Catching Up: Arrow Episode 208, "Legends of Yesterday"

The introduction of Hawkman, Hawkgirl and Vandal Savage to the DCCW Universe (as well as the introduction of the upcoming LEGENDS OF TOMORROW series) continues with the second part of the ARROW/THE FLASH crossover, which began here.

The episode opens with a flashback to ancient Egypt, where we learn that meteors have been falling with regularity, striking the kingdom. Prince Khufu brings offerings to Horus, but the priestess, Shayara (I know, they're going with Chay-Ara here, but I still miss my Thanagarian Shayara), says the offerings are meager. What we learn shortly after is that Khufu and Shayara are lovers, and Vandal Savage becomes aware of this.

In present day, Kendra (Ciara Renee) is beginning to remember her past life, but is telling Carter (Falk Hentschel) that she does not. To protect them from Savage, Oliver (Stephen Amell) has arranged to hide them at a farmhouse in Central City, earning an AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON reference out of Thea (Willa Holland). Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) senses that something is up with Oliver, but he hides the fact that he has just discovered that he may have a son with Sandra Hawke (Anna Hopkins), who lives in Central City.

To help Kendra train, Carter gives her the hawk gear he has unearthed -- as they must do every reincarnation, he says. And as Oliver confronts Sandra over her son's paternity (she denies its his), he gets a call from Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman): he's arranged a meeting with Vandal Savage for Oliver and The Flash (Grant Gustin). Flash is already on his way there -- but there's some foreshadowing in that run. As Barry runs, he sees an image of himself running parallel. The only other time that has happened was when he time-travelled.

Bum-bum-BUMMM!!!!

Vandal says he's immortal, but only because he takes the life force of the hawks each time they reunite. He also claims he taught Robin of Loxley how to shoot a bow (because immortals like to lay low by hanging around with historical celebrities). His demand is that Green Arrow and The Flash hand over Kendra and Carter to him, or he will devastate Central City, and will follow it up with Star City. Merlyn also threatens Oliver to obey Savage.

Back at the farmhouse, Kendra questions whether she and Carter ever committed suicide to deny Savage his quest. She won't let anyone die for her, which is why Carter is trying to train her to get her warrior spirit to awaken. Meanwhile, John Diggle (David Ramsey), Black Canary (Katie Cassidy), and Speedy have returned with something they dug up on Savage -- a Betamax tape from a conspiracy theory group. Felicity quips about the age of the technology, and in the same breath has it playing through her computer. I need to know where I can get one of those USB-enabled Betamax players. The tape is found-footage of an interview with a Doctor Aldus Boardman (Peter Francis James) who says that Vandal Savage (aka Nostradamus, aka Macchiavelli) is an immortal who was formed during a calamity. He theorizes -- for no scientifically discernible reason -- that any object associated with the calamity could be Savage's undoing. The only thing the team knows that might fit that bill is the Staff of Horus, which is in Savage's hands, so they set about developing a way to get it from him. Cisco and Caitlin (Carlos Valdes, Danielle Panabaker) work on developing a gauntlet that will allow Flash to touch the staff, since he couldn't take it from Savage the last time they met.

While they're doing all of this, Oliver asks Barry to do a little side job for him. Oliver has obtained a hair sample from Sandra's child, William, and asks Barry to run a DNA analysis on it, compared to a sample of his own (which Barry doesn't know is Oliver's). The DNA matches, and Felicity finds out from Barry.

Oliver confronts Sandra once more, with the evidence in hand, and she relents to letting him see William, but that William can't know he's Oliver's son, nor can anyone else, because she doesn't want him sucked into Oliver's crazy world. (It's almost like she knows he's Green Arrow. Nah... not yet, anyway. Give it an episode or two.) However, Felicity does know, and she's very upset -- not that Oliver has a son, but that he couldn't trust her with the information. It's breakup city for Olicity, and with Oliver not thinking straight, he becomes all business about going after Vandal Savage.

Which is why he screws up. The gauntlet doesn't work. The team confronts Savage and Kendra can't hawk-out. Carter and Kendra are stabbed, the team loses, and Cental City is nuked to ashes by Vandal's staff, along with Team Arrow and Team Flash. No, seriously, they all die.

Ah, but remember that foreshadowing moment? As Barry runs from the edge of the blast, he breaks the time barrier, and he ends up back at the meeting with Green Arrow, Merlyn and Savage! Here we go again!

The meeting goes as it did before, and afterward Barry explains to Oliver the intricacies of time-travel. He's reluctant to change anything, because the last time he time-traveled, it didn't end well. To prove his point, he tells Oliver about how Oliver plans on him running a DNA test, and that it's related to his and Felicity's breakup being the start of where everything went wrong.

Oliver meets with Cisco who's building the gauntlets, and asks him to reach out to Kendra, because whatever Carter is doing isn't working. So the training we saw before gets interrupted and Cisco encourages her to shift her focus form the warrior to the priestess -- the nurturer. She admits to Cisco she's been remembering but doesn't want to remember, and he walks her through it. We flash back again to Egypt, and find Chay-Ara and Khufu in bed, where they are caught by Savage. Savage kills Khufu then Chay-Ara and swears a curse that his hatred will follow them through the ages as the meteors fall. When the fall, the dying Chay-Ara sees the staff and a dagger glow with a blue light.

When Kendra comes to herself, she thinks she knows how to beat Vandal Savage. It's related to the meteor, and Cisco says that the gauntlets need to incorporate this unknown "nth metal" into their design. They find some of this meteor at a museum (which The Flash steals acquires), and this time instead of just The Flash, Green Arrow and the Hawks going to meet up with Savage, Oliver takes the entire team.

The four-on-one confrontation happens again, with Vandal ready to stab Chay-Ara. Only now Kendra can hawk, and Team Arrow arrives. It's better odds, but Vandal still has the staff. But this time Barry can grab it and the gauntlets work. With both Barry and Oliver weilding the staff, Savage is blasted to a pile of ashes. He's gone. (Yeah, right.)

As the episode wraps up, Kendra and Carter discuss what to do now. They've never beaten him before, but they used to help people, Carter say, and they plan to relocate to a city where they lived in a past life. Cisco made Kendra a present from the Nth metal -- an amulet with a GPS chip in it so he can find her in an emergency. (Let her go, bro. It's fate.)

Oliver re-has his meeting with Sandra, and this time he agrees to her demands to keep his paternity a secret -- even from Felicity. But he can be part of William's life as "a friend of his mom's." When Oliver and Felicity return to Star City, she asks him again about what had him on edge in Central City, but Oliver plays it off without telling her. He's just glad to be back in Star City, and with her.

And that pile of ashes that was once Vandal Savage? They're getting swept up. But that ain't the janitor doing it!

The takeaways from this episode are:
-- Connor Hawke is now William Hawke
-- Time Travel!
-- Nth Metal!
-- Vandal Savage's backup plan