Legends of Tomorrow, “Progeny” recap

11 Apr

Welcome back! A lot of things came together last episode, and not just Ray and Kendra. The big reveal was that Chronos was the believed dead Heatwave, which explains that obsessive need of the time traveling bounty hunter to kill his former teammates! But now that he’s been locked up on the Waverider, can they reform this maniac made worse by the Time Masters? And what about the team planning to head into 2147 to stop Vandal Savage’s takeover of Earth?

2147. Rip goes to visit ol’ Mick in his prison cell, to apologize (rather halfheartedly) about deciding to ditch him, and oh, can he supply any info on 2147. Mick is not really interested in apologies or helping his ex-teammates right now, so that’s a “no”. Rip informs the team as to what 2147 is all about: the world is run by conglomerates now, and the Kasnia Conglomerate is where Vandal Savage is working behind the scenes. In a few years, a lethal virus known as the Armageddon Virus will be unleashed by a man known as Per Degaton, and the ensuing virus will secure Savage’s takeover plans of Earth. The landing party of Rip and the teammates that aren’t Mick Rory get into 2147 era clothes and see the world has really changed. Among the surprises is law and order is maintained by an army of robots that look like Ray’s ATOM armor! So Ray does leave a legacy behind, after all…

Board Meeting. Rip manages to sneak into a Kasnia Conglomerate board meeting to get eyes on Degaton. He does overhear a suggestion by a stockholder who is Vandal Savage to deal with population control, which is politely declined. Rip follows Savage after the meeting, and Savage runs into this tween who seems to be a pupil of Savage. Oh, and this kid’s name? Per Degaton!

The team reunites in the Waverider and Rip tells them about Per Degaton not being quite past puberty yet, which poses a problem. You see, Rip wanted to stop Degaton before he could release the virus, and the only big option that would solve that is killing the kid! A good amount of the team (not Snart, by the way) is opposed to murdering a kid, future despot or no, so kidnapping him seems to be on the table. Of course, they still have to distract the army of ATOM-bots, so the team has to split up.

If Rip is having issues with child killing, may I recommend he contact Captain Jack Harkness. He knows some things about the subject (Torchwood joke and spoiler!)

Relative(s). Ray, Stein, and Jax try to learn more about the ATOM bots from the source: the ATOM bot supervisor, Dr. Rachel Brice. Ray learns a lot at the base, which has its own museum, like Rachel is his great-great-great-great granddaughter! So he had a kid before he left 2016, but even he’s not sure when, or who’s the mother! This might be an interesting talk to have with Kendra.

Well, it would be a talk, if it wasn’t for Kendra having some flashes of her past, back when she was Mrs. Boardman to Carter/Hawkman’s Mr. Boardman. They are busy raising their son, and both are starting to worry about Savage coming for them, and decide to tell their son the truth about what they are. It’s actually quite touching, and is a concern between both Ray and Kendra, as her “love through the ages” is dead. Relationships with immortal spirits are tough to wade through.

Change or Die. While Team Stop Robot Army is occupied, Team Kidnapping is stalking Per Degaton and his security detail. They disable the security detail and nab Degaton, which goes a lot better than expected. Gideon however has to give Rip and company the bad news that Degaton being kidnapped doesn’t even affect the timeline. I suppose “kid killing” is back on the table.

Sara ends up seeing Mick, who yes is still angry at his partner, and seems unfazed by hearing from her how Snart values their friendship. She ends up suggesting to Snart that maybe him confronting Mick might help diffuse some of that tension. Before we can get to that particular confrontation, Gideon reports the jump ship has taken off. And on board? Rip and the imprisoned Per Degaton!

Never play “guess what he’s thinking” with a guy who shares his mind, Sara.

The Children. Rip has taken Degaton quite a distance away, and leads him out to a field where he thinks on his family, endangered by what Degaton will unleash in the future. He actually plans on killing Degaton, but the boy senses Rip doesn’t have it in him to pull the trigger. And Rip thinks he’s right, because he has some decency left in him, and the belief that maybe there’s still some left in Degaton. Boy, how wrong Rip is about the latter…

Meanwhile, Savage is talking to Degaton’s dad about finding the boy’s kidnappers. It helps Savage has had 150 years to prepare to find time traveling heroes bent on stopping him. It’s not long afterwards that Savage’s men find the cloaked Waverider and start attacking it. So everyone on board goes outside to fight Savage and yes, those ATOM bots!

No Relation. ATOM and Kendra head off back to the ATOM bot base, and try to disable the bots. Rachel is there wanting to know why they’re trying to stop the bots, and Ray reveals his identity to her, saying this is not how his tech was meant to be used. She’s confused, because Ray ISN’T her great-great-etc. grandfather, but a Sidney Palmer is. Yeah, Ray has a brother, and apparently took Ray’s technology for military profit. So, good news is he’s not a deadbeat dad, but bad news is his brother made a profit off of his work. Yay?

During that big fight with Savage and our heroes, Savage takes Sara hostage. But Rip arrives with Degaton, and offers a trade with each other’s prisoners. Degaton would rather see his captors dead instead, but his dad agrees, and they make their trade with little incident. Well, maybe this whole experience will rub off on Degaton for the best, huh?

“What? Don’t I seem like a trustworthy teacher of kids?”

Change For The Worst. The Waverider is off as Rip gets news of what has now happened to the timeline. Degaton gets coerced by Savage into killing his father about four-odd years earlier than before, and in essence, made the future worse. So the moral here is, kill baby Hitler when you have the chance. I may have read that wrong.

Meanwhile, Leonard heads to Mick’s cell and makes him an offer: they fight out their issues, and if Mick wins, he can escape the Waverider. They get into a brutal fight in the cell, and even with Mick seeming the victor, he calms down enough to realize killing Leonard won’t mean a thing. Why, you ask? Well he tells the team exactly why: now that it seems Chronos has failed in stopping Rip’s team, the Time Masters will move on to their next step. That step being a group of cyborgs called The Hunters, whose mission it is to wipe their targets completely from the timeline!

So now, the team has to stop Savage AND keep themselves from being erased from existence! Great!

–Comic book connections: Ray Palmer doesn’t have a brother in the DCU named Sidney.

–Gideon monitors the team’s dreams, which, way to find that out this late. Also, Sara has nurse fantasies!

–I guess Ray and Kendra are going to try to work past this whole “fated love” thing with another guy detail.

–That whole Ray being a dad subplot seemed weird since the closest relationship he had after his wife’s death was with Felicity, and clearly she’s not expecting, so how would he think he had a kid? It’s just odd, is all.

–“Wait, the bust in the lobby is of my stupid brother?”

–“150 years in the future and people still wear wool?”

–“What a strange age for dating.”

–“No crime, no smog. When can we leave?”

–“Ok. Team Kidnapping.”

That’s it for now, but comment below and come back next for the recap of “The Magnificent Eight”…