Dr. Martin Stein quotes from Legends of Tomorrow

Ray

How is it even possible that I am someone's great-great-great-great-grandfather? Before we left in 2016, the only person I was... [trails off]

Jax

Having sex with?

Ray

...ghosted me the week before we left.

Stein

Sh-she died?

Jax

No. No. "Ghosting". It's where you pretend to be dead by not answering somebody's text.

Stein

What a strange age for dating.

Sara

Oh, come on. What's the harm in us just... taking a look around?

Stein

With this group? Clearly, you haven't been paying attention.

Ray

If I'm in the Old West and I don't get to look around, I'm going to kick myself.

Snart

I could help with that.

Snart

I'm impressed.

Stein

My father was what some might call a degenerate gambler. Others would say "criminal". When I was old enough, he'd pull me in on some of his schemes. Picked up a thing or two at a few of the card tables he frequented. Then, I took a different path. "Like father, like son" isn't always inevitable, Mr. Snart.

Stein

I realize your family's in jeopardy, but perhaps some deliberation --

Rip

We really don't have the time, Martin. According to Gideon, Savage is going to be out in the open tonight. Vulnerable. Now, in order to capture him, I require the services of --

Mick

Killer, Klepto and Pyro.

Rip

Bingo.

Stein

Guten Morgen!

What is this? Some sort of prison? What am I doing in here?

Mick

Good question.

Stein

I'm sorry, I never had the opportunity to properly introduce myself. I'm Professor Martin Stein, like Einstein, minus the "Ein". There is so much I'd like to discuss with you, such as your paper on unified field theory.

I have not yet published my paper on unified fields theory. Who are you? Why have you abducted me?

Mick

The guys at the party wanted you to make an atomic bomb for the Führer.

No. Not even a man as mad as Adolf Hitler would want to create such a terrible weapon.

Stein

You yourself once said "two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity."

And you are living proof of the latter!

Mick

He just called you stupid.

Now open this door and let me out!

Stein

We will, soon, I promise. We saved you from the Nazis. The least you could do is help us save New York.

From what? From some theoretical attack? Some eventuality that not even I could predict it? The only way you could... Mein gott! [in German] You're time travelers!

Stein

Yes, obviously you know.

I deduced it, Herr Doctor.

Stein

Perhaps you could deduce how the Germans managed to create a nuclear bomb...

Atomic.

Stein

...when you are the only man on earth capable of performing such a feat?

Yeah, that is correct. I am the only man.

Mick

Wait a minute. Are you saying there's some lady out there who can make an atomic bomb?

Wunderbar! Why am I talking to him when you are clearly the brains of the operation?

Ray

I'm sorry. But while you were all saving Einstein, Sara was off on her own secret side mission to kill Laurel's killer in the past.

Sara

And I suppose you never thought about saving your fiancée.

Ray

Yeah, of course I did. But I never did it because it's against the rules.

Sara

What rules? We're not Time Masters, there are no rules.

Ray

Well, if there were, there'd certainly be one about lying to your team.

Sara

Listen to yourself. Look, we get it. You're perfect. Always the Boy Scout, aren't you, Raymond?

Ray

Yeah, well, I can say the same thing about you being an assassin.

Sara

Well, if we're being honest, then let me get something off of my chest.

Stein

Let's all just take a deep breath, shall we?

Sara

You think that you're such a big hero, Ray? Without that fancy suit, you're nothing but a self-righteous rich guy.

Stein

With all due respect, Raymond, I think there's a reason Mr. Tyler just naturally assumed I was in charge.

Jax

Yeah, because Mr. Tyler is from 1942, and you're some old white dude.

You don't have the authority.

Stein

Yes, she does. Ms. Lance speaks for all of us. I have watched her become the beating heart and steady hand of this team. She is the proper person to lead us. If she says that we are going to rescue our people, that is what we are going to do.

Stein

This time period is replete with various perils. Perhaps it might be easier if you were to remain behind, and keep Doctor Palmer company.

Jax

Perhaps you should remain behind. [pause as Stein looks awkwardly sideways] No? Because you're not black? Because you think that me going back to 1863, I can't handle it?

Stein

That doesn't mean there's a need for you to subject yourself to the horrors that await you in that era!

Jax

Okay, now I get it might be difficult for you to understand this, but I've been black my entire life Gray. And honestly, I can't think of a time period we could go to where I wouldn't face some sort of racism. So don't worry, okay?

Stein

Are you homesick?

Jax

You checking up on me Gray?

Stein

Given what you've witnessed, what you've endured, would that really be so bad? You know you just witnessed the very worst of humanity. We share a psychic connection, yet I still can't even begin to fathom what you must be feeling. Must be like your heart is broken.

Jax

Yeah, it is. But I saw something in those people's eyes I didn't expect to see. I saw hope, I saw dignity. Those men and women? They were treated worse than animals, but they never let anybody stop them from being people, ya know?

Stein

I suppose there will always be those who will seek to dehumanize us, but I believe there are more that cling to hope, despite the darkness.

Jax

Yeah, that is exactly how they were.

Stein

I was actually thinking of you Jefferson.

Stein

The truth is, this young man [points to his sleeping younger self] is like a stranger to me. Every time I encounter him, I can't imagine I was ever that person.

Ray

I think anyone would feel that way about meeting their younger self. I don't recognize my current self. Mick told me I need to be more like me. And he's right, which is rare.

Stein

Indeed.

Ray

Problem is, I don't know what being "me" means right now. I don't know if that makes any sense.

Stein

Of course it does. I think everyone struggles, at least on occasion, with who they are and what their place is in the world.

Ray

So what's the answer?

Stein

I have no idea. But... I suppose it's just to live. It's all any of us can really do. And hopefully, though the act of living, we discover who we truly are, and learn to grow from that.

Jax

What if when you interacted with your younger self in 1987, you...

Stein

Inadvertently changed my past so-so that my memories from my new life are supplanting the memories from my old life, that's creating temporal dissonance.

Jax

Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking.

Jax

Gray?

Sara

What the hell are you doing?

Stein

Brain surgery. What does it look like?

Stein

I made a terrible mistake. I should never have brought Lily on board this ship.

Jax

She found out. She knows she's an aberration.

Stein

Mr. Rory spilled the beans, as predicted.

Jax

So what'cha gonna do?

Stein

What can I do?

Jax

Just tell her how you feel.

Stein

She knows how I feel, It goes without saying.

Jax

Yeah, for us, it does. We have a psychic connection, but for her? She just hears whatever comes out of that big brain of yours. Just tell her you love her. That's what Dads do.

Stein

Clearly, you never met my father. [sighs] You know, the... the reason Clarissa and I chose not to have children the first time around was because... I feared that history would repeat itself. That I would be the kind of father that he was.

Jax

We're Legends, Gray. Changing history is what we do.

Mick

Well, as much as Haircut's a pain in my ass, I'm not gonna let him fight alone. [starts to leave]

Sara

Sit down! That's an order.

Mick

[turns] What's an order?

Sara

Don't test me, Mick.

Mick

Don't threaten me, Blondie.

Stein

I can't believe I'm actually agreeing with Mr. Rory.

Sara

I said sit down!

Amaya

Stop! I've already lost one team. I'll be damned if my decision rips the Legends apart, too.

Sara

What are you saying?

Amaya

Listen to your gut, Captain. Don't abandon Ray. It may be sentimental, but the team should come before tactics.

Sara

All right. Let's do this.