In any event, this episode has the team track down Nate's grandfather, Hank Heywood, in order to retrieve the final piece of the spear. The good news is that Rip knows what year he dropped the former JSA member off. Amaya makes mention that Hank was something of a chameleon. You'd think this would work in their favor, as even Sara notes that it makes it hard for the legion to find him. The thing is, the team has a very easy time of finding him. I guess that was something of an informed ability.
Not that it matters anyway, Thawne had apparently deduced the location of the final piece and was on his way to get it.
Props to Commander Steele though, hiding it on the moon (in the flag that Armstrong planted to be specific) was a stroke of genius. Even though he is largely unaware of the capabilities of the Legion, he knew that it wouldn't be safe on Earth, thus hid it off-world. The moon isn't exactly easily accessible, so again, hats off to him for pulling that off.
Now, the genius is somewhat negated when you take into account Thawne's time travel abilities. He could have just gone to the future where space travel was more common, but his plan to fix the Apollo 13 vessel works well too.
As the episode largely takes place in small, confined spaces; the team doesn't really get to show off its superhero skills. Even the initial skirmish between Ray and Thawne was subdued, though it does allow both to showcase their non-powered combat ability.
There is still tension aplenty as lives hang in the balance and the crews of both the Apollo and the Waverider face various perils.
On top of that, the episode gives the characters a real chance to shine. Where Commander Steele was somewhat bland in his JSA outing, here he comes off as much more layered, noble, and sympathetic. This, in turn, effects Nate, who wants to return his grandfather to the past so that he can be present to raise Nate's father and make him a better man in order to improve his own upbringing.
Granted, the family vs history conflict has come up with other characters (Jax, Rip, Sara) but it was really well done here. When you have a group of people traveling through time, it makes sense that they'd want to go back and fix things about their lives that they think went wrong. The Flash himself fell victim to this mentality, though I think this proves Oliver's point about how anyone would have done the same thing. The fact that the writing and the cast worked as well as they did only made the episode (and its ending) that much more effective.
This also ties into Nate's relationship woes with Amaya, as he has to reconcile their blossoming romance with her destiny. This conflict also works well, though the highlight for me was Amaya asking about what happens. This results in Mari not only getting mentioned, but us seeing photos of her (from her stint on "Arrow") pop up on the viewscreen.
Even Thawne himself got a strong showing. It wasn't so much that he was a menacing presence, but he came off much more human. His alliance with Ray was purely pragmatic, but it did allow him a chance to showcase his scientific prowess as well as reflect on things. The nods to his time as Wells were a nice touch, with him saying that he missed the camaraderie he had with Cisco and Caitlin. I thought this remnant was Thawne before he ventured back and did all of that, but I could be remembering wrong. I still liked the callback in any event.
With Rip's return, there was a bit of a tug of war between he and Sara about command. It never gets too overblown, but you can tell that he's out of the loop. It gets to the point where the team is able to execute ideas before he even has them. Even Hank notes that the team is more organized than they were when he first met them back in WW2. I remember reading one review saying that Rip should just be dropped off somewhere, as his role in the show is done, but it was nice to see Sara make it clear that he's still part of the team. Who knows, being the ship's second in command could work to his advantage. He can still bring his knowledge, skill set, and insight to the table; but not have to worry about the pressure of tough calls and the stresses of wrangling all these so called misfits.
For all the great characterization and tension, the memorable show stealer is going to be Stein spontaneously breaking out into a rendition of Belafonte's "Banana Boat Song" to distract mission control in order to buy the team a few more minutes. Even if you know it's coming, the sheer "...Wat" factor alone makes it jarringly hilarious. You could tell that Garber was enjoying the hell out of it, though, as he goes as over the top as he can with it. Even the producers seemed to get a kick out of it as the scene is replayed over the show's closing credits. The sense of the fun that is being had on this set is palpable, even through the screen.
All in all, this was a solid outing for the show. It managed to give several characters meaningful plot arcs and kept the viewer engaged throughout. The situation kept the team's power set in check in a believable fashion, allowing for enough tension to make up for the lack of superheroics. Also, Stein sang "Day-O", I mean...come on.
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