Wednesday, March 15, 2017

My Review of Legends Of Tomorrow's 2x14: "Moonshot"


Written by Grainne Godfree
Directed by Kevin Mock

Henry (to Nate, re Hank): "Give him a message for me. Tell him. I'm sorry for leaving."

And another bites the dust. With the exceptions of Amaya, Courtney and Obsidian, it seems like we're getting to the point where half the JSA members are being routinely bumped off and this week, it was the turn of Commander Steel or Henry himself.

But unlike Mid Nite who was given a brief reintroduction before being killed, this episode decided to spend the most amount of time with the character and I can't help but think - couldn't we have had him instead of Nate this season? I don't want to rag on Nate too but Henry is actually the better character if we had to have to have a Steel this season.

I did quite like Nate and Henry's scenes together and adding Hank as a kid into the mix towards the end of the episode gave things a nice little emotional sting. Henry's sacrifice to save the Waverider and others seemed telegraphed from a mile away but ultimately it worked, even if during Nate's family angst he opened a massive can of worms for Amaya and her own personal future. Nice going, Nate.

Of course, getting back to the main plot point itself. I liked the idea of Henry hiding his bit of the Spear of Destiny on the US flag on the moon and seeing the gang and Eobard going after it was great. I also liked the temporary truce we saw between Eobard and Ray in this one as well, especially as the former picked up on the latter's true motives for being the Atom while the latter realised what Thawne's true mission was all along. Their scenes on the Apollo 13 were a joy to watch.

This season has certainly shaped Eobard into a far compelling villain than he was on The Flash and while I've enjoyed him with his Legion of Doom, he's just as effective by himself as his scenes with Ray proved this week. I did like that Ray was able to outsmart him after Thawne predictably managed to make his escape though.

In other plot developments, the episode also nicely explored Rip seeking his place on the Waverider. It took him a while to get used to the gang following Sara's lead as captain and I loved the moment where Sara referred to him as a Legend. I'm sure the remaining episodes will reaffirm whatever place Rip has on the current team set up though.

- Jax got to use a British accent this week and Stein broke into song. The latter will be doing more of that next week.
-  Amaya is now aware of her own future and Mari's existence thanks to Nate.
- Snart is back in next week's episode and so is Damien Darkh.
- Chronology: Mostly 1969 but also Manhattan 1965 when Rip originally dropped Henry off with his bit of the spear.

Moonshot was a lot of fun. Although Nate did annoy me in parts of the episode, the scenes with his grandfather and father were nicely done along with the Sara/Rip captain dynamic and Thawne forced into playing nice for a bit.

Rating: 8 out of 10

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