'Legends Of Tomorrow' Season 1 Spoilers: The First Death Of The Series Is Way More Complicated Than It Seems

The CW’s bold new superhero show proved that it’s not going to be pulling any punches with its main cast during episode 2. Despite the team just forming, they’ve already suffered one casualty at the hands of their principal villain, Vandal Savage (Casper Crump).

[SPOILER ALERT: The remainder of this article will discuss the events of “Legends of Tomorrow,” episode 2]

After tracking the immortal villain to the year 1975, the team tipped their hand when they showed him that Hawkman (Falk Hentschel) and Hawkgirl (Ciara Renee) were there to kill him. The trio are locked in a timeless cycle that forces them to die at Savage’s hand and be reincarnated as babies to eventually do it all over again.

This time, however, the Hawks had discovered a dagger that, when used with the right spoken incantation, is capable of killing the bad guy — or so they thought. When Hawkman plunged the dagger into Savage’s chest, he quickly discovered that it doesn’t work. The villain informed him that the dagger, which belonged to Kendra (a.k.a. Hawkgirl) in a previous life, needed to be wielded by her in order for it to kill him. He turns the blade on Hawkman and, in a shocking twist, kills the hero, marking the “Legends of Tomorrow” team’s first death. The moment didn’t seem too shocking, given the fact that Savage has killed the Hawks more than 200 times in the past. However, executive producer Marc Guggenheim is cautioning fans that this time it’s different.

“It gets a little complicated because he died ‘out of time’ essentially. He didn’t die in 2016,” he told TV Line. “But the way that the reincarnation works is once they both die. That’s when the clock gets reset for them, and that’s when two babies are born.”

That’s right, apparently bringing Hawkman back into the fold isn’t as simple as tracking his new reincarnation down in time. First of all, he won’t be reincarnated at all until Kendra dies, which the “Legends” gang won’t let happen since she’s their only hope at killing Savage. Sure they could bring the knife to a previous or future version of the Hawks, but that would ruin the timeline, which viewers learned this week is bad. So, has "Legends of Tomorrow" actually pulled off one of the most surprising character deaths in TV history?

“I’m very much a catalyst for the whole show,” Hentschel told Entertainment Weekly. “I think my death in the beginning throws everybody into action and unites everybody, in a way. All the bickering has to stop.”

While the loss of Hawkman as a core member of the group seems final, the fact of the matter is that, on a show that deals with time travel, nothing is impossible and fans shouldn’t assume they’ve seen the last of Hentschel’s character. However, in terms of bringing him back into the regular mix, things are tricky. To do so as an adult would require him to leave Kendra alone in another time — further messing up the already delicate fabric of history.

Apparently fans will just have to wait until “Legends of Tomorrow” continues its Season 1 run on Thursday, Feb. 4 to find out how it all plays out. What did you think of the death of Hawkman? Comment below or tweet your thoughts to @TylerMcCarthy.