Legends Of Tomorrow Tidbits – Season 1, Episode 7 – “Marooned”

“Marooned” — the seventh episode of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow saw half the team taken hostage by Time Pirates.  Yep, you read that correctly — Time Pirates!  The episode also delved deeper into Rip’s backstory and saw the final rift between friends/partners Leonard Snart and Mick Rory.

Quick Recap of Legends of Tomorrow – Season 1, Episode 7 – “Marooned”

Rip has lost track of Vandal Savage, and that’s because Gideon’s database can’t be updated.  You know, the whole going rogue and being cut off from the Time council basically revokes your rights and privileges for such services.  However, hope comes in the form of a distress signal from another time ship called the Acheron — commanded by Captain Eve Baxter.  A team composed of Rip, Mick, Martin, and Jax make a trip via the jumpship to the Acheron.  Rip, Jax, and Mick board the ship, but are quickly taken hostage by Time Pirates led by Captain John Valor.

Valor now wants the Waverider and contacts Ray, who was left in command by Rip.  Seeing the opportunity, Rip gives Gideon a secret voice command for counter-measures.  The Waverider fires back and leads the Acheron on a pursuit, which ends up damaging the Waverider.  Leonard and Sara attempt to fix the damage, but are trapped in the bulkhead when the ship attempts to seal itself.

On the Acheron, Rip and Mick are at each other’s throats.  Martin, growing worried about the team, leaves the jumpship to look for them.  He quickly engages one of the Time Pirates and is able over power him and take his rifle.  In the holding cell, Mick learns that Rip never wanted him on this mission.  Angered, Mick calls out to the Time Pirates to cut a deal with Valor.  He’s freed and taken to the Captain.  Soon after, Martin arrives and breaks the rest of his friends out.

Ray suits up in his ATOM suit to fix the Waverider from the outside.  In the bulkhead, temperatures have dropped dramatically.  Leonard tells Sara how he and Mick met when they were young — which entailed Mick protecting Leonard from bullies who were about to kill him.  As Ray seals the breach, his ATOM suits oxygen levels deplete.  Sara and Leonard are successfully freed from the bulkhead.  A worried Kendra finds an unconscious Ray in the airlock.  She administers a few chest blows which revive Ray.

Gideon suddenly detects Mick approaching the Waverider.  The team assumes Mick escaped, but soon finds out that Mick betrayed them when he boards.  The team fights Mick and the Time Pirates.  On board the Acheron, Rip fights Valor.  At the last moment, Rip and the team initiate their trap and vent all of Valor’s men out of the Acheron and into deep space.  Mick is finally subdued, and the team reunites.

Leonard takes it on himself to “take care” of Mick.  At an unknown location, Leonard and Mick exchange a few last words.  Leonard then fires his freeze ray at Mick, but the outcome is unknown.

Throughout the episode, we also had flashback’s from Rip’s past.  We learned that both him and his wife were training as Time Masters.  She voluntarily resigned after the Time Masters discovered their relationship.  She knew being a Time Master was Rip’s dream, but her new dream now was loving Rip.

Next: Catch up on Legends of Tomorrow with a recap of 'Marooned'

Character Highlights

This week, in terms of character development, we had both physical and emotional highlights.  Let’s first cover the two characters who pulled our heartstrings the most: Rip and Leonard.  Not much of Rip’s backstory has been delved into, but “Marooned” gave us the best background information of Rip to-date.  We finally learned his internal turmoil and why he’s so determined to get Vandal Savage — not that this was any different than his original excuse, but it made his reasons evermore compelling.

The history of Leonard’s and Mick’s first meeting was also explored.  The reminiscing of how Mick protected Leonard made the audience see why Leonard would stick by his hot-headed friend all these years.  The last scene was especially hard to watch because you knew these two were probably more than partners — they were brothers.

And finally, Martin Stein surprised everybody with his turn as a soldier and a warrior.  Taking it upon himself to save the team, we saw the good professor beat up some bad guys and fight alongside the rest of the team.  He didn’t just hold his own pretty well, the man kicked ass!

Easter Eggs and References

• Captain Eve Baxter is based on Bonnie Baxter from the comics.  In the comics, Bonnie was an academic who had an affair with a professor at her college.  She requested to join Rip’s team when news of her affair was going to end her career.
• The Acheron is the name of a powerful ghost in the DC universe.
• Martin Stein references Rick Starr.  This is an actual comic book character who had a backstory of being a millionaire who became a space ranger to protect Earth.
• Ray Palmer frequently references and pretends to be characters from Star Wars (Han Solo) and Star Trek (Captains Kirk and Picard).
• The secret code Rip used to activate the Waverider’s counter-measures was “Imperiex.”  Imperiex was a super-villain in a DC universe story arc called “Our Worlds at War.”
• There was a mention of a “Kanjar Ro” on the Waverider.  Kanjar Ro is one of the earliest super-villains to face off with the Justice League.
• In one of Rip’s flashbacks, we learn that all Time Masters don’t use their real names due to safety reasons (so an enemy doesn’t use that knowledge and go back in time and wipe him/her out of existence).  This is a direct reference to Rip Hunter having the actual last name of Carter.  Carter is also the last name of Michael Jon Carter — a.k.a. Booster Gold and Rip’s dad who’s also a time-traveler.
• Captain John Valor is actually loosely based on John Valor, the Black Pirate, in the comics.  The Black Pirate was a British nobleman who made it his mission to fight the Spanish in the late 16th century.

Questions

• The biggest question is going to be “Did Leonard really kill Mick during the final scene of “Marooned’?”
• Why didn’t Martin and Jax transform into Firestorm?  They had multiple opportunities to do so.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow airs on The CW on Thursdays at 8:00PM EST.