Written by Chris Fedak & Matthew Maala
Directed by Rachel Talalay
Stein: "You'd murder a child?"
The Pilgrim: "I'd murder as many children as necessary to accomplish my mission."
Anyone else get the impression that this week's episode seemed to be a mashup of The Deadly Assassin and Father's Day? If you didn't, you probably should've as this week, the Time Masters really did highlight how ruthless they actually were by sending out their deadliest of assassins - a woman named the Pilgrim (Faye Kingslee) to go back in time and snuff out each of Rip's team members as quickly as possible.
First there was meeting a younger Mick on the night his house burned to the ground and then there was Sara, prior to getting on the boat with Oliver who was also having a work day with Quentin sort of thing going on. I have to admit seeing Mick and Sara's younger selves interact with each other was amusing but then things sort of changed up a little here.
The Pilgrim went after Ray as recent as 2014 and with Kendra's reincarnation abilities making her a pointless target, the show then focused on grabbing baby versions (yes, really) of Snart, Stein and Jax which forced the Pilgrim into kidnapping some actual loved ones from the gang. Onscreen we saw Jax's father, Lance and Clarissa as well as some images of Lisa and Anna. As a villain, she meant business and yet again proved to be a far more interesting antagonist than Vandal Savage has emerged to be.
Of course, the Pilgrim did underestimate Rip and in a moment where one of the latter's plans actually worked out, she ended up being bested by little Michael. It was a little strange meeting Rip as a youngster and also rather interesting that his backstory isn't entirely dissimilar to the ones we've seen with with Mick and Leonard. However it wasn't the only backstory that took a surprising turn in this episode.
Jax himself finally got some brilliant screen time as he finally met and saved his father from the Pilgrim and I have to admit, it really helped to flesh his character out a bit more. Watching his scenes with his father were every bit as affecting as Sara's scenes with Quentin, Mick's with his younger self, Stein's brief moment with his wife, Ray/Kendra's back and forth (they ended up engaged) and even Rip's scenes with his own adoptive mother.
Of course with the gang's younger selves still being tended to by Rip's mother at the refuge, the need to kill Savage just got bigger and now it seems like Rip is willing to actually risk going into the 22nd century in order to take down Savage once and for all. Well, there are four episodes left to go now.
- Rip's adoptive mother was played Celia Imrie and is called Mary Xavier. Doctor Who connection wise, she appeared in The Bells Of Saint John while this episode's director, Rachel Talalay has directed the episodes Dark Water/Death In Heaven and Heaven Sent/Hell Bent.
- Now that Ray and Kendra are engaged, it seems like they're setting up the latter to meet Carter again.
- Also, was the episode unable to get the actresses for Anna and Lisa to make an onscreen appearance?
- Chronology really did vary this week with jumps into the 1950s, 1972, 1993, 2007 and 2014 to name a few.
I liked this one a lot. Last Refuge gave us a strong guest assassin with the Pilgrim, some much needed backstory for Jax, more insight into both Rip and Mick's pasts and a reminder of how far Sara has come as a character too. The Ray/Kendra scenes could've been plotted a little better but other than that, this was great.
Rating: 8 out of 10
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