“Moonshot” is episode fourteen of season two of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.
This opens with Mick doing the voiceover introduction again before it goes to Manhattan, 1965, where Rip is dropping off Henry Heywood – Commander Steel – with one of the pieces of the Spear of Destiny. Heywood says that it won’t be easy, because he’s leaving his wife and barely month-old baby. He gives his dog tags to Rip, and they both leave in different directions. Seconds later, Rip – who was restored to his normal self in the previous episode, “Land of the Lost” – arrives with Sara, Amaya and Nate. Heywood has already disappeared. Amaya says they called him the chameleon; he could speak seven languages like a native and mastered the art of camouflage and concealment. If Rip told Heywood to disappear, that’s exactly what he did. At least it will be equally hard for the Legion to find him, Sara thinks.
Back on the Waverider, Amaya says that Heywood was a military man. So, he was unlikely to have become an accountant. He would look for a job that provided adventure, yet was patriotic. He also used to be a fighter pilot. Which Professor Stein believes leads to a logical choice – NASA.
April 13th, 1970, and the seventh manned mission to the Moon is underway. Heywood isn’t in Mission Control; Rip and Ray have already found him, talking to the director prior to a press conference. Rip goes over and greets Heywood. Who punches Rip, in front of the press, then has him hauled away by security. Heywood explains to the press that Rip didn’t have the right credentials, and everyone else quickly hauls there’s out. The whole scene is rather reminiscent of one from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, when Indy threw someone off an airship for supposedly not having a ticket. Ray then greets Heywood.
Rip is being held and Ray is talking to Heywood. He says there are others there as well, and Nate, Amaya and Sara enter. Sara explains that the Legion is hunting for the Spear fragments. Amaya explains that they have Stargirl’s fragment, but Dr. Mid-Nite died and lost his. Commander Steel hid his piece someplace safe. Sara tells him that no place on Earth is safe from the Legion. Which, given where they are, leads to a logical conclusion. The piece is hidden on the Moon, in the flag that Neil Armstrong planted. The Legends assume that Heywood needs to get back to saving the Apollo 13 astronauts. Except the mission is going textbook with no problems. History has been changed.
The Odyssey is about to pass from line of sight and out of communication with Earth. After it does, one of the astronauts stabs the other two, rendering them unconscious. Eobard Thawne had taken his place.
The Waverider is going to intercept Apollo 13 and Jax and Professor Stein are introduced to the flight director by Heywood as being part of the British space programme, here to study their procedures. The legends need someone to monitor from the ground. Heywood is going on the Waverider.
Heywood still doesn’t want to talk to Rip. He explains to Nate that his wife spent 14 years raising their son on their own, and it’s Rip’s fault. Rip has a wife and son and he asked Heywood to abandon his own. Nate replies that Rip did have family, but they were killed. Nate didn’t have the best relationship with his father, Hank, and Heywood says that, afterwards, he can return to 1956. Amaya overhears this.
They have found Apollo 13, but it isn’t in the right orbit. Ray is suiting up and heading over, so he can shrink down and enter. Ray is told not to let Thawne see him. Oops. Thawne doesn’t have his superspeed but, during the fight, a button is hit and the Lunar Excursion Module separates from the command module. The entire world is about to hear Ray crash onto the Moon, so they need to sever communications on the ground. So they need a distraction whilst Jax does this. The distraction is Professor Stein singing.
The LEM lands, but lacks enough fuel to launch again. Ray’s thrusters were damaged during his fight with Thawne. So, he needs to Waverider to pick him up. The Waverider is after the command module, which is heading towards a ludicrously dense bunch of space rocks ludicrously close to the Moon. The module is rescued, but the Waverider is damaged as a result. And can’t pick up Ray. Ray now knows how Matt Damon felt, and starts making a video log in a similar manner. Until Thawne asks him just what he’s doing.
Ray is stuck on the Moon with Thawne, who also wants to get off it. They will have to work together. Amaya tells Nate just what a bad idea it would be for his grandfather to return to the past. This escalates, Amaya speaks to Heywood, and Nate ends up telling Amaya what her own future holds. That may have consequences.
The Moon part is full of errors and Rip is struggling to find a place for himself on the new team. Which results in him arguing with Sara a lot.