Date of airing: October 10, 2016 (NBC)
Nielsen ratings information: 6.201 million viewers, 3.9/7 in Households, 1.43/5 with Adults 18-49, 0.9/4 with Adults 18-34, 1.9/6 with Adults 25-54
I guess it took this episode for me to realize what the writers were working towards, but it also took this episode for me to realize that things could have been much different if the stories had a little bit of logic sprinkled in. If Flynn wanted to save America, but failed to do so in this episode, why didn’t he decide to jump back to 1865, let’s say, a couple of days after Lincoln’s assassination – to get over the fact that one person cannot be in the same time twice – to try again to assassinate the remainder of the Lincoln administration? And if Flynn wanted Lucy’s help in the long run, why didn’t he tell her something about her future, or why he was doing what he was doing, or who Rittenhouse really is, since he seems to know already? It could have been so easy for him to stop her if he would have explained some things, including Rittenhouse, but since he didn’t do all of it, it makes me question his intentions, and it makes me question the writers’ intentions about the show’s greater narrative mystery.
But the writers were clearly working towards a bigger story. Apparently, a conspiracy is being created here, otherwise, Rittenhouse wouldn’t have been a silent topic in the background. Rufus seemingly doesn’t want to be connected to Rittenhouse by selling out his new best friends, and Flynn made it clear that Rittenhouse is not a person, but a group – presumably some shadow people in the darkness of a very cold and sterile room, in which mostly old white men in well-fitted suits make decisions about America’s future while drinking Cognac and smoking cigars. I’m already not excited when Rittenhosue gets screentime for the first time in the show and the writers get to explain themselves, because the backstory will most likely not be exciting enough to create a tense environment for the characters.
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| Shootout in the 1800s! |
Also, the show is working towards an alternate version of American history. Unlike THE TIME TUNNEL (I can still only speak of the 2002 remake attempt, which I still love to see fully realized at some point, so maybe someone should try remaking it again?), the alternate history is being built slowly. The Hindenburg crashed differently and the change of events showed in Lucy’s life. Now, the events during Lincoln’s assassination changed, and Lucy, Wyatt, and Rufus made their own personal impacts in a short amount of time. Lucy saved General Grant, so she is part of history now, and I’m pretty sure Rufus’s words to Nathaniel meant that he actually found his family, went North, and most likely survived, even though he was probably killed in the South. I’m almost sure the writers wanted to create a butterfly effect in the narrative, and with everything that has been changed or impacted by the characters in the past, there will be new points of information about the present that could either help or hurt Flynn in changing America. It’s getting me intrigued as to how the history of America looks like in the season finale, because by then, the butterfly effect should be big.
1865 didn’t really look that interesting though. I could smell some of the greenscreens, even though most of the visuals and costumes looked pretty solid. But I didn’t get a big connection to the story and the characters, including the half-episode love story between Robert Todd Lincoln and Lucy, or the conflict between Rufus and Nathaniel. Mostly because it was obvious that Lucy wouldn’t be deterred to change the past by falling in love with Lincoln junior, and Nathaniel would have never ratted out one of his own, no matter what. Also, by the end of the episode, Rufus and Lucy would be back at Home Base, so Nathaniel and Lincoln junior were, uhm, history for both Lucy and Rufus. In this case, the writers still had to figure out what to do with the story and how to make it a little more exciting – maybe a two-parter here and there is a good idea, because it shows that TIMELESS doesn’t quite work in the 43-minute format. The show needs more time to make the stories count or make me care about the characters and their interactions with historical figures.
Still, Lucy, Wyatt, and Rufus grew closer to each other during their second mission. I loved the jokey moment between the two men when Rufus mentioned he was playing his worst game of Operation yet, and I simply liked the moment of Rufus defying Connor’s orders, because as it happened, Rufus grew close to his team, possibly even sees them as his friends now. Possibly even more so after Wyatt mentioned that he only goes to battle with a man who is scared of what’s to come. It was a moment of Rufus realizing that he is not being alienated by his peers.
Meanwhile, I started to dig Lucy’s private storyline. Realizing that her father was never her biological father was pretty shocking, especially when she realized it with the help of some time travel. That story could mean though that Lucy’s mother has a few more secrets as well, which means mythology story arcs are incoming! If she was lying about Lucy’s father, it means she was lying about a few more things, and considering that Rittenhouse was pictured as the antagonist group in the background, I could almost say that Lucy’s mother might be part of that group or is otherwise involved with them. Building a group of villains the protagonists will have to fight in the future of the show and Lucy’s family tree look like separate plots after two episodes, but the show’s premise builds on the ridiculous and doesn’t care for plot holes, so it’s almost certain that Rittenhouse and Lucy’s family tree are connected somehow.
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| Photographic evidence of Abraham Lincoln's assassination. |
By the way, something extraordinary happened in this episode: It’s an unwritten rule in scripted television to not murder the sitting US President. Except you’re writing DESIGNATED SURVIVOR or COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, where the death of the sitting president was the catalyst for the central character to take their spot. Admittedly, this episode’s President was not fictional and the entire episode was based on a historic event, so the show pretty much circumvented that unwritten rule by having Abraham Lincoln killed on-screen (the scene cut to the back of his head to show it falling out of the screen) because it is history and it is known. I never thought I would see that play out one day.
