Legends of Tomorrow 1.07 “Marooned”

I do love me some space opera and this episode of Legends of Tomorrow delivers that in spades. “Marooned” takes place in deep space and offers up a few nods to DC’s Silver Age when the company explored all manner of Strange Adventures and many a Mystery in Space.

The episode begins with Rip Hunter watching a message from his son, Jonas (Kiefer O’Reilly) and the boy’s mother, Miranda (Alex Duncan) as he laments the fact that Savage’s trail has grown cold. In the meantime, the Legends have started to grow antsy, save for Mick Rory who is downright hostile after Snart dragged him away from the gangster’s paradise that was Star City of 20146.

When Stein comes to check on him, Hunter reveals that Gideon needs the latest intel updates from the Vanishing Point to try and figure out where Savage might be found next, but because of his status with the Time Council, there is no way to get this. When the Waverider receives a distress call from another timeship, the Acheron. Hunter decides to answer this S.O.S. in the hopes of securing the information update that is needed. He, Stein, Jefferson and Rory head to the Acheron via the jumpship and Stein stays there while the others go on board and quickly learn the nature of the emergency: The Acheron has been taken over by time pirates.

This band of space dogs is led by Captain John Valor (Callum Keith Rennie), and his men were prisoners of Captain Eve Baxter (Stephanie Cleough), the commander of the Acheron, and were being taken back to the Vanishing Point to be imprisoned. The time pirates are stranded since Baxter destroyed her ship’s time drive and now they mean to have the Waverider by any means necessary.

When Valor opens up a line to the Waverider, Hunter is able to give Gideon a series of commands that first orders the ship to fire on the pirates and then flee from its current position. When the Acheron fires on the Waverider, it does damage to the hull, and in the process Sara and Snart are trapped when they go to make repairs and are sealed inside the damaged section. After Stein sneaks on board and disables the Acheron’s weapons, and once the pirates realize that the ship they are pursuing is a hologram (another of Hunter’s tricks), Valor orders the Time Master and the others be locked in the brig with Captain Baxter.

As Ray goes outside the Waverider to fix the breach in the hull so he can save Sara and Snart, Hunter and Rory have it out once and for all. Infuriated and frustrated, Hunter tells Rory that he is on this mission only because he was a package deal. Hunter needed Snart, but he never wanted him. This is all Rory needs to hear to strike a deal with Valor and his men. After Valor roughs Rory up to make his escape look realistic, Heat Wave takes the jumpship and heads to the Waverider with a pack of Valor’s men with him. They arrive just after Ray almost dies sealing the breach and is revived by Kendra.

Back on the Acheron, Stein locates Hunter, Jefferson and Baxter and initiates their escape. As Ray and the others fight Rory and the band of pirates on the Waverider, Hunter tracks down Valor and dukes it out with him for control of the Acheron. In the end, the Legends take down their traitorous teammate and save their ship and Hunter is able to blow the pirates out of an airlock once Stein and the others have them in position.

After the battles are done and both ships are secured, Captain Baxter repays Hunter by giving him the latest intel from the Vanishing Point. With it, the Acheron’s computer, Gilbert (Andrew Pifko), has determined that Savage can next be located in Harmony Falls, OR in 1958. With the next destination plotted, the only thing left to do is figuring out what is to do with Rory. He can’t be held on the ship and Snart advises against taking him back to 2016 since he is sure to strike back at their loved ones. In the end, Snart takes Rory out to the middle of nowhere, and in the most WTH!? moment of this series so far, appears to kill him.

“Marooned” serves as the origin story for Rip Hunter. In a series of flashbacks, we see how his and Miranda’s affair was first discovered by the Time Masters and how she sacrificed her career to preserve Rip’s. Also, based on the interaction with Valor, we get the sense that Hunter really was the most feared of the Time Masters. He just seems to be in his element going up against the time pirates. On top of all this, we also get the exchange with Rory where Hunter is painfully blunt. In this scene, we get a sense of the weight Hunter is carrying and how it has caught up to him in this one moment of frustration. All these elements combined come together perfectly and, for the first time, I fully bought Arthur Darvill in this role.

While the action lies with the pirates aboard the Acheron, the drama is between Rory and Snart. The events from the previous episode have strained their partnership, and while Snart has embraced his better angels, Rory is giving into his inner demons. During the scenes when Sara and Snart are trapped together, we find out that Snart and Rory met in reform school. Indeed, Rory saved Snart’s life on the first day and the two have been watching each other’s back ever since. When Rory first betrays Hunter and the others, I kept thinking this had to be a trick. Finding out he was willing to sell the team out was a shocker.

The final moments of the episode when it looks like Snart just iced his partner, and perhaps the closest thing he has to a best friend though, that is when you’ll need to pick your jaw off the floor. I’m curious to see where the show goes after this. I especially want to know what happened to Rory, if he is dead or perhaps just incapacitated, and I’m eager to see how this impacts Snart going forward. Kudos to Dominic Purcell and Wentworth Miller for turning in two powerhouse performances and giving true gravitas to their villainous personas.

It isn’t all doom and gloom in this episode, thankfully. There are some genuinely hilarious moments with Ray commanding the Waverider and playing at being a Starfleet captain. Also, the interaction between him and Kendra when they both let their inner geeks show, arguing the merits of Kirk and Picard, are kind of cute. You can tell its gonna end with them hooking up by the end of the episode, but these scenes between Brandon Routh and Ciara Renée are cute and they seem to have a nice chemistry going on. It is also delightful to watch Stein live out his boyhood fantasy of being a space hero in this episode. Once again, Stein comes through and saves the day, but Victor Garber gets to have a blast doing it.

Speaking of Stein, we learn that his boyhood hero was none other than DC’s answer to Buck Rogers, Rick Starr, aka Space Ranger. Besides Space Ranger’s mention, in a scene where Hunter is feeding Gideon secret commands, he comments that Palmer outran Kanjar Ro (a space villain who often fought the Justice League of America). I do love Easter Eggs like these.

To say “Marooned” was an out of this world episode would be correct and a really good pun. Across the board, it is stellar. I give it 4 Stars.