On Season 2 Episode 11 of Legends of Tomorrow, titled Moonshot, the Legends find themselves chasing a fragment of the spear back to the 70s, on the moon of all places! Check out Josh’s recap, followed by our thoughts on this episode!
- His thoughts on Moonshot, Episode 214 of Legends of Tomorrow
- Her thoughts on Legends of Tomorrow, Season 2 Episode 14: Moonshot
The episode begins with Rip Hunter realizing that Sara has turned the team into an actual team, rather than the rag-tag group he had initially started with. In Rip’s mind it seems Sara has earned the right to be captain, despite this being his ship and all.
On this episode, we see that Rip has told Henry Heywood, grandfather to Nate, that he has to move away from his family. But just as soon as Rip leaves he returns—but this time it is the current Rip, with Nate and Amaya in tow, trying to figure out where Henry Heywood has ventured off to.
Sara and the gang are able to determine that Henry apparently decided to work for NASA. So, the team heads to 1970 and Sara comes up with the idea to infiltrate NASA.
As it turns out, it NASA is right in the middle of Apollo 13. For those who are unfamiliar, that was the mission that was supposed to go to the moon, but technical difficulties had the shuttle turn back before reaching its destination. Rip tries to make his re-acquaintance with Henry, and Henry is not very excited to see him—specifically because he was forced to abandon his family for the mission Rip had given him to protect the spear fragment he had.
After some chitchat and discussion of what has to be done, the Legends figure out that the flag Neil Armstrong put into the moon is holding the spear fragment piece.
The group then checks on the status of the Apollo 13 mission, and history seems to be changing, as so far the mission to the moon is going flawlessly. We also discover that there has been an impostor on the ship. Eobard Thawne has stepped in as Jack Swigert. Thawne apparently has solved the problem that was supposed to have occurred on the mission, so that he could get to the moon for the spear fragment.
On his trip, he knocks the two other astronauts, Jim Lovell and Fred Haise, unconscious.
The Legends jump into action, with Stein, Mick and Jax remaining at Mission Control, posing as British engineers, while the rest of the team heads for the shuttle to figure out how to stop Thawne. The plan begins with Ray heading over to the shuttle miniaturized, hopefully stealthily sneaking up on Thawne. This doesn’t go well though, and the two end up in a scuffle in a very cramped spaceship. In their scuffle, the two had inadvertently detached the lunar capsule from the rest of the shuttle, and wind up crashing onto the lunar surface. Oh, and both luckily and unluckily, the shuttle loses communication with NASA as this all goes down.
As the radio silence is about to end, the Legends begin to panic, as they worry their cover will be blown. So, Jax has to cut the communication feed. Then in a bit of a panic to prevent their cover from being blown, Stein comes up with the only possible solution—abruptly start singing “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” to the entire Mission Control. The plan works as they all become extremely confused as Mick enjoys the singing interlude.
Meanwhile, back on the moon, Ray has headed out to the lunar surface after subduing Eobard, and retrieves the spear piece he was set out to get. He makes his way back to the lunar capsule to some bad news—the Waverider is having technical difficulties and is currently unable to pick Ray up since it was hit by several rocks that were about to collide with the Apollo 13 shuttle. Sara thought using the Waverider as a shield was a good idea, despite Rip’s protests. On top of that, the lunar module is about to run out of fuel and is unable to reconvene with the shuttle.
Eobard Thawne, meanwhile, has begun mocking Ray, who has begun video recording footage to chronicle his ventures (a la The Martian). Eobard suggests a more productive solution, albeit a dangerous one for Ray. He asks Ray to free him, so that they can work on a solution together. Ray hesitates, but figures that Eobard has a desire to stay alive as much as he does, so it looks like his only option.
Back with Rip and Henry, they reconcile some. Meanwhile, Nate decides to tell Henry that he should head back to his family. Amaya overhears this, and tells him that if Henry does so, history will be changed, and Nate won’t be the same man he is now. Nate doesn’t seem to care though, and goes so far as to tell Amaya that they can’t be together because she has to return to her own timeline for the very same reasons.
The mission to retrieve Ray and Eobard goes well. Eobard willingly goes into the holding cell on the WaveRider, surprisingly.
The Waverider is still physically damaged though, and is unable to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere without burning up, if they don’t do so at the right angle. Luckily, Eobard Thawne is the fastest mathematician alive, and provides the correct angle for re-entering Earth’s atmosphere. The team questions Eobard’s answer given his villainous nature, but Ray reasons that Eobard wants to survive as much as the rest of the team, so he is likely telling the truth.
As the team re-enters the atmosphere, the ship begins to heat up excessively. The team figures out they need someone to release some air pressure, but doing so will mean certain death for that person. Eventually Henry decides to make the sacrifice without telling the Legends. Nate tries to stop him, but Henry gives Nate a letter to give to Hank, Henry’s son, who Henry had rigged to wind up at NASA this very day with an essay contest. That letter tells Hank that Henry was sorry for leaving.
Meanwhile, Thawne has made his way out of his cell, and finds Ray greeting him with his anti-speedster weapon. Thawne is forced to flee when his “demons” catch up with him.
Nate then visits his father, Hank, who is visiting NASA. Sara and Rip also talk about their current captain situation, with Rip admitting he feels like Sara has done a pretty good job, possibly better than he has.
His Thoughts on Legends of Tomorrow, Season 2 Episode 14: Moonshot
This episode was interesting, as watching what the Legends would do in regards to the Apollo 13 mission was an entertaining watch. The episode also seemed to want to humanize Eobard a little bit, with his working together with Ray Palmer. Clearly, Eobard is trying to survive, and his reasons for wanting to alter reality itself are a bit selfish—but it is to save his life so it makes sense I guess.
It seems Legends of Tomorrow has figured out its formula though—be a bit campy and basically rewrite every major historical event in our history books. I haven’t really decided if I like this approach yet or not. But we will have to go with it for now, and see.
I was curious how the whole captain situation would work out with the Waverider, as this is technically Rip’s ship, but Sara has sort of taken the reigns in Rip’s absence. I have a feeling we will be seeing some back and forth with those two in terms of how they would approach certain situations—much like we saw happen this episode.
Her Thoughts on Legends of Tomorrow, Season 2 Episode 14: Moonshot
COMING SOON
Scenes from Legends of Tomorrow, Season 2 Episode 15: Fellowship of the Spear
Preview of Season 2 Episode 15 of Legends of Tomorrow
