With Legends of Tomorrow, I feared that they would simply jump from one time to another, always being just a step behind Vandal Savage. Luckily, “Marooned,†proved to be a fantastic episode for all characters involved.
I’ve always been a tad bit down on Rip, but this episode certainly gave him some breathing room and made me sympathize with his character far more than I had previously. Throughout “Marooned,†we get to learn the backstory behind how Rip came to meet his wife. The episode goes on to explain that Rip and his wife, Miranda, met when they were trying to become Time Masters. Similar to becoming Vulcan in Star Trek, they must let go of all attachments. Since they got caught making out after a simulation, they were both to be expelled from the program, but Miranda took the fall because she found something better….love.
Yes, it does sound cheesy, but it also adds some tremendous depth to Rip’s character. Least of which is that Rip Hunter is actually a falsified name so that if they were to be compromised in their time mastering, the enemy couldn’t go to the past or future and alter their family’s timeline. This backstory really makes Rip’s actions more justified; although, he is still too harsh on the crew.
The rest of the crew was also given great plotlines this week, but the fracture between Mick and Snart was clearly at its breaking point. While we know Snart and Mick are essentially family, we don’t really know why. That is, until Snart and Sara are trapped and about to freeze to death hoping for Ray to become rocketman and take his Atom suit out into space to fix the Waverider. While Ray is repairing the breach, Snart opens up to Sara about why he and Mick are so close. As you’d expect, it stems from when they are in juvenile detention together. Snart was only 14 years old, and everyone is trying to pick on him on his first day. Mick steps in, and no one ever messed with Snart again.
Their whole ordeal finally boils over when they are intercepted by pirates that commandeered a Time Master’s ship. It was an obvious trap that they walked right into. It was Rip’s strict adherence to the Time Master’s code, which is funny because he basically went against their orders when chasing after Vandal, that got them into this mess.  The seams between Mick and Snart were pulled after Snart forced Mick out of the alternate Star City.
The final blow is when Rip goes off on Mick and says the only reason he is even part of the team is because the two came as a package deal. After this altercation, Mick makes a deal with the space pirates and takes them to commandeer the Waverider. With some great fight scenes amongst the entire group as usual, their conflict ends on somewhat of a cliff-hanger. We see Snart “take care of†Mick, but we aren’t 100{3a19833c997fa52158a43c449fe089ff048ac0506a335cac10721cfa396ff282} sure if he does indeed kill Mick. It would be a shame if Mick is gone because that would really get rid of a strong element with Snart. He wouldn’t have that crazed psycho to play off of so well.
As mentioned previously, Ray had some nice scenes where he got to test his suit in space. The scenes were actually done really well; although, they played it pretty close to the vest to ensure there weren’t any weird special effects to bring the scene down. A nice few scenes where Kendra was talking to Ray to keep him conscious were great, especially since it led to their first kiss. I don’t mind the kiss, but it’s hard to get over the fact that Hawkman is just kind of out the picture.