Legends of Tomorrow season 1, episode 13, “Leviathan,” featured a bit of everything, from Savage’s daughter to a giant robot.
In “Leviathan,” the team travels to London in 2166, where Vandal Savage is at the height of his power. They have limited time to kill Savage and prevent their younger selves from being removed from the time stream. The team is split through the episode, taking on various threats from Savage’s forces.
The main conflict we see is Vandal Savage has a daughter, Cassandra. (In the comics, Vandal Savage does have a daughter, but her name is Scandal. I’m guessing that’s a bit too on the nose, though.) And she is wearing the bracelet Kendra wore the night of her first death — meaning it can be used to kill Savage. Mick and Snart are clearly working their way back to their old relationship, as they fall seamlessly into a partnership to steal the bracelet. They end up bringing Cassandra aboard when she reveals she knows the Legends’ identities.
Recognizing that Cassandra is a vital source of information, Snart reaches out to her. But he’s not interested in torture. He realizes they have crappy fathers in common, and he reveals the truth of her father’s evil actions to her. Seeing video of her father being in favor of unleashing the Armageddon virus is enough to change her mind, and she helps the Legends get into Savage’s compound.
Honestly, this feels a bit rushed. I like the idea of Leonard bonding with her since he has his own awful father (who he murdered, let’s not forget) and affecting Cassandra by simply revealing the truth to her. But it seems unlikely a single video would be enough to turn a girl who has been loyal to her father all her life to change her mind.
Truthfully, the episode itself, while fun, felt a bit rushed. This might have been a better two-parter, with the team capturing Cassandra and working to turn her in the first half and confronting Savage in the second. If this is the height of Savage’s power, it would be interesting to explore exactly what that world looks like to give a greater sense of stakes than we already have. (I wrote earlier about a lack of stakes being the major issue I’m having with Legends season 1, and this episode definitely falls into that trap.)
In perhaps the most comic book-y subplot of the episode, Ray reverses his shrinking technology to become giant to fight Leviathan, Savage’s giant robot. Yep, we’ve gone full on giant robot. Legends‘ full embracing of its comic book-y-ness is my favorite part of the show, and Ray fighting a giant robot is among the best things that we’ve seen along those lines.
Finally, Kendra prepares to take on — and hopefully kill — Vandal Savage. She has Mick melt down her bracelet and covers Carter’s mace with it, making it a weapon that can harm the immortal. She confronts Savage while the other Legends fight his guards and has the upper hand when she’s attacked by a guard. She takes the guard down, but his helmet comes off to reveal Carter.
Or, the Carter of this time. Savage reveals he locked Carter’s mind away, so he has no idea who he (or Kendra) is. Furious, Kendra prepares to kill Savage, but he taunts that he’s the only one who can unlock Carter’s mind. While Rip pleads with Kendra to kill Savage to save his wife and child, Kendra can’t do it when Carter — even if it’s not her Carter — is at stake.
On the one hand, I get it; Kendra has been trying to move on from Carter — she’d barely realized her own feelings for him when he died — and just as she’s preparing to take the next step with Ray, a different Carter appears in front of her, bringing back all the old wounds from this life and previous lives. Plus, she’s never taken a life before and we’ve heard countless times that doing that changes a person — even if the life taken was an evil one. Hesitation is natural.
On the other hand, Kendra is putting the life of one man ahead of the lives of millions and potentially more. While that may, in some way, seem romantic, it also seems selfish. There must be a Kendra in this time as well, so shouldn’t this Carter should be her responsibility, not 2016 Kendra’s? Who knows when she’ll get another chance to have Savage at her mercy?
That’s not to say I didn’t expect Kendra to hesitate; it seems perfectly within her personality. But it’s definitely frustrating!
The episode closes with Rip bringing Savage on board the Waverider as a captive. Because that is going to turn out well.
Watch a promo for the next episode
