[s1e5] Fail-safe Link

The episode title is a reference to the 1964 film Fail-Safe , which dealt with a potential nuclear confrontation between the US and the USSR. Critical Reception

is the fifth episode of the first season of the DC Comics-based series Legends of Tomorrow , which originally aired on February 18, 2016. Plot Overview [S1E5] Fail-Safe

Picking up immediately after "White Knights," the team remains in 1986 Soviet Russia: The episode title is a reference to the

After Martin Stein, Mick Rory, and Ray Palmer are captured and taken to a high-security Russian gulag (the Koshmar Gulag), the remaining Legends must execute a daring prison break. The episode features a meta-reference when Leonard Snart

The episode features a meta-reference when Leonard Snart (played by Wentworth Miller) says, "This isn't my first prison break," nodding to Miller's starring role in the series Prison Break .

Reviews at the time were mixed to positive. Some critics praised the character dynamics—particularly the unlikely bond between the optimistic Ray Palmer and the hardened Mick Rory. Others found the writing for the villain Vandal Savage to be a weak point, though the cliffhanger ending was widely cited as a series highlight that built significant excitement for the following episode.

Rip Hunter gives Sara Lance a contingency order: if they cannot rescue Stein, she must kill him to prevent the future knowledge of the Firestorm matrix from falling into Soviet hands.