As one of the first female superheroes to ever grace comic books, you’d think the writers of Legends of Tomorrow would give Hawkgirl (Kendra Saunders) more importance and signifigance, rather than pushing her to the side and attempting to give her another boyfriend.
The episode begins with a visibly depressed Rip Hunter, who tortures himself by replaying a hologram of his late son and wife telling him that they love and miss him. It’s great that the writers are showing what drives Rip to make certain decision. Once interrupted by Dr. Stein, Rip points out that Gideon is unable to track Vandal Savage as she needs what basically amounts to a software update. The team receives a distress call from a time master aboard the Akeron trapped in deep space, which everyone clearly recognizes as a trap. But Rip is determined to pursue this, as he believes he can acquire parts to fix up Gideon. Joined by Mick, Jackson and Dr. Stein, Rip leaves for the Akeron, leaving Ray in charge of the Waverider. Dr. Stein reveals his dreams of traveling into outer space as a child and so Rip leaves him behind on the jump ship, taking Mick and Jackson with him to fight some space pirates who have taken over the Akeron.
The three are quickly taken by the pirates who then reveal that they plan to take over the Waverider, resulting in Rip activating protocols through Gideon to protect the ship and the four heroes onboard. Predictably, the pirates fire at the Waverider and end up damaging the hull. Sara and Leonard take the initiative to fix it, but end up getting locked in the engine room where the air is slowly leaking out. While Ray attempts to repair the hull from the outside, Sara and Leonard huddle together to stay warm and start to bond, which is when we learn the story of how Leonard and Mick met – which was probably the nicest part of the entire episode (in my opinion). I like that Leonard relatively gets along with everyone on the team. He reveals to Sara that Mick stood up for him when he was defenseless, which is why he sticks with Mick.
Meanwhile back at the Akeron, Dr. Stein climbs on board and manages to disable the ship’s weapons system, stopping the Waverider from being targeted further. After being insulted by Rip, Mick decides that he’s had enough and betrays the team and joins the pirate side. I think we all saw that coming, but a little part of me hoped that it was just an act, that he’d burn the pirates and help his friends after all.
Ray eventually fixes the breach in the hull, but goes into cardiac arrest once he gets back onto the Waverider. And here, the writers thought it would be good for Kendra to basically declare her feelings for him, telling him that she can’t lose him too, while trying to revive him. Sara and Leonard reunite with the two, only for Gideon to give them the news of Mick apparently escaping from the pirates and returning to the ship. But of course, Mick brings along the pirates and here we see Leonard do something that was once unimaginable: he rejects Mick’s offer to join him and the pirates with a blast from his cold gun. Sara and Kendra show their combat skills by taking down most of the pirates, with the occasional help of Ray and Leonard. Sara goes after Mick who is trying to steal the Time Drive from the Waverider, almost gets burnt to a crisp but is saved by the timely intervention of Leonard who takes Mick down with his cold gun.
Celebrating the victory of defeating the space pirates, Ray tells Kendra that he remembers what she said to him when he was about to die and the two share a loving kiss. Fast forward to the team huddling together, they try to come to a decision on what actions they should take against Mick for betraying them. Leonard volunteers to take care of it, taking Mick out into what seems to be the middle of nowhere and apparently kills him.
This episode we got to see the deteriorating relationship between Leonard and Mick, which was understandable. Mick still feels as though he doesn’t belong to this team of legends and that a life of crime is what he is destined for. While Leonard has had an impressive character development, he thinks he can make a name for himself by helping save the world. It’s refreshing to see the two given more importance and bigger roles since we really didn’t get to see that in The Flash. Granted they were the main villains for a little while, but there wasn’t much to them – with the exception of Leonard showing his affection for his sister. Although we haven’t learnt too much about Mick throughout Legends of Tomorrow, there is still time to learn more about what drives him. The duo have stolen the show yet again and it’s interesting to see their conflicting ideas. We’ve seen the contrasting personalities from the beginning of their introductions on The Flash and we knew right then that Leonard did have some good in him. But it is great that the two have been fleshed out further on LoT.
Focusing on Rip’s past with the woman he loved, I understand why he makes certain decisions. Although some are very questionable in terms of leadership, Rip needs to avenge his family and take down Vandal Savage for good. And while this could have potentially given a lift to his otherwise tedious character, it unfortunately didn’t leaving us with a leader who doubts some of his own crew members and proves to be kind of a jerk.
But with yet another slightly unimpressive episode, Kendra is being pushed into one more relationship, this time with Ray Palmer. I still feel like this subplot is completely unnecessary. What are we going to get out of this? A feud between Ray and Jackson? If Carter returns, a feud between him and Ray? Kendra focusing all her attention on two men? Savage going after Ray personally because he used to love Chay-Ara? We don’t need that. Kendra doesn’t need that. Kendra desperately needs to find her inner Warrior Goddess and beat up some bad guys along with Sara, so that we get the two leading female characters that we deserve, and that they deserve to be.
As enjoyable as the Star Trek references were, they weren’t enough to make this a great episode.
