- "Now that the Spear is whole, it will try to lure each of us to use it. It will draw on our weaknesses, our desires, our regrets. It will promise each of us that we can re-make the world just as we want it."
- "What's wrong with that? [...] What? Come on, you're all thinking it."
- —Rip Hunter and Mick Rory
"Fellowship of the Spear" is the fifteenth episode of the second season of DC's Legends of Tomorrow, and the thirty-first episode overall. It aired on March 21, 2017.
Synopsis[]
| The Legends must devise a plan to retrieve the last remaining fragments of the Spear of Destiny from the Legion of Doom. They find themselves in France at the height of World War I faced with the knowledge that they must destroy the mystical object. They enlist the help of a soldier by the name of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien and find that the Spear is leading them into the heart of the war. Meanwhile, the team must all resist the temptation of the Spear, and the return of a former teammate.[src] |
Cast[]
Starring[]
- Victor Garber as Professor Martin Stein/Firestorm
- Brandon Routh as Dr. Ray Palmer/The Atom
- Arthur Darvill as Rip Hunter
- Caity Lotz as Captain Sara Lance/White Canary
- Franz Drameh as Jefferson "Jax" Jackson/Firestorm
- Matt Letscher as Professor Eobard Thawne
- Maisie Richardson-Sellers as Amaya Jiwe/Vixen
- Amy Pemberton as Gideon (voice)
- Nick Zano as Dr. Nate Heywood/Steel
- Dominic Purcell as Mick Rory/Heat Wave
Special appearance by[]
Special guest star[]
Guest starring[]
- Jack Turner as Lieutenant J.R.R. Tolkien
Co-starring[]
- Michael Robinson as Commanding Officer
- Brian Knox McGugan as German Commanding Officer
- Hans Potter as German Soldier
- Derek Wallis as Injured Soldier
- Chris Cope as Junior Officer
- Andrea Ware as Volunteer
Plot[]
The scene starts with the group on the front line in WWI France. They are attempting to discover Jesus' blood to use on the Spear of Destiny.
72 hours earlier: The group meets in the Waverider. They attempt to decide how to keep the Spear out of the Legion of Doom's hands. Rip reveals that he knows the location of the Legion's base of activities: the Vanishing Point.
The group shows up at the Vanishing Point and separate into two groups, each taking a bit of the Spear with them. The groups approach the Legion's passageway before Rip's bit of the lance starts glowing.
Mick moves toward what remains of the Oculus (where Snart sacrificed himself). He and Sara talk about Snart's sacrifice and what it means to them.
Jax and Rip notice a bizarre pillar that they believe is holding the remaining parts of the spear. Rip attempts to shoot it, but it simply bounces off. Jax utilizes his transmutation abilities to transform the pillar into a pile of jelly-beans. Rip retrieves the last pieces of the Spear.
Thawne, discovering the teams plan, arrives too late and looks on as the group escape to the Waverider and take off.
Back in the Waverider, the group looks as the Spear repairs itself. Rip explains that since the Spear is now whole, the group should ensure they aren't enticed to change reality with it. Mick attempts to fire at the Spear to destroy it, however, it does not work. Amaya notices a Latin phrase appear on the Spear - "Born of blood, Destroyed by blood."
Nate proposes destroying the Spear through using its creation in Jesus' blood. Rip reminds the group that a time-jump to Jesus' crucifixion is too dangerous for them to visit, but Nate reveals another way.
Nate discloses to the group that the blood of Christ is hidden in Gawain's burial place in the South of France. The man who knows the most regarding this matter is... J.R.R. Tolkien, who battled in WWI.
Thawne and Darhk discuss the Legends having the Spear. Thawne proposes that they travel to where the Legends go to destroy or hide the Spear, where they can take it from them and have it in one piece. Darhk believes that they will need reinforcements on the mission.
The Waverider shows up in WWI France. Gideon explains that Tolkien was sent to a military emergency clinic. Rip, Ray, Nate, Mick, and Amaya suit up and head out to locate him.
Amaya and Mick enter the emergency clinic tent. An injured soldier calls Amaya to his side, saying he wouldn't like to die alone.
Mick occupies himself by eating some of the bread for the injured. He sees Snart leave the exit of the tent, and follows him outside.
Snart chastises Mick for continuing on the heroes' mission.
Rip, Ray, and Nate stroll through the trenches. They discover Tolkien, who has become sick, and escort him to the medical tent.
Snart discloses to Mick that he could utilize the Spear to rejuvenate Snart back. Mick reveals to Snart he is only a mind flight, and Snart smacks him over the face.
Tolkien awakens in the Waverider. Rip and Nate clarify that they hijacked him to find Sir Gawain's burial chamber, so their group can complete their excursion to pulverize an old curio.
Amaya sits in the break room, considering what she saw in the war zone. Sara comes in and asks her what's going on. Amaya clarifies that Gideon gave her future, and seeing the war zone in WWI just made it all the more genuine. Sara consoles Amaya that from what Laurel has advised her, Amaya's granddaughter Mari grows up to be a legend in her own right.
Mick opposes the compulsion to contact the Spear of Destiny. Stein comes in, and Mick discloses to him that he saw Snart once more. Sara, Nate, and Rip intrude on them, and clarify that Gawain's burial place is situated inside a congregation.
Tolkien drives the group through the church building, which is in disorder. Mick endeavours to take one of the relics, and Nate understands that the composition on it will lead them to the burial place. They stroll over the room and discover Sir Gawain covered up in a column. Snart interferes with them, and is joined by Darhk.
Darhk clarifies that the Legion knows the Legends' group, on account of what Mick incidentally told Snart. A gathering of troopers advance on the Legends, and they fend them off. Tolkien hurries to safeguard the etching on Gawain's shield through a stone scouring, and the gathering get away.
The remainder of the group finds out about Snart being alive. Sara, Jax, and Stein question whether the group will have the option to confide in Mick now that Snart is back in the image. Mick gets irritated.
Tolkien and Nate talk about the lance's forces. Tolkien investigates his stone scouring and acknowledges where they have to go to crush the Spear.
Amaya starts to hear voices that call her to the Spear. Mick sees, and the pair examine what they're feeling. The two of them hear their folks' voices, requesting that they make the right decision.
Sara assembles the group, and Tolkien clarifies that they should return into the combat zone to discover the blood of Christ. Amaya proposes utilizing the Spear to delete the Legion of Doom from history. Sara and Rip persuade her not to surrender to allurement. The remainder of the group consents to go into the combat area, while Amaya consoles that she thinks it's a misstep.
The group runs onto the front line, as in the start of the scene. Sara, Amaya, and Nate make sense of where the blood of Christ is found.
Tolkien and Rip visit the military's administrator, requesting that he contact the rival side's authority to stop the war. The officer opposes this idea.
Stein and Rip solicit the equivalent from the German officer, yet he possibly consents to stop if the British side does also.
The British soldiers start attacking, making it the ideal time for the group to move towards the blood of Christ. Sara, Amaya, Nate, and Mick go through the front line.
Rip punches the British officer so he can convey the truce message. The Waverider communicates the message to the entirety of the soldiers. Rip asks the two sides to set out their arms, with the goal that the harmed can be removed from the combat zone and mankind can be spared. The truce commences.
The group follows the shine of the Spear to Christ's blood. They recover the crate and open it, finding a vial inside.
Darhk and Snart approach the gathering, taking steps to slaughter them on the off chance that they don't hand over the Spear.
Sara requests that Mick hand over the Spear, yet he wouldn't like to. The group attempts to talk Mick down from going with Snart and Darhk. Mick takes the Spear and joins the couple. He asks Amaya to go along with him, so they can help fix each other's courses of events. She decreases.
Snart sets off a projectile, beginning the fight around them back up. Thawne speeds around and takes Darhk, Snart, and Mick to wellbeing.
Nate, Sara, and Amaya flee. Nate drops the vial of Christ's blood, making it break everywhere throughout the ground.
Jax lands the Waverider and Sara and Nate race to get away. Amaya dithers rushing to security too, in any case, goes along with them.
Amaya censures Sara for settling on an inappropriate decision with how to pulverize the Spear. The group addresses whether they even confided in Mick in any case. Nate brings up that they relinquished Tolkien in the channels also, despite the fact that they let him know there would be trust. Nate questions whether the Legion really realize how to utilize the Spear, in light of the fact that the group would have the option to get it back if the Legion isn't really ready to utilize it.
Thawne and Darhk compliment Snart and Mick for the activity all around done. Merlyn goes along with them with the proprietor's manual for the Spear. The gathering seizes it and Merlyn's serenades start to actuate it.
Production[]
Preparation ran from January 11 until January 19, 2017. Shooting ran from January 20 until January 31, 2017.[1]
Videos[]
Trivia[]
- There are many references to The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien and its various adaptations in this episode.
- The episode title is a reference to the story, the first volume of which is titled The Fellowship of the Ring.
- J.R.R. Tolkien appears, being the future author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, a fact which is mentioned.
- Tolkien's superior officer screams at him, "On your feet, you fool of a Tolkien!" referencing the line "fool of a Took" from The Fellowship of the Ring.
- Nate's amusement at Tolkien enjoying long stories is a nod to The Lord of the Rings; in real life, it was initially written as one story but Tolkien's publishers believed it to be too long, so they had him split it into three parts to be published.
- When Rip explains the team's mission to J.R.R. Tolkien, he describes it as a journey to destroy an object that would give its bearer unimaginable power. This is most likely a reference to The Fellowship of the Ring and the heroes' journey to Mordor to destroy the One Ring, which, like the Spear, can grant extraordinary power and is dangerous in the wrong hands.
- Nate refers to the team as a "fellowship", referencing the The Fellowship of the Ring.
- When requesting a ceasefire, Rip closely quotes a speech given by Aragorn to his men in the film adaptation of Tolkien's The Return of the King. However, that particular speech was not written by Tolkien; it was by Fran Walsh, Phillipa Boyens, and Peter Jackson specifically for the film.
- While discussing their plans, Martin says, "One cannot simply walk into the middle of a war zone", a reference to Boromir's infamous line "One does not simply walk into Mordor" from The Fellowship of the Ring's film adaptation.
- When talking about the Spear with Nate, Tolkien describes the appearance of the inscription on it as "a secret only fire can tell", a reference to how the One Ring would glow with Black Speech when heated.
- The fact the message "Natum De Sangine Perditas A Sangine" appeared on the spear when it was exposed to the Heat gun's flames may be a reference to the Elvish script that appears upon the One Ring when it's made hot.
- Similarly, the fact that this Latin phrase's translation means "Born of Blood, Undone by Blood" (meaning that Jesus Christ's blood gave the spear its power, and is also the only thing that can destroy it) may be a reference to the fact that just as the One Ring was forged in Mount Doom, Mount Doom's fires are the only thing capable of destroying it.
- Since the legend of the Spear is ancient and likely well-known to Tolkien, who was linguist and a scholar of myth (not for nothing does his trilogy have parallels both with Wagner's Ring's literary cycle and the Norse Eddas for instance, while Wagner's Parsifal - a quest for the selfsame Spear - would likely be well-known to Tolkien for the same reasons), it's likely that it influenced Tolkien's future works in this episode.
- In reality, Tolkien's experiences in the First World War influenced many of elements that appeared in in his novel, particularly the depiction of Mordor resembling a World War I era battlefield, and the relationship between officers and their enlisted men mirrored in Frodo and Sam.
- This episode took place during the Battle of the Somme. Future dictator Adolf Hitler was present at the battle, and was famously obsessed with occult objects; such as the Spear of Destiny.
- Ray makes up a cackle to scare off the German soldiers, which leads to one of them to say, "der boser Geist", which translates to "Gremlins". In a deleted scene, Ray explains to Martin that the Gremlins were mythical creatures who terrified German soldiers during the war.
- The Legends' efforts to broker a cease fire in the midst of the Battle of the Somme mirrors the "Christmas Truce" that occurred during the first Christmas of World War I. Allied and German troops called an unofficial ceasefire without approval from their commands, during which they rescued their wounded, buried their dead, and even played football against each other.
- Sara refers to Nate, Mick, Ray, and Rip as the "Backstreet Boys".
- After using a terrible Cockney accent, Nate mentions having played Bert in his school's production of Mary Poppins.
- The name "Bittersteel" refers to the character of Aegor Rivers from the HBO show Game of Thrones.
- The way that Nate deflects Damien Darhk's men's bullets is similar to the way Wonder Woman deflects bullets with her bracelets.
Goofs[]
- The German soldiers in World War I are wearing Wehrmacht uniforms, when they should have been wearing uniforms belonging to the Imperial German Army.
- Tolkien would not give a radio frequency in megahertz, as the term wasn't introduced until later. It was then megacycles per second.
- In curing Tolkien's case of trench fever, the Legends are potentially creating a huge time aberration, as his illness was likely the reason why he survived the war and went on to become a successful writer; the disease forced Tolkien to be relieved of combat duty and sent home, after which almost his entire battalion was killed in action. Having been cured, Tolkien would have likely returned to active duty and been killed alongside his comrades.
References[]
| DC's Legends of Tomorrow season 2 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Out of Time" • "The Justice Society of America" • "Shogun" • "Abominations" • "Compromised" •"Outlaw Country" • "Invasion!" • "The Chicago Way" • "Raiders of the Lost Art" • "The Legion of Doom" • "Turncoat" • "Camelot/3000" • "Land of the Lost" • "Moonshot" • "Fellowship of the Spear" • "Doomworld" • "Aruba" | ||||