Legends of Tomorrow season 1, episode 12, “Last Refuge,” brought the team face to face with their younger selves.
The Time Masters sent The Pilgrim, their best assassin, after the Legends; she targets several in their pasts, but after being thwarted, she instead takes the Legends’ loved ones captive. This leads to a showdown. As The most important part of the episode, though, comes from having certain members of the team face their pasts; we learned a bit more about them, where they come from and for some, where they are going.
The Pilgrim’s first target is a teenage Mick, who had just set fire to his house, killing his family. This was clearly a turning point for Mick, as we discover the younger version of him had become intrigued by flammable objects, but the fire he set quickly raged out of control. And, terrified, Mick ran out of the house without waking his family. Mick has clearly been holding onto a lot of guilt about this and covering it with bluster and pyromania.
Ray saves him before The Pilgrim can shoot him, but aboard the Waverider, he acts about as you’d expect — causing trouble and flirting with a younger Sara. Adult Mick, however, sees through the facade. He tries to reach his younger self several times without revealing who he is, but eventually he tells his younger self that the house fire wasn’t his fault — something he probably wishes someone had told him. He admits that he would like to change, though covers it with a joke. Mick also quips that there are no loved ones for The Pilgrim to kidnap.
Sara was right when she said Mick has changed since returning; his time with the Time Masters definitely affected him. And since his return, he’s had the beginnings of what looks like it could be a complex and fulfilling character arc — which is both unexpected, since he’s been the least well-defined character up until this point, and welcome.
The Pilgrim’s next target is a teenage Sara Lance, who is visiting her father at SCPD. When The Pilgrim arrives, Quentin tries to protect her but fails. Sara and Mick end up saving her and bringing her aboard the ship. Sara never tells her younger self who she is, just saying that they are related. It’s noteworthy that Sara never warns her younger self not to get on the Queen’s Gambit with Oliver Queen. This comes after Sara asks Ra’s al Ghul to make sure Nyssa will be near Lian Yu to rescue her in the future.
These actions show Sara has accepted who she’s become and wants her younger self to become that person; this is a huge development considering at the beginning of the season she was calling herself a monster. Her relationships with the people on the ship have clearly helped her for the better. We also get a sweet moment after the loved ones have been rescued; The Pilgrim took Quentin, and he declares his pride in his daughter.
While The Pilgrim also targets Ray and Snart, we see little of the ramifications on them. Rather, the other noteworthy target is Jax. His father died on deployment shortly after Jax was born, so Jax never got to meet him. When the team goes to kidnap baby Jax from the hospital, Stein engineers a conversation between Jax and his father; it’s a lovely moment as Jax gets to hear from his father how excited he is to be a father. It’s also horribly sad, since it won’t happen.
Or won’t it? Jax’s father is his loved one taken, so after he is rescued, Jax fills him in on who he is. His father is incredibly proud of the man his son has become, which is both incredible and heartbreaking for Jax. Unable to resist, Jax warns his father about the IED that is destined to kill him. Jax tells Rip about what he did, and Rip notably tells Jax that while it may not make a difference, it also might. And that could be a good thing.
This shift in Rip comes as a result of his inability to shake his past. He offers The Pilgrim his younger self — who was raised in an orphanage for future Time Masters — knowing full well his younger self won’t go quietly. (He ends up stabbing The Pilgrim.) Letting the team in on his history makes Rip (birth name Michael) vulnerable in a way he hasn’t been in front of them. While they’ve seen him at low points, he’s still been able to keep certain things to himself. But now that’s gone.
Rip’s control has been slipping progressively as the season has gone on, but perhaps that’s for the best. This mission has been as much about saving his family as it has saving the world, so letting the team in on his history seems only fair — which Snart points out, more than once. It levels the playing field a bit. So his response to Jax that perhaps time will want Jax and his father to be together seems like a sign of progress to me.
Meanwhile, we have a subplot where Ray, while he’s on his deathbed, proposes to Kendra as he’d been planning to do in the 1950s. She accepts but then quickly regrets it. Luckily, this is not an issue that lingers; Ray and Kendra have a mature conversation, putting their cards on the table, and Kendra decides she still wants to be engaged to him. As little as I am interested in Kendra and Ray’s relationship, it was nice to see them acting like reasonable adults. Communication? What a concept!
So, while the team temporarily averted their past and present deaths, they have to avoid letting the timeline where their younger selves have been kidnapped become permanent. This gives them limited time to complete the mission to defeat Savage.
Watch a promo for the next episode
