Legends of Tomorrow Season 2 Episode 14: Moonshot Recap

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This week, we go to the moon with Ray and the Reverse Flash! We lose another member of the Justice Society of America. And Rip figures out what the rest of us have known for a long time: Sara Lance is a much better captain than he is. I spent most of season 1 yelling at Sara and Snart to stage a mutiny. Also, a duet by Victor Garber and Dominic Purcell, which is the kind of thing that makes this show must see TV.

We start with original Rip dropping Henry Heywood/Commander Steel off in Manhattan in 1965, where he will be responsible for protecting the last piece of the Spear of Destiny. Moments later, new Rip, Nate, Amaya and Sara arrive to find them and retrieve the Spear fragment. We all know it won’t be that simple, though, or there won’t be an episode.

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The OA Season 1 Episode 8: Invisible Self Recap

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This episode brings us to the end of season 1 and the end of the story of Prairie’s captivity. It’s full of endings, and possibly beginnings. We’re left with an ambiguous ending to the episode, after everything Prairie has told us has been questioned, reminding us that her mental health has been in question since Nancy and Abel adopted her. It’s left up to the viewer to decide how much to believe is real, and how much is fantasy, delusion or coincidence.

This episode picks up exactly where episode six left off, with Sheriff Markham walking in on Hap engrossed in listening to the rings of Saturn, while sitting in front of the captive monitors. Hap immediately confesses, but offers to use the captives to heal the Sheriff’s wife, Evelyn, who is dying from ALS. The sheriff appears unmoved as he cuffs Hap, and protests that he doesn’t make deals. Hap quotes his late mentor, Leon, saying that they both know there is no good or evil, only what a man can stand. Sheriff Markham says nothing as he drives Hap away in his patrol car without checking on the hostages. The next scene shows him carrying Evelyn to the car. He’s given in.

The captives get excited when the sheriff brings Hap downstairs at gunpoint, but only Homer and Prairie are taken out of their cages, then forced upstairs. Hap leads them to a bedroom, where he shows them Evelyn lying twisted on the bed, and tells them that he is going to lock them in the bedroom until they heal her. He and the sheriff will be watching through the monitor. He leaves Prairie and Homer alone with Evelyn.

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The OA Season 1 Episode 7: Empire of Light Recap

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This is a difficult episode. Buck’s front door slamming shut was indeed a bad omen. We spend the episode entirely in the present day, as those characters are faced with increasing emotional challenges. Prairie starts moving back out into the world and confronting people’s image of her as a victim. She’s forced to face the pain she’s caused her adoptive parents, and the trauma they caused her as a child. Her story starts to come full circle.

Abel and Nancy are woken up in the middle of the night by Prairie screaming and crying. He goes in to check on her and finds that she’s had one of her premonitory nightmares. He sits with her as she recovers. Prairie asks Abel if he’s mad at her for running away. She tells him that she thought he’d understand her note, and that she’d be back in a few days. He looks surprised, then tells her that he forgot about the note.

Prairie tells Elias, her therapist, about her dreams. He asks where the latest dream took place. She describes a place with high ceilings, lots of glass, and metal clanking, like silverware. He suggests that the dreams may be her mind putting together small clues from her environment rather than true premonitions. The dreams occur at important junctures in her life. This could mean that another juncture is coming.

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The OA Season 1 Episode 6: Forking Paths Recap

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Hap is spiraling out of control, as the captives’ bond grows. He’s forgotten the original premise of his experiments, and become obsessed with Khatoun’s movements. He’s as driven to find the last movements as the captives, and to understand what the movements lead to. His obsession leads him to start making mistakes.

Buck is trying to sneak out to the regular meeting at the empty house, but his parents are still downstairs. He practices the movements until he can slip out unnoticed. On his bike ride to the house, he sees flares lighting the remains of a crash on the side of the road. The others wait for him before they start, even though he’s a little late.

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The OA Season 1 Episode 5: Paradise Recap

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What is Paradise? It’s subjective, in the end. Growing up in one of the snowiest cities in the country, with a depressed, Rust Belt economy, paradise always sounded like a warm tropical island to me. But warm tropical islands have depressed economies and natural disasters of their own, making the people who live there want to find a different sort of paradise just as much. This episode looks at the expectations we have for escape, for each other, for paradise, for whatever we think should be perfect in our lives.

Hap is in a bar in Cuba to listen to a woman who plays flamenco guitar. After the performance, he approaches her on the patio. They chat, and he steers the conversation toward his study. She is an NDE survivor, and only took up the guitar after her experience. Hap makes her his usual offer, and includes helping her escape from Cuba. But she’s not as young or desperate as his other subjects. She rejects him, even though she wants to get off the island. He looks shocked, like it’s the first time this has ever happened. She dances away with a much younger man.

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The OA Season 1 Episode 4: Away Recap

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Sorry for the long delay with finishing this series! Hopefully I’ll be able to zip through the rest of the episodes now that we’re through with sweeps and other shows are taking breaks instead of ramping up. There are only five left in season one, including this one, so my plan is to have them done within the next two weeks, at most. Then we wait for season two, now that we know that a season two is coming.

This episode is a big one. We finally get to see Hap’s experiments, Prairie gets her sight back, we see the beginning of the escape plan form, we see the origin of the name OA, and both of Prairie’s teams begin to grow closer. This feels like a major turning point in the season.

Prairie wakes up on some sort of rocky, mossy plain, with a wide open sky and mountains in the distance. She realizes she’s dead again. There’s an old, red shed nearby. She enters it, and is in Khatoun’s star field. She tells Khatoun that she can see now. Khatoun tells Prairie that she always could, and beckons her over. They debate whether this was Prairie’s true time to die or not. Prairie doesn’t want to abandon the other captives. Khatoun says that as things stand now, the prisoners will never escape. They will all die in Hap’s basement, despite their determination to escape.

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Legends of Tomorrow Season 2 Episode 13: Land of the Lost Recap

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This week we finally get original flavor Rip back, or as close to it as he’s ever going to be. This show has found its rhythm in season 2 and is currently the best in the Berlantiverse at doing what it sets out to do. It’s become such a joy to watch, and on top of that we get Sara Lance fighting Sara Lance! I could’ve watched another 10 minutes of Sara on Sara hand-to-hand.

Sara and Jax are trying to find out the location of Nate’s grandfather and the last piece of the Spear of Destiny using the medallion, interfaced with Gideon. Things aren’t going well. Nate rushes in, all rude and impatient with Gideon. Gideon doesn’t appreciate the slight. Best not to insult the AI who runs the ship you live in, buddy.

Evil Rip is still in the brig, and calling for Gideon. She tries to ignore him, since she’s not supposed to talk to the bad man, but finally relents to tell him she’s supposed to ignore him. He uses three code words on her: “Spaniel, broad, bicycle.” She tries to refuse the order, but Rip repeats it. The brig door opens, and every other door on the ship slams shut. The team realizes what Rip is doing.

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The 100 Season 4 Episode 5: The Tinder Box Recap

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Okay, let’s all breathe. This episode was a tough one. Arkadia’s Mama Bear and Science Genius are facing threats to their lives, and the Ark is gone. We knew it was coming, based on the Season 4 poster, but the enormity of the loss didn’t hit me until it was actually burning. They haven’t just lost a potential lifeboat. They’ve lost their homes, their possessions, their medical supplies, their computers and all of the generations of knowledge stored there, their weapons, their farming equipment that wasn’t outside, their food supplies, everything. I don’t understand why someone hasn’t already shot Ilian between the eyes, but, based on the fact that they cast a cute young male actor to play him, he’ll probably be with us for a while. Cute boys can be forgiven anything in the CW world, and often in our own. 😡

Abby, Jackson and Raven have taken over Becca’s lab to try to recreate night blood. Raven hallucinates herself floating, then has a grand mal seizure.

Back in Arkadia, Niylah has brought the food she dries for the group. The hunters have been less successful than usual, probably because the increasing radiation is killing off the bottom of the food chain. Clarke has given Niylah a radio, and makes sure she has it charged.

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The 100 Season 4 Episode 4: A Lie Guarded Recap

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After I threatened to never speak of Jasper again in last week’s recap, he earned his keep this week, starting with the screen cap above. Yep, Jaha finally got floated. While I’m starting to feel like I need to post a Talking Dead-style “Who Did We Lose This Week and How?” montage every February and May, unfortunately Jaha wasn’t one of this week’s losses. He’s this series’ archvillain/cockroach, that guy they can never quite get rid of, and always want to find a way to redeem, because they see themselves in him. Or Isaiah Washington has an excellent contract lawyer whom the rest of the cast should hire immediately.

Instead, we lost another series-long recurring character this week, and the loss was barely acknowledged. I’ll look at that in more detail after the episode summary.

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Legends of Tomorrow Season 2 Episode 12: Camelot/3000 Recap

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Is sweeps month over yet? I love all of the action, but the death and destruction get a bit intense by the end of the month. Thank goodness we have Supergirl and Legends to lighten things up a bit. Remember, I said a bit. Supergirl was the designated hitter for humor this week. Legends is still coping with an evil ex Time Master.

It’s the year 3000, and we’re in Detroit. The local economy has improved in the last thousand years, if the skyline is anything to go by. I now have a Jonas Brothers song stuck in my head. Soon the Legends will be going to the Year 3000, as well, because Rip is already there, creating mischief. Rip approaches Dr Mid-Nite in his future lab. He wants the fragment of the Spear of Destiny that he left with Dr Mid-Nite, explaining to Mid-Nite that he’s taking it to the Vanishing Point. Mid-Nite points out that Rip said the Time Masters couldn’t be trusted. Boy, that turned out to be even more true than Rip knew. Rip shoots Mid-Nite and decides to retrieve the spear fragment the hard way. He assumes that means removing it from inside Mid-Nite’s body, since the doctor was researching cybernetic implants. Rip is also interested in Mid-Nite’s biomorphic mind control technology.

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