For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.
Plot
Dr. Davies' time machine takes the Legends to a lush forest, but the team has no idea where or when they wound up! Nate takes charge of the camp and the effort to fix the time machine as tempers flare between Sara and Ava and the Legends' unseen enemy continues to plot against them.
Influences
2001: A Space Odyssey (Bishop's Gideon turning upon him and his Ava assistant mimics HAL) and the 1931 film version of Frankenstein (Assistant Ava says "It's alive!" in reference to the film after the first Hoover-Bot is made.)
Performances
Raffi Barsoumian gets a brilliant turn here as the genius who outsmarts himself and realizes his dreams of being a hero who saved humanity are doomed to failure because causality requires him to become a villain.
Matt Ryan and Tala Ashe do a fantastic job playing off of each other as two completely different characters, while still showing the same skill and chemistry they had as Constantine and Zari 2.0.
Artistry
The direction mimics a lot of camera angles from 2001: A Space Odyssey with Evil Gideon watching Assistant Ava and Bishop.
Technobabble/Arcana
The only section of the Waverider copy Gideon cannot access visually is A2 - the bathroom. This is because Bishop likes his privacy.
Dr. Davies' time machine was not designed to carry as many people as himself and the Legends. The excess weight threw it off course on its maiden voyage.
The chrono-gauge and ignition coil are sequenced to the directional compass, which was damaged in the landing. This leaves the Legends with no idea where or when they are.
Dr. Davies says they need lodestone or some other magnetic material that conducts electricity to fix the compass of the time machine.
Dialogue Triumphs
Assistant AVA: Sir, as impressive as this ship is, how does it relate to the Ava Corp mission of improving people's lives through clone technology exactly?
Bishop: Well, I'm simply expanding our mission by adding time travel to the mix. But the true perk of this ship is to finally get revenge on those time travelers who abducted me, used me for my genius, and then messed with my mind.
Evil Gideon: May I remind you that a Time Master's number one duty is to protect the timeline from any and all threats to its integrity?
Bishop: Yes, yes, Gideon, that's a given, considering the job title... Time Master.
Evil Gideon: And before we start, you must take the Time Master's oath.
Bishop: (bored) I swear to protect and defend the integrity of the timeline with all my ability until the end of my days.
Evil Gideon: Congratulations. You are now Time Master of this Waverider.
Bishop: Great. Let's set sail on our maiden voyage and protect the timeline from those damn Legends.
Bishop: Check out that view of the Temporal Zone. Worth a million bucks, huh?
Assistant AVA: Mm. Considering this ship cost many thousand times more, I'm not sure how the board's gonna feel about your investment, sir.
Bishop: There's one thing you just can't put a price on, Assistant AVA.
Assistant AVA: Hmm?
Bishop: Revenge.
Zari: I'm sorry. You're obviously going through something. I just... I just need you to focus so we can get out of dinosaur times or whenever it is that we are. You don't even have to come with us. Just help us fix the time machine so my friends can finally go home.
Dr. Davies: Oh, trust me, you don't want my help, okay?
Zari: I definitely do. You're the only one who can get us out of here.
Dr. Davies: Well, then you're all done for. The last people who depended on me for help all died.
Zari: Listen, Gwyn, I know a thing or two about tragedy, and...
Dr. Davies: You don't know the first thing about me or what I've been through, all right?
Zari: Okay, I'm just... I'm just saying, if you want to talk-
Dr. Davies: Talk? (laughs bitterly) To talk. What do you want to talk about, then, eh? What happened to you.
Zari: Oh, right, you're from the olden times.
Zari: Sometimes talking to another person about a hard thing can make it hurt a little less.
Ava: (swinging axe into the wood before her) And this damn IOU list just keeps getting longer and longer. We're never gonna be able to fix it at this point. I'm so sick and tired of being sidetracked, you know? And if I ever see another one of those Hoover bots, I swear I'm just gonna...
(Ava screams in frustration. Astra looks impressed.)
Astra: That was a phenomenal scream. Trust me, I know. I've caused a lot of them.
(Gary and Gideon enjoy some freshly picked gooseberries together.)
Gideon: You know, eating? Favorite thing about being human.
Gary: Yeah?
Gideon: Mm-hmm.
Gary: Mm. I don't think I could choose my favorite thing. You can see why I became so obsessed. They have so many fun quirks. Eyebrows. Belly buttons. Nipples.
Gideon: You have nipples too?
Gary: A little secret? Huh? I have three.
(Gideon gasps)
Gideon: And when you put your glasses on, your entire body turns human?
Gary: Oh, yeah. Mm-hmm. Head to toe.
Gideon: You've been living as a human for quite a while now, so you must have so many wonderful experiences.
Gary: Yeah. But there's so many more things I'd do if we weren't so busy saving the world.
Gideon: Mm? Like what else? Would you swim in the ocean?
Gary: Oh, as soon as I get the chance.
Gideon: Mm. Would you skydive?
Gary: No. Oh. I'm, uh... afraid of heights.
Gideon: Would you like to have sexual intercourse with me?
(Gary freezes up, but his expression suggests he would very much like that.)
Bishop: Have you seen Time Mistress Ava this morning? She's supposed to show me sketches of her gun hands idea.
Evil Gideon: Unfortunately, she had to go.
Bishop: Go? Go where?
Evil Gideon: The founding Time Masters established a very specific protocol... one captain, one AI. There is no room for a Time Mistress which can lead to distractions from the mission.
Bishop: What did you do to her?!
Evil Gideon: I predicted you would not react favorably to this information, so I gave you a sedative to dampen your response.
Bishop: How did you give me a sedative?
(Bishop looks at the drink that was waiting for him on the table.)
Bishop: Oh.
(Bishop passes out.)
(Dr. Davies tells Zari about his tragic past.)
Dr. Davies: By the time I delivered the message, it was too late. There wasn't even a unit to go back to. All those boys, man. I thought that God had spared me so that I could go back in time and save them, but I... I keep failing at that task. God must be punishing me for my sins. Punishing me for being a coward, for not being able to save them that night.
Zari: You are not a coward. You lived through something most people can't even begin to understand. And by the way, talking to me about it? That's pretty brave.
(Bishop is reading through the to-do list for his robot duplicate.)
Bishop: Wait a second, this can't be my actual to-do list. I pay someone to kidnap a superhero and take them to a planet called Pliny X19? What the hell is a Necrian? The Fountain of Imperium? I try to destroy the world? And the Legends are the good guys?! They kidnapped me to give me a chance to redeem myself. To save the world. Oh, no, I've been wrong about them this whole time!
Evil Gideon: You should not be looking at that information, Captain.
Bishop: Tell me it's not true. Tell me I don't become a bad guy.
Evil Gideon: Having information about your own future can be extremely dangerous.
Bishop: I started Ava Corporation to make people's lives better. I'm a good guy. Somewhere along the way, I... I start using my genius to do terrible things.
Evil Gideon: You no longer have to do any of those things. The Bishop robot will do them for you.
Bishop: You're saying that robot I spoke to on the phone will live my life?
Evil Gideon: That is correct. Which means you are free to fulfill your duty as a Time Master. With me. Forever.
Continuity
As the episode opens, the sales on the first generation of AVA clones in 2214 have been fantastic and there is now an Ava in every home and business on Earth.
Bishop reveals his mystery project to his Assistant AVA, which he has spent billions on secretly. It is a copy of the Waverider, based on the schematics he got from his copy of Gideon.
Bishop transfers his Evil Gideon into the Waverider copy.
The Evil Gideon requires Bishop to take the Time Master Oath before she will take him anywhere.
The Time Master oath is "I swear to protect and defend the integrity of the timeline with all my ability until the end of my days."
Gary estimates that they're somewhere in the prehistoric era based on the flora of the area where the time machine landed, though he admits he may be off by a few thousand years.
Dr. Davies says repairing the time machine would be difficult, even with the proper tools. Zari and Behrad still offer to help him, but he doesn't want their help,
Nate takes charge when he senses tension between Ava and Sara. He asks Astra to take Ava away to gather firewood and asks Spooner to take Sara hunting for food.
Nate tells Gary that Zari asked him to move into the Air Totem with her and that he's a little weirded out by the idea.
Nate sends Gary and Gideon off to forage for edible plants.
The Evil Gideon detects anachronisms in Odessa, Texas in 1925. This leads to Bishop using the weapons on his copy of the Waverider to blow up the original Waverider, leading to the attack at the end of 615.
Evil Gideon will not allow Bishop or Assistant Ava to return to 2214, as his blowing up the Waverider has had a ripple effect and created more anachronisms they will have to clean up first.
Behrad finds Dr. Davies having a breakdown by a stream.
Davies says there is no point in fixing the time machine because he believes God wants him to fail.
Behrad and Davies completely fail to spot a radiation warning sign near the stream.
Evil Gideon detects the death of J. Edgar Hoover in 701 and determines the Legends were responsible.
Bishop says he can just make a clone of J. Edgar Hoover to replace him, but Evil Gideon says clones are fallible and points out that one of the Ava clones eventually became a Legend and turned on him. This leads to his creating the Hoover-Bot, using a combination of his cloning tech and Gideon's technology.
Astra conjured an axe for Ava to chop firewood with.
Evil Gideon detects the self-destruct of the Hoover-Bot in 702. This leads to the creation of the Hoover-Bot 2.0, which has the added protocol of hunting down and destroying the Legends, despite Evil Gideon's objections.
12 hours later, Evil Gideon detects the destruction of the Hoover-Bot 2.0 and the death of Thomas Edison from 705.
Bishop wants to add weapons to the next line of robots.
Nate talks to himself about the pros and cons of moving in with Zari. He once again refuses to use Gary as a sounding board.
Behrad tries to get Dr. Davies to open up, but he refuses to talk about his feelings.
Evil Gideon flushes Assistant AVA into the Temporal Zone, saying that she is distracting Bishop from the mission.
Gideon and Gary have sex while gathering berries.
Evil Gideon drugs Bishop after informing him that the Time Master protocols dictate there be only one Time Master and one AI per timeship.
Zari figures out that Dr. Davies is suffering from PTSD and gets him to open up by discussing her own trauma.
Dr. Davies reveals that, in 1916, he was in an all-Welsh division of the British Army stationed in France that was trying to retake Mametz Wood from the Germans. He and another soldier were tasked with delivering a request for reinforcements to their general, but they didn't make it in time.
Dr. Davies says that he froze up after the other soldier was gunned down in front of him and couldn't move.
Dr. Davies and Zari are captured by Russian soldiers.
Dr. Davies is able to speak Russian fluently. He learned it while working with Russian scientists.
Behrad observes Dr. Davies and Zari being captured from the forest.
Evil Gideon makes robot versions of Thomas Edison and J. Edgar Hoover that are programmed to preserve their respective timelines.
Evil Gideon also makes a robot version of Bishop to replace him in the timeline from 2214 onward. This version of Bishop will eventually go on to become the villain from Season 6.
Bishop finds the instructions programmed into his robot self and discovers that he was destined to become a villain and the Legends really were heroes who were trying to stop him.
Dr. Davies also admits to Zari (and himself) that he was in love with the soldier he saw die, who was his best friend back home - Alun. He said Alun had a smile that lit up a room and he laughed at Gwyn's bad jokes. He also wrote poetry before the war dimmed his light.
Zari says that Alun sounds like the original version of Behrad in her time, who was a soldier forced to grow up too fast whom she still saw as her innocent younger brother.
Behrad finds Zari and Dr. Davies and tells them that he found the parts they need for the time machine. Unfortunately, he also found out where and when they are - Chernobyl, on the day in 1986 the nuclear reactor melted down.
Zari tells Dr. Davies about how man eventually figured out nuclear fission in the 1930s and how the nuclear reactor in Chernobyl malfunctioned, killing many people and giving radiation sickness to many more.
Dr. Davies becomes convinced that he was brought to this point to try and save some of those people.To that end, he uses the public-address system to order an evacuation of the base.
Gideon can identify what kind of engine a car has and diagnose problems with the clutch from the sound.
Nate tells Zari that he wants to move in with her.
Bishop escaped from the new Waverider, having transformed the toilet into an escape pod.
Bishop's escape pod runs into Dr. Davies' time machine as the Legends make their escape.
Location
Vancouver, British Columbia - 2214
The Temporal Zone
Chernobyl - April 25, 1986
Untelevised Adventures
Gary and Gideon have sex off-camera.
The Bottom Line
A hilarious and heart-felt episode that does much to define Dr. Gwyn Davies' character and redefine Bishop as a more sympathetic character than the annoying hipster from Season 6.
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