Timeless: Season 2, Episode 9, "The General" & Episode 10, "Chinatown" (Season Finale) - Timeless leans on its strengths to deliver a powerful finale (and cliffhanger)

It's no big secret that Timeless is on the bubble for renewal, especially given the huge cliffhanger it decided to leave the audience with as it rounds out its second (and hopefully not final) season. Fingers crossed. As I write this, the fate of the show is still in the air, though some hope remains because of that mere fact since the network television upfronts have come and gone without a word on Timeless, which aired over the same weekend. Regardless, Timeless set out to spin a tale of the lesser known aspects of history in a fun, action-adventure romp, and landed on a spectacular finish that really demands at least a final, if truncated season (even more so than this year, if that's possible).

The two part finale concentrates Timeless into a perfect distillation of the show's strengths without skipping a beat. Oddly, I did feel the first hour ("The General") felt more of a transitional episode despite being the penultimate episode of the season. It's an otherwise almost run-of-the-mill episode where they have to stop the American Civil War turning out the wrong way, with a bit of help from Harriet Tubman. from A few points were made about season long arcs such as Jiya's growing abilities and how she could start to control them, on top of that the arc with Jessica and her affiliation with Rittenhouse. Carol tries to sway Nicholas back to her side over Emma, but it's played very slowly until it explodes in the following hour.  Everything ends up contributing greatly to the second hour ("Chinatown"), making the first hour feel like one last standalone adventure before everything hits the fan.

On that note, Timeless as a show that frequently leans harder on the episodic side of storytelling as one of its strengths, though for me, at some points the longer arcs feel inconsequential until it truly comes to a head. Often the longer arcs can feature too little change or movement as the season progresses without giving much hint for the future ahead, though it's more of a nitpick than anything from me.

It's in "Chinatown" that Timeless really begins to stop playing safe and go for broke with everything that's been building through the season. Starting with Jessica, she kidnaps Jiya back to Rittenhouse only to be made a hostage (Carol wants to leverage her to bump off Emma). She quickly makes her escape but not before Emma gets a few shots in at the Lifeboat, and it can't land back in the bunker. I suppose at this point Rittenhouse has little to no resources left seeing as they can't attack the bunker despite maybe knowing where it is. What's impressive is Jiya leaving a message for the team on where to find the Lifeboat in the present and warning them to leave her behind. It's a drastically heightened scenario that we saw with Lucy at the start of the season, placing Jiya in the late 19th century for three years on her own. It's a much bolder move than what they attempted to do with Lucy, and if the show continues, Jiya might seem much better equipped to head out with the team as she's been given time to "toughen up" (for the lack of a better term).

The second drastic change Timeless makes is to set Rittenhouse down a different path by basically turning Nicholas Keynes an afterthought. The leftovers of Rittenhouse chase after Jiya all at once, and it causes the sole four survivors to whittle each other down - Keynes kills Carol and then Emma executes Nicholas - leaving Emma and Jessica left to escape back to the present. With Rittenhouse in the present essentially now in the hands of two women, it makes me wonder what type of threat will they pose, considering Jessica and Wyatt's child will either be leverage or used against him. It does make me wonder that if the show is done with using Rittenhouse as a stand-in (especially with Nicholas) for influential white men trying to control every aspect of history; what will drive Emma to take the reins? One guess is she'll want to change history for the better in her image (we saw her going against orders in "Mrs. Sherlock Holmes"), but perhaps her attempts to change things for the better might backfire without the care someone like Lucy or Carol can provide. Nicholas felt like an attempt to put a face to Rittenhouse that wasn't there is season one (unless you count Lucy's father), but he never really amounted to much and his will was mostly enacted through Emma mostly or really just played off as a more cynical version of Sleepy Hollow's Ichabod Crane.

Ultimately though, the show's strengths lies in leaning on its characters, and despite my misgivings about slower, season long stories, they do end up contributing in small ways to make us care about everyone. Flynn was a perfect example of that in season one, and with Emma and Jessica now at odds with everyone else, I'm interested in seeing where the show might take them. At some point in the show, Lucy, Wyatt, and Rufus have embraced the act of changing history because their gut reaction is to change it (hopefully for the better) even when preserving the events would be the best course of action. For historians, Lucy especially, that aspect is interesting because of that struggle between judging history as a social science where one must accept the values of the past were not as enlightened versus the fiction that allows one to actually experiencing that history and being able to manipulate it. Timeless is an interesting time capsule in a way because unlike most time travel fiction that places someone from our future or past into our present as ways of examining our society and its values, it does the opposite by observing and critiquing past values to our current ones in hopes that it can act as a catalyst to improve our present. Layered on that, with the work the show puts into its characters, it's not hard to see why earlier in the season, Lucy decided to help the women of Salem avoid their fates. Or why we might agree with Jiya when she begs for Rufus to leave her behind in the past, or when Lucy just lets loose on Emma in a down-and-dirty fist fight because of what she did to Rufus. Or how it must feel for the audience to know that when a newly-upgraded Lifeboat shows up and a grizzled, future Lucy and Wyatt propose they go save Rufus, you know in the back of your mind that they wouldn't hesitate to say that they will.

Miscellaneous thoughts:

• There is a fantastic article on Bustle that hit many of the same beats I've noticed over the first and second season, especially as it pertains to how the show tells the tales of the lesser known people of history and the connections between Rittenhouse and influential white men in history.
• I'm not particularly in nitpicking how the time travel really works in Timeless but I have to assume anything that has time travelled is immune from changes, like any person's memories or objects remain the same despite history changing. Maybe that's why Emma killing Nicholas didn't immediately make Carol and Lucy disappear from history. Though to be fair, he was probably destined to die in WW1.

Timeless: Season 2, Episode 8, "The Day Reagan Was Shot" - Timeless fights to keep their origin story alive

As Timeless rounds out the season with one more lap before the finale, "Reagan" is the centerpiece for Agent Denise Christopher as Lucy, Wyatt, Rufus, and Jiya have to save a younger (officer) Denise from being murdered by a Rittenhouse sleeper agent in 1981. "Reagan" is arguably the strongest episode yet of Timeless as it helps mix in so many elements of time travel stories into a strong, character focused hour of television. Frankly speaking, there are times where Timeless needs to simply be saved by the sheer chemistry on display by its lead characters, but for this hour, it only helps magnify an already strong story to something much better.

For all the heroes, this is one where all the stakes are personal and high as the team races to keep Denise Christopher alive; if she dies, then Rittenhouse can simply wipe out all opposition in one fell swoop. It's an easy thing for the audience to wrap their head around, because the show is explicitly saying that this is how you kill off the origin story of the show: start at the root cause. There are a few interesting twists included in the whole adventure as Lucy and Jiya have to sort out how to prevent Denise from heading down a different path now that she's more than a simple witness to a historical event.

Denise Christopher's character is an interesting one that never got much exploration beyond a few scenes in season one where Lucy is invited over to dinner. Most other times, she's straightforward and all business with almost no deceptive streak, but one hell of a poker face. It's in that quiet scene we learn she's gay, married and has children, but beyond that the show never really explores her family life beyond vaguely putting them in the vicinity of danger that you expect from Rittenhouse. Sakina Jaffrey is a fantastic actor and sells the material well, connecting with Lucy's sister's disappearance to her fear or losing her family through simple causality.

It's a great callback to the flash drive that she gives Lucy in that quiet scene that never comes back up until now, and it's used to great effect at the big emotional climax. It works doubly well by having Karen David play the younger, more conflicted version of Denise Christopher who also pitches in on finding Ronald Reagan's would-be assassin. The episode also explores issues of queer identity and the toll it plays, especially in families with a more conservative nature like Denise's. The show doesn't make any qualms about telling the audience that Denise's mother is definitely no fan of her sexual orientation, plus has some things to say about arranged marriages in Indian culture. Jaffrey of course, helps seal the deal when the team returns to discover their risky gamble to tell her about her future has worked, and because of their intervention, parts of her personal life have changed, for the better. The show arrives at a fairly nuanced conclusion to it; she maintains a generally more positive (rather than mostly absent) relationship with her mother, connecting over her adoptive children. It's not the happiest ending, but it a nuanced approach does speak volumes over a simple, "and then it was 110% all better".

It was also nice to have Denise and Flynn bounce off one-another in a more friendly tone and share advice about keeping their families close. It's not hard to imagine Flynn as a sympathetic character (as he's had much time to express it back in the first season), and it's moments like those that remind the audience he was never at any point a dastardly, moustache-twirling villain.

As for Rufus and Wyatt, they track down the Rittenhouse sleeper agent who attempts to kill Denise Christopher and take him captive. It's an interesting subplot as the show is very much aware it's the first time they've taken a Rittenhouse agent alive and pump him for information. It's also not much of a surprise that maybe some members of Rittenhouse are not so sympathetic to their cause and are acting as mere pawns under some duress. It's an interesting angle to play, especially with what's been shown of Rittenhouse in the past, and in the second season. It also helps inform Jessica's position with Rittenhouse, as it's fairly obvious by now she's in on the whole thing, like it or not. The sleeper plotline on a bit of a bitter note as the two sleeper agent brothers end up having to die, with one having to take his life for a cause he didn't necessarily believe it, but again, it does some duty to help colour Jessica's position. It just feels like it's fairly late of a development or avenue for the show to explore, but I'm glad they got to it.

The unfortunate fact is the finale will be coming up next, so there might be some more exploration of that angle, probably through Carol, maybe as she tries to see the whole Rittenhouse endeavour is starting to fail and fall apart as a byproduct of their own making.

Miscellaneous thoughts:

• The show is still on the bubble at this time of writing, so it'll be interesting what state the 2-hour finale leaves the show in, especially if it's in an unresolved cliffhanger.
• There's something to be said about Rittenhouse "trying again" by going further up the family tree, but that feels unnecessary and a little too involved. Sometimes time travel stories don't need all the holes plugged.
• Had to give it some thought, but Wyatt not remembering Jessica's younger brother makes sense since Jessica returned into the timeline while Wyatt was still out in the past (in "Hollywoodland"), meaning his memories of her were still of her being dead and not alive.
• As for other time travel rule talk: Flynn does remind us an older Lucy will travel back in time (when it's possible) to get Flynn started on his adventure. It will be interesting to see then - if the show survives that long. Hopefully.

Timeless: Season 2, Episode 7, "Mrs. Sherlock Holmes" - Women's suffrage isn't necessarily the best subject to explore, but Timeless makes it work anyway

Timeless takes us on an interesting journey back to the roots of women's suffrage in the U.S., but it feels slightly undercooked as a setting, and more of an excuse to use Grace Humiston's moniker of "Mrs. Sherlock Holmes" as a tool to poke fun and Lucy and Wyatt's strained relationship. It's really no surprise that if your secret cabal is led by a turn-of-the-century white man with illusions of grandeur and plans to take over the world through time travel, he might not be so great with women's rights. Or anyone else's for that matter. But that being said, the cast always pulls through and makes any episode of Timeless enjoyable.

An interesting development as of this episode is showing us that Rittenhouse is nearly extinct, at least thought to be after Wyatt raided the headquarters himself last week. As far as the show is concerned, Rittenhouse is Nicholas, Emma, and Carol, plus whatever sleeper agents they left remaining to be activated, now that everyone else is more or less dead or arrested from last season. Nicholas is more concerned about snuffing out movements that might run counter to running an authoritarian regime, but it appears that women's suffrage is something not even Emma - arguably Rittenhouse's only competent operator remaining - can really justify. It makes for an incredibly interesting and fun combination as it brings Rufus, Flynn, and Emma together as they all hash out their particular past working relationships and look for common ground to stop Rittenhouse's plans. 

Rufus is particularly amusing this episode when paired off with Flynn as the two of them operate on a fairly casual tone and Flynn takes the time to joke with Rufus, going so far as to calmly tell him he's not going to kill him today. It makes for extra comedy when compounded with the fact that Rufus feel more confident knowing he's not time-travelling to a time with cowboys and he's certain to die. The hilarious notion that he thinks he's invincible makes him decides to tempt fate every time he and Flynn are met with danger, but it does offer a fun distraction as the two actors work off each other very well.

"Mrs. Sherlock Holmes" arguably has the most competent Rittenhouse sleeper agent put to task considering she was able to kill Alice Paul without anyone noticing and coming fairly close to killing Lucy. Grace Humiston was an interesting figure to attach to the story, mostly as a way to pick apart at Wyatt and Lucy's strained relationship, as well as having her become the stand-in and replacement for Alice Paul as a long-running women's rights activist. The interpretation of the historical figure might not be as particularly sound, but the journey made was an interesting one to have her start as someone less than interested in women's suffrage and equality, ultimately realizing her biases to the situation and taking up a noble cause. It's tied up nicely and Timeless doesn't always have to meet the standards of academia, so any deviations from real history is worth a pass for an entertaining hour of television.

It remains to be seen exactly what the show wants to do with Emma, since she's largely loyal save for this indiscretion. Jessica being known to Agent Christopher and Connor Mason potentially being a Rittenhouse agent isn't really a surprise considering the show acknowledges the possibility itself episodes back with her return. She's meant to throw a wrench mostly into Wyatt and Lucy's relationship, though it's really Lucy here who knows her boundaries, and it feels like Wyatt who thinks he can maybe manage a threesome if he's really sly about it. It's welcome to hear the show also acknowledge through Lucy that she and Flynn aren't romantically inclined, but he is someone she can connect with otherwise since everyone else is literally paired off at this point in the show.

Miscellaneous thoughts:

• Squeezing in a Donald Trump as president joke might just be the best part of the episode. But it wasn't their fault he's president, at least.
• Not much of an arc but Rufus thinking he's invincible to getting humbled and apologizing to Jiya was nice to see.
• The thing about the women's suffrage movement in the US is that it was fairly widespread by then that I feel like Rittenhouse would have to snuff out the movement in the entire western world and work to keep it from stirring up again. I feels like a minor setback and the U.S. would've just been late to the party instead of thinking it just becomes The Handmaid's Tale overnight. But that's just me being nitpicky.

Timeless: Season 2, Episode 6, "The King of the Delta Blues" - How Connor Mason went back in time to get his groove back

At this point in the season, it feels a bit like Timeless is checking off boxes on what the show has left hanging while giving their characters something of a sendoff before launching into the finale. For anyone following the ratings, it's very likely the show knows it has limited time left (no pun intended) but it also wants to do the job of servicing most of the characters it has left in some way. In "Delta Blues", the show does what it can in some ways to give Connor Mason a happy ending of sorts.

Connor Mason has always been an interesting character, but in some ways relegated to the sidelines as part of the format of Timeless for a large part of it. His buildup and arc over the first season as a part of Rittenhouse (largely due to their funding of this Mothership/Lifeboat project) constantly had him bouncing back and forth as an ally or villain when needed. At the end of it, he showed everyone he was playing the long game and ultimately helped with the government in apprehending a good chunk of Rittenhouse. In the second season however, there was not much for Connor Mason to do after his company was literally scuttled away by Rittenhouse.

In some ways, early on in the second season, the show did not shy away from reminding us that Connor Mason was but a figurehead and long past his prime in some ways, and the explosion at Mason Industries was there to further disgrace him. Connor didn't have much involvement whereas Rufus and Jiya continued to remain instrumental in the fight against Rittenhouse by being involved in all the operations of the Lifeboat and he was left to really just mope around.

Luckily the story of the week is something that is entirely in Connor Mason's wheelhouse. "Delta Blues" is a fascinating episode because it helps frame and give Connor Mason some extra depth and complexity beyond being an Elon Musk facsimile. Perhaps the initial intent of having a Black Brit contrast with Rufus' sense of race different was but a passing blurb and a reference to Mason's actor - this was referenced way back in the pilot - though it never truly went beyond that. With "Delta Blues", it provides an interesting depth by proving him with the appreciation and expertise in Depression-era blues music, right down to the minutiae of it. It's through Mason that he explains how the birth of the blues is how rock and roll came to be, and Lucy is able to see how it helps explain much of the counterculture that comes through in the twentieth century, and why Rittenhouse might care to stymie the rise of it.

For obvious reasons, Connor starts to see himself through the musician Robert Johnson that they're there to save. As the story goes, Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil to help find his way to achieve success, but now with Rittenhouse's intervention, he starts to feel like it was more of a monkey's paw type of deal. It doesn't take long for Connor Mason to feel like he's met a kindred spirit (that he's also a fan of), but it takes a bit of coaxing and reminder from Rufus that he used to be an inspirational figure himself. It's great to see the show hasn't forgotten about the student/mentor relationship the two men share, even though it was twisted and perverted at times back in the first season; the scene between the two in the juke joint is telling enough that there's plenty of history between the two, and Joseph and Barrett do a fantastic job conveying it. It's an nice bookend to someone like Connor Mason, who was deathly afraid of his own invention after making a deal with the devil to usher it into creation. At the end of the hour, he's the one who needs to save history as we know it, while ending up leaving his own mark on it. The final expression from Connor Mason as he hears himself on the record sells the entire struggle of his character. 

Meanwhile, the show moves to bring Lucy and Flynn closer together now that he's been flying more missions with the team. I don't think the show is trying to move them into a romantic angle, but the two are connected by personal losses that they believe can be rectified with some proper application of time travel. Flynn tries to bond with the Lucy from the future and through the journal he's read over and over, though Lucy still can't come to terms with it. It's only when he decides to connect with the Lucy in the present do they establish the bond he thinks he's found in her writings.

As for Wyatt, getting the chance to take down Rittenhouse proves to be an interesting mission for him to tackle solo; at least he got to handle modern equipment and weaponry for once, as he reminds us. The show does not do a great job of showing us the scale of what Rittenhouse is this season. I assume the arrests made in season one mostly hampered the organization to say, a tenth of their current size and they're fighting to come back, and it's supposedly being led by Carol and Emma. It just seems odd because Rittenhouse right now is mostly a bunch of faceless background extras flanking Carol (who's joined their ranks in the weeks prior) along with Emma and Nicholas. They don't seem as menacing as the evil cabal that seemed to control a good portion of America in season one. Even the sleeper agents that our heroes run into in their adventures don't really make much of an impression unfortunately. Adding on to that, the fairly glacial pace with what Timeless wants to do with Carol makes for a relatively uninteresting watch when Rittenhouse is on screen. Luckily, their presence is fairly unneeded to make an episode of Timeless feel magical.

Miscellaneous thoughts:

• Flynn finally getting a gun is incredibly funny, as he cannot contain his excitement, even though I'm sure he's had to acquire a gun or two in his last trip.
• Rufus admonishing Connor for trying to turn their time travel missions into life counselling sessions is a little funny considering most times our heroes end up taking cues and asking for life advice from historical figures they come across all the time.
• I was tempted, but I felt like fitting in a groove pun (both music and vinyl record) would've been a little too much.
• The episode ends with Jiya foretelling Rufus' supposed death, but it's detailed enough that it's just as easy for him to possibly avoid leaving the Lifeboat, unless it's absolutely necessary. Just a tease, really, for the finale probably, so it's hard to see where it goes until then.

Timeless: Season 2, Episode 5, "The Kennedy Curse" - The past in the present helps shake up cast dynamics

Timeless decides to basically take the week off in period garb, and it pays off surprisingly well with the change in pace by bringing someone from the past into the present. Although the show is always firmly rooted on in the trio of Lucy, Wyatt, and Rufus, in the past year they've taken on more allies and those allies have become more entangled in their adventures, albeit usually on the events in the sidelines. With "The Kennedy Curse", the crisis of the week allows all the characters to bounce off one another with having to deal with a young JFK wandering around in the present, rather than having the supporting characters pop in for a quick brief at the start of the episode, tag in for their scenes for their respective subplots, then appear again for the denouement (unless you're Flynn this week). It makes for a more energetic episode where the entire cast isn't literally separated by the gulf that is literal decades and helps bring a lot of focus on most of the episode to a singular purpose.

As I had stated in the review for the previous episode, the show continues to move briskly with Jessica involved, giving the feeling the whole young JFK to the present plot was constructed wholly so it would be possible to get Wyatt, Lucy, and Jessica to share the bulk of the episode's scenes together without having to find a more convoluted reason for her to take a trip in the Lifeboat (though the show also teases Rufus and Jiya trying to add an official fourth seat). A young JFK escapes his supposed confinement in the team's bunker, and the show surprises as well by not simply confining the episode to the bunker itself, letting him escape into the wilder world and having to react to knowing he's literally time travelled.

Lucy accompanies Wyatt into the field if only to size up Jessica, who only wants to follow along and not feel useless. And of course if Lucy is able to handle it, she should too. It makes for an interesting dynamic by seemingly pitting the two women together but at odds, held together by Wyatt's presence. The back and forth comes and goes with Jessica being able to rise to the occasion, and Lucy being able to employ her expertise towards the hunt for JFK. Lucy begins to realize that there's an immense amount of history between Jessica and Wyatt that no amount of life-or-death adventuring with Wyatt could possibly outdo what bond the two have. Despite Jessica's misgivings about how Wyatt had treated her in the past, Lucy is correct when she tells Jessica of his devotion to her. Wyatt is as committed as he says he is, because Lucy witnessed all of Wyatt's attempts in season one to bring her back, driven from his guilt of losing her and thinking he could bring her back. Sure, it pushes Lucy further away from Wyatt in a romantic sense, but for everyone involved, it is, as they say, "complicated" beyond any measure.

Meanwhile, Rufus, Jiya, and Connor play the role of tech support back at the bunker, and it leads to Rufus and Jiya pondering further about just how causality just might work within the confines of Timeless. It makes one wonder how much their conversation is the writers trying to work through the messy mechanics of time travel and causality, and how much of it is just the fact that it's two technically apt people trying to work their way through everything they've faced. Timeless seems to have some firm rules set on how time travel works in the show, but it is interesting to have Rufus and Jiya muse over causality. If the present hasn't changed significantly and everyone is still aware of JFK as president, doesn't that mean that you can conclude JFK will be returned to his place in time, and will carry on as he's supposed to? It does make that one errant scene of the JFK quarter weird in the context of that conversation; it transforms into Nixon even though ultimately JFK comes out unharmed when Emma attacks and it's never shown again. The show even implies JFK's history generally follows the same trajectory despite Rufus' request to avoid his own assassination. 

The subplot between Denise and Carol comes off strong because it's played off with two strong actors (Jaffrey and Thompson), but unfortunately for me, there's very little to work with other than the generic threat to the Christopher family deal. Lucy ends up really making the final decision though, sort of removing Agent Christopher from the equation despite the risk involved to someone's family. I'll be genuinely curious though if this point really comes up again or has some follow-through as a result of it.

As for the episode's namesake, JFK ends up playing a fairly minor role, which is par for the course with Timeless. Much of the episode is spent either in awe of or confused by a way of life that's drastically different from yours. It's not really until the final act where JFK and Kayla share some moments together and the two are given some time to develop some sense of either who these characters are. The Kennedy family curse itself may have also gotten worse as the young JFK gets a chance to see his short-lived fate, as recorded by Wikipedia, and has to live with the burden of knowing the future of himself and his family, and as the episode ends up telling us, unable to really change much, only being able to simply live his life more or less as expected, give or take a few minor details. It leaves one wondering exactly how malleable or resilient history is to change in Timeless, given that the show doesn't seem to give a firm answer. In the meantime, it's worth the ride that episodes like "The Kennedy Curse" provide.

Miscellaneous thoughts:

• It's worth mentioning a bit but Rufus and Jiya have come up against the brick wall that is fundamental differences in philosophies and worldviews, borne out of trying to figure out how causality is supposed to work. That's usually a relationship breaker, so I'll be interested to see where it goes.
• Despite Flynn being missing, there is a good amount of chemistry and banter about and involving Flynn, especially when he returns from the past.

Timeless: Season 2, Episode 4, "The Salem Witch Hunt" - Timeless decides it's time for Lucy to change history as well

Finally, it feels like Timeless has produced an episode with a lot of movement this season after lingering in the wake of its season two premiere. There were a lot of errant plot threads that didn't seem to amount to much finally being addressed in "The Salem Witch Hunt" that seem to set the show in interesting directions moving forward. With not much time left in the season, it's strange to see the show trying to take its time getting to its more interesting stories.

Firstly, Timeless did a great job in moving much more briskly with Jessica than I was expecting by placing her in the bunker with the rest of the team by the end of the episode, but also attaching a lot of interesting baggage on the character, and by extension Wyatt. I remain optimistic about how the show will handle her, as she could be an interesting dynamic that exists beyond "getting in the way of" Lucy and Wyatt. Assuming Jessica is nothing more than a diversion or complication in that sense, there are still interesting threads weaved through the episode. Does Rittenhouse just simply plan to unbalance the team by bringing her back? With Flynn taking a more active, and positive role with Lucy and Rufus, the show does give the impression that the team is malleable and can work without Wyatt acting as muscle (or as in season one's "The Lost Generation" showed us, how Lucy and Rufus have to compensate when they have none).

I was expecting a long, drawn-out reveal that Rittenhouse was behind Jessica's return; except the show decided to explain what happened in the span of thirty seconds and focus on the consequences instead. Having the follow up to Wyatt's mission to bring back Jessica in season one to having her back and trying to convince Jessica to reconcile will be an interesting story to see. Even if the implications that she could very well become a Rittenhouse double-agent (or triple-agent) seems to always be waiting in the wings because of the circumstances, at least the show is smart enough to acknowledge it.

Speaking of consequences, this episode also finally addressed Jiya's premonitions, and they all seem to center on Rufus. I thought it a bit clumsy to show her premonition an episode in advance, almost as a teaser, but it works in a way that you might expect the next week's episode promo to work, having the audience parse out of context snippets meant to catch your attention. It does a good job weaving in the story of the week, Rufus' and Jiya's personal struggles with time travel, as well as weaving in the show's themes of fate/free will (through time travel, of course) into the equation. The show never settles into a strict right and wrong (or rather factual vs. subjective) reading of the situation, preferring to express it through its characters. The pilgrim Jiya saw in her visions might have only been meant to die because she told the team about it, causing him to become involved with Rufus' journey to begin with. While the trope is a staple of time travel stories, it can be interesting with proper execution, and at least "Salem" puts the show in the right direction.

Rufus' arc through Salem is an interesting one because it contrasts to Lucy's in a drastically different way despite the two of them being almost inseparable except for a creepy cabin. Lucy is definitely determined to make sure Benjamin Franklin's mother doesn't get hanged as a witch in order to save the America she knows from going under, but also to make sure values like criticizing authority don't get taken away by Rittenhouse. Lucy has mostly existed on the show, in many ways, to ensure history survives as best it can despite outside manipulation, but her change in attitudes at the climax of the episode seemingly move her in another - and fascinating - direction. She empathizes with the women who she knows will hang for no good reason, and decides to save them all instead of leaving them to their known fates, consequences be damned. Perhaps Lucy is fully set on the path to destroy Rittenhouse, fixing one problem on the way at a time. After all, Lucy knows now more than ever that she is working with Flynn on the right side of history, and maybe she thinks should be able to help shape it for the better rather than just try to fix what she sees as broken to begin with.

As someone who studied history, it's an interesting idea by itself, but also something to be wary of: which is to apply your modern, contemporary values to a past that didn't hold your values. Though we know Lucy is the hero of the tale that is Timeless, is her attempt to reshape history (another word might be to "clean" or "sanitize") in "Salem" going to continue? And if so, does that make her any different from what Rittenhouse is trying to do?

Miscellaneous thoughts:

• Pretty bold move by Timeless to cast Patrick Fischler in a bit role in an attempt to trick us into thinking he's the Rittenhouse sleeper agent. Anyone who knows their TV guest stars would've easily assumed that a recognizable name in a show like Timeless (or any procedural cop show, really) is the guy who's guilty 99% of the time.
• Not sure how to feel about Nicholas, who still feels like a really cynical version of Sleepy Hollow's Ichabod Crane. He has a plan, but the show is not too keen on sharing it. And of course he doesn't have to care about his granddaughter if only because killing her doesn't erase him from history. It's so painfully obvious the direction the show wants to take Carol in though by making Nicholas just that evil enough.

Timeless: Season 2, Episode 3, "Hollywoodland" - A straightforward episode saved by its spectacular cast

Sometimes an episode of Timeless ends up being fairly straightforward, and that's all you need in the world. But other times, you also wish there would be something more drastic happening, as a trip to 1940s Hollywood(land) feels like a transitional episode saddled with fairly straightforward story of the week. It's a fun story nonetheless, but it's not until the very end when all is said and done that Timeless wants to play its hand. With a fairly short second season order of ten episodes, it feels like (from personal experience) that everything is down to the line, especially in an environment where they might not be able to save Timeless again for a third season. A fun hour of television is always good, but sometimes it feels like the show is a little lost for direction when it should be making some more moves.

The episode shines when the three heroes are on display, taking in the sights of another era, and enjoying themselves. There's a lot of energy to be mined with the three principal characters, so the weekly dose of the three is always welcome, despite any of my misgivings. Props specifically goes out to Abigail Spencer who gets a nice, rousing musical performance into the episode. Meanwhile, as Wyatt and Lucy get closer and closer romantically, it's great to see the chemistry between everyone, especially Rufus when he discovers the pair post-coitus and can't contain his nervous energy.

It's a fairly laid-back episode where - if I'm being honest - the Rittenhouse portion of the plot feels like an afterthought to highlight the era. It hits all the beats of the cabal trying to rein in history to their advantage, this time by stealing Citizen Kane to get William Randolph Hearst to let them publish a single article in his papers. It's a little surprising someone like Hearst wasn't already a Rittenhouse member, since earlier episodes seemed to imply Rittenhouse was so well ingrained in America's elite around this time that someone owning a giant media company wasn't already in cahoots. Hedy Lamarr is a fun addition and has fun bouncing off the cast, though it felt a lot like she was just included so the show could make a point about her notable achievements than really providing a catalyst for character development (other than getting Lucy and Wyatt to finally hook up) that usually works well in the show's format.

Unfortunately, because Rittenhouse feels like an afterthought in this episode, actors like Teddy Sears are wasted playing a minor plot point to something that could have had interesting implications. There's a handful of scenes where there's something for Sears to work with - most notably the two he shares with his father - that gives the growing sense that these sinister agents have gone native, as they say. It's interesting how none of these agents (Lucas and Ryan from last week) neither seek out any Rittenhouse support structure (you'd think they'd have a secret handshake or something) to prevent them from enjoying themselves too much, or had more concrete plans. The writing comes off giving the impression that Rittenhouse dumped Lucas off in 1925-26 Hollywood with barely a plan except to integrate themselves before waiting for someone to come back to relay their final orders. This sort of implies that Nicholas Keynes' arrival in the present isn't simply a catalyst for Rittenhouse's sleepers to activate, but that he has to micromanage them, and beforehand, there was no concrete plan for these sleepers until he showed up. I wish there was some more danger to Rittenhouse's plans, for instance, maybe even replacing a historical figure with a Rittenhouse agent, to truly up the stakes.

In the final moments, Timeless finally unites Flynn with our heroes. He feels like a necessary addition to the team and hopefully will prove to be an interesting foil considering that Rittenhouse sleeper agents have been somewhat lacking in personality. Considering neither Wersching or Thompson had their statuses bumped up, it means there might be a lack of personality to Rittenhouse for the time being to balance out the spectacular cast of protagonists. It's a good thing Flynn might take a more active role in season two, and maybe provide interesting complications for the team. On the same note, reviving Jessica for Wyatt has interesting implications, though we've not heard a word from her yet, so it's too early to say if she factors into anything involving the Rittenhouse arc, or if her return is somehow some kind of causality working itself out (maybe the security guard that is killed in 1941 someone connects to her disappearance). Either way, I'm sure it's enough to cause fans of Lucy and Wyatt to burst into flames shortly after the pairing came together.

Miscellaneous thoughts:

• Not much again on Jiya this week, as it's kind of slow development again, though I did enjoy her rationale on avoiding doctors. She's "healed" in a sense by time travel via the Lifeboat, but the implications still feel too far out to make any prediction what it could mean, since the visions and seizures are still there.
• Seems like the episode was made for poking fun at Hollywood culture. "Who knows what writers look like?", or "Writers are a dime a dozen." Writers know exactly who they're writing for here.
• "TV, it's the future," says the man from 2018. Too bad his attempt at making Jurassic Park probably gave him away.

Timeless: Season 2, Episode 2, "The Darlington 500" - Trying to outrun the past at 60+ mph

 



Sometimes Timeless drops our heroes into a less fascinating (rather, less pop history) period, area, or timeframe in history, but when it does just that, it brushes away the need to anchor the episode with an incredibly noteworthy historical celebrity or event, and allows the show to take charge through its characters and quietly put some more time in with world building, or even just to show us what we might have missed in history class. Unless you're Wyatt, of course, because apparently "The Darlington 500" is your jam.

Though to be fair, any episode of Timeless does allow the viewer to spin off and discover more about the period each episode wants to re-create and represent, meaning that quite a bit of research was put into each episode, but leaves just enough for those who are interested to dig deeper. "The Darlington 500" sends our heroes back to the early days of stock car racing (a subject that, like Lucy and Rufus, I have not even one point to start on) to find out why Rittenhouse wants to interfere with history in 1955. It ends up being a little boring and rote, in a good way, to place the danger on some white, faceless automotive executives while having the anchor point of the episode work around African-American racecar driver Wendell Scott.

It's an interesting move so early into the second season of Timeless because by the episode's halfway point, it throws an interesting complication to the series into the mix by challenging history itself. Previously, history was changed because of how Lucy, Wyatt and Rufus had to somehow correct for Flynn's interference; returning home generally brought them at odds between how history really played out, and how the world at large now know the history to be. But now history is at the risk of being changed and remembered incorrectly even by our heroes, due to Rittenhouse's attempts to manipulate history with its sleeper agents. There was no Ryan Millerson who won the first Daytona 500 because history was changed without anyone noticing, and all of Wyatt's memories about him just came to exist because history changed through Rittenhouse manipulation. Using Wendell Scott becomes more interesting as it helps highlight certain parts of history that might not be as visible for the general audience. The contrast is more interesting because Wendell Scott is African-American in contrast to the usual white prominent historical figures of American history, on top of the fact the episode is about NASCAR-style racing in the 1950s, a subject one naturally assumes is predominantly, if not exclusively white. Not the first time Timeless has done it, but it always executes it with aplomb nonetheless.

Much of the episode also works around Wyatt, at this is one of the first times since "Karma Chameleon" that puts him in the spotlight again. "The Darlington 500" puts both Wyatt and Wendell Scott in the same boat as they find many similarities in one another as Wyatt finds himself starstruck at meeting a racing legend. "You guys never asked", as he tells Lucy and Rufus, which puts us in the interesting predicament where Wyatt is finally fleshed out beyond his military background and his sole connection with his late wife, Jessica, and all for the better.

Wyatt also ends up drifting in and out of Lucy's own development too as he begins to care more and more for her romantically. Lucy has been staring up at the ceiling in her bed at night since her return, and he voices his concerns. It's probably only after Wyatt and Wendell Scott talk about their fathers and their illicit, car-based activities that he finds some way to get through to Lucy. As I said previously about the last episode, Timeless unfortunately did not let us see what happened in the interim period between seasons one and two, but here they are working to fill in the gaps. Wyatt's past with his disappointing father helps to shake Lucy out of her rut and move forward, unshackling her from the gravitational pull that is her mother, at least on the personal level, since at least some Rittenhouse employees still have some professional respect for Carol and her family tree.

It's only a small scene at the start of the episode, but it is interesting to see the show start to gear up to transform the Lucy we see now, hopefully, into the Lucy that hails from the future and passes down her journal to Flynn to start him off on his journey. We've seen the journal being gifted from Carol to Lucy, though I'm sure in due time the denouement of one episode will end with Lucy starting to jot down notes and bring said journal to life, now that she seems to be set on the path to stop Rittenhouse once and for all.

As for Jiya and Connor, there's not much to say, though Jiya's affliction seems to have taken a more interesting turn. Is it that she can see the past, or the future, since Rufus' injury was inflicted in the past, but at a 'future' time? Connor, on the other hand, it's likely possible his attempt to resurface in public life and reclaim his reputation is simply working toward some plot movement in the future where he places the heroes in jeopardy, though I would be surprised if something else more interesting comes out of it; in the meantime I found it a rather unexciting development, unfortunately.

Rittenhouse remains a mystery, which is par for the course, though some interesting things did flare up during the episode with what little was offered. I found it a bit disappointing the episode did not dwell longer on the sleeper agent who became (or was already?) Ryan Millerson, and his apparent lapse in dedication to his mission by taking a wife and fathering an unborn child. It would have been interesting to see some cracks in the façade that is Rittenhouse from that perspective, since it is dealt with rather quickly and cleanly, though the mother and child seem to have been a loose end that wasn't tended to. And as for Keynes - sure he is a nut and wants everything he's used to from the turn of the 20th century - but his roadmap for Rittenhouse, at least from how I parsed the final scene (with all the talk of humanity as a whole), felt like taking the seemingly Anglo-American cabal into more global aspirations. Could this mean they might feel more keen to move Timeless away from formative or important moments in American history to other places and times? It makes me wonder if the racism from the late-19th/early-20th century you'd typically find in men like Keynes would have any bearing on what his image of humanity's perfection might look like.

Miscellaneous thoughts:

• The part that made me love the episode - because sometimes Timeless knows and reminds us it's a pulpy adventure show, is the final action sequence with a tense car chase, followed by our heroes narrowly avoiding capture while driving a car strapped with a bomb. Having our heroes burst out in laughter right after is exactly the kind of tone and levity the show needs.

Timeless: Season 2, Episode 1, "The War to End All Wars" - The more things change, the more they stay the same. In a good way.

Part of what makes Timeless such an appealing series for me is the sense of pulpy adventure that's generally missing in television these days (or at least incredibly rare). Having taken in all of the first season in the matter of about a week and a half before the season two premiere, there's a lot to talk about, but I think I will speak about certain aspects of the show piecemeal as I continue to review the show week by week. Although Timeless is a thoroughly episodic show in the way I like, there is also that long-running conspiracy arc that helps drive each episode, and from the season two premiere, it seems the show is still firmly planted in that story engine with little change on the horizon. And sometimes that's for the better.

That isn't to say there haven't been big sea changes - it's one of the first things you see with the destruction of Mason Industries - but it doesn't feel too much like a dramatic status quo change, rather acting as a change of setting to help facilitate character development. Much of the premiere exists mostly to restore the show back to a familiar status quo by the episode's end so it remains to be seen what interesting developments for season two are coming down the line.

There is some interesting setup for the season coming out of the episode as Carol ends up plucking her grandfather from World War 1. Nicolas Keynes appears to be the inspiration for the time travel program that Rittenhouse ends up funding via Mason Industries; having such a prominent conspiratorial figure to direct Rittenhouse, combined with Carol's knowledge of history is bound to be a dangerous path. It stands to reason that Lucy will have to act as the counterbalance to Rittenhouse's activities in season two.

Otherwise, the survivors of the Rittenhouse attack have moved into an off-the-grid, decommissioned military bunker and feels mostly like a change of scenery considering the rest of the Mason Industries workers were not much more than background dressing anyway. The timeskip of six weeks helps the show settle back into a rhythm rather than leaving everything up in chaos, although it would have been a welcome change of pace, even if it betrays the overall episodic structure for a chance for more serial, or at least non-traditional, storytelling for an episode or two. It feels like there would have been material to have been mined about how everyone moved on from Mason Industries, or how Lucy fared in Rittenhouse house arrest under her mother.

"The War to End All Wars" in essence acts somewhat like an origin story for the Rittenhouse we know and provides them with some more depth than simply some shadowy, sinister conspiracy with roots in mostly famous historical figures. There's always been some mystery to them that seems inscrutable, but being about to ground it closer with the conflict between Lucy and Carol and their broader family tree (even if it symbolizes only a branch of Rittenhouse) makes the cabal seem more easier to picture - if not relatable - than a nebulous force. There are so many dynamics at play that can be explored, so having season two seem to focus specifically on Lucy's relatives and their role in Rittenhouse (more so than just simply her grandfather in the finale) will be exciting to see as it unfolds.

As for Flynn, it's a little strange how he's still a factor unless he's going to provide support in some way to decipher Keynes' writing. Hopefully he is a more active presence given his screentime in season one. It also remains a little odd that Annie Wersching and Susanna Thompson are still billed as guest stars seeing as they seem to be the primary antagonist now that it's no longer Lucy, Wyatt, and Rufus trying to stop Flynn from wrecking history trying to eliminate Rittenhouse, and it's probably Emma and Carol representing some faction of Rittenhouse (alongside Keynes) trying to mold history in their collective imagine. Maybe Flynn will have to be brought back into the fold as an expert on hunting Rittenhouse.

Miscellaneous thoughts:

• Lucy is probably right, you don't want to smell history, especially back on the battlefields of WW1.
• Not too much to see for Jiya and Mason. Mason has an interesting arc setup for the season, but not much movement; same goes for Jiya who simply still suffers from her condition after returning from the past. And interrupting everyone.
• I really wonder how they would keep that smartphone charged though. Guess it was just for short use over the years. Or the real secret Rittenhouse is keeping from us is a smart phone battery that lasts forever.