Mar 18, 2017
Eobard Thawne takes on Jack Swigert’s identity and hitches a ride to the moon on the Apollo 13 mission. The Legends track down Commander Steel to convince him to turn over his piece of the Spear for safekeeping.
Synopsis
Rip Hunter leaves Henry Heywood in 1965 with the final piece of the Spear of Destiny. He disappears into the crowd as Rip Hunter leads the Legends to the exact spot where he left him, but Commander Steel has already disappeared. The Legends return to the ship and deduce that Henry Heywood must be working for NASA. Sara commands the team to infiltrate NASA and locate Henry.
Rip and Ray find Henry preparing to brief the press on the mission. As Rip approaches Henry and holds out his hand, Henry punches Rip in the face. He takes proper press credentials pretty seriously! Sara, Nate and Amaya join Ray and Henry who has locked Rip in a room. They explain why they have come for him in 1970 and he assures them his piece of the Spear is safe because it is not any where on Earth. He’s hidden it inside the flag Neil Armstrong planted on the moon.
As soon as the Odyssey goes radio silent, Eobard Thawne resumes his own identity after knocking out the other astronauts. He heads into the lunar module just as miniaturized Ray enters the command module and spots him. Ray tries to stow away with him, but Thawne sees him and an epic space fight ensues. Thanks to zero gravity, Thawne cannot use his superspeed and both are on an equal playing field. Ray shoots Thawne with his phaser and disengages the lunar module. It’s now up to Ray to land the lunar module on the moon.
Back on Earth, Jax, Stein and Rory are posing as British controllers. Sara radios down to let them know Ray is about to crash land on the moon and Stein quickly comes-up with a plan to distract the room of flight controllers while Jax cuts the feed. Daylight come and me won go home! Ray more or less lands safely on the moon without enough fuel to launch the LEM back into space. While he retrieves the piece of the Spear, the rest of the Legends onboard the Waverider rescue the command module which is headed straight for an asteroid field. Rip and Sara argue about the best course of action and she ultimately uses the Waverider to shield the command module from the asteroids, causing irreparable damage to the ship. All nonessential systems are shut down, including Gideon.
Sara gives Ray the bad news and lets him know he will have to find a way off the moon on his own. With the damage to the Waverider, she won’t be able to pick him up as planned. Thawne convinces Ray that he needs his help and they form a temporary alliance to reroute the dwarf star energy from Ray’s suit to fuel the LEM and reconnect with the command module. On Sara’s mark, they launch the LEM and head straight for the command module, which Sara maneuvers in place with the tractor beam. Eobard is escorted immediately to the brig.
With the Odyssey intact on the way home, our team celebrates. Dr. Stein, however, has done the math and realizes it will be next to impossible for the Legends to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere. Luckily, their prisoner is an expert in astronavigation and already knows the angle at which the Waverider needs to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere to remain intact. Unfortunately, they are one degree off the right angle and the only way to correct is to open the cargo bay, by hand. First Rip, then Sara, volunteer, but Henry has already left. Rip coaches him through opening the door as Nate runs to talk him out of it. His son is waiting in mission control. Henry tells Nate to give Hank a message and opens the cargo door. The Waverider is now on course to safely enter the Earth’s atmosphere.
As soon as the Legends land, Eobard phases through the glass and Ray keeps him talking just long enough for his Black Flash alarm to go off. Thawne speeds off with no time to look for the other pieces of the Spear.
In the final scene, we see Amaya ask Gideon about her future, but you aren’t supposed to know what your future holds…
Links
Air and Space Museum - Apollo 13 Mission
Arrow Wikia - Appearance Stealing Device
FAA Training Manuals - Returning from Space
Contact Information
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