Rip goes to the brig to talk to Rory where he apologizes for bringing him in under false pretenses all that time ago, meaning his real quarrel is with him, not Snart. Rory grumbles at this. The team arrives in 2147 where corporations have taken over places instead of governments and Vandal Savage is set to attend a meeting of the Kasnian Conglomerate and they can attack him before his rise to power. The future is bright and shiny, and autonomous robots that look like The ATOM patrol the skies. Rip tells them of the Kasnian Conglomerate leader, Tor Degaton, who will die in five years and be succeeded by his son, Per Degaton, who will kill most of the world with a virus. Good company Savage has surrounded himself with as per usual.
Rip manages to get inside the stockholder meeting where the topic of the world outside their walls comes up, and Savage makes the suggestion of “thinning out the herd.” Tor doesn’t go for this and adjourns the meeting. As Savage leaves, Rip follows him, and the young Per Degaton approaches Savage where we learn of their mentor/mentee relationship and the wicked seeds of doubt Savage is planting in his mind. Back on the ship, Rip explains that Per will become a Hitler-like figure that primes the world for Savage’s takeover, but the rest of the team can’t be convinced to kill a child. They reconcile to instead kidnap him and simply remove him from the timeline. As the group splinters off to their tasks, Kendra has a feeling of uneasiness. It’s not about the task at hand though, but a flashback to her and Carter in the 1920s and their need to flee from Savage.
Snart, Sara and Rip go to kidnap Per, which they accomplish by taking out his security detail. Meanwhile, Ray, Victor, and Jax go to the robot HQ disguised as visitors from Central City (now under the control of STAR Labs, naturally) where they discover that Ray has been immortalized in bronze in the lobby as the founder of the company. Ray doesn’t know how to cope with being the creator of the evil robots but also that he has a kid running around that he doesn’t know about. He runs into Kendra on the Waverider and she can tell something is up, but he doesn’t cop to it just yet. Kendra flashes back again and we see her and Carter gain their identities as Edith and Joseph Boardman, the parents that the older Aldus spoke of at the start of the series. They wonder how they can explain all of this to their son as well.
In the med bay, Sara watches Per sleep, but Gideon has troubling news, their kidnapping had minimal effects on the timeline. Sara asks why don’t they just talk to the kid instead of abandoning him in the stone age, it’s not too late to change him. To prove this point she goes to Rory and tries to tell him about how Snart actually cares for him and that he spoke very highly of him when they thought they were dying. Back in the Kasnian Conglomerate, Tor Degaton watches footage of his son’s kidnapping, astounded that three people weren’t registered in their futuristic database. Savage enters and offers to help, saying he knows all about these people. On the ship, it appears Rip has lost it, as he holds a knife near Per Degaton. He takes the blade, but cuts into the wire keeping him sedated. The team stands on the bridge when Gideon alerts them to something: Rip has taken the jump ship, and he turned off his tracker.
Flashing back one last time, Kendra remembers trying to leave with young Aldus who asks if the “bad man” has found them again. She and Carter finally tell their son everything, setting him down the path we see him on in the first episode. Ray enters the quarters he and Kendra share and she reveals the flashbacks she’s been having, and how they make her feel like she’s cheating on Carter with Ray. He reveals what’s been bugging him as well, that a little Palmer is running around in 2016. Elsewhere on the ship, Sara tells Snart to go talk to Rory. It’s a conversation he’s going to have to have eventually. Meanwhile, Rip lands the Jump Ship in a secluded area and marches Per out by the water. He tells him about his son Jonas, how he always wanted to learn how to swim but was never able to teach him. Rip aims his gun at him, but Tor knows a killer when he sees one (thanks to Savage) and he knows Rip won’t do it. Rip counters with something else, Savage will betray him, and he should become the man his father wants him to be.
Back on the ship, Tor’s forces surround them and open fire. The team eventually realizes they’re superheroes and exit the ship to engage them. Ray and Kendra fly to the robot command center to stop the ‘bots where Dr. Turner confronts them and Ray reveals himself as her great-great-great-great grandfather. Dr. Turner, in turn, asks how he could possibly be Sidney Palmer. Ray realizes he didn’t create the evil robots, it was his previously never mentioned brother Sidney. Not only that, but there’s no little Ray running around. Meanwhile, Savage takes Sara hostage and wants to trade her for Rip. Rip however appears and counters a trade, Sara for Per Degaton. Tor makes the trade and the pair pass each other, allowing the Legends to leave their time.
Snart finally goes to see Mick and they agree to have a fight to the death to settle their differences. Kendra goes to Ray and asks him not to give up on them, that Carter may have been her past but he’s her future. Back in the Kasnian Conglomerate, Per runs into Savage, who tells him the story of Oedipus Rex and that great things are never easy, before handing him a dagger. Gideon reveals that their interactions have had no halt in Savage’s rise, and have in fact speeded up the time table. The Armageddon Virus will no longer be released in five years, but mere days. We see that Per kills his father and makes Savage his proxy in running the Conglomerate. Back in the brig, Rory and Snart slug each other and the thief-turned-time traveling killer has his friend on the ground ready to end him, but stops. It doesn’t matter what he does, they’re all dead. Rory reveals to the team since he failed in his duties as Chronos, the Time Masters have hired The Hunters, a group of mercenaries, to kill them. His one piece of advice: Run.
You can watch a preview for the next episode, titled “The Magnificent Eight,” using the player below!
