Amazing Grace

"Music is so much more than just song. Music's about identity. It's hearing a track for the first time and you think to yourself, 'Wow, this is who I am'. And I don't care how long it takes, we're gonna find your music, whether it be rock and roll or, God forbid, Ska."

—Nate Heywood to Amaya Jiwe

"Amazing Grace"
Information
Season 3 » Episode 14
Episode number	47 of 110
Original airdate	March 12, 2018
Written by	Matthew Maala Tyron B. Carter
Directed by	David A. Geddes
Chronology
Preceded by	"No Country for Old Dads"
Followed by	"Necromancing the Stone"

"Amazing Grace" is the fourteenth episode of the third season of DC's Legends of Tomorrow, and the forty-seventh episode overall. It aired on March 12, 2018.

Synopsis

When the Legends learn that a mysterious tragedy destroyed Memphis in 1954, thus eradicating the birthplace of rock and roll, they embark on their most important mission – to save music. Nate is excited to show Amaya why music is important to him and he is surprised it leads to a rock legend as well as the sixth and final totem, the Death Totem. Meanwhile, Zari helps their newest member try to adjust to the team.[src]

Cast

Starring

• Brandon Routh as Dr. Ray Palmer
• Caity Lotz as Captain Sara Lance
• Maisie Richardson-Sellers as Amaya Jiwe
• Amy Louise Pemberton as Gideon (voice)
• Tala Ashe as Zari Tomaz
• Keiynan Lonsdale as Wally West
• Nick Zano as Dr. Nate Heywood
• Dominic Purcell as Mick Rory/Heat Wave

Guest starring

• Luke Bilyk as Elvis Presley and Jesse Presley
• Geoffrey Blake as Lucious Presley

Co-starring

• Kelly Ann Woods as Elvis Presley's mother
• Joel Montgrand as Sheriff
• Donny Lucas as Shopkeeper
• David Quinlan as Producer
• Lisa Paxton as Old Lady
• Wes Mackey as Blues Singer
• Shauna Sedola as Church Coir #1
• Kharytia Bilash as Church Coir #2
• Teresa Riley as Church Coir #3

Plot

In 1950's Memphis, a young man enters a music shop hoping to buy his first guitar. The man chooses a guitar that is supposedly cursed. The person working at the shop gives the young man the guitar and while leaving the shop, the young man tells the person working at the shop that they will hear his name on the radio one day and his name is Elvis Presley.

On the Waverider, Zari is giving Wally a tour of the hip and introduces him to the chore wheel. Zari goes to play Ms. Pac-Man and notices that Wally has beaten her high score, so she goes to check if he beat her high score on Guitar Hero. When Zari finds Guitar Hero she notices that it has been changed to Trombone Hero. Meanwhile, Mick is trying to find his pet rat Axl and once he eventually finds Axl, he notices that Axl's name has changed to Josh Groban. On the bridge, Gideon reveals that there was a change in Memphis, Tennessee in 1954. The city became a ghost town after a mysterious bout of mass hysteria meaning rock and roll never hit the mainstream. The Legends believe that the Darhks are behind the timeline change, so they set out to stop them.

The Legends attend a church service run by Elvis' uncle where Elvis plays a song with his new guitar. While Elvis is playing his guitar, Zari's totem starts reacting to something. Afterward, Zari reveals to the team that when her totem was glowing, so was Elvis' guitar meaning that Elvis is the bearer of the long lost sixth totem.

While the Legends are discussing what the sixth totem could be, Wally tells and shows the team that he now has Elvis' guitar. Before the team leaves, Nate reminds the team that Elvis hasn't recorded his first single yet and without his guitar, he may never record it. To fix this, Nate and Amaya use Gideon to create another guitar for Elvis.

Nate and Amaya deliver the guitar to Elvis. That night, Elvis preforms but does horrible. Nate and Amaya ask him what happened and he tells them that his guitar wasn't working how it's supposed to. He says that they probably think he is crazy, but when he played guitar, he connected to his twin brother who had passed away and Jesse wasn't with him when he played that night.

On the Waverider, Sara and Ray are inspecting the guitar when Ray detects paranormal energy and the guitar starts floating. Sara and Ray attempt to convince the ghost to give them back the guitar, yet the ghost continues carrying the instrument throughout the Waverider. Sara tells Nate and Amaya about the guitar and they let her know that they already know and the ghost is Elvis' twin brother Jesse. Once Sara addresses the ghost by name, it stops moving.

Sara tells the Legends that Constantine compared what she told him about the totem with his notes and discovered that the totem is the Death totem. Despite the team telling Nate that they need to keep the totem, he is able to convince them to give Elvis his guitar back so he can cut his first demo and be discovered.

Elvis' recording session is a hit and is told he is going to be on the radio when his uncle enters the studio. He is disturbed that Elvis is playing the "devil's music", takes the record, and has a sheriff arrest Elvis, Nate, and Amaya.

Nate contacts the Waverider and fills Zari and Wally in on what happened. He tells them that he needs them to take the record from Elvis' uncle and bring it to the radio station so it can play on the radio that night. Wally tells Zari that he could use his speed to grab the record, but Zari says he can't do that because history is different than a Central City bank robbery and they have to be careful.

Zari and Wally go to Elvis' uncle's church. Using his own experience with his father, Wally is able to convince Elvis' uncle to give him the record. Wally then uses his speed to take it to the radio station before it closes down. Once Elvis's song is on the radio, his uncle and everyone else at the church star to dance.

At the cemetery outside of the church, ghosts start to appear. After they notice the ghosts, Zari and Wally start to fight them. Meanwhile, due to the town being overrun by ghosts, Nate, Amaya, and Elvis are able to get out of prison. The three of them head to the church and Nate and Amaya are able to convince Elvis that he has the ability to send the ghosts back to the cemetery outside of the church.

Elvis starts to sing "Amazing Grace". All throughout the tune, the ghosts begin to vanish, returning to the cemetery they originated from. The last ghost to vanish is Elvis' sibling Jesse.

Nate and Elvis meet back at the recording studio. Elvis thanks Nate for his assistance and hands over the Death Totem. Elvis then goes into the recording stall to record more songs.

The Legends rendezvous back on the Waverider and start celebrating the fact that they beat the Darhks to the Death Totem. Ray tells the team that he has made lock boxes for each one of the totems and places the Death Totem in one of the boxes.

Gallery

Videos

DC's Legends of Tomorrow 3x14 Promo "Amazing Grace" (HD) Season 3 Episode 14 Promo

DC's Legends of Tomorrow 3x14 Sneak Peek "Amazing Grace" (HD) Season 3 Episode 14 Sneak Peek

DC's Legends of Tomorrow 3x14 Sneak Peek 2 "Amazing Grace" (HD) Season 3 Episode 14 Sneak Peek 2

Trivia

• The title of the episode is a nod to the hymn of the same name, which Elvis Presley sings to put the dead to rest. In real life, Elvis recorded a version of the song in 1972 for his gospel album He Touched Me.
• Zari goes to play the video game Ms. Pac-Man, only to find that Wally had beaten her high score multiple times.
• Zari goes to play the video game Guitar Hero, only to discover that it's become Trombone Hero.
• Nate tells everyone to "shake, rattle, and roll" while they go to replace Elvis' guitar, referencing Elvis' recording of the same name, which was previously recorded by "Big Joe" Turner and Bill Haley & His Comets.
  • This is the second time a DC's Legends of Tomorrow episode has referenced a song associated with Haley, after "(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock" was heard in "Night of the Hawk".
• Amaya mentions the time that she and Nate watched all of the episodes of the television series Friends in a week.
• Lucious Presley tells Elvis to "get behind me, Satan", to which Nate exclaims that it was a great White Stripes album, referencing their 2005 album of the same name.
  • However, it's implied that Lucious is referring to something Jesus said to Peter in Matthew 16, after Jesus told his followers about how he would die and be resurrected.
• At Axl's funeral, Ray quotes Charles Dickens from his novel Great Expectations.
  • Ray says his first time meeting Axl was in the vents of the Waverider during the events of "Turncoat" and then subsequently giving him to Mick as a present.
  • At the funeral, Ray goes to sing the Guns N' Roses song "Sweet Child O' Mine", originally sung by Axl's namesake Axl Rose, before he is interrupted.
• Sara says, "consider me All Shook Up", which is the name of another Elvis song.
• When Zari and Wally are talking to Elvis's uncle, Wally refers to when he first appeared on The Flash at the end of "Running to Stand Still" and his relationship with his father, then leaving Team Flash in "Luck Be a Lady".
• When Elvis sings "Onward, Christian Soldiers" Amaya says, "this is Rock and Roll. It's no Benny Goodman." Benny Goodman was a big band leader in the 1930s and 40s.
• The song Elvis records for Sun Records in this episode does not resemble "That's All Right (Mama)", the song he launched his career with in real life. This episode also shows him recording the song with a full band when in real life, it was just him, a guitar player, and a bass player.
• When Zari is introducing Wally to the chore wheel, she says, "Bet you thought time travel would be seeing Woodstock, saving Shakespeare, and having ethical debates while standing over baby Hitler". Two of those events would end up happening in future episodes of the series:
  • The Legends visit Woodstock in "The Virgin Gary".
  • The Legends save Shakespeare's career in "Romeo V. Juliet: Dawn of Justness".
• A plot point involves Elvis letting the spirit of his late twin brother, Jesse, move on. In reality, Elvis Presley always told people that his identical twin brother Jesse, who died at birth, was with him throughout his life.
• The urban legend that Robert Johnson sold his soul in exchange for his skills as a guitar player is part of the mythology of his song "Cross Road Blues". As arranged by Eric Clapton, the version by Cream on their album "Wheels of Fire", re-titled "Crossroads", is arguably the most well-known cover version of the song.
• At the end of the episode, Elvis says to Jesse, "Thank you... thank you very much.", echoing his famous catchphrase.

Goofs

• The Death Totem's appearance in 1954 Memphis, causing the city to become a ghost town and preventing the rise of rock and roll, is implied to be an anachronism. This event didn't show up on the Legends' anachronism map, leading the team to assume the reason was because of Damien and Nora Darhk causing trouble in that time period. However, when the Legends go to investigate the anachronism, they don't encounter the Darhks at all. Thus, it is unclear how the Death Totem ended up in 1954 Memphis in the first place.
• While in jail, Elvis is working on a song that is supposed to be the future "Jailhouse Rock". However, the song was in reality written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller for a film several years after the events of the movie. Elvis did have a handful of songwriting credits, but they were mostly his name added to other people's work, with only a couple of songs known to have been fully written by him.
• The style of song performed by Elvis in the studio more closely matches his style of music from the 1960s films, not his early rockabilly style of the mid-1950s.
• During the dance in the church, some couples are seen doing The Twist. However, that dance hadn't been invented yet in 1954, having been inspired by a song of the same name, which was originally recorded in late 1958 and was subsequently released in early 1959.