat getting loose on the Waverider. Mini-Ray would run into the same rat later when trying to get the Waverider back online, and later would give it to Mick as a Christmas present.
- Casting Gag: "Who knew time travel could be so much fun?" coming from Arthur Darvill's mouth.
- Christmas Episode: Although the episode aired a month and a half after Christmas, it is definitely depicted as a more traditional example of this trope compared to "The Chicago Way", the actual episode that aired during Christmas season.
- Combat Pragmatist: Washington says being American is about proving that even non-nobles can be gentlemen. Rory says it's about fighting dirty. In the end, not only does Washington allow Rory to save them from a hanging, but it turns out that the "love letter" he was trying to get Rory to take to his wife was actually a battle plan to defeat the British despite his own death.
- Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are: Rip hunts for Jax in the Waverider.
- Darkest Hour: Literally. The Waverider's power is down, the brainwashed Rip uses a jamming device to negate Firestorm and the Atom's abilities, Mick and George Washington are about to be hanged, Sara nearly dies (by Rip's hands), and the Legion gets another piece of the Spear of Destiny.
- Death Is Cheap: This is the third time Sara's "died", and this time she's even revived before the end of the episode.
- Deus Exit Machina: Nate and Amaya are not present when Rip invades the Waverider, a situation that would have easily been resolved since they have superpowers Rip can't negate with a device nor is he familiar enough with them to be able to predict anything they do or play mind games with them.
- "Die Hard" on an X: Jax fighting off the Redcoats on the Waverider. Bonus points for it being Christmas.
- Evil Brit: Rip fits this trope to a T after being brainwashed by the Legion of Doom.
- Face–Heel Turn: Thanks to Eobard modifying his personality when his memories were restored, Rip has become evil.
- "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner: Mick when a Redcoat has him dead to rights.Mick: If you're expecting me to blink, it's gonna be a long day.
- Fire-Forged Friends: While Mick was dismissive of Washington at first, he seems quite fond of him after the General adopts his dirty fighting tactics. They even hug each other before parting ways.
- Going Commando: When Nate wakes up naked he asks Amaya if his underwear is out there. Amaya responds that he wasn't wearing any.
- Historical Hero Upgrade: Washington, though that's typical for the man, as well as the American revolutionaries in general. The episode has him claim to honour the 'rules of war' and gives prisoners respect, which greatly contrasts the real life Washington who had Native villages burned for siding with the British while survivors on the battlefield were often executed and then desecrated (though this was on both sides). Meanwhile the revolutionaries seem to be rather accepting of Nate and Amaye's mixed marriage and several interracial couples are seen dancing and it's once even stated that they are fighting for complete equality, which is baffling given one of the main points of the revolution was to maintain slaverynote . To their credit, the episode ends with Washington learning to 'fight dirty' from Rory, indicating that Washington's less-pleasant actions during the war could be because of Mick's influence.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: Fortunately, the show does avoid this with the British. Though they're the bad guys, they're merely treated as one side of a war, and when we hear Rip's ramblings to the soldiers, its clear they view the war as a case of domestic terrorists and traitors they're fighting against rather than idealistic freedom fighters. In particular, the only bad guy involved is Rip, who is brainwashed to be this way rather than actually a villain.
- Idiot Ball: Even though Sara convinced Jax it wasn't worth killing a brainwashed Rip, he still could have wounded him in order to get their piece of the Spear back. Not to mention capture Rip to undo his brainwashing. On the other hand, the British Army was on their way...making it unlikely to drag Rip back without getting captured themselves.
- If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: When Sara tries to be the better person by telling Jax to not kill Rip (whom just briefly killed her) on Christmas, he asks why she wants to save him.Sara: I'm trying to save you.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Downplayed and defied: Jax tries to make Rip spare Sara (as she is currently in his stranglehold), trying to remind him of her. He merely states her identity means nothing to him. Cue the snap.Jax: [voice breaking] C'mon Rip. It's Sara... Rip, it's Sara.
Rip: You say her name as if she's supposed to matter to me... she doesn't. - I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: Stein reminded Jax that he's a physicist instead of a doctor, and Jax retorts that he's a mechanic instead of a captain.Stein: Damn it, Jefferson! I'm a physicist, not a doctor!
Jax: And I'm a mechanic, not a captain! So I guess we're both trying out new things today. - Intimate Healing: Amaya to Nate. It took a while, but eventually, they have sex.
- Lampshade Hanging: The entire opening narration, see above.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Mick's opening narration, which not only addresses the audience but also the writers.
- Lemony Narrator: Heatwave's take on Opening Narration is...unusual.
- Motive Rant: Rip gives a brief one.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: Twice was Mick merely added as an afterthought in the Legends' list of priorities.
- Neck Snap: The brainwashed Rip crushed Sara's neck while choking her.
- Not That Kind of Doctor: Stein once again states he's a physicist, not a doctor, though he still does his best for Sara.
- Only Mostly Dead: Although Rip snapped her neck, Sara's brain was still active enough that, when Gideon was brought back online, she was able to bring her back in time to stop Jax from killing Rip over said death.
- Our Founder: Because of his Odd Friendship with George Washington, Mick Rory now has a statue in Washington DC.
- Politically Correct History: A mild case, as the host of the Christmas party is obviously shocked by meeting an interracial married couple in 1776, but nowhere near as shocked as he should've been.
- Power Nullifier: Rip releases a jamming device to negate both the Firestorm Fusion Dance and Ray's Sizeshifter mode.
- Pun: While Ray is in the air vents on his way to get the Waverider back online, he runs into a little rodent problem.Ray: Rats!
- Pun-Based Title: The Brainwashed and Crazy Rip turns his back on his friends and is wearing a Badass Longcoat.
- Punctuated Pounding: Ray taking down the attacking Redcoats.Ray: MER—RY—CHRISTMAS!
- Race Against the Clock: Variation: although Ray was close to the core of the ship when this came up, Stein made it clear that Gideon needed to be brought back online now if he had any chance left of reviving Sara.
- Rage Breaking Point: Rip killing Sara is enough to make Jax go after him with a gun.
- Rousing Speech: Mick gives one to George Washington.Mick: You don't know the first thing about being an American. We're misfits, outcasts, and proud of it. When they attack in formation, we pop 'em off from the trees, if they challenge you to a duel, you raid their camp at night, and if they're gonna hang you, you fight dirty. Never, ever give up. That's the American way. What's it gonna be, George?
- Shapeshifter Mode Lock: After getting hit by the EMP, Ray is trapped in his shrinked form for most of the episode.
- Ship Sinking: After teasing a possible Amaya/Rory relationship a couple of episodes earlier, that ship is quickly sunk (technically before even leaving the harbor) with an Amaya/Nate ship launching with a bang.
- Ship Tease: Amaya and Nate get a huge amount of teasing and even sleep together, but they don't enter a real relatonship just yet.
- Shout-Out:
- Aside from noting that without George Washington, America wouldn't have democracy, Ray also mentions that they wouldn't have Hamilton.
- While Nate and Amaya are on a mission to rescue George Washington, they both made reference to the quote "We're not in Kansas anymore" and "flying monkeys". Near the end of the episode, Nate even got Amaya a pair of ruby slippers for her Christmas gift. Plus, Amaya eagerly latches onto this pop culture reference from 1939 after so many others have gone over her head, just like another comic book superhero out of their own time.
- Jax leaving one of Rip's men incapacitated wearing a Santa hat is reminiscent of an iconic scene from Die Hard.
- Snow Means Death: Rip shoots Sara in the middle of a snowy field. There's even emphasis on her blood covering the snow.
- Snow Means Love: Nate and Amaya had a one-night stand on a tent in the middle of Christmas.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Stein and Nate. When summarizing a mission, they both say that they're going to save Washington, only to be reminded that they're saving Mick as well. And both reply with "That was implied."
- Straw Nihilist: Rip says that since they can't save time, they might as well destroy it.
- Trail of Bread Crumbs: Or rather, trail of garbage in Mick's case.
- Trap Is the Only Option: The Legends quickly realize the Legion of Doom killing Washington is meant to lure them into a trap, but also realize it's a change to the timeline that has to be fixed.
- Visual Pun: The Waverider's powers are down and the episode mainly takes place at night. In short, it's the Legends' Darkest Hour.
- Who Writes This Crap?!: Word for word from Mick in the Opening Narration.
- Worf Had the Flu: Rip releasing an EMP causes a host of problems for the Legends that only gets worse when Rip invades the Waverider: Ray is stuck in miniature form, Jax and Stein can't fuse into Firestorm, and Gideon is offline so she can't help Jax protect the Waverider and save a wounded Sara.
- You Are in Command Now: Sara gives Jax the command after being shot by Rip.
