Legends of Tomorrow‘s biggest strength this season is embracing the absurdity of it all. Go to King Arthur’s time, wacky mind-control battle. A visit to Colonial times and Mick gets a statue of himself created. So when the latest mission leads the Legends to 1970 and the Apollo 13 mission, it ends up leading to Stein singing and a rescue mission that The Martian would be jealous of. So lets dig into this high-paced episode of Legends of Tomorrow shall we?
OUTSIDERS
“Moonshot” highlights how much of a outsider Rip has become to the team. One of the disadvantages of getting lost in time and then brain-washed by the Legion of Doom. In his absence, Sara stepped up and became on hell of a good leader. The team stepped up and became better. (They still screw up but with less bickering.) Rip is trying to get back in his place as leader but he’s not anymore. It has to hurt a little to hear Gideon call someone else “Captain”. He’s still a valued member of the team, just not the man in charge anymore. That man is now a woman by the name of Captain Sara Lance.
Thankfully we don’t see too much bickering between the two as I hate that (And was one reason I wasn’t as big a fan of season 1 as I should have been). Even better by the end of the episode Sara and Rip talk about this. Rip has that feeling of not fitting in with the team anymore but Sara correctly points out that being a outcast/misfit makes his a perfect Legend. I can’t help but ship these two. They have some good chemistry hidden underneath the surface that perhaps can slowly burn up to the surface someday.
FLY ME TO THE MOON
Now back to the mission! Apollo 13 has been invaded by Eobard Thawne.
(Mini-rant time) Who names their kid “Eobard”? Just go with Edward. It’s better for everybody especially reviewers who have to remember how to spell it every damn review!(Mini-rant over)
Okay so Thawne is on Apollo 13 to get the last piece of the spear of Destiny. You see, back in 65′ Rip entrusted Commander Steel (Nate’s grandpa, Henry) with a piece to hide. Henry being a man of action decided “Hey I’ll join NASA, hide the piece in the flag Neil Armstrong took to the moon! Done and Done.” Honestly this is probably the best of the hiding place we have seen in the Legends’ quest to locate the pieces.
So the team splits up – (Mick, Jax and Stein stay on earth while the rest of the team with Henry head off in space to save the Apollo 13 crew and the piece of spear)
The team catches up and Ray shrinks down to enter the ship. He finds Thawne in charge and a typical superhero-supervillain no gravity battle commences. Meanwhile Sara orders Jax and Stein to cut the feed to the ship as NASA is minutes away from contacting them. If they listen they will hear the ship crash into the moon. Not good thing by any means. So Stein comes up with a distraction so silly and stupid , it’s perfect for Legends of Tomorrow : He sings the “Banana Boat Song”.
It’s goofy, silly and wonderful. I don’t care if the situation gets silly each week to do it, have Victor Garber sing every episode. The man has the pipes and the NASA crews looks of befuddlement were hilarious. Anyway, Jax cuts the feed and Ray lands the damaged Command Module on the moon.
MY ENEMY, MY CO-PILOT
So Ray goes bouncing out to get the Spear piece as Sara leads the Waverider to save the stranded two astronauts. After a bout of space rocks, the astronauts are saved (in the mist of some back and forth bickering between Sara and Rip). However, the Waverider can’t save Ray. So as Ray goes all Matt Damon in The Martian, taping his final moments, Thawne offers a compromise. Work with him and together they can fix the LCM and go home.
Now to be honest, to save my bacon I would work with almost anyone and Thawne is on that list. Ray however has a much shorter list and says no. This leads to some bantering and eventually they agree to work together. This leads to a working together scene where we get to see that Ray and Eobard are more alike then they care to admit. Scientists with a sense of humor that’s only appreciated by them, only things that are different between them is…well the tons of people Thawne killed and a better sense of good and evil. (Okay so maybe a little more different than I first thought.) Overall, it was almost nice to see a human side to old Eobard.
During this, Henry talks with his old teammate Amaya about wanting to return to the past. Henry is right but also Amaya is right. Changing the past always damages the future. Amaya’s worry that Henry returning to the past will change Nate is 100% correct. Nate, on the other hand, doesn’t think that way. He’s hurt and people who get hurt do jerkish things when they are hurting. So he tells Amaya about her future and how she can’t change it either. It’s a painful scene for everyone involved here.
SACRIFICE AND SUCCESS
Ray and Thawne get the module running and get it to the Waverider. However, things get bad as the Waverider can’t handle reentry. Someone will have to open the door to let the air out. Which also means someone will have to sacrifice themself to save everyone. Wonder who it will be? A member of the team or the guest-star hero?
Henry makes the ultimate sacrifice and after passing on a message to Nate to tell his dad who is Henry’s son (Time-Travel, oh boy) , Henry opens the door and save the Waverider and the crew from burning up on re-entry. Nate, like any person not named Paul Ryan, takes the death hard and is inconsolable.
Meanwhile as Thawne uses his powers to get out of the jail cell in the Waverider, his buddy the Black Racer returns to go after him. Ray confronts him and points out that he should be dead since Eddie Thawne killed himself. (Unless…..nah Eddie can’t be alive still could he? nah. ). Thawne can make one of two choices : Search the ship for the spear piece or book it out of there with his tail between his legs. Shockingly, he picks option two.
So a win for the team but in the typical Legends way it comes with a price : Thawne’s escape and the death of Nate’s grandpa. So it looks like we are all done and Amaya and Nate have made up when Amaya makes a very rash decision. She asks Gideon to let her see her future and that of her descendants. As much as we all would love to see the future, we shouldn’t. Nothing good could ever come of trying to change the future (well except the election. I wish we could change that.)
So another fun episode of Legends of Tomorrow with a lot of good mix of silliness, character moments and wild action. My heart is full of Sara Lance/Rip Hunter love and the thought that things will end up okay for the misfit band of Legends. I mean, nothing bad can happen now that they have a all-powerful Spear in possession , right? Right????
Oh boy.
QUICK THOUGHTS:
- Caity Lotz makes 60’s clothes look good (as Mad Men showed us) but I love when the team gets to wear clothes of that era especially
- Did I say I ship Rip and Sara? Okay just making sure.
- So one of the dvds on the ship is The Martian? No shock that Ray is a fan of that movie.
- Mick and Stein’s friendship is one of the better things to happen in season 2.
- Victor Garber singing. Find that clip and save it in your heart forever.
Legends of Tomorrow airs on the CW at 9/8c on Tuesday Nights.