Between the title and the preview, you might expect a "bottle episode" where the team deals with a crazed Mick while trapped on the Waverider. It's true, Mick still isn't happy about being dragged away from 2046, and cabin fever doesn't help, but he's not the main antagonist of the episode.
Instead, the team finds themselves dealing with space pirates (who I dub the Legends of Tom-arrrr-ow). Sadly, they aren't as cool as they sound. They serve their role well enough, but they aren't as impressive as other foes.
To make up for this, the team is nerfed to some extent. Again, they split up (with both Stein and Jax separating) and more of the action is based on ship to ship combat, rendering most of the team unable to play to their strengths until later in the episode.
On the one hand, I get it, you want to put them in tight situations, but it is frustrating when you want to see the heroes being epic and they keep dodging it. Heck, even when Jax and Stein reunite, it never occurs to them to form Firestorm when they are trying to gain the upper hand against the pirates. You could argue that fire on a spaceship is bad, but Mick has no problem using his flame thrower over the course of the episode.
Fortunately, the episode makes up for it with fairly strong character driven material. Rip is fleshed out , as we get a look at back story to a much greater extent. Really though, that opening scene of him in his room watching the hologram messages from his family was so heart wrenching that the rest, while good, kind of paled in comparison.
Quick question, he has a time machine, why doesn't he just go to the day before Vandal kills his family and take them on the Waverider? That thought just occurred to me as I was watching his emotional journey unfold. I'm sure there's some sort of paradox, but you wonder about these things when time travel becomes a factor. Speaking of which, the ship is essentially revealed to be a TARDIS, as it can go through space too.
Oddly, no mention of Doctor Who in the dialogue, but there are plenty of Star Wars and Star Trek references to fill the void. They worked fine, though they missed a perfect one when Kendra is trying to revive Ray and Gideon notes the slim odds of his survival. I was honestly expecting her to respond with the Han Solo line, as she shows a bit of a geeky side herself, but I guess her mind was focused on other matters.
I was surprised to see the Ray/Kendra romance continue. On the one hand, it avoids the plot cul-de-sac, but it had other problems anyway. Really, the only callback I needed was Ray's joke about how poorly their "space date" was going. Who knows? With more screen time, they could sell me on it yet.
The other character highlight of the episode, though, is the deterioration of Snart's and Mick's bond. The prior is convinced that Mick just needs time to let things mend, but it never gets to that point as Mick betrays the team, forcing Snart's hand.
I kind of blame Rip for the turn, though. Yeah, Snart dragged him away from 2046 last episode, but here we see Rip get in his face, call him an idiot, and flat out say that he didn't want Mick on the team in the first place. It's one of those "what did you think was going to happen?" situations. It's especially odd as Mick had been pulling his weight. He was even able to offer helpful insight on various occasions, despite the lack of book smarts. While he may not be the ideal "hero", as a teammate, he had a role regardless.
It leads to a rather powerful scene as Snart has to put Mick down. Dropping him off in the present isn't an option as he would likely still pursue the vendetta. While it's never brought up, I suppose dropping him off in 2046 isn't an option either. Then again, they haven't really averted that timeline yet. In any event, Snart pulls an "Of Mice and Men". Both Miller and Purcell pulled the tense palaver off rather well, though I have to admit, Miller's line delivery is starting to wear thin for me. It's too late to change at this point, but it isn't working as much as it used to.
While it isn't a "cliffhanger" it also made for a great wham moment to close the episode, as Snart opened fire on his longtime friend and partner.
Next week, it looks like the conflict will return to Vandal Savage and the team will return to the past. The trailer was odd, so I'm not really sure what to make of what direction it's going to go. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
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