DC’s Legends of Tomorrow: 8 Things You Might Have Missed In “River of Time”

Tonight’s episode of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow was the one where the season went full circle. There were a lot of callbacks and a lot of thematic repetition, but not much in the way of “Easter eggs, exactly.”

Still, that doesn’t stop us from looking.

So…what did we see? What did we miss?

Read on, and comment below.

ROB ROY

Funny enough, Rob Roy Macgregor, who apparently provided Rip with some 17th Century Scotch, is not only a well known historical figure…

…but he was once played by Liam Neeson, who has a history in the DC Universe, having played Ra’s al Ghul in the Dark Knight Trilogy.

The “Scottish Robin Hood,” Robert Roy MacGregor was a Scottish outlaw, who later became a folk hero.

“YOU SHOWED A CAVEMAN FIRE”

Savage explains that once he figured out time travel existed, he knew he had to master it.

“You showed a caveman fire,” he explains to Rip. 

That’s funny, since in the comics Savage is literally a caveman, who has been alive not for the four thousand years of the TV series but for millions.

JITTERS

Apparently, the day he left for the mission, Jax was supposed to have met his mother at Jitters.

Jitters, of course, is the name of the coffee house in Central City where characters like Iris West and Kendra Saunders used to work.

Fun fact: In a Time Out special, it was revealed that Jitters exists in the world of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice.

TEMPORAL RADIATION

The effects of being bombarded with chronal/temporal energy being rapid aging isn’t unprecedented. In fact, in the comics it recently happened to Rip Hunter’s father, Booster Gold.

The pre-Flashpoint Booster Gold, anyway, who had by that point decades of working as a Time Master under his belt. His body started aging rapidly, and in order to save his life he had to be tossed into the “core” that runs Vanishing Point. The result? He became the post-Flashpoint version of the time-traveling superhero Waverider.

HOT WHEELS

Hot Wheels, the brand name of some of the most popular toy cars in the world, is what Ray Palmer nicknames Felicity Smoak when he meets her in her wheelchair just before he leaves for the mission.

GENERAL ORDER 52

When The Waverider is being hailed by the Time Masters and Rip insists they convene to hear him out, he cites General Order 52.

Since the 2006 miniseries 52, that number has popped up again and again in DC Comics, as kind of a totem. In 2011, they relaunched their entire publishing line, releasing 52 new #1 issues in the same month under the banner “The New 52.”

The remaining comics from that relaunch that haven’t yet been cancelled or rebooted are hitting their #52 this month, with an exception for Justice League, which is behind schedule.

And, yes, “52” is, in general, the most frequently-used Easter egg in the DC TV Universe.

1944

I wonder which drunk soldier in the Philippines might have lost that novelty pen to Rip Hunter during World War II?

Of course, it could be any number of people…but will we find out more about whoever it was next season? Doesn’t seem like an unreasonable guess, since we’ve had at least two new cast members announced with World War II ties for DC’s Legends of Tomorrow Season Two.

ROOFIE

This is the second time Professor Stein “Roofied” Jax — the first time, it was to get him on board the Waverider to begin the journey, and the second time, it was to get him off the Waverider and save his life.