Legends of Tomorrow season 3, episode 6 review: Helen Hunt

Reviewing season 3, episode 6 of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.

“It’ll be a nice, simple job, and we’ll get our mojo back.” And so they do. Returning to emphasizing the one and one nature of the best Legends of Tomorrow adventures, “Helen Hunt” manages to mix a little bit of plot with a large helping of fun to make for an episode of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.

The anachronism at play this week is the actual, literal Helen of Troy, of Greek mythology, who has been transplanted to the glamorous days of Hollywood in 1937. There, her mystical ability to entrance every man who sees her causes a war between movie studios. Seeing a simple mission and an opportunity to help pick up an easy win and to save the timeline, Sara orders the team into their best old Hollywood gear. This also comes as Jax and Dr. Stein are body swapped as a result of a botched effort by Ray to fix the Firestorm matrix so the pair can exist apart.

Arriving in Hollywood, the team infiltrates a party and attempts to convince Helen of Troy to return to her own time, only to find that she has a new agent to help her navigate the modern world: Damien Dahrk. While Sara and Damien parlay to avoid a bloodbath in Hollywood, DR. Stein (in Jax’s body) gushes over actress and genius inventor Hedy Lamarr, who is anachronistically losing roles to Helen, and Amaya buts heads with Kuasa, present acting as Dahrk’s hired muscle, who reveals to Amaya that she has one of the Lost Totems of Zambesi. Despite what passes for the team’s best efforts, Helen’s charms eventually lead the team to a brawl just as Darhk makes his offer: go back to your own time, or he’ll kill them all.

Retiring to the Waverider, the team decides to ignore Darhk’s offer/threat and return to grab Helen, sidelining the men and, in another moment of strategy that reminds us why Sara is the only one savvy enough to be in charge, pulls a Trojan Horse maneuver to get into the compound where Helen is being held. Getting in, Helen has some reasonable reasons for not wanting to go back (home is where people are killing each other for her), only for violence over her to erupt here too, as the studio heads begin to fight over her. The Legends get her out, but there’s’ a catch: they didn’t take her out soon enough, and Helen of Troy had taken Hedy Lamarr out of history, and denied the universe her technologies, and the ones that spawned it. In short, without Hedy Lamarr, Gideon, and the rest of the technology that allows the team to escape the past, are never created.

Dr. Stein goes to put Hedy Lamarr back in the movies, only to run afoul of Damien Darhk, Eleanor, the mystic from last episode, and Kuasa, who chases them. When the Legends come in full force, Sara engages Damien Darhk in a sword fight, one on one, while Amaya and Zari battle Kuasa and the rest of the team gets beaten soundly by Eleanor, who is revealed to be Darhk’s daughter. The day is saved by Firestorm, who appears as Martin Stein due to their switch and overcomes his limitations to force the Darhks away. This fusion also restores them to their natural forms.

After Kuasa spills the beans about being Amaya’s granddaughter, she flees, leaving the team to oversee Hedy Lamarr’s return to stardom. Sara goes into a medically induced coma for a few days to recover from Darhk’s magic, and Amaya and Ray accept that there are things about Amaya’s fate she can’t know. Zari, meanwhile, finds a great deal of sympathy for Helen’s plight. Figuring out that history doesn’t change if Helen isn’t back in her own time, Zari finds her a new home in her own time, but in a different place: Themyscira, home of a race of warrior women that some viewers may recall.

As I’ve said a number of times, this show is at its best when it decides to be an entertaining show before a tense drama or serial. And this is exactly why. The Legends get to play in the sandbox of history; that’s the real hook for the show. And seeing the team play in 1937 was a delight. Everything about the era and the show’s treatment of it was a hoot; from the costuming and the energy of the movie sets to the fast-talking old Hollywood producers, we saw the show use the setting to create an energy all its own.

It also highlighted that even though this is ostensibly an ensemble show, we have a top tier of characters here that Legends continues to provide a well-deserved spotlight for: Zari, Jax, and Sara are focal points week in and week out, usually accompanied by a B-Plot regarding Amaya or Martin. The downside of this tier system is that it leaves Dominic Purcell out in the cold consistently, as it does here. Dude gets like three one-liners in and then gets slapped around by Eleanor.

Finally, its impossible to discuss this episode without touching on that final reveal: Themyscira, home of the Amazons and of Wonder Woman, exists in the Arrowverse. While it’s very unlikely we’ll ever see Diana, its impossible not to be excited at what doors this opens for the show. How many of the side characters from that island can they use? Artemis? Phillipus? Even Queen Hippolyta, who was a member of the JSA in the comics, is now on the table. Even if this is just a nod to how popular Wonder Woman has become after her smash hit movie, in anticipation of the character’s reappearance in Justice League, this is the type of major reveal that fans of the Arrowverse lose their mind over.

Overall, like the best Legends episodes, “Helen Hunt” was a fast-paced and fun episode that was light on plot but very possibly one of my favorite episodes to date by virtue of the sheer amount of fun there is to be had.

Most Valuable Legend: Martin Stein

While I absolutely did not need to know about he and his wife’s respective “hall pass” choices, it was cool to see Martin participate fully as a hero, even if it was in Jax’s body. Victor Garber is leaving and taking Martin Stein with him pretty soon, so seeing the good doctor save the day and get a kiss from his dream girl, Hedy Lamarr, was pretty cool. Nice going, Grey!

Notes from the Waverider

• The general ease with which the team accepts the “Freaky Friday” scenario at play here is refreshing and makes perfect sense.
• The degree to which Victor Garber and Franz Drameh absolutely nail the mannerisms of the others’ character is both impressive and really, really funny.
• Not to nitpick, but this 1937 Hollywood is much less racist and much more accepting of low necklines than actual 1937 Hollywood. They also have very modern guns.
• Neal McDonough never gets enough credit in conversations about great Arrowverse villains. He consistently brings a level of fun and swagger to Damien Darhk that you don’t get with other self-serious bad guys the CW has put out. Plus he is so good at being smug that its endearing.
• “In our defense, she was very very very very very attractive.” Oh, Nate. Never change.
• “I don’t enjoy being inside you any more than you enjoy being inside me.” Jax has the right reaction.
• Here’s a fact you didn’t need to know about The Stein’s marriage: Martin gets a “hall pass” on Hedy Lamarr, his wife gets one on Jean Claude Van Damme.
• Sara Lance doing old-timey voice should be an available voice for Siri, I want to hear it all the time.
• There’s probably a lot to say about the feminism of Helen of Troy, and the conversation she has with Zari.
• “I am something far more ruthless than a Hollywood agent. If that’s possible.” Damn, Darhk.
• Darhk also loses his mind laughing upon finding out the body switch. He’s a damn treasure.
• He is also an idiot for getting into any kind of a fair with Sara Lance.
• The old Hollywood references here are on point: Cecil B. DeMille, Hedy Lamarr…

Next: 50 greatest super heroes in comic book history

Legends of Tomorrow returns on Tuesday, Nov. 22 at 9:00 p.m. ET.