Arrow is no stranger to flashbacks, but they really outdid themselves this time, going all the way back to ancient Egypt where we see Prince Khufu bringing an offering to Horus with both Priestess Chay-Ara and Vandal Savage present. Kendra snaps out of her trance, unlocking more of her repressed memories, as the group pulls an Avengers: Age of Ultron (which they acknowledge) and assembles upon a small farm house outside of Central City. The team begins working on different aspects of the circumstances: Diggle goes to look up Savage at ARGUS, Cisco starts working on a device to take the Staff of Horus, Carter takes Kendra outside for training, and Oliver exits to “Take care of something.” Felicity tries to talk to him about what’s going on, but he plays it off. Carter brings a case with him and asks Kendra to open it, revealing her Hawkgirl outfit. He tells her as her memories return so will her skills, she must become a warrior priestess again.
Oliver goes to find Samantha, the girl who he previously thought had miscarried their own baby over nine years ago. He confronts her and she tells him that her son, William, isn’t his. As she goes to leave, she drops his hat, which Oliver picks up, and manages to snag a hair sample from. Merlyn calls Oliver to reveal he’s set up a meeting with Vandal Savage with them and Barry, who is already on his way. As Barry runs to the meeting, who should he see? But himself, presumably traveling back in time once again. The three meet up as Savage enters and proclaims he needs the life force of Carter and Kendra to stay alive, and if they don’t want him to level their cities they will bring him the pair in 24 hours. When they go over Vandal’s threats with the teams later, Carter reveals that Savage has killed millions before just to get to them, and he’ll do it again.
The next day Barry finds Cisco on the farm and tells him what he saw, and they have a very confusing conversation on a very confusing subject, amounting to: maybe he went back in time for a good reason. Kendra and Carter continue their training, but she’s still having difficulty wrapping her head around the whole situation, but especially why these people they’ve never met would risk their lives for them. Felicity interrupts their sparring to reveal Diggle has returned with info, a betamax tape from 1975 with one Dr. Aldus Boardman from St Roch University (a key location in Hawkman lore) discussing Vandal Savage and the “calamity” that created him, which may be undone by something from the same area. Kendra hears this and realizes what he means – the Staff of Horus.
At the CCPD, Barry hands Oliver the results of a test, which he says was regarding Damien Darhk but is clearly a paternity test, and it came back positive. Oliver ducks out just as Felicity enters and quickly susses out of Barry what the piece of paper is, and it doesn’t take her long to realize what it is. Oliver goes to see Samantha once again and confronts her about why she didn’t tell him. She reveals the circumstances of her mother’s “pay off,” but that she never cashed the check. Despite Oliver’s pleas to be a part of William’s life, Samantha shuts him down because Oliver can’t promise that his life is less crazy, boy does she know. Ollie returns to the farmhouse where Felicity confronts him about the paternity test, and things go south quick, as she realizes that she can’t trust him. Barry hears the end of the conversation as Felicity leaves, presumably for good. As they prepare to take on Savage, Oliver tells Team Arrow to sit this one out.
The exchange with Savage is about to go down. They’ve brought Kendra and Carter, in their Hawk-gear, and Barry wears the gauntlets that Cisco prepared. As Savage prepares to cut Kendra, Oliver engages him and the fight starts, but Kendra’s powers aren’t working. Carter is quickly stabbed, his life force drained, and then Kendra herself is killed. Barry does manage to take the staff from Savage, but the gauntlets aren’t working. Oliver holds onto it and tells Barry to run since he can still get away. The energy gives way and a massive shockwave lets out, disintegrating Oliver as Barry runs away. Barry earns his monikor of fastest man alive as the wave engulfs the city, quite literally killing everyone, and goes so fast that he once again travels in time, back to his initial meeting with Oliver, Merlyn and Savage.
Savage presents them with the same Ultimatum but Barry tells Oliver about his time travel and that not only did the other elements of the attack fail, but that Oliver’s own lack of focus lead to everyone dying. Oliver goes to check on Cisco and the gauntlets to provide a double check and tells him he should go to talk to Kendra to help her emerge. Cisco interrupts training talk with Carter to talk to Kendra, telling her to focus on the good-hearted person inside of her. All of this is difficult for her to wrap her head around, naturally, but Cisco convinces her that it’s a gift, to let herself remember. Kendra has another flashback to Egypt where Savage finds her and Khufu in bed together and attacks them, mortally wounding them both. As the “celestial rocks” rain down on the kingdom, Savage makes a chant about hunting them down in their next lives. Kendra wakes up, knowing how to beat savage.
Cisco and Kendra go back in the farmhouse and reveal her vision regarding the meteors, the previously-mentioned “calamity.” They realize they can syntisize a metal from the meteors, one of which Barry snags from Keystone to help with the gauntlets. Oliver orders everyone to suit up as round two begins. It starts similarly enough, but then Team Arrow makes their presence known and fights Savage. As the brawl carries on, with some well-placed jabs from Kendra, Barry grabs the staff, and with Oliver’s help they blast Vandal Savage with its energies, and turn him into a pile of dust. The staff in turn disappears.
The next day no one is quite clear on how this works. Is Vandal going to be reincarnated? Are Carter and Kendra now immortal? We’ll find out on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow together! Kendra does reveal that she wants to help people with her newfound abilities, and Carter suggests they go to St. Roch. She and Cisco share a moment where he gives her a gift made from the Nth Metal housing a GPS if she needs his help. Barry and Oliver talk about his personal issues, and Oliver can’t help but wonder if William would be better off without him in his life. Knowing a thing or two about a thing or two, Barry tells Oliver that he should really reconsider. Oliver goes back to Samantha’s house where the same conversation plays out, except this time he agrees not to tell anyone. He does get to go upstairs and introduce himself to William where they play with his Flash and Captain Cold action figures. Back in Star City Oliver and Felicity arrive back in the loft where she tries to ask what happened in Central City, but he plays it off, though Felicity remains suspicious. Speaking of suspicious, Merlyn approachs the little dusty pile of Vandal Savage and scoops him up into a cup, reciting the same phrase Savage said when he first killed Kendra and Carter.
