Legends of Tomorrow season 1, episode 4, “White Knights,” saw the team travel to the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War.
“White Knights” is the first of a two-part story, and its stakes are significantly higher than we’ve seen so far, both on a personal level and on a team level.
On a personal level, Kendra and Sara begin developing a mutually beneficial partnership. Kendra, now physically recovered from Vandal Savage’s attack, is losing control of her powers without Carter there to help her work through her new-found identity. When her warrior blood is raised, Kendra’s wings sprout, her eyes flash red and she loses herself to violence.
Does this sound familiar? It does to Rip, who suggests Sara train Kendra to help her control her warrior side. However, this goes south when Sara’s Lazarus Pit bloodlust is raised and she nearly kills Kendra. Rip’s hope is that while Sara can help Kendra embrace her warrior side, Kendra can help Sara embrace her human side. Sara, however, is afraid that her human side no longer exists.
There’s something immensely satisfying about seeing the two main ladies pairing up to help one another. The show’s male-to-female ratio is largely skewed to the men, but putting Sara and Kendra together because they each have a grasp of what the other is missing shows women who support each other, and there’s never enough of that on television.
Meanwhile, Professor Stein and Jax struggle to maintain their partnership. Jax chafes against Stein’s constant orders to the point of being careless and getting injured. However, Stein reveals that he’s so hard on Jax because he’s afraid of losing him the way he lost Ronnie on The Flash. Not only did that nearly kill him physically, but he feels responsible for the death of a young man who had a bright future, including a new bride. It makes sense, but of course Stein doesn’t tell this to Jax because that would actually help.
Stein’s guilt for Jax putting himself in danger leads Stein to take risks when he infiltrates a Soviet science lab. He discovers that Savage is working to recreate Firestorm — something he learned about by facing the Legends in the past. Oops? Stein tries to steal the power core but is taken captive alongside Ray and Mick. The trio are taken to a gulag, and Stein is expected to help Savage’s team on their work.
The portrayal of Stein on Legends has been interesting so far; he’s already gone through some pretty big swings, from drugging Jax to dealing with the arrogance of his younger self. He realized that the things which drove him nuts about himself haven’t changed all that much now that he’s older — and those are some of the same traits that are now driving Jax insane. It makes me wonder whether he’s learned anything from his experiences so far. Being locked in a gulag will undoubtedly be an ideal opportunity, however.
On the team level, we see a burgeoning relationship between Ray and Leonard. While they aren’t friends yet, it does seem like they could end up there; they are rivals in this episode in an attempt to seduce Valentina Vostok, a Soviet scientist working for Savage. When Ray’s earnestness fails, Leonard steps in and his edginess catches Valentina’s attention. Ray and Leonard are competitive and snarky toward each other (well, Leonard is snarky and Ray is chipper), yet when Valentina captures Leonard to force Ray to turn a switch back on, Leonard is ready to sacrifice himself. Ray refuses, however, and ends up getting captured.
Also getting captured is Mick, who gives himself up to let Leonard escape. When he gets back to the Waverider, Leonard is furious and ready to shoot Rip. Leonard’s character arc has been one of the most fascinating in the Arrow-verse. He claims to care about nothing but himself and money, yet we’ve seen numerous instances of that not being true. We’ve seen his unwavering love for his sister on The Flash, he was ready to avenge Carter’s death in the Legends pilot, and now he’s worried about the others who have been captured.
Finally, in this episode Rip is confronted by his mentor from the Time Masters. He offers Rip the chance to stop his mission. If he stops, his teammates will be returned to 2016 and the timeline will eventually be corrected. However, Mick astutely realizes Rip will be double-crossed; though Rip doesn’t believe him, Mick is right. This means that the team Rip has gathered has become his only hope. While the others might have homes to go back to in 2016, Rip’s only hope is completing the mission to kill Savage before he comes to power. Though he’s been motivated to see that mission completed from the beginning, now he has no other choice.