‘Legends of Tomorrow’ Recap ‘Phone Home’

Legends of Tomorrow Recap ‘Phone Home’

Now that Zari is officially a member of the team, Ray suggests that they do some team-building exercises in order to get better acquainted. He starts off with trust falls, telling Mick to fall and he will catch him. Right when Mick falls, Ray disappears. Gideon pulls up a news report and it turns out Ray was killed in 1988. The Legends are off to figure out what happened. When they land on October 30, 1988, Ray reappears and they tell him what happened. They spend the day trailing young Ray, eyes peeled for the assassin.

But the assassin has nothing to do with it. Turns out young Ray found a baby Dominator in a storm drain and adopted it. When Ray sees this, he believes that the Dominator is what killed him. He and Zari get into the house when they think that young Ray and Mrs. Palmer are out to kidnap the alien, but Ray didn’t go to school. Zari hides under the bed and Ray shrinks, but he is grabbed by the Dominator and assumed a toy by young Ray. When Mrs. Palmer finds out that Ray ditched school, she comes home and scolds Ray for his recent behavior. The Dominator, Gumball, starts to get upset, which would be really bad. Nate and Amaya swoop in to distract Mrs. Palmer. Meanwhile, Ray grabs Gumball, the toy Ray, and runs away. Zari chases after him, saying that she is here to save his life. Young Ray doesn’t believe her. Zari finally manages to gain his trust, but some agents come out of nowhere and sedate young Ray, Zari, and Gumball.

Sara is out looking for her missing team members when she runs into Mama Dominator. Sara is knocked out and wrapped up in a massive cocoon. The Dominator reads her mind, figuring out where her child is. Sara radios Nate and Amaya to protect Mrs. Palmer, but they arrive after the Dominator has already put her in a cocoon and assumed her likeness.

While all of this is going on, Mick tells Jax that he thinks Stein has been feeding information to the Time Bureau. They find that the drop ship’s logs have been wiped and evidence of a cross-time communication device. Jax shuts down the drop ship so it can’t be used and catch Stein as he’s trying to leave the Waverider. Stein says that he has to get off the ship now, but not because of the Time Bureau. Lily has gone into labor. Jax and Mick tell Stein that they will make it there in time for the child’s birth and take the Waverider. Too bad Sara really needed it.

The agents are interrogating young Ray and torturing Gumball. Ray finds Zari and they go to young Ray’s rescue before he is shot by one of the agents (our not so friendly friend from the crossover episodes last year). They are trying to free Gumball when the agents return and threaten them. Gumball gets upset and starts mind-controlling them. Ray thinks that Gumball is going to kill them, but the alien has something else in mind. He instead makes the agents perform “Good Morning” from Singing in the Rain, which he and young Ray watched together. The four escape, but know that the agents will soon be on their trail once more. They grab some bikes and ride off, Zari using her wind powers to propel them into the air, and we get the iconic shot from E.T. 

In the end, the Legends reunite baby and mama and everything ends well. Who knew the Dominators could be so cute and good? Ray’s life is saved, but there’s one thing that they do first. Gumball was supposed to be Ray’s trick-or-treating date, so instead, the Legends fill in. Ray’s bullies make fun of him for dressing up in a cardboard recreation of the Atom suit, but instantly back down when the Legends show up behind him (debuting not only Sara’s new suit, but Zari’s as well).

The final scene of the episode is Jax coming to Ray and asking him for his help in splitting up Firestorm. Jax knows that Stein loves being a member of the team, but his heart just isn’t in it anymore. He knows that Stein needs to be home with his grandson, Ronnie. We knew this was coming, and I’m just glad that the show is going to go in the direction of continuing Firestorm without Stein. I would hate to lose both him and Jax.

This was a really great episode and littered with all sorts of nerdy references. It was nice getting a Ray-centric episode that explored his childhood as that is something we have never seen before. He was quite a lonely kid and it was so heartbreaking to see him thinking that the bullies were his friends. His optimistic outlook on everything helped him to not think too much on his hardships, but is an extreme method of coping. Explains a lot about future Ray. It was also heartbreaking having Ray tell his younger self that he needs to stop believing in things that aren’t real. He has to face reality. But that’s what makes Ray who he is. He’s a geek, but he is also a great guy and a hero. Zari does a good job of helping both Ray’s see that sometimes it’s okay to make believe and just be strange.

This was Zari’s first mission as a Legend and I really like her. She’s snarky, but also really sweet. I can’t wait for her to have more one-on-one time with the other Legends. So far, I am really liking her and Ray’s friendship.

Next week’s episode is entitled ‘Return of the Mack.’

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