Anytime an episode starts with a member of the crew saying something like “as long as he’s in the brig he can’t hurt anyone,” you know that there is about to be an epic beat down.
Which is exactly what happened this week.
Rip, from his spot in the brig, issues an override code that re-programs Gideon to listen to only him (that’s a really handy command to have on file). He orders her to take control of the ship and institutes the self-destruct sequence as he makes his way towards the medallion and the jump ship to escape.
But Bad Ass Rip in his all black evil wear isn’t actually able to take on his entire crew alone, and he is quickly taken down. Of course, so is the Waverider, and the crew ends up stranded in the Cretaceous Period when Gideon reverts back to the oldest date she has on file.
Since Ray has been here before, he leads Nate and Amaya into the dinosaur infested terrain to find the delineator, so that they can get Gideon back on line and pilot the Waverider to wherever Citizen Steel and the remaining piece of the Spear are hiding (which of course they don’t know where that is, but details).
At first I assumed this was the reason for the Land of the Lost title, but the dual purpose was made clear when the rest of the crew learn from Rory that the Time Lord’s had a method of going inside of people’s brains to recover lost memories. With Gideon’s help, Sara and Jax, enter into Rip’s crumbling consciousness in order to find the lost pieces of their Captain’s mind.
The best part of Rip’s mind palace is that it’s been tainted by Thawne and therefore his delusional views of the Waverider crew run rampant amongst the dark corners. Which means EVIL SARA. The only thing better than watching Sara Lance fight is watching Sara Lance fight herself. The battles are evenly matched and we get to see her kick a little ass…even if it is her own.
While Sara and Jax battle against Rip’s inner monsters, Ray, Nate, and Amaya find out that they may have to face a real life monster of their own since the missing piece of the Waverider has fallen into a nest of T-Rex’s eggs. The Dino Team argues over who will go after the egg, but since Ray has a previous relationship with Gertie the T-Rex (and a Castaway Hut complete with mini statues of each of his friends, adorbs), he heads off to retrieve the egg.
Back inside Rip’s mind Sara is able to locate a force-push powered good Rip, while Jax finds the fully three dimensional, body inhabiting Gideon. Much like the episode of Doctor Who where Idris the TARDIS gains a body, there is definitely a connection between the crew members and this living version of the Waverider’s interface. Both Jax and Sara seem surprised at how hot Gideon is (though it’s not really surprising Sara pointed it out since Sara has the best game of anyone on the ship) and Rip’s relationship with her is definitely deep.
Sara tries to get Rip to remember that this is his ship and that he controls what happens on it, but Gideon points out that Thawne has altered his perception of reality and Rip is no longer sure that any of them are real, nonetheless on his side. As Sara and Jax take on their evil selves (it’s so hard to say that and not picture Bill and Ted), Gideon tries to protect Rip and remind him of who he really is.
Just as Sara and Jax are forced to face an undefeatable army of their crew members more dangerous incarnations, Rip jumps in to save them with the full extent of his subconscious force powers (but seriously, who doesn’t picture themselves with force powers in their minds?).
Once Rip begins to realize that the world he is in isn’t real, that reality begins to dissolve, putting everyone in danger. Sara sends Jax back to the real world, hoping Stein and Jax will be able to save her as she stays behind with the hopes of saving Rip. Jax wakes Sara up, but Rip doesn’t come with her. He and Gideon are the last two in his mind. She tells him that if he doesn’t leave he will cease to exist. With a kiss from Gideon (is that true love’s kiss?) Rip wakes up…the real Rip…our Captain…he’s back!
Amaya, Nate, and Ray return with the piece they needed, an awesome story about Amaya bonding with a T-Rex, and a reminder from Ray to Nate that eventually Amaya does have to return to her own time and live out a life that doesn’t include Nate.
It’s been so long since Rip was on the ship I forgot he didn’t know Nate or Amaya, so it was nice to get to see them meet for real. My usual line of the night award was a toss-up between Rory and Ray. Both of them really nailed their responses to Rip being back. Ray with his “you almost ruined Star Wars for me,” and Rory with “I liked you better when you were killing people.” As Rip put it some things really hadn’t changed. And those are the reasons I love my crew.
In the last moment with the crew we find out that Rip knows where the final piece of the Spear is, but the end cut scene shows us he isn’t the only one. Can a team of time travelers beat a speedster to a future moment? History has shown as that they’ve come up short before.
Personally, I feel like the bigger battle would come after the Legion of Doom assembles the Spear. There are so many problems that we would have to face if they actually had that power, so I feel like the writers might let them gain access to it to open up the story. But we haven’t seen Merlyn in a while and if there’s one thing we know to be true if you can’t see Malcom Merlyn then he’s definitely doing something to betray you. With the Legion in different places, and still not trusting each other (do bad guys ever really get to that BFF level trust?), could a double cross be on the horizon?
Whatever comes next, I think I’m most curious to see what the dynamic of the Waverider will be now that Rip is back on it. Will he take over as the captain again? Was this Sara’s last stand? Is Rip really fully back?
So many questions left to answer in this season, but one thing is for sure neither the future or the past is safe and our Legends definitely have their work cut out for them.
Written by Shannon Brewer, LoT Beat Writer -- Click to read Shannon's posts
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