Posted in: Movies, TV | Tagged: Commander Steel, cw, entertainment, Eobard Thawne, Legends of Tomorrow, Ray Palmer, television

Ray Palmer, The Legend Of Tomorrow's Matt Damon

This article contains spoilers for the DC's Legends of Tomorrow episode – Moonshot.

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Last night's episode of Legends wrapped up one thing… what happened to the JSA. We already knew the Rex Tyler was killed by Eobard Thawne and Amaya joined the Legends. Obsidian lived on into the 1980's before dying. More recently we saw that Doctor Midnight died protecting a portion of the spear while Star Girl put together Camelot and stayed there after giving her part of the spear to the team. That left one piece and one member, which we found last night. Commander Steel, Nate's grandfather, was dropped into the middle of the 1960's and he joined up with NASA and put his part of the spear in a very save place, inside the flag on the moon.

But Thawne figured it out and took the place of astronaut John Swigert to grab the piece, but Ray Palmer flies over to the capsule, discovers Thawne and the two fight. Thawne doesn't have his speed without gravity… Atom wins, but the lander ends up detaching and landing on the moon. Ray retrieves the spear piece, but because the Waverider is damaged, he and Thawne must repair the lander so it can fly back up and reconnect to the capsule. While they are working together, we get reminded that Thawne used to be Harrison Wells in season one of the Flash and enjoyed working with Cisco Ramon and Caitlin Snow. The comradery of solving problems together. Since Matt Letscher took over the roll, it's hard to connect the character back to what Tom Cavanagh did with him, but this was a good moment to remind us that Thawne is all about self-preservation. There are a few nice references to The Martian in the episode.

Meanwhile on the Waverider, Rip Hunter is trying to find his place on the team again. Sara is clearly the captain and she's a few steps ahead of him most of the time. Also, she's starting to get some wins under her belt… they got Rip back and have one of the pieces of the spear from Star Girl. He also has to deal with an angry Henry Heywood, who gave up his wife and child to protect the spear but was never supposed to see Rip again.

Which reminds me, how did Thawne know the spear was on the moon? They don't address that.

Henry is more angry at himself though and wants Rip to put him back in time to where he left. But Amaya explains to him, much to Nate's displeasure, that if he goes back he can change history and make it that Nate isn't the hero he becomes and that could leave the Legends spread out through time. Henry understands and leads him to what he does later in the episode. The capsule is heading into an asteroid belt and Sara swings the ship around, locks on to the capsule with the tractor beam to save it, but is then barraged by meteors, damaging the Waverider.  Hence they can't go get Ray off the moon.

Meanwhile on Earth: Martin Stein, Jefferson Jackson and Mick Rory pose as British mission control people visiting NASA… I didn't know Britain had a space program… but they have to delay the televised connection to Apollo 13 or it will change history. Jax is trying to knock out the signal, but needs a distraction… which Stein comes up with by singing the Banana Boat Song and getting Mick to join in.

Ray and Thawne get the lander back up into space and docked with the capsule, then Ray takes Thawne into custody… but the problem is the Waverider is still damaged and systems are down. So reentering Earth atmosphere had to be perfect… and only Thawne can calculate the correct angle of trajectory. Ray decides to trust him and Sara trusts Ray. But to slow the decent an allow the ship to maneuver to the right angle, the cargo bay door has to be blown… they must carry a lot of spares doors on the ship… Rip and Sara argue whose going to do it since the person won't survive… but Commander Steel had already headed there and locked himself in before Nate could stop him. He said goodbye to his grandson, told him a message for his son and then pulled the lever, flying out to his death.

This episode had a lot of heart and character. We got to know a lot more about Commander Steel, Ray had some good moments and the Rip / Sara dynamic started to take shape again. Also, the reconnect to the Thawne / Wells character was a nice touch, reminding us that at one point we liked this guy… even if he had another face. And you have to feel sorry for Nate to finally get to spend time with his grandfather and have a chance to help his whole family and then suddenly lose it. Plus we'll have to see what Amaya does now that she knows her own future.

Next week's episode has the Legends landing in France during World War I and working with J.R.R. Tolkien as they try and destroy the Spear of Destiny… plus we finally get the return of Leonard Snart / Captain Cold… and the episode is called Fellowship of the Spear.  Might the Legends influence their second iconic storyteller?

https://youtu.be/tCt1_p9kTtw

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