Legends of Tomorrow: How Did Sara Survive An Attack By a God?

In last night’s episode of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, “Zari, Not Zari,” there were a few key moments that left fans talking — and while the death of a Legend was certainly one of them (as was the kinda-sorta return of another), nothing had people quite as perplexed as a moment where Sara Lance, non-powered captain of the Waverider and badass assassin, took a pretty brutal direct hit from Atropos, one of the Fates of Greek mythology, who has been chasing down Charlie for centuries, but has now found herself closer than ever because the Loom of Fate’s pieces are all on the same Earth again. It was said, and repeated, and repeated again during the episode that Atropos had the powers of a god and was not used to leaving her opponents alive, so the idea that she believed Sara to be dead and turned out to be wrong? Kind of a big deal.

For context: Charlie is herself Clotho, one of the Fates, who became so guilt-ridden over the glee her sisters seemed to take in ending human lives and controlling destiny that she destroyed the Loom and scattered its pieces throughout the multiverse. Following the Anti-Monitor’s attack in “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” the multiverse is closed off to Earth Prime, and all of the Loom pieces are now located on the same plane. The Legends, then, are trying to reassemble the Loom for two reasons: one, to undo some tragedies they have been involved in and rewrite history; and two, to prevent Atropos and her sister Lachesis from getting her hands on it.

And during the course of last night’s adventures, Atropos — who has killed a bunch of people essentially with a glance and almost killed Constantine in spite of magical protection — really laid into Sara Lance. She was left for dead and Charlie believed her to be so, until she arrived to save Charlie at a key moment, prompting Atropos to ask “what are you?”

It was a moment reminiscent of the third act of Guardians of the Galaxy, when Peter Quill manages to survive holding onto an Infinity Stone — something that a human should not be able to do — and Ronan asks him how. In both cases, the hero dismisses the question with a quip — but it seems likely that, as with Peter, something larger is going on with Sara.

There are a few possibilities. As Clotho is the one who weaves the thread of life, perhaps she has somehow managed to protect some of those closest to her by doing so without the aid of the Loom. This one seems the most farfetched, since the other Fates ought to be able to sense that if it were true, and since it would beg the question: why go to all the trouble to reassemble the Loom if Charlie can fake it?

Sara’s proximity to the Spear of Destiny, which rewrote reality in basically the same way as the Loom, back during the season two finale might also play a role. She had to essentially merge with the Spear in order to effectively wield it, especially with a powerful mystic like Damien Darhk opposing her, so it’s possible there’s some kind of carryover there…although if that were the case, it would have been odd for The Monitor not to notice it and use it to the heroes’ advantage during the recent Crisis.

Which leaves the Crisis itself. Not only was Sara one of the Paragons (we’ll come back to that in a minute), but she was there at the moment the universe was reborn, hovering over Oliver Queen as he expended the last of The Spectre’s powers and died. That he used so much of his final energies putting right things that had gone wrong during Arrow‘s run suggests it’s distinctly possible he did something to give Sara an edge going forward.

Not only was Sara one of the Paragons — you could argue that given the cosmic importance of those beings, the universe may have preserved them all for a reason — but she was specifically the Paragon of Destiny. Destiny and fate seem pretty intertwined, and so it seems entirely plausible that Sara’s status as the Paragon of Destiny makes her uniquely hard to kill for the Fates.

Any of these theories are a stretch, but at this point educated guesses are all we have. It’s hard to imagine that fans won’t find out the truth behind Sara’s new “powers” in the coming weeks, though.

What do you think made Sara capable of standing up to Atropos?