Legends of Tomorrow is a niche show. After a rocky first season that followed a more generic route, the show was recalibrated to embrace its outlandish ideas and oddball energy, resulting in Legends flourishing with a loyal cult following. “This is Gus” seems to be a tribute to its own journey, depicting the pull between mainstream appeal and unique voices, as the Legends crash into the ssisilly underground sitcom Bud Stuy from Behrad’s (Shayan Sobhian) youth. “This is Gus” is a relaxed romp where apocalyptic stakes take a backseat to the team’s interpersonal dynamics and the importance of representation on people’s lives.
Behrad never got a proper introduction in Legends of Tomorrow. When the Legends changed history in Season 4’s finale, Behrad retroactively appeared in place of his sister Zari (Tala Ashe) without much backstory of “how” he was recruited. “This is Gus” is therefore an “origin story” for the loveable stoner, centring around his background development. As the Legends head to pre-emptively stop an alien pod landing in 2023 Vancouver – Ava (Jes Macallan) spouting nerdy Canadian facts for the post-briefing send-off, although Sara (Caity Lotz) says “Rain-couver was right there” – Behrad is excited for his 25th birthday. The Legends were unprepared for this (time travel presumably making “dates” an odd concept) but luckily the Vancouver location is hosting a live studio recording of Behrad’s favourite show Bud Stuy.
However, the alien pod makes it predicted arrival, and Spooner (Lisseth Chavez) shoots it out of the sky with her upgraded handgun. Or at least she knocks it off course, right through the roof of Bud Stuy’s recording. Out from the pod pops the adorable alien baby “Gus-Gus” – a mixture of Baby Yoda, Alf and Legends of Tomorrow’s own Beebo – whom the studio audience is instantly drawn to. The show’s director Kamran is eager to incorporate the adorable baby alien, telling his brother, co-creator and leading actor Imran Saeed (Shawn Ahmed) it gives them “broader appeal.” Imran translates that he wants Buy Stuy’s to be “less Muslim.”
Alongside its plethora of stoner jokes, Bud Stuy was important to Behrad. When the Legends go behind the scenes to reclaim the alien, Behrad tells Imran how “seeing you on TV was the first time I saw me.” It isn’t that Bud Stuy is a radical or empowering show detailing racial struggles. Indeed, it is the low-stakes and casual carefree nature that showed Behrad he didn’t need to be a trailblazer or conform to other’s expectations, but could simply exist as “himself.”
The reinvention of Bud Stuy into something with “broader appeal” therefore shifts the timeline into one where Behrad doesn’t exist. At least not as the Legends know him, as an alternative Behrad who instead went to business school, slicks his hair back, and callously makes “money-moves” emerges. Without this one silly little sitcom, Behrad becomes a different person.
It’s a similar setup Legends pulled in “Raiders of the Lost Art,” where George Lucas being scared out of film school means Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh) and Nate (Nick Zano) were not inspired by Star Wars or Indiana Jones. But “This is Gus” makes an even more personal statement about the “content” of such media, with Imran covering up his brown skin for cheesy green alien face-paint. This is media that not everyone will see (or see the value in) but is still important to those that do.
“This is Gus” also allows Legends of Tomorrow to go gloriously meta-textual, right from when Behrad mutters the set-up is a “little tropey, but guess we’re doing a sitcom mission.” When he and Astra (Olivia Swann) sneak into the writer’s room, it is filled with references to Legends’ own plot-lines like “Alien Woodstock.” Then, when Nate gets hired as the show’s “nosy landlord,” the crew comment how “if I was rebooting a show with a flop first season, he’d be my pick.” Nick Zano came onto Legends in Season 2.
But Legends doesn’t just pull itself apart; it uses the episode’s deconstruction to interrogate the character dynamics within. Bud Stuy was an important piece in Behrad’s backstory, but it was also fuelled by Zari becoming the financially successful Dragon Girl while Behrad was still in high school (Bud Stuy even taking a pot-shot at her). Behrad 2.0 is therefore a dark mirror of the materialistic greed being allowed to fester.
Zari herself is still living in the shadow of her previous timeline version, who Nate has been visiting inside the Air Totem. It’s a complicated web of interpersonal relationships, but “This is Gus” manages to subtly tie such history into each character-beat. “This is Gus” is relatively plot-light, but it just allows the team to co-exist together and make jokes about their communal bathroom (always a highlight), being the best version of Legends by just being itself.
Family is also the focus of the episode’s B-Plot, where Mick Rory (Dominic Purcell) discovers his daughter Lita is now pregnant. Mick is predictably gruff and furious at his college-aged daughter, although Lita points out Mick also “knocked up” her mom in a broom closet (Mick claims that was “conceiving”) and that his arbitrary time travel check-ins mean he cannot dictate her life. Sara is worried Mick has left to assassinate Lita’s boyfriend and baby-daddy Nico, but the group sees the two having a heartfelt discussion about family and unexpected pregnancies.
Mick is also broken up about leaving Kayla behind in “Back to the Finale: Part 2,” seemingly flustering her former fiancé Gary (Adam Tsekhman) when Mick reveals their intimate relations. Although it turns out Gary is not cuckolded so much as concerned, revealing that Kayla likely laid eggs in Mick’s head during their tentacle-heavy sex. Mick is also pregnant.
Babies are a recurring motif in “This is Gus,” then, disrupting plans for how things will turn out, be it a sitcom recording or a father-daughter reunion. Although “This is Gus” does not in itself shake up the status quo, it does push forward certain storylines – including chemistry between Behrad and Astra – and deepen the complexity of its characters within an entertaining episode. Zari 1.0 is also “reborn” from the Totem, temporarily swapping places with Zari 2.0, with it being a testament to Tala Ashe that it feels like an old actor has returned. “This is Gus” combines character examinations, fun tongue-in-cheek humor, and a sincere tribute to niche oddball shows and diverse representation. They might not be for everyone, but for those that still watch, such shows are richly rewarding.
Legends of Tomorrow airs on Sundays on the CW.
