Still in 1942, the Legends are patting themselves on the back after a successful mission, but before they can manage to get back to the Waverider, their time traveling ship, they get stopped by the greatest heroes of the Golden Age – the Justice Society of America!
The team’s new mission was kicked off by a visit from Rex Tyler, the JSA’s Hourman, who warned them to avoid coming to 1942, which the Legends clearly ignored. But they’re in a period of time before Tyler went to the future, as Hourman has no idea who these strange people are.
Other than Hourman, the Justice Society here is made up of Commander Steel, Vixen (though not the one who appeared on Arrow last year), Doctor Midnight, Obsidian and Stargirl. Not the most iconic JSA lineup. The team kicks the Legends out of 1942 when President Roosevelt calls the JSA on a mission to defeat the Nazis in Paris. Of course, the Legends ignore the JSA’s directive when new member Nate Heywood realizes his grandfather, Commander Steel now dies in the coming battle.
The heart of the episode deals with the battle with the Nazis and the resultant fallout, as the two teams combined fall to the Nazis and Baron Krieger, who injects himself with a super-soldier serum (Ray: “That’s kind of on the nose, isn’t it?”) to become a raging beast and leads to Ray and Vixen getting captured. Krieger received the serum from the Reverse Flash, who is working towards chaos in the timestream.
Ray convinces Krieger to allow the captured heroes to live while Ray tries to replicate the serum, which buys them some time to get safe after Hourman calls in an airstrike from the US military. The team rescues Ray and Vixen while the airstrike takes out Krieger. But it also hits Steel and his grandson.
Nate Heywood, historian, is also a hemophiliac, so having a bomb dropped in his vicinity probably isn’t the best way to spend a day. Heywood was just getting his grandfather to accept him and talk to him when the airstrike hits the motorcycle they were using to escape. Thankfully, Ray stole some of the super soldier serum from the Nazis and uses it to cure his new teammate. Of course, Nate will have to deal with the consequences of that decision, as every action has an equal reaction.
So, the Legends return the JSA to their headquarters and as Hourman puts away the amulet they kept away from Hitler’s forces, the Reverse Flash messes with the timeline himself to shove his superspeed hand through Tyler’s chest. Thawne tells Rex they’ve battled many times, but it hasn’t happened for Hourman yet and now it looks like it never will.
The second episode of Legends of Tomorrow’s second season – really the second part of the season premiere – keeps up the fun from the first episode. But the first season had moments of brilliance before running off the rails, too. At the very least, they don’t seem to be as hesitant to use the team’s powers when needed, instead of coming up with contrived reasons to keep the special-effects-heavy members on the sidelines. Although, Firestorm again doesn’t get as involved as he should, because Professor Stein is coordinating the attack with Hourman. But overall, I’d say this episode was one of the better ones from the show’s run.
Next week, the show heads to feudal Japan and the Legends become Samurais and the consequences of Nate being injected with the serum are revealed.