Hell breaks loose this week on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow in the form of “The Pilgrim”, who has been sent out by the Time Masters to kill Rip’s teams’ younger selves.
Gideon tracks The Pilgrim by using her “temporal distortions” in order to predict her every move, allowing the team to act quickly and save their younger selves accordingly. The first to be rescued is a young Mick Rory, who silently watches his house engulf in flames, only to be saved by Ray, who arrives just in time to prevent the young pyromaniac from being shot. Next to be saved, was the young Sara Lance, who well… was saved by herself (with the help of Mick).
Once Sara and Mick were rescued successfully, Gideon loses track of The Pilgrim, thus putting the rest of the team in danger, as she can now kill any of them without them trying to stop her. She decides to go after Ray, which starts to show visibly when Ray has internal bleeding whilst in the middle of a conversation with Kendra. Once again, there’s more drama revolving the two love birds. A constant ‘will they/won’t they’ scenario has been happening quite often, and truthfully, I can’t wait until the show just puts this behind them.
Rip manages to save the young Ray Palmer just in time, and while Ray is presumably about to die, Kendra accepts his engagement, as she feared losing him. Realising that this might not be what she really wants, Kendra confides in Sara, but the two soon attempt to save young Leonard, as Rip decides to abduct the rest of teams’ infant selves. While attempting to kidnap baby Snart, the two ogle at how cute Leonard actually was as a baby, which was a fun addition to the episode.
While attempting to abduct baby Jefferson, Stein comes across Jefferson’s father, before he was killed in battle. Lovingly, Martin takes Jefferson to see his father, in order to have some kind of closure. Jefferson becomes emotional over being unable to warn his father about his impending death and we see the Martin trying to comfort him. Throughout the entire series, we’ve never actually seen the two bond so emotionally, and this was a good way to show us that Martin actually deeply cares for Jefferson, and isn’t just using him so that he can be a superhero.
Once all the infants have been successfully abducted, Rip takes them to his adoptive mother, who agrees to take care of them. The Pilgrim decides to kidnap Jefferson’s father and threatens to kill him, unless Rip gives up the rest of the team. Rip decides to give up his younger self instead in exchange for the team’s life. The Pilgrim agrees, not realizing this is a trap, as the team start to attack. But because it’s The Pilgrim, she manages to freeze their attacks and weapons before they could succeed.
Failing to realize that the younger Rip Hunter was still around, The Pilgrim is so focused on stopping the team that she’s caught off guard with young Rip stabs her. Using this distraction to their advantage, the team manage to destroy The Pilgrim and save Jefferson’s father.
Jefferson gathers up the courage to talk to his father and tell him who he really is, and warn him about his upcoming duties. The two share an emotional moment, and Jefferson embraces him in a tight hug. I’m not going to lie, that did really make me tear up. Nothing gets me more than when a kid finally gets to have that moment with their father.
Meanwhile, Mick gives his younger self a pep talk and tells him to be a better man. With Mick back on the team, I can only hope that the writers are going to make him a better person (you know, in general) because I do enjoy seeing him alongside Leonard. Remember that bar scene in one of the first episodes with Sara? I’d also really enjoy the three of them fighting together again.
“Last Refuge” was directed by Rachel Talalay, who has worked on TV shows like Doctor Who, Sherlock and even The Flash! Legends of Tomorrow definitely has a lot of potential, and they’re slowly becoming better – but with directors like Talalay, they could exceed expectations. I do hope she works on future episodes.
