Meet the Legends

For the eponymous in-universe film, see Meet the Legends (documentary).

"So you're shooting a documentary about the Legends?"

—Sara Lance questioning the documentary about the Legends

"Meet the Legends"
Information
Season 5 » Episode 1
Episode number	69 of 110
Original airdate	January 21, 2020
Written by	Grainne Godfree James Eagan
Directed by	Kevin Mock
Chronology
Preceded by	"Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part Five"
Followed by	"Miss Me, Kiss Me, Love Me"

"Meet the Legends" is the first episode of the fifth season of DC's Legends of Tomorrow, and the sixty-ninth episode overall. It aired on January 21, 2020.

Synopsis

Sara, Ray, and Mick are shocked to discover that the Legends have become famous. It seems that everyone except Sara is loving the spotlight, so much so that they invite a documentary crew on board the Waverider to film them as they investigate a strange new blip in the Timeline. The Legends discover that their new problem is none other than Rasputin, who happens to be straight out of Hell, and it might be tougher than they thought. Meanwhile, Constantine thinks he knows the reason behind these new blips and informs the team that it won’t be easy to defeat.[src]

Cast

Starring

• Brandon Routh as Dr. Ray Palmer/The Atom
• Caity Lotz as Captain Sara Lance
• Maisie Richardson-Sellers as Charlie
• Tala Ashe as Zari Tomaz
• Jes Macallan as Ava Sharpe
• Courtney Ford as Nora Darhk/Fairy Godmother
• Amy Louise Pemberton as Gideon (voice)
• Nick Zano as Dr. Nate Heywood
• Dominic Purcell as Mick Rory/Heat Wave

Special appearance by

• Matt Ryan as John Constantine

Special guest star

• Ramona Young as Mona Wu

Guest starring

• Adam Tsekhman as Gary Green
• Sisa Grey as Wolfie
• Shayan Sobhian as Behrad Tarazi
• Michael Eklund as Grigori Rasputin
• Adam Beauchesne as Kevin Harris
• Callum Airlie as Edgar and Masher

Co-starring

• Paul Batten as Senator Wellington
• Ryan Elm as Tsar Nicholas II
• Luisa Jojic as Tsarina Alexandra Romanova
• Clare Filipow as Nurse
• Gregory Tunner as Giant Bouncer
• Kougar Vakarian as Monk
• Harrison MacDonald as Masher (voice)

Uncredited

• Jane Carr as Tabitha (archive footage)
• Barack Obama as Obama (archive footage)

Plot

Ever since the opening of Heyworld and defeating a demon with the help of a dragon on National TV, the Legends have become a worldwide obsession. But after the Time Bureau being shut down, Ava had to fight to keep the Waverider from being impounded, and that's why Kevin Harris and his crew is here to see what the Legends do. Each Legend had an interview with the crew:

• Ava revealed that the crew are here to keep the Waverider from being impounded.
• Nate says that when someone is a superhero slash amusement park impresario, slash historian that rises from the dead, dance card tends to get pretty full.
• Behrad reveals that he is from 2044, and his birthday was yesterday.
• Charlie takes the jumpship for a joyride.
• Mona is now the agent of Rebecca Silver.
• Gary claims to be fully forgiven, and released her fairy godmother after granting him his wish to become John Constantine's apprentice.
• Ava also reveals that she haven't told Sara about the documentary yet.

As the Legends get ready to celebrate the defeat of the Anti-Monitor and the return of Sara, Ray and Mick. Ava tells the Legends to not mention Oliver Queen because he died. The Legends welcome the members of their team back who participated in Crisis on Infinite Earths and Ava explains the crew to Sara. Kevin greets Sara and tells her to pretend that the crew aren't even here. He also tells her if she wants to say something private, she should do a confessional interview. Sara, Mick and Ray then answer some questions. Sara says Ava has lost her mind. Mick answers that he steals stuff. Ray reveals the Flash, Supergirl, Batwoman and Superman also saved the Multiverse. They then travel to the temporal zone.

In the temporal zone, Ray does his confessional interview. When doing the interview, the Waverider and documentary crew feels time quake and the computer Gideon is damaged. They land in tsarist Russia 1917. The Legends and the crew go to the funeral of Grigori Rasputin, an emperor's advisor of Romanov family and notorious figure who is charlatan's fraud and he was difficult to kill him by cyanide, pistol and drowning before he finally died. Suddenly, Grigori rises from the dead, as he is also the cause of time quake and the crew discusses how to solve the situation.

Meanwhile in New York, Constantine and Gary go to the apartment to investigate an emergence of the demon possessing a young boy Edgar, whom his mother expresses severe concern for him. John discovers that the boy is possessed by Masher, the resident from Hell who took vacation from his realm and wanted some fun.

In Waverider, while repairing Gideon, Sara still copes with Oliver's death and is angry that no one told her about the documentary. When the other Legends discuss about Rasputin, they find out that he is going to kill the emperor's nephew Jusupov, who organised the assassination on him. They arrive too late, as Rasputin killed him. Nate and Ray (who is shrunken as atom) go to his manor and Nate tells Grigori about to do interview with him. While doing interview, Ava, Rory and Mona are also in manor to prepare to kill Rasputin, although Mona wrote the letter for him who believes will save the history, but Rory takes the letter from her. In the interview, Rasputin feels that Nate was once in love with someone and lost it, and offers to help him by hypnotizing him and Nate accepts the offer.

Back in New York, John asks Masher about Astra Logue's release of the souls of the worst villains in the human history from Hell. When Masher confirms it, John exorcises Masher from Edgar's body, sending him in his realm. John and Gary contact Sara and Behrad about this situation and one of them who was released from Hell is Grigori Rasputin. While Grigori hypnotizes Nate, Ava shoots him with sniper, but the bullet doesn't kill him. The soldiers attack, while Rory and Mona try to kill Rasputin. Ray rescues Nate and everyone retreats to Waverider. The Legends realize they cannot kill Rasputin because the part of his soul is in Hell. Sara is also angry that no one remembered the Crisis while she did and is the reason why she hates the documentary where the other Legends were involved.

When Nate feels that he met and was in love with the woman from another time, Behrad thinks that Gideon was damaged because of time fracture when talking to Sara. Soon, they watch the interview with Rasputin by documentary crew and Rasputin invited Romanov family for the dinner, but actually wants to kill them to become an immortal emperor.

The Legends infiltrate his manor and Romanov family is invited (minus their daughters). Rasputin tries to kill them with poisoned family cakes and Sara and Behrad prevent this. Then Grigori, with magical amulet, hypnotizes the army and Behrad, attacking Sara. Other Legends come to assist and attack. Rasputin then hypnotizes Rory, Nate and Mona (as Wolfie), while Sara, Ava and Ray try to subdue them. When Rasputin tells them about being immortal, Sara quickly throws shrunken Ray into his mouth. Ray increases to own size and kills Grigori, saving the Romanov family as well.

The Legends are invited in showing the documentary "Meet the Legends", telling the audience to enjoy the film, but they decide (to keep the time travel as secret) to tell them that it was all fake, causing the audience being angry and shocking Kevin Harris for his destroyed project. Soon after, John comes to them and informs about the release of the villain's souls from Hell. John attempts to back in Hell with Rasputin's soul by drinking his blood in order to perform a spell, one of the remains collected by Legends after defeating him to prevent his reforming. Rory decides to give Mona his alias Rebecca Silver as his successor to write the books.

After Gideon was repaired, Nate discovers the footage in her computer (from Heyworld event) and sees the anomaly in the form of Zari, who was changed into Behrad because of changing her future, but Nate still doesn't remember her name. The holographic message comes from her, telling him that she was aware what would happen to her and tells him to find her. Nate tells Gideon to replay the message, but Gideon is not aware of this anomaly.

Production

Preparation ran from July 3 until July 12, 2019, with a break on July 4 for American Independence Day. Shooting ran from July 15 to July 25, 2019.

Trivia

• This is the lowest rated episode of Season 5 with a rating of 7.4 on IMDb.
• The premise of the episode is similar to the Arrow episode "Emerald Archer" in which the documentary crew makes the documentary about the activities of superhero team; in Arrow is Emerald Archer: The Hood and the Rise of Vigilantism, while in the Legends is Meet the Legends.
• Mick gives his identity as novelist Rebecca Silver to Mona, deciding to return to thieving, which implies that Brigid's diary no longer seems to be able to help his imagination.
• It seems the Waverider cannot fabricate money (counterfeit), as the Legends are now self-funded via Mick's robbery skills.
  • Additionally, why they need it is unknown; in the first two seasons, the Legends didn't need money.
• Technically and legally, the government has no right to take the Waverider from the Legends, as it was originally Rip Hunter's and the Legends' property.
• When the Legends claim the documentary is fake, Mona adds that the visual effects are questionable. This is a fourth-wall joke referencing the low budget of the show and complaints about the visual effects by audiences since the first season.
  • The complaints about the lack of accuracy from the time traveling aspects are also a nod to audience complaints.
  • Ironically, Nate's nickname for Rasputin, "Razzmatazz", is defined as something that is overly confusing or showy.
• Nate states that something is wrong with the post-Heyworld timeline just as Tala Ashe's name appears in the opening credits.
• In one scene, Behrad suggests that he and Nate should watch How Stella Got Her Groove Back.
• Behrad tells his infant-self to "be easy and go with the flow" like Wu-Tang Clan and Bruce Lee.
• Nate's first restored memory of Zari is her stuffing her face with donuts, which is a reference to a well-known scene in "Wet Hot American Bummer". Ironically, Nick Zano was not featured in that episode.
• During different points in the episode, a bugged Gideon says different things which referenced the previous events of Zari, proving Behrad's guess that Gideon is suffering from the input of another timeline instead of (as was originally assumed) a virus.
  • She says that the "jumpship is fully totem-ed" (a reference to Zari wielding the Air Totem in the original timeline).
  • She accidentally says "Wickstable" and "Captain Cat" (a reference to the dragon named Wickstable and when Zari was turned into a cat in "Legends of To-Meow-Meow").
  • She says "it appears my Jonah Hex has Beebo love love love you" (a reference to when Zari got attracted by Jonah Hex and the Legends using the Totems to create a giant Beebo in order to stop Mallus in "The Good, The Bad and The Cuddly").
  • She tells Sara that she has "an incoming Bollywood" (a reference to when Zari performed a Bollywood number in "Séance and Sensibility").
  • She says "perhaps time loop loop release her from Marion Ravenwood" (a reference to Zari's time loop simulation in "Here I Go Again"). Additionally, the sentence also references the character Marion Ravenwood from Indiana Jones, an alias given to Zari in "Egg MacGuffin".
  • Also, this is the first time such phenomenon occurs, even though there were already several timeline shifts involving Legends (although, it can be claimed none has been as drastic).
• During the opening scene, as the director Kevin Harris talks about the events of the season four finale ("Hey, World!"), several YouTube creators are shown reacting to the footage; they are Blind Wave, Free Bicycle Tours, abnormallyadam, and Married2theReal.
  • abnormallyadam's background is blurred, as behind him are several Funko Pops belonging to various licenses.
• During the episode a news ticker states that Ryan Reynolds will star in a live action "Detective Beebo" movie, a possible reference to the 2019 film Detective Pikachu which starred Ryan Reynolds as the titular character.
• Caity Lotz has revealed that she and Jes Macallan improvised Sara kissing Ava and making her swoon.
• Ray exploding through Rasputin to defeat him could be seen as a nod to the Justice League story "Cry for Justice", in which Ray's main attack method is to shrink inside of people to cause excruciating pain. It could also be a reference to "Thanus", a popular MCU meme theorizing that the Avengers would defeat Thanos by having Ant-Man shrink into Thanos' butt and enlarge inside of him to kill him.
• Brandon Routh appears as Tsar Nicholas II in the film Anastasia: Once Upon a Time, which involved Anastasia escaping her family's deaths by time-travelling into America in the 1980s.
• The number 646-396-8703 from Constantine's business card gives a voice message from Adam Tsekhman as Gary.
• Sara compares Rasputin's attempt to kill the Romanov family with the Red Wedding, a notable event in the TV series Game of Thrones.
• Illustrator Lord Mesa has for a long time done fan art of the Arrowverse shows, with official accounts acknowledging his work. The work made cameo as the drawing of Oliver and the Lance sisters that Behrad gives Sara.
  • A slightly more extreme example is the opening montage contains clips from real-world reaction channels on YouTube, showcasing their reactions to last season's finale. In the case of Blind Wave (the creators on the top right), they were contacted in August of 2019 for permission to use their footage but were under NDA to talk about it, and additionally were not aware whether their involvement had made it into the final episode until watching it themselves.
• The magazine featuring a cover article about Ray having been possessed by Neron (Flux) is likely a reference to the real-world Time magazine.
• This is the first official episode of Legends of tomorrow that is set on Earth-Prime (Technically speaking Part 5 of the crossover special which is considered a special episode for the season was actually the first). The series was originally set on Earth-1 for 4 seasons before it was destroyed in the Crisis at the end in Part 3 of the crossover event.