Headscratchers / Legends of Tomorrow S3E6 "Helen Hunt"

• Sara is bisexual. Why wasn't she affected by Helen?
  • Then again seeing that her ability only seemed to affect men. It is possible her power only works on men as per history. Not only that, just because Helen's a pretty women doesn't mean that Sara would instantly be attracted to her. Being attracted to women does not mean attracted to every women with a pretty face.
  • It still comes off as strange since she's just as prone to throwing appreciative glances at attractive women as the guys are. One could even argue she tends to do it more than they do, and she also sleeps around with more women than any other Legend, male or otherwise. There could be the possible excuse that Helen has a genuinely supernatural power which explicitly only works on men, but one would've thought the writers would have figured out a way to mention that tidbit if she did.
    • It really doesn’t come off as that strange, she doesn’t give Zari, Amaya or Sharpe looks. While we do see her give ladies here and there appreciative looks, she doesn’t do it as much as fans of the show think she does. It's not strange, just basic human nature. Just because someone is attracted to women does not mean they’re going to flirt or comment on every woman they see. It's the lady they have a connection with - or a certain attractive feature - that they like. Helen of Troy had nothing that Sara was interested in, so she had no interest in her. Just because you like chocolate doesn’t mean you eat every piece you see.
    • The argument that she was probably just not Sara's type doesn't hold much water when you consider the fact that every man who fell under her spell would realistically also have a type. Men seem to fall for her unfailingly regardless of their preferences, so why would Sara's make a difference when theirs didn't?
    • Actually it does. As stated in the show, men falling in love with her was a result of her curse. It didn't effect women. Meaning that Sara would be immune to the effects of Helen's charms by default.
    • The episode never actually goes into whether it's just abnormal beauty or if there are genuine supernatural forces at play though. If it's a curse that only works on men then Sara's preference should be wholly irrelevant as to why she wasn't effected, but if it's mundane and thus not gender-specific then it's a plot hole as to why she wasn't effected when personal preference hasn't protected anyone else. (That being said, the implication seems to be that it's the former.)
    • Its more than an implication. Every male gets swayed by her. Falling over, fighting, instantly infatuated. She even comments on this being her curse. Confirming that the attraction affects males in her vicinity but not females. Sara's wasn’t affected because while Helen is attractive there was nothing about Helen that grabbed her interest. That was why she was not attracted to her. Even if was mundane there is no reason for Sara to voice interest just because Helen was pretty, there has to be something there to spark interest. There wasn’t so no interest.
  • From a meta perspective, it's possible the that writers intentionally made her not effect women because they were going to drop her off on Themyscira at the end. If her charms had worked on women as well, she'd cause a civil war on Wonder Woman's home island.
  • The episode established that if that man was too pre-occupied with another task, he wouldn’t focus so much on Helen (I.e Stein spending most of the episode getting his boyhood crush Hedy La Marr back into the acting business). Likewise, Sara may have been too focused on her duties as the captain to follow through with any attraction she had to Helen (which is pretty in-character after establishing herself as the captain the previous season).
  • However it has been established that while Sara has no fear on bedding woman with shared sexual attraction there has to be an attraction there for it to happen. Simply put Helen didn't do it for her. Which makes sense; Helen had no interest in her either. Sara while more than happy to bed willing partners is not constantly on the prowl.
• Darhk has Stein immobilized through magic within arm's reach. He finds out that he and Jefferson switched bodies, laughs about it and... undoes the spell and lets them run away. Why?
  • Because Darhk is a powerful mage with a sadistic streak and an evil sense of humour. He was one before he died. Moreso ever since coming back and mentioning to Sara he has learned to appreciate living more. Basically Darhk was being in character.
    • Still comes off as him just holding the Idiot Ball. He had half of the Legends' strongest fighter at his mercy and just lets him walk away when all it would give him was a cheap laugh. He knows that he and his daughter will probably end up having to fight the whole team of Legends by themselves, one would think if he's come to appreciate living more that he would be more careful not to hand his enemies their greatest weapons on a whim. There's being petty and then there's being Too Dumb to Live.
    • That's because he didn't hold the strongest fighter in his grasp. He held a human being in his grasp, with no combat skills. A human who gave him a good laugh, whom he got to hunt down and kill in his own sweet time. Vicious , cruel and all in character. It's not holding the idiot ball when it's a character trait which has been evident in all his appearances.
    • It's definitely still holding the Idiot Ball. He's sadistic with a bad sense of humor sure, but he's not stupid. Stein is half of Firestorm, separated from Jefferson or not. They are by far the Legends' heaviest hitter and he had the opportunity to permanently remove that fighter. Instead he chose to play a game of cat and mouse under circumstances where he had little reason to believe it would work out. He had no idea where the rest of the legends were, for all he knew it was entirely plausible for them to be waiting around a literal corner and he just threw them their greatest weapon. Even for a sadist like him, it was a bond-villain level of stupid to not just kill Stein right there.
    • Darhk had the opportunity to kill all of Team Arrow numerous times during Season 4 and didn't take it. In the very previous episode of this very series, he had the perfect opportunity to end all of the Legends and he didn't take it, instead he just kept on toying with them. Damien Darhk is the epitome of Bond Villain Stupidity.
    • Or basically being true to his nature. If it was a situation he did a stupid act that left him vulnerable just for laughs then yes he grabbed the ball with both hands. But at the time he was up against two humans, against Dahrk and his powers. Besides him was his daughter who could take on three Legends head on. So with those advantages in his corner, he allowed himself to fall into the familiar patterns of playing with his prey.
    • It's also possible he found the situation so geniunely hilarious he lost his concentration for a few seconds.
• What happened to Helen after being dropped off at Themyscira...or should I say, how did she get out of that tiny beach with the imposing cliffs on all sides?
  • While unseen from the Drop ship’s vantage point, logically there would be steps from the beach to the Amazon's homes. Otherwise how would Amazon's get from the cliffs to the beach. Pragmatically speaking it would be one of the first things they would build for convenience.
    • Sounds logical, but that wasn't in the island's rendering. Alternatively, one might assume that climbing down and up said cliffs to reach the beach is a part of the Amazons' training. Perhaps Helen got rescued by an Amazon in training, or perhaps she's just so much of a badass that she scaled the cliffs herself?
    • While climbing up and down huge cliffs on a daily basis sounds bad-ass it seems unpractical. What if you have to deliver cargo from the beach to home? Trying to organize carrying items, possibly fragile up a sheer cliff wall without dropping them or breaking them just to look bad-ass seems time consuming with no point. There Amazons, blessed by gods to be physical and mentally empowered. They have plenty of ways to train without something as time consuming and pointless as climbing up and down cliffs. What if they need to get home due to an emergency swiftly from the beach? What if they need to ride their horses from the beach to home or vice versa? Its more believable that the Amazons cut in stairs that we did not see due to vantage point. Due to that being more efficient and logical. Then they climbed up and down the cliff wall for cardio reasons.
    • Actually it makes perfect sense. First of all, they wouldn't be getting cargo to begin with...it's a self-sustaining island that's blessed by the gods or something and 100% self sufficient. Beyond that, climbing is an effective form of practical exercise — and in ancient times practical exercise is how they did it. Take Milo of Croton whose exercise regimen included lifting a calf daily until it grew up as another ancient example. The Amazons are also isolated, with no interest in conquest...so the only two reasons they'd go down to that beach are recreation and exercise. That said, I imagine recreation would be a more likely reason the Amazon who found Helen would be there.
    • Self-sustaining or not, its impractical to scale a wall to get to A and B . Especially when it’s unnecessary, in the long run. It would serve no purpose realistically except to look really cool. Logically the first thing any residents of an Island with a deep cliff would do is put in is stairs because that would make sense. Not to mention Amazons and horses go hand in hand. Livestock as well are on the Island. They would need stairs to get the beach or from the beach to their homes. There is no reason not to have stairs at all.