While tonight's episode isn't nearly as good as last week's Star City adventure, 'Marooned' featured some of the best character development in the show's limited run thus far. It still had some of the usual Legends issues, but there was enough good to far outweigh the bad. It also felt like a heavy sci-fi homage episode. Plenty of characters referenced both Star Trek and Star Wars on multiple occasions and even the graphics leading into the title card appearing felt like the Waverider was going into hyperspace the same exact way the Millennium Falcon does. As far the plot itself? It felt like something straight out of a firefly episode.
We got a much needed deeper look into Rip Hunter's backstory for the first time as Rip met his wife during the simulations for being a Time Master. Some of those moments worked, some didn't, but it gave us a little bit more of a reason to root for Rip, even though he's clearly still an unlikable character. Rip still isn't pulling any punches when it comes to ripping on his team as he called out Heatwave for being unnecessary and only on this mission because he was a package deal with Cold. Harsh.
This set off the sequence of events that led to Heatwave turning against his team in exchange for his ride home. It's really hard not to feel for Mick in this situation even if he's often just a nut chase on this show. He's always been the odd man out which is why the final scene with Cold was all the more tragic. I was getting such a Rick/Shane vibe (for Walking Dead fans) throughout the episode and it ultimately proved to reach the same conclusion. I can't believe I'm saying this but I will be disappointed if this is the end for Heatwave. But I'm also not sure they could have executed the last scene any better.
Some other character development came from Sara and Snart being trapped together in a cell that was rapidly freezing them to death. Sara has always been the most developed character, due to her time on Arrow, but Snart is starting to grow on me a lot. It seems as if Wentworth Miller has taken back the comic-booky spin on the character just a tad. I want more of these more laid back and meaningful scenes from this show rather than focusing on epic boss fights.
With that said, we did have a few really good panning shots from hero to hero taking out bad guys which was pretty cool, even if Ray still isn't using his powers to the maximum capability. Does shrinking give him any extra strength like it does for Ant-Man? Because Ray never seems to do anything with his suit besides be a 25 cent version of Iron Man. What Ray can do however, is win over a woman. Ray and Kendra it seems are officially a couple, going against everything that was said last week. Ugh.
Most of the episode focused on 'Time Pirates' attempting to take over the Waverider. I'm not sure they needed to be as cheesy as actually calling them Time Pirates, but it served a purpose for what the episode wanted. With that said, this was a significantly noticeable filler episode, just delaying the inevitable with Vandal Savage. I'm not sure how much longer the show can keep having episodes like this if they want to keep us interested. I'm of the belief this show would have been better off going with a 10 episode mini-series arc, but CW wouldn't be for that.
+Panning action shots from hero to hero
+Homage to sci-fi
+Great character moments
+Sara & Snart
-Ray and Kendra
-Can Ray do anything else with his suit?
8.1/10
