Legends of Tomorrow 1.04 “White Knights”

The Legends are off to 1986 after Gideon determines this is when Vandal Savage will show up next. The only way to pinpoint Savage’s current whereabouts is for the team to steal an unredacted file from the Pentagon. What should be a piece of cake boost goes horribly wrong when Jefferson’s attempt to cut off the power triggers an alarm and Kendra goes full-blown psycho hawk-goddess on a guard that demands to see her identification.

The win isn’t a pretty one, but the team gets the information they need and learn Savage is defecting to the Soviet Union and assisting with a project called Operation Svarog (Svarog being the Slavic God of Fire). Savage is working with a Russian physicist named Valentina Volstok (Stephanie Corneliussen) and it is decided that she is the best means to find out what Savage is working on behind the Iron Curtain.

As the team enters Soviet air space, they come under attack by Chronos (Steven Blum) who has followed them to the 80’s. In a risky move, Hunter uncloaks the ship, drawing the attention of the Soviet air force. When the Ruskies fire upon the Waverider, he cuts all power and the Soviet missiles lock onto Chronos instead. While the temporal bounty hunter goes down, so does the Waverider, which is forced to crash.

It is decided that Ray will approach Volstok with Snart as his wingman. Meanwhile, Hunter asks Sara to work with Kendra to try and curb his more aggressive side, and in the process hopes that the two women will balance each other out (with Sara regaining more of her human side and Kendra fully embracing her warrior side).

Ray makes contact with Volstok, but she rebuffs him. Snart steps in to salvage the mission and catches Volstok’s eye, and then lifts her security badge to the research facility where she is working. While Captain Cold is practicing his own form of glasnost, Hunter detects a temporal anomaly. Thinking it is Chronos’ downed ship, Hunter takes Rory with him to investigate. Instead of Chronos though, Hunter finds an old friend from the Time Masters, Zaman Druce (Martin Donovan), who comes with an offer for him: give-up the crusade to stop Savage and return to the future and be cleared of all charges. This of course turns out to be a trap laid by Druce and Chronos, which Hunter thwarts thanks to Rory and Firestorm. In the process of fending off Chronos though, Jefferson is injured and sidelined.

With his other half of Firestorm down, Stein volunteers to do recon at the lab where Volstok and Savage are doing their research with Ray, Snart and Rory as his support. Stein discovers, to his horror, that Savage is trying to create a Soviet Firestorm. To put a stop to this, Stein decides to steal the thermacore, the key that will let Savage to succeed. Meanwhile, Volstok arrives at the facility and Snart tries to warn her off, thinking she is just a pawn of Savage. It turns out she knows full well what Savage is doing and she’s onboard 100%. After Stein steals the thermacore, all heck breaks loose and the guards come down hard and heavy on the team. In the end, only Snart makes it out of the facility with the thermacore. The episode ends with Stein, Ray and Rory being thrown into a gulag so that the Russians may learn more about Firestorm from the one man who knows the entity best.

While Legends of Tomorrow is only into its fourth episode, I’ve already decided Wentworth Miller is the star of this series. Snarky, sarcastic and quick with the quips, he is owning every scene he is in and he plays marvelously off the entire cast. Going in, I knew he had chemistry with Dominic Purcell, but I am also digging the chemistry he has with Brandon Routh. Watching Routh try to be all James Bond in this episode and then having Miller there to bust his chops is hilarious. Yet, at the same time, I’m sensing a grudging respect between Ray and Snart. His scenes with guest star Stephanie Corneliussen are great as well.  I also liked the exchange between Miller and Darvill at the end of the episode when Cold explains the Rogue’s code of conduct and demands to know why he and the rest of the team were left out to dry. Yes, Snart is a wiseass, but here he really comes across as someone you don’t want to mess with or double-cross.

Going back to Routh again, I think he has become my second favorite character on this show. I love how honest and sincere Ray Palmer is being played and finding out he was an Eagle Scout comes as no surprise. Routh’s take on Ray is a genuinely decent guy, someone who is honestly trying to do the right thing at all times. Simply put, Routh is killing this role (and he is the only one who could have quoted Top Gun in this episode and gotten away with it too).

Legends of Tomorrow continues to switch up teams and allow the actors to play off one another nicely. This week’s episode spotlighted the ladies as Sara tries to help Kendra get her more savage side under control. Caity Lotz and Ciara Renée knock their scenes out of the park (and they come close to knocking each other out in their fight scenes as well).

Meanwhile, we got some great tension between Victor Garber and Franz Drameh that stems from Stein’s remorse at the death of Ronnie Raymond and his desire to not see someone else he is close to get hurt again. It’s good this kind of emotional turmoil is being played out over time and not wrapped up neatly in one episode (and past references to previous episodes and shows are always fun).

I’m curious to see where the second half of this story will go. For right now, this adventure is off to a flying start and I am giving it a solid 4 (3.5 for the story and an extra .5 just because the 80’s were my favorite decade).