WARNING: The following contains spoilers for DC’s Legends of Tomorrow Season 7, Episode 6, “Deus Ex Latrina,” which aired Wednesday, November 17th on The CW.
What sets Legends of Tomorrow apart from other shows in the Arrowverse is its willingness to be silly. After the first two seasons were met with a mixed response, the series decided to lean into broad comedy, admitting that its main cast was a gaggle of loveable screw-ups and their misadventures throughout the time stream were just as much fodder for jokes as they were grand journeys through world history.
A prime example comes in the show’s newest character, Dr. Gwyn Davies. He’s played by Matt Ryan, who previously was a regular on Legends as the roguish wizard John Constantine. The joke works on two levels: for one thing, none of the other Legends recognize that their new friend looks exactly like their dearly-departed old one. For another, Davies is the exact opposite of Constantine, replacing his swaggering, effortless cool with a jittering nervousness and a propensity for panic attacks. However, in the latest episode, audiences found out what made Dr. Davies tick, and in doing so set him on the path towards a possible redemption.
The Legends meet Dr. Davies while they’re marooned in America circa 1925. The doctor is a Welsh inventor working for Thomas Edison in New York and, according to historical records, the father of time travel and the Legends’ only hope of returning to the future. After some convincing, Davies agrees to help the team and brings them along on the maiden voyage of his prototype time machine. However, something goes wrong and the Legends arrive in what they think is the Prehistoric Age, with Davies’ machine too fried to make another trip.
Davies is, understandably, frustrated by the turn of events, seeing it as further proof that he’s doomed to fail at whatever endeavor he tries. He even describes it as “God’s will,” further distancing him from the notably irreligious Constantine (a subplot in the previous season saw him admonishing the Catholic Church for backing General Franco’s fascist army during the Spanish Civil War). Davies lashes out at the Tarazi siblings when they offer to help, and Zari realizes that the doctor isn’t just angry: he’s triggered, traumatized by something so bad that it shuts him down in the face of this adversity. It takes some coaxing, but Zari manages to get Davies to do the unthinkable for a man from the 1920s: talk about his feelings.
Davies reveals he served in the British army during World War I. He and another soldier, Alun Thomas, were given the task of delivering a message to allied command requesting reinforcements for their unit. Their mission failed, Alun was killed and Davies was unable to do anything to save him or his fellow soldiers. He further explains that his end goal with inventing time travel was to undo the event and save Alun and their unit. Zari comforts him and he seems to be doing better… until the pair is suddenly captured by a troop of Russian soldiers, indicating that they’re not actually in the Prehistoric Age.
While they’re held captive at a Soviet military base, Zari realizes that Davies wasn’t just close with Alun, but was in love with him (a parallel to Constantine, who was openly bisexual). Davies admits it and adds that Zari’s brother Behrad, with his unflappable optimism, reminds Davies of Alun, as well as all the failures that came with him. Meanwhile, Behrad finds the pair in the base, as well as the parts needed to fix the time machine, and tells the two where they really are: Chernobyl in 1986, mere hours before the city’s infamous nuclear meltdown.
Seeing an opportunity to redeem himself and save lives, Davies insists that the Tarazis help him clear the base. They hijack the PA system and Davies warns everyone on the base about the imminent meltdown, urging them to take their families and flee the city. This not only disrupts the timeline but puts the Legends in direct danger, as an aberration to the timeline of this scale puts them in the crosshairs of the renegade time masters Bishop and Gideon. With the help of the tech-savvy Tarazis, Davies fixes the time machine and the Legends manage to escape Chernobyl before any harm can come to them, but not before a mutinous Bishop manages to come with them.
“Deus Ex Latrina” gave viewers a peek inside the mind of Legends‘ newest character, revealing a tortured soul beneath the comical stubbornness and neuroses. However, by the episode’s end, Gwyn Davies proved that despite his past trauma, he still has what it takes to be a hero and do the right thing when it counts. Whether he’ll ever reunite with Alun or possibly even find a new love is a mystery, but for now, the misfit scientist has at least found a group of people who understand and care for him, and maybe that’s enough.
New episodes of Legends of Tomorrow air Wednesdays on The CW.
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