The Legends travel to The Golden Age of Hollywood to retrieve a time-misplaced Helen of Troy. Things get complicated when they run into the Cult of Mallus.
Tropes:
- Amazon Brigade:
- Sarah, Amaya and Zari teaming up to take down a bunch of goons with guns.
- Also, where Helen ends up at the end of the story.
- Apple of Discord: Appropriately enough, Helen is this. Her beauty inspires aggressive jealousy in all men who see her, leading nonexistent to minor conflicts to escalate into wars. Helen laments this, and abhors the prospect of being sent back to Troy.
- Artistic License – History: Both Helen of Troy and probably the Trojan War itself never actually existed in real life and are purely elements of Greek mythology, most notably in the poems of Homer.
- As Himself: An in-universe example, Helen is immediately cast as herself after wandering onto the set.
- Beam-O-War: Between Firestorm and Dahrk + Eleanor.
- Berserk Button:
- Amaya is furious that Kuasa is using the Water Totem for evil, instead of using it to protect people.
- Don't remind Darhk that Oliver killed him. He's not over it.
- Blessed with Suck: Helen hates being the World's Most Beautiful Woman because it causes men to fight to the death all around her.
- Convenient Coma: Sara is left in one at the end of the episode after nearly being killed by Eleanor.
- A Day in the Limelight: Firestorm taking on Stein's body, a chance for the soon-departing Victor Garber to be part of the action in a powered capacity.
- Dented Iron: Stein is an old man, and superheroics are taking a toll on him, which is another reason why he wants to leave the Waverider. While Jax's mind is in his body, we learn for the first time that Stein has arthritis, and is also prone to frequent urination.
- Distracted by the Sexy: The men on the Warner Bros. studio set either bumped into someone or crashed into something all because they're mesmerized by Helen of Troy. The men of the Waverider crew are likewise not immune. Averted with any women in her vicinity (even Sara, despite her bisexuality), which gives Zari the idea to drop Helen off on Themyscira, island of the Amazons.
- Double-Meaning Title: A combination of the hunt for Helen of Troy, and the name of a famous actress.
- Dude, Not Funny!: Both Jax and Stein are not amused when Nate starts laughing his ass off about their swapped body situation.
- Dude, Where's My Reward?: Subverted. Hedy gives Jax a peck on the cheek, and Stein assumes he's not going to get one and is annoyed, only he does and Hedy playfully admits that she prefers older men.
- The Dulcinea Effect: Helen has this on literally every man she meets.
- Dull Surprise: Eleanor and The Legends' reaction to Jax and Stein's body swap is very bland. On the other hand, Nate and Darhk laugh their asses off at the situation.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Eleanor, whom Darhk calls the "apple of [his] eye", is devoted to her father, as shown by how she steps in to save him from Sara.
- Exact Words: Darhk said he wouldn't use his magic in his duel with Sara. Eleanor on the other hand....
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: The experiment to transfer the whole Firestorm powers to Jax end up resulting in Stein and Jax switching bodies. Referenced by name immediately.
- Flynning: Sara and Damien's duel. Fitting for an episode in The Golden Age of Hollywood.
- Geeky Turn-On: Stein has a crush on Hedy Lamarr, both a talented actress and inventor.
- Heh Heh, You Said "X": Jax's reaction after Stein says that both of them don't enjoy being inside each other.
- Hollywood Science: If actual history is any indication, someone else would have ended up discovering the same principles that Hedy Lamarr invented, either at almost the same time or, at the very worst, within a few decades. It's almost never accurate to call anybody "the person who invented X;" more correct would be to say that they are "the person who invented X first."
- Internal Reveal:
- Amaya finds out Kuasa is from Zambezi, wields a totem, and is her granddaughter.
- Sara finds out that Eleanor is Darhk's daughter.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Leading directly to Villain: Exit, Stage Left, below.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When Sara learns of Jax and Stein's body-swap, she remarks that it, "must be Tuesday". Given that, in the US, Legends is broadcast on Tuesdays...
- Loophole Abuse:
- During his duel with Sara, Dahrk agrees not to use magic. His own magic that is; Eleanor using her magic to stop Sara from killing Dahrk is still fair game.
- Noting that the historical record shows Helen disappeared partway through the Trojan War but that it did not change the course of the war itself, and being unwilling to force her back into a life she hates, Zari still returns Helen to her own time, but in a place far away from Troy.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The fact that Helen's beauty entrances every single man who sees her and only men (Sara barely gives her a second glance) implies that she might have some supernatural ability to charm men that she is unaware of. It's never examined in depth.
- Meaningful Echo: "Sometimes you have to be crazy if you want to burn bright."
- Meaningful Name: The episode title is both literal (hunting for Helen of Troy) and the prolific actress of the same name, alluding to its Hollywood setting.
- Mundane Solution: Hedy's solution for dealing with the body swap: have Jax and Stein merge to become Firestorm. This was actually suggested by Jax earlier, but rejected by Stein.
- Mythology Gag:
- The Hollywood studio they visit is Warner Bros., producers of the show. We even get a nice, lingering shot of the water tower as the episode starts. The title card even has the 1990s era "Time Warner Entertainment" byline (back then most of Time Warner's non-print assets were in a joint venture with phone company US West, hence the slightly different nomenclature; this got dropped after the AOL merger and the JV was dissolved in 2003 after Comcast, who inherited the stake via various mergers, sold it back to TW).
- When Jax and Stein merge to restore themselves, the resulting Firestorm has Stein's face and dominant mind. Stein was the main Firestorm (instead of an "advisor" mind) during the nineties.
- At the end of the episode Zari takes Helen to Themyscira, home of the Amazons and Wonder Woman.
- Cecil B. DeMille runs into Ray and remarks on Ray's appearance, and offers him a possible starring role that Cary Grant turned down. Christopher Reeve based his performance as Clark Kent in his Superman movies from Grant's performance in Bringing Up Baby, meaning Brandon Routh did the same in Superman Returns.
- Nobody Poops: Jax mentions how often he has to use the bathroom, being stuck in Stein's older body.
- Not Even Bothering with the Accent:
- In real life, Hedy LaMarr was from Austria and spoke with an Austrian accent. Here, Celia Massingham uses an American accent for the role (though the actress herself is Australian).
- Helen's accent is far from Greek, too, even after she gives up the pretense of being a Hollywood actress. Justified in that previous episodes have established that time-travel sometimes causes you to speak the language of the time and place you end up.
- Oh, My Gods!: Justified in Helen's case, as she comes from a polytheistic culture.
- Passing the Torch: Stein is more than ready to give up his part of the Firestorm Matrix to Jax as he is weary of being on the Waverider.
- Ripple Effect Indicator: When Hedy Lamarr is drawn away from the path her life was supposed to take, many key components of the Waverider disappear, as without her making her contributions to the scientific community, the technological base those parts were developed from never came into existence.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: At the end of the episode, Zari brings Helen to Themyscira instead of back to Troy, as she hates it there.
- Serious Business: Stein gets very pissed about Helen screwing with the history of the Golden Age of Hollywood, especially sidelining his favorite actress Hedy LaMarr.
- Shout-Out: Possibly a coincidence, but at one point Jax uses the phrase "Nasty in the past-y".
- Shut Up, Kirk!: When Amaya calls Kuasa out on using a sacred totem for villainous ends, Kuasa retorts that Amaya isn't better, leaving Zambesi to travel through time with a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits.
- So Beautiful, It's a Curse: Helen, quite literally. She's horribly distraught about the fact that men always start killing each other over her.
- Special Edition Title: The opening title is a mockup of a Golden Age Hollywood film.
- Suicidal Overconfidence: Darhk boasts he doesn't need magic to kill Sara, seemingly forgetting the last time he fought her without magic she kicked his ass. Which she does again.
- Take That!:
- When Hedy Lamarr mistakes him for a talent agent, Darhk states "I'm something far more ruthless than a Hollywood agent. If that's possible."
- Earlier in the episode, Nate mentioned how the Kardashians have ruined Hollywood.
- Tempting Fate: Helen comments that at least in Hollywood, men aren't killing each other over her. Seconds later, two studios get into a gunfight over her.
- Tricked Out Time: "I hacked history!"
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Darhk and his daughter teleport away after being overpowered by Firestorm.
- Wham Line: When Amaya reveals the Water Witch's name is Kuasa, Ray finally makes the connection to who she really is. He doesn't tell Amaya who she is until the end, and Kuasa beats him to it anyway.
- Wham Shot: We see where Zari takes Helen at the end of the episode — Themyscira.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Averted, Amaya isn't mad that Ray never told her about Kuasa, since he was just doing his job protecting time.
- Played straight when Helen calls the heroes out for wanting to take her back to a place she vehemently doesn't want to return to. Luckily, Zari can find a loophole.
- World's Most Beautiful Woman: Helen of Troy, naturally.
- You Are Grounded!: Sara towards Mick, Nate and Ray after they started a fight over Helen.
