DC’s Legends of Tomorrow - S3E6 - Helen Hunt

Previously on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, “Return of the Mack”

When Are We?

1937; Hollywood, California

The Mission

Helen of Troy (Bar Paly) has found herself displaced in 1937 Hollywood. Her infamous beauty is the cause of a major feud between two powerful movie studios, and also threatens to derail the career of Hedy Lamarr (Celia Massingham). Ready for an easy mission, the Legends attempt to place Helen back where she belongs.

Side Missions

Understandably, Helen isn’t keen on returning to a time where men are killing for her and where she has very little say in her life; even though the men in Hollywood don’t seem all that different. Matters are further complicated when the Legends meet Helen’s agent, Damian Darhk (Neal McDonough). He calls a truce and offers to spare their lives if they’ll go back to 2017 and quit fixing anachronisms.

This week’s comic relief comes in the form of body-swapped Stein and Jax as a result of their latest efforts to split Firestorm. Stein, as Jax, makes it his personal mission to inspire his childhood crush, Lamarr, to fight for her dreams.

Mission Report

Men abusing their power in Hollywood is eerily topical right now, but Legends handled it way better than The Flash dealt with the also timely plot line of a man being sexually inappropriate in the workplace. Still, it would have been nice if there was an explanation behind Helen’s effect on men. Unless I missed it, the only answer given is: blonde, pouty lips, and pale skin. I mean, I guess. Also, it’s been established that Sara is queer so why wasn’t she affected like the men on the team?

There also wasn’t a solid explanation as to why Hedy Lamarr’s path was tied to the technology responsible for time travel. Once they get Helen onboard (literally) to go back home, the Legends are unable to take off because most of their systems are gone. Putting Lamarr back on her road to stardom fixes everything with no reason why. Perhaps it’s tied to the fact that Lamarr, in real life, was an inventor. The show smartly acknowledges this by having her be instrumental in understanding the physics of Firestorm and convincing the team to merge despite their body swap and save the day. Though, I’m kinda side-eye’ing that this White woman in 1937 would so easily follow and listen to a young Black guy, but … time travel and superheroes so I’ll give them a pass.

Damian is accompanied by Madame Eleanor (Courtney Ford), who is actually his daughter, and Kuasa (Tracy Ifeachor), who reveals herself to be Amaya’s granddaughter and Mari’s sister. Ray admits that he knew who she was after hearing her name earlier, but Amaya convinces him she doesn’t want to know any more than that.

The final scene should have been hokey as hell, but damn if it didn’t work. Zari has shown that she doesn’t really like how adhering to the time travel rules often means they have to leave people in bad situations, not tell them important things that might save their lives, and not being able to go back and save their own loved ones from dying. So, it’s no surprise that she finds a loophole in returning Helen back to Troy in her time. Since Helen disappears halfway through the war and her whereabouts don’t affect its outcome, Zari drops Helen off in her time (1253 B.C.), but on Themyscira, home to Wonder Woman and other warrior women.

Note: Just re-watched the episode after publishing this and I now realize that Jax’s Stein voice made it so that I misunderstood something he said. It’s Hedy Lamarr’s patent that affected technology; not her path. Makes much more sense now.