Friday, April 29, 2016

The Geekcap: Legends of Tomorrow "Leviathan"

 The Waverider arrives in London 2166 in the middle of Vandal Savage’s attacks. Since they are unable to track Savage throughout history, they are forced to attack Savage near the height of his power which is also three days before the death of Rip’s wife and son. With not enough time to come up with a plan, Rip immediately splits the group with him, Sara, Snart, and Rory infiltrating Savage’s army to have a chance at the dictator in the open and hopefully searching for resistance fighters. While they hide among the ranks of Savage’s forces in the middle of Savage giving a speech, Kendra notices Savage’s right-hand woman wearing the same bracelet from her first death. To attempt an attack, Snart shoves Rip in the open, distracting the guards long enough for Sara, Rory, and Snart to attack. Kendra tells Sara to take the bracelet from the woman, but she’s unable to fight off the woman and steal the jewelry. Snart nearly blasts her but quickly escapes.

Rip: I’ll require the services of…
Rory: Killer Klepto and Pyro!

The group reconfigure at the Waverider, though Rip is still upset about Snart nearly outing him to the soldiers. Kendra then informs the team about the bracelet. She believes it to be the same one from her first life, which means they could use it to kill Savage. However, neither she nor expert-assassin Sara can think of a way to kill the dictator with a bracelet. With this new plan, Rip sends Snart and Rory to steal the bracelet while he, Ray, Stein, and Jax search for resistance refugees.

The four come across some resistance forces who, although originally hostile to strangers, take them into their base. With the destruction of a nearby base, they’ve taken in the last refugees of London where everyone is living in poverty. Ray inquiries about Rip’s family since he knows that they are days away from their deaths. Rip informs him that he had previously attempted to save his family after traveling to ancient Egypt, but every time he tried, his family died regardless. Time seems to want them to die. The resistance leader finally confronts Rip since she does not recognize Rip’s name on the register nor anyone else he traveled with here. He instead says he’s only here to kill Savage, but the assassination attempt forced him into hiding. The leader warns him against fighting and then shows him the destruction of the last resistance base which was reduced to rubble and craters.

From this finding, Ray and Stein plan to examine exactly what superweapon was used to destroy the resistance base. Meanwhile, despite going over them several times, Kendra decides to go through her professor son’s old research to find a way to kill Savage. When Sara takes out the research, Kendra spots Carter’s old suit and weapon, his mace. As soon as she touches it, she witnesses a flashback to Iowa City in 1941. She had come to visit him for their anniversary since they’ve only been married in eight of their lifetimes. As a gift, he gives her his mace. She replies that it’s his weapon, but he persists that they rarely are given the luxury of dying together. She must learn to fight Savage, even if it means living without him. From that vision, Kendra believes she knows how to defeat Savage.

Rory and Snart sneaks inside Savage’s base to confront the woman as she trainse fellow soldiers to fight resistance forces. Although she puts up a fight, they manage to kidnap the woman and take her aboard the Waverider. Once they hold her captive, however, she reveals that she is not only Savage’s lieutenant but also his daughter Cassandra. With this information, the team debates on how to handle her. While Snart suggests sending her back to Savage piece by piece as a threat, Sara instead suggests pumping her for information since she is aware of all of the security provisions. Snart then goes to speak with her, first by leading in with a story on his own rotten father. Cassandra, however, remains loyal to her father since she believes him to be the right force in the world following Per Degaton's Armageddon virus. While she expects to be tortured, Snart says he has another idea.

Rory begins melting the bracelet around Carter’s old mace for Kendra to use as a weapon. While she now has a weapon to use against Savage, Rory warns her that she must have the conviction to finish the kill. Meanwhile, Ray and Stein discover the true cause of the resistance destruction. It was not an explosion so much as a giant footprint. The footprint actually belongs to a giant robot under the command of Savage known as Leviathan who is now sent to destroy the rebel base.

Rip prepares to take off on the Waverider, but Stein insists on saving the refugees by taking them aboard the shift. As they prepare to escape, they are then caught by the robot and tossed aside to the ground. The ship is now damaged with no hope of instant travel. Rip says they could still use the escape pods to leave, but Stein wants to protect the people. Unfortunately, he succumbs to a piece of shrapnel in his gut. Gideon manages to keep him sedated to heal, though he manages to ask Jax to protect the people.

Snart: I was wrong, your dad’s a gem!

In this chaos, Snart releases Cassandra to have her witness the people she fought for her father: mothers, children, and people who can just barely survive. She refuses to believe that refugees are innocent, so Snart shows her footage from their last trip to the future where Savage reveals his plot to release the virus. Meanwhile, Rip despairs over his inability to repair the Waverider before the next attack, just like his inability to save his wife and child. Ray then encourages him not to believe in faith but in his own choices and reveals his own plan to stop the robot. Before he enacts his plan, he gives Kendra a send-off as the two kiss.

Using Jax’s help, Ray reverses the polarity of his ATOM suit to instead allow him to grow to giant size. With the playing field even, Ray runs and faces Leviathan. As Ray fights the robot, Cassandra returns to Savage, only to have him notice that her bracelet is missing. He immediately recognizes that she has turned against him, and the rest of the team arrives to face him. Savage orders his guards to even the odds, but Kendra arrives to fight him one-on-one.

The fights continue with Ray holding his own against the machine until he is knocked out. Kendra finds her weapon working perfectly until she is attacked by another soldier. She knocks him aside and hits his helmet off, only to find the soldier to be 2166 Carter. Savage reveals that he found the reincarnated Carter and had him brainwashed to follow his orders. Without Savage alive, Carter can never regain his old memories. Out in the field, Jax manages to reach Ray out of unconsciousness for him to finish the robot and save the Waverider.

Rip arrives to Kendra and tells her to kill Savage. However, she’s unable to sacrifice Carter for Rip. Rip nevertheless knocks Savage unconscious and helps Kendra bring both Savage and Carter back to the ship. After the fight, Snart escorts Cassandra to the resistance base. While the resistance leader is rightfully distrustful of the woman, Cassandra offers her knowledge of the soldiers’ strategy and plans to fight for the rebels. Kendra also plans to have another talk with Ray following Carter’s reappearance.

The events concluded, Stein reawakens for Rip to inform him on the survival of the refugees. Rip then faces Savage. Although he is captured, Savage recognizes that he still has the upper hand. Rip, however, fires back that they will find a way to save Carter and his family.

Notes of Tomorrow

  • Vandal Savage actually has two daughters in his comic-book history. One includes his recognized daughter the villainess/antiheroine Scandal Savage whom he trained from birth in combat. The other is Kassandra Sage, a who works for the FBI. Cassandra, with her skill in combat and eventually betrayal of her father, might be a combination of the two.
  • The robot Leviathan is actually not from the comics, but the ATOM symbol on its chest suggests that it was made from Ray's technology.
  • This marks the first time that Hawkgirl wields her infamous mace.

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