One thing becomes clear to the viewer as they near the end of the first season of Jupiter's Legacy: the last two episodes are the true main event here. All of the major revelations are included within these final chapters. In many ways, it feels as though these last two episodes are the most important of the entire first season. If someone were to take the first two episodes of the season and the last two episodes of the season and edit them all together, one could still see all of the major plot events.
However, this does not mean that Jupiter's Legacy is struggling to fill time or to pad an eight-episode season, instead it is a testament to the show's decidedly slower pace. The last two episodes mostly remind the viewer that the star here is not the superhero spectacle, but the human relationships between the characters and the ways those relationships are starting to change. The additional time spent with each character may not have moved the plot along significantly throughout the season, but that is for a reason. The show wants the characters to be understood and to not only have the audience hear them talk about issues, but to also see how they deal with those issues when directly faced with them.
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For episode 7 in particular, the present timeline is decidedly less interesting than the past timeline, so it'll be covered here first. The team decides that in order to discover who is behind the copy of Blackstar as well the watch of their dead father in the mechanism being in his corpse they should analyze the dead copy's brain. Walter tries to take a look inside and due to how dangerous the task is (if Blackstar's brain loses energy then he'll be trapped in the dead copy's mind) Grace recommends that they hire Raikou, Walter's daughter, another person with psychic abilities. This way she can help keep the pathways into Blackstar's mind open should Walter get stuck.
The sequence in which Raikou is introduced is very cool, as she is shown taking on a group of gangsters in a ninja-like set of gear with dual katanas. It's notable that Jupiter's Legacy and Kick-Ass were both created by Mark Millar, as Raikou and Hit Girl have a whole lot in common when it comes to kicking ass and their preferred styles of combat. The way that the show portrays the psychic conversations between Raikou and Walter is also very well-done and is very entertaining. It's clear from Raikou's attitude toward her father and the way in which she demands a high fee from him for her assistance that there's some bad blood there. Walter apparently has not been a great father over the years. After they agree upon her rate that mostly sums up the important beats in the present timeline for the episode.
Back with the pre-super-powered Sheldon and team the journey onto the island has at long last begun. Again, this entire journey could have been wrapped up in a single episode in any other television series. However, the spacing out of Sheldon's struggles over the entire season makes the journey feel that much more arduous and helps the audience feel the amount of work and time it took for these people to obtain their powers. The group is told by their captain that they have only 3 days to find whatever they are looking for and get back to the boat or they will leave without them. The doctor who just joined their group does not want to go with them at first but is convinced by Sheldon and decides to go anyways.
It's not long before the group is arguing and fighting along their journey. The island has strange, continually changing terrain and even starts snowing at one point. When the group tries to turn around and head back at one point, trees instantly sprout up behind them from the ground. They are unable to go back even if they want to, so they continue to press on. Walter and George are continuing to fight and trade snide comments back and forth. The group continues to try and diffuse these squabbles but it's clear that there are some unresolved issues reaching their boiling point. Walter also begins to make bitter comments to Sheldon about how he was the favorite child of their father. The team has to scale an incredibly precarious rock surface in order to reach the center of the island, where the intensity ramps up once again.
Once at the center of the island, the team finds a wall of stone that spreads around them and encloses them within it. The travelers notice the bones of what appear to be two Vikings fighting in the circle and begin to turn on each other in a panic that they've been led to their deaths. Grace is able to stop the fighting by pointing out that the island has been pitting them against each other since their arrival. It's interesting to see that Sheldon is not always the brightest member of the group nor the one who finds the best answer, he's often lucky and helped out by those around him. In this case, Grace helps him to realize that there must be another way out of the circle. Sheldon places his hand on the wall again and a brilliant light erupts into the wall, spreading a pattern of symbols up to the top.
Each of the team members places their hands on the wall and a different color light appears for each of them. Walter's hand does not make a light appear, and George's also goes out after initially appearing. They finally agree to forgive each other and move past their issues, and their lights reappear. Sheldon's then goes out, and he and his brother forgive each other as well, at which point everyone is able to make their light appear. A door appears at the center of their lights and they walk out onto what appears to be the literal surface of Jupiter. There is a large tree bathed in a myriad of colors and lights, from which each person sees their closest love one they have lost emerge. The person tells them that they have succeeded where others had failed and been deemed "worthy." There's a flash of light and the final shot of the episode shows the crew back on the boat looking up to see caped figures descending toward them from the sky.
Episode 7 finally gives official confirmation as to how the Utopian and the others got their powers. It's a very unique origin story for a team similar to the Justice League and even has a bit of a Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers vibe to it in it's setting. Overall, the series used its slower pacing to build a more intense penultimate episode that answers questions without losing its sense of mystery.
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