The Legends’ next mission? Save Rock ‘n’ Roll!
It was bound to come to this. With the Legends rolling through history, fixing anachronisms and bumping into the most famous people of all time, they’d have to touch on the world of music sooner or later. And what better place to land then Memphis in 1954.
Yes, the team is here to stop a change to the timeline that leads to the city being abandoned after a bout of mass hysteria. And at the center of it all, none other than Elvis Presley. With his first studio session ending in disaster rather than revolution, rock music never takes off, altering history. Nate leads the charge to course-correct.
Our heroes arrive at the church where Elvis’ uncle is pastor. But when he goes up to perform a gospel hymn, both Zari’s totem and Elvis’ guitar start glowing. Yep, the King of Rock is a totem-bearer. So the team needs to steal the guitar and get the totem….which Wally does in about two seconds. The benefits of a speedster, though the rest of team starts to get annoyed at how he acts first and asks questions later.
While Gideon replicates a replacement guitar for the gang to give to Elvis, it doesn’t have the right feel and he can’t play it. Elvis adds that when he plays with his guitar, he used to feel the presence of his dead twin brother, Jesse. But with the copy, no such feeling. It turns out that feeling is real though, as the guitar aboard the Waverider is possessed by Jesse’s ghost. That totem is none other than the Death Totem, the most volatile of them all.
Despite the danger, Nate convinces the team to let him return the possessed guitar to Elvis, so he could record his first single at Sun Studios and change the world. The recording goes smooth, but Elvis’ preacher uncle catches him and refuses to let him play “the devil’s music.” Elvis, Nate and Amaya spend the night in the slammer.
But Zari’s training of Wally on how to navigate history starts to pay off. The duo visits Elvis’ uncle, and Wally uses his own struggles to connect with his father to convince the preacher to give the record back. Wally runs it over to the radio station and Elvis’ single makes it on air, fixing the anachronism. Oh, except that the totem causes ghosts of the deceased to appear.
Elvis realizes that his guitar is behind it and convinces his uncle that he can lay the ghosts back down to rest through music. In a wonderful sequence, Elvis plays “Amazing Grace” at his church, soothing the spirits back to sleep. In a particularly touching moment, he also says goodbye to Jesse, knowing that it won’t be for forever. Luke Bilyk does some excellent acting in this episode as the King of Rock, taking on the icon’s rebellious streak as well as his religious upbringing.
With history repaired, the Legends take off with the Death Totem on-hand, giving them four out of the six. But unlike the others, it looks like this one will be harder to contain. The episode ends with the totem trying to escape from the lockbox Ray designed for it. This totem has a mind of its own.
Show Notes:
- Zari first spots the anachronism when her copy of Guitar Hero turns into Trombone Hero. Plus, Mick’s pet rat is renamed from Axl to Josh Groban.
- At one point, Ray says, “You know what never hurt anyone? A nice showtune.” Clearly, Ray hasn’t seen Sweeney Todd!
- When they’re being arrested, Elvis’ uncle says to Nate, “Get behind me Satan!” Nate’s response? “White Stripes, great album.”
- So Mick has a whole subplot about his pet rat dying. Like, Ray holds a funeral for the rat. Uhhh, we need to give Mick more to do on this show. Cause this isn’t cutting it.