Theodore William Deacon is the ruthless leader of a group of well-organized scavengers called the West VII. He is also referred to as the Scav King. The group survives by killing its competition. Deacon advocates a ruthless Social Darwinian philosophy of kill or be killed, preaching that if he lets his enemies live, he will be creating an enemy.
History
Early Life
Deacon grew up in New Rochelle, New York with his parents and younger brother. His father was an alcoholic and abusive towards his mother. A time-traveling Ramse observed an abusive incident between Deacon's father and the family in 2013. Ramse called the police, who took the young boy's father into custody.[1]
Shortly after the plague, Deacon slaughtered everyone at the Western VII Quarantine Zone, including doctors and children. Years later, Deacon would claim that those people were condemned by their DNA and that the world belongs to the immune. Deacon would go onto become the leader of the group of scavengers that remained, referred to now as the West VII. The group would grow to 200 people.
At an unknown point in time, Deacon developed a contentious relationship with another scav leader called The Foreman. Very little about their relationship is known besides the fact that The Foreman murdered Deacon's brother and is still hunting for Deacon.[2]
In 2032, Deacon met Cole and Ramse, encouraging them to join the West VII. Ramse struggled to integrate with the group and regularly clashed with Deacon. Deacon forced Ramse out and was prepared to kill him. Instead, Cole and Ramse fled the group in 2035.[3]
Season 1
In 2043, Max returns to the camp. She notifies Deacon that she has tracked down Cole, as well as found food, shelter, and power.[4]
While scouting the temporal facility, Deacon and his crew come across a disoriented Cole. Unbeknownst to them, Cole has just time traveled from two days in the future. They drag Cole back to their camp and torture him with red leaves obtained from the Daughters. Cole reveals the location of tunnels that will allow the West VII to invade the facility. The attack is beaten back Cole and the team inside, causing Deacon to flee.[3]
In an alternate 2043 caused by Cassie's death in 2015, Deacon is murdered by Ramse. Because Cassie never left the message for Jones to find, Cole is killed after he and Ramse stumble upon the temporal facility. Ramse escapes back to the West VII, kills Deacon, and rallies the remaining scavengers behind himself. This timeline is undone after Cole's brief visit.[5]
Later, Deacon is approached by the Messengers for help invading the facility. They promise to leave the entire facility to him after they access the time machine. The attack is much more successful than the first.[6][7]
Season 2
Cassie arrives via time machine during the attack with the Messengers. Deacon takes custody of her and locks her in a cell. Cassie diagnoses him with Wilson's Disease and explains that she can use the time machine to get him medication. Cassie convinces Deacon to turn against the Messengers and together they take back the facility.[8]
Deacon remains at the facility in the aftermath of the attack and takes Cassie under his wing during the following eight months, training her to survive in the ruthless future she was previously unequipped to handle. The two grow extremely close, bordering on a romantic relationship. While it never gets to the point where Cassie takes it seriously, Deacon develops legitimate feelings for her. Deacon interrogates Ramse following his retrieval from 2016, but Ramse taunts him, causing Deacon to lose his cool.[9]
Deacon continues to clash with both Cole and Ramse. The problems come to a head when the two deem Deacon a security risk to the facility. One of The Foreman's men approaches Clem, a West VII scav, in hopes of grabbing Deacon. Deacon kills Clem in retaliation, further straining his relationship with those in the facility. Cole and Ramse lie about spotting a temporal anomaly and head out into the woods with Deacon. There, Deacon realizes he's been set up and is turned over to The Foreman. Deacon kills The Foreman after being left for dead and returns to the facility bruised and bloody.[2]
As the red storms grow closer, the Daughters approach the facility. An internal coup threatens the stability of the entire team, with one faction, consisting of Ramse, Cassie, and Adler trying to take the machine to kill The Witness, and the other faction of Jones and Cole set on stopping the final paradox. Cole recruits Deacon and the Daughters to help him gain control of the machine. In the ensuing firefight, Deacon accidentally shoots and kills Jennifer Goines. He is cut in the face with a knife as well. After the fight, a young Jennifer Goines is retrieved from 2015. She leads the Daughters, Deacon, Ramse, and Whitley to Colorado to find Titan and kill The Witness.[10]
Once the group reaches Titan, they are confronted by Acolytes. The entire team, including Deacon, is slaughtered.[11]
The Titan massacre is undone by Cassie, Cole, and Jones. Deacon is unable to escape TItan, however. He is intercepted by a group of Acolytes, who stab him multiple times before the city splinters to 2163.[12]
Season 3
In Titan, Deacon is brought back from the brink of death by Mallick. While he recuperates, he argues with a hallucination of his dead, abusive father about his life, his brother, and the person he became. When he is fully healed, Mallick has him free Railly from the Army. By this time, the city has splintered to 2047.[13]
Deacon and Cassie return to the facility, only to find that it has been completely destroyed. Cassie finds a painted butterfly. Realizing it to be a signal left in the past for her, she begins to dig and finds two time travel tethers, which allow her and Deacon to return to 2046.[14]
The team later hatches a plan to steal the Word of the Witness in 1987. Deacon travels back in time along with Cole, Cassie, and Jennifer. Deacon and Jennifer pose as wealthy participants at an auction, where the Word is hidden inside a valuable piece of art. As the team begins running out of time, Decon stages a robbery, in the hopes of buying Jennifer more time to copy the document. The team successfully pulls of their heist and splinter back to the future.[15]
In 2046, Jennifer begins struggling with her visions. Deacon advises her to begin writing them down, which she does.[16]Over time, Deacon begins to struggle with feeling left out, upset that he is not mentioned on the Word of the Witness or in any of Jennifer's visions.
The team closes in on Athan's location in 1953. Deacon is among the members of the team sent back in time to kill him. He prepares to shoot the child, but is gunned down by Cassie. Cassie and Cole then escape via two of the Guardians' vests.[17]
Deacon and Hannah begin pursuing Cassie and Cole throughout time, including a close call in 1945. They finally track them down in 1899 at a masquerade gala. Deacon kills Sebastian, Athan's last Guardian, in the garden outside the gala, but not before he had given Cole and Cassie a valuable lead on the location of their son.[18]
As the team heads to 1959 for the final confrontation with Athan, Deacon is attacked by Olivia, who hijacks the machine for herself. Deacon splinters to 1959 after the confrontation has concluded and Olivia stages her coup.[19]
Appearances
| Season 1 | ||||
| "Splinter" | "Mentally Divergent" | "Cassandra Complex" | "Atari" | "The Night Room" |
| "The Red Forest" | "The Keys" | "Yesterday" | "Tomorrow" | "Divine Move" |
| "Shonin" | "Paradox" | "Arms of Mine" | ||
| Season 2 | ||||
| "Year of the Monkey" | "Primary" | "One Hundred Years" | "Emergence" | "Bodies of Water" |
| "Immortal" | "Meltdown" | "Lullaby" | "Hyena" | "Fatherland" |
| "Resurrection" | "Blood Washed Away" | "Memory of Tomorrow" | ||
| Season 3 | ||||
| "Mother" | "Guardians" | "Enemy" | "Brothers" | "Causality" |
| "Nature" | "Nurture" | "Masks" | "Thief" | "Witness" |
References
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