Legends of Tomorrow S2 Ep. 14 Thoughts

"Moonshot"

This week's episode of Legends of Tomorrow was by far one of the most entertaining of the season. The historical setting of the 60's NASA boardroom/Apollo 13 operation was nicely presented and the story of the week was filled with great individual character moments.

I loved getting to see Eobard Thawne as a scientist more so than a speedster as it reminded audiences that he is in fact a highly intelligent person from the future at the end of the day. It was great seeing him having to work with Ray in a temporary alliance in order to save themselves as it offered up some interesting conversations. Fans of the Flash are definitely given a couple of nice callbacks during the heated discussions between the two. Ray calls Eobard out as a murderer for what he did to Barry's parents after Thawne tries to present himself as not being a straightforward monster. We even see him briefly reminiscing about his camaraderie with Cisco and Barry back in the day.

One of my favorite highlights from this discussion however is when Thawne reveals that he wants the spear simply so that he can live. It's a great moment to take note of as it adds an extra interesting layer of humanity to the season villain unlike the previous installment. Thawne is essentially just a man running from time (which Ray tells him that the team has already discovered his secret being a time remnant). I was expecting to see the Black Flash show up, but I'm actually glad that they didn't include him in and instead showed Thawne basically running away in a panic once his timer beeped off. It's a nice audio cue that invokes the Black Flash's presence without him actually having to be there. It's interesting just how much of Eobard's character/story we're getting from a spin-off series.

The character drama between Nathan, Amaya, and Henry was great adding onto the emotional back bone of the Citizen Steel arc as well as introducing an interesting line of tension for the Vixen character moving forward. It was great seeing another member of the Justice Society playing a crucial part to the story aside from being just another keeper of one of the spear fragments. I actually did get a little emotionally invested in the whole Father-Son dynamic between the two making Henry's sacrifice much more impactful than it would've been.

As far as comedy goes, there will never be a more hilarious and awkward moment on the show than the random Professor Stein music number. Watching Stein stand up to distract the NASA boardroom by singing "The Banana Boat Song" has got to be greatest thing ever thrown on television at this point. Speaking of comedic brilliance, Mick subtly steals the scene in this episode with his complete uselessness partnering up with Stein only to lay low in the background eating and stealing cigars. However, he does end up singing alongside Stein complimenting him on his voice at the end.

Overall, this is exactly what I expect a great "Setting of the Week" Legends of Tomorrow episode to feel like. The historical setting was well utilized for story and entertainment purposes and the central characters each had their own shining moment and/or significant bit of development to reflect on. This is also the most hilarious episode that I've seen in the CWDC brand which is an interesting accomplishment in of itself. This season has been a major step up from the previous run, and if this episode is any indication, the show runners are certainly trying to keep it that way. I look forward to seeing what the future brings for our band of time jumping misfits. 

Bonus Content

1. Hilarious Ending Credits?

I never thought I'd say this in an episode of Legends of Tomorrow, but the ending credits sequence is absolutely hilarious. They actually isolated the scene with Stein singing with the hilarious compliment from Mick in the end as icing on the cake. 

2. Vixen Easter Egg

With Amaya now discovering her fate through Gideon, we get a cool easter egg of the present day Vixen (as seen briefly in Season 4 of Arrow and the Vixen animated series).

3. Thawne Invented Anti-Speedster Weapons

It's interesting to note that Thawne reveals that the anti-speedster weapons onboard the ship was created by him. This adds an even more interesting layer to the lore of the Reverse Flash. I do wonder if this reveal will play a significant part in the future of the Flash series.

4. Opening Credits Visual Gag

I love the fact that they utilized Mick's opening title narration to set the comedic tone of the episode with a genius ending visual of Ray's prehistoric sculptures of the team from the previous episode. Maybe this visual gag can be the show's official tone indicator for whenever viewers are going into a more comedic new episode.

Episode Rating: 9/10