“Marooned” Was Heavy on the Onions and the Cheese
A pairing of onions and cheese is probably a big gastronomic disaster waiting to happen. But in the world of sci-fi and comic book shows, when you have some teary-eyed interactions coupled with a ridiculous premise, it translates into a delicious episode. So let’s gets started with some appetizers …
The Legends of Tomorrow After Show Team got a new member this week in the form of Rory Ross. Whoa, this is going to make my write-ups a doozy. To the After Show fans: when I say “Rory” I mean Rory Ross; when I say “Mick” I mean Mick Rory. Let’s get to it and hope that we can keep everyone’s names in order.
“Star” This and “Star” That
With all the time-traveling and space-faring the team has been doing, the three big “Stars” of the sci-fi world were going to be referred to at some point in the series. This week on “Marooned” sci-fi nerds got an overdose of callbacks and homages.
Tatiana caught this one: one of the characters mentioned “deep space” which is of course a reference to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Rory mentioned the Stargate-like wormhole effects which also looked like something out of Star Wars when the Millennium Falcon fired up its hyperdrive. Jack caught four of them: Martin Stein saying, “Great Scott!”; and Ray Palmer wanting to be Han Solo, Captain Kirk, and Captain Picard. Well, the latter was only after Kendra mentioned that she thought he was the “sexier” of the two Enterprise captains.
On top of all the references, I felt the whole episode was a big homage to the cheesy, sci-fi, direct-to-video movies we had in the 1980s. I mean, come on, we have “Time Pirates.” There was also Martin in a beret wielding a laser rifle. It was all very over-the-top — which was great!
Emotions Abound
The biggest takeaways from this episode were the emotions. Rip, Mick, Leonard, and Sara all had some pretty deep moments. Let’s start with Rip …
We opened the episode quite emotionally with Rip watching a holographic recording of his wife and son. This was the scene that turned Tatiana around. If all you fans out there recall, Tatiana, for most of this season, has not been on board with the Rip-wagon. She thought he had some ulterior motives and couldn’t be trusted. Well, this scene changed it all. Tatiana seems to be softening up to Rip now. Note to writers: if you ever want sympathy for a dastardly character, make him cry and reminisce about the good ole days. Rory (yes, our Rory, not Mick Rory) makes a good point that we can now see Rip’s frustrations. Every time he fails a mission, he’s only reminded of his loss — everything is compounded. Good catch there, Rory!
Of course Leonard and Sara were conveniently trapped in the Waverider’s bulkhead by the writers for some opportunistic character development. And I’m not one bit angry about it. However, as a writer, you can see it coming from miles away. We learned a lot about Leonard in these scenes, and it certainly humanized him. I agree with Tatiana that a delightful move by the writers was to not make this a romantic storyline. It was about two friends learning about each other’s backstories — giving the audience some great exposition. Those sneaky writers!
Even Mick was shown to not be as hard-assed as everyone thought. Look, if Mick was really that tough, Rip’s words wouldn’t have affected him, but they seem like they really pierced him pretty badly. I actually cringed when Rip let it out that Mick was basically a tag-along for Leonard. He was an unwanted necessary evil that came with the real prize of Captain Cold. Now that we’re talking about Mick and Leonard in the same paragraph, let’s address their crumbling friendship. This fact was made even more difficult after hearing Leonard’s backstory of how he met Mick. So, another kudos to the writers for giving us this emotional attachment and then tearing it away — making it hit deeper and harder.
As for the overall “romantic” storyline, I’m glad it didn’t go further than the Ray and Kendra scenes. Even those are enough. I’m completely with Jack on this one. I do not want to see any type of romance between the characters. I like the fact that they’re slowly becoming friends. By the end of the season, I hope the group acts more like a band of siblings — always ripping into each other, but caring about each other at the same time.
Our DC Database is Down
So we have quite a few mentions that bring up the question: are they deeply rooted in DC lore? With our rudimentary research, we sure as hell couldn’t find any references. If only we had a DC tome …
Sadly, Jon Lee Brody, our main man for DC references is no longer a co-host for the Legends of Tomorrow After Show. Jon, I raise my Superman mug of green tea to you. May your figurative travels be as adventurous as the Legends and, like Baby Kal-El, may you land safely and successfully at wherever your career is headed. We really could’ve used you this week in finding out if Eve Baxter and her ship, the Akaron, had any meaning in the DC universe … or any universe for that matter. The only Eve Baxter I know is Tim Allen’s teenage daughter on Last Man Standing. Yes, I love cheesy sitcoms, it’s the 1980s kid in me. And no, I haven’t started watching Fuller House yet.
So to all of you Legends of Tomorrow fans out there, if you know the significance of Eve Baxter or the Akaron, let us know!
The Biggest “Why?” of This Episode
Why did Martin and Jax not transform into Firestorom? Did I miss something? Was there some sort of of potential devastating space-time continuum effect had they merged? Throughout “Marooned”, I kept wondering why they didn’t become the Nuclear Man. I at least thought that was the first thing they would’ve done when Martin freed them. The other opportunity was when they were cornered, right before the Time Pirates were vented out of the Akaron. Any theories about this?
As always, Jack, Tatiana, Rory (our good Rory, not Mick Rory, although our Rory has claimed to have a dark side), and I would love to hear from you, so sound off in the comments!
You can also read my written recap of “Marooned” at Bam Smack Pow.
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Legends of Tomorrow After Show is where you will be joined by host Jack Hind, Tatiana Mariesa, and Rory Ross. They will discuss, review, and breakdown each new episode of Legends of Tomorrow.
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Biggest Why…seriously? Try burning a big torch in a close space. Soon everyone will start suffocate due to lack of oxygen…
It would’ve been an even bigger reason to become Firestorm. When they were cornered, they could’ve just merged and vacuumed the whole place without having to vent the ship via Rip in the control room.