Date of airing: January 23, 2017 (NBC)
Nielsen ratings information: 3.456 million viewers, 2.2/4 in Households, 0.9/3 with Adults 18-49, 0.5/2 with Adults 18-34, 1.2/4 with Adults 25-54
written by: Jim Barnes
directed by: John F. Showalter
I have no idea what to think of this episode. Maybe it is a good idea that the writers created a backstory for Mason Industries, and maybe it is a good idea that Flynn has another anti-Rittenhouse fighter on his side. But considering that Connor Mason turned into a villain in this episode, as well as looking at the past of Mason Industries, and how all the pilots of the time machine might be lost in time (Emma, Anthony, and Rufus cannot be the only ones, right? Even the chronosphere in the UPN time travel show SEVEN DAYS had nine pilots, in addition to those that came from the future), the backstories were pretty much irrelevant for this episode. Also, Flynn’s allies are nonessential, because up until this episode they have been cannon fodder for Wyatt, or simply just redshirts for other deadly events. But Emma seems to be an important character, which is not only based on the casting (it was good to see Annie Wersching again – may her beautiful soul rest in peace), but because of the way she was picked up by Flynn. One might think she becomes an even more important character in the show when she is of such importance to Flynn, though the only thing I can think of right now is that Emma will be pulled between Flynn’s men and the trio, and it is going to be a question of which side she will be on by the end of it all. And that question is not that exciting to me.
Other backstories have been missing, however. First of all, how did Flynn even know where and when to find Emma? He seemed to have Lucy’s journal in his hands during the journey with Jesse James, and yet the only one who could have known where Emma was hiding was Anthony, whom we have not seen in a while, and who for some reason decided to tell Flynn about Emma’s whereabouts when he kept that fact secret previously. The fact that Emma was dropped into the narrative looks quite convenient, although the question remains how – Lucy could never have known about her, and Anthony would be a traitor having given away Emma’s time and location like that, which means the man can never be trusted again. Not that I ever trusted him during the three minutes of screentime he has received throughout the series.
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| The girl from the future is going to ride her first horse. |
Jesse James was a boring character. It turns out that the real-life and more villainous Lucky Luke of the 1800s was a murderous prick, and could not shut up or stop bragging about how cool and fast he was, and how much he liked it to shoot people. I would have wished for Flynn to shoot that butthole in the face, because even I believe that Flynn was hugely annoyed by Jesse’s constant mouth movements and egotistical conversation starters. It was a good thing I was more interested in the five-man posse (well, four men plus a woman) going after Jesse James and his one-man company from the future, because the writers managed to get some character depth into the show again.
The difference between justice and death for Jesse James intrigued me, although the writers could have gone a little further with that, and made Wyatt something of a villain-to-be here. Determined to stop every killer this planet has ever created, Wyatt was pretty much standing against the original Lone Ranger Bass Reeves every second they were riding together, but the thing is that the story was never about to blow up because the writers knew where the story was heading with Wyatt and that Bass would just be a one-and-done character. At the end of the episode, the question of whether Jesse James ends up alive or dead was the only question asked, and there was not much of a clear answer here, as well as if it would have changed the opinion of either of the men. Did Bass change his opinion on taking the lives of the most hardened criminals? Was Wyatt convinced that he does not have to kill to win the duel? I do not know the answer to those questions, because this episode did not properly ask them in the first place.
I liked seeing Lucy in cowboy uniform though. Finally, a trip back to
the 1800s during which she did not necessarily need to wear a dress, and
during which she decided to get in on the action from the beginning
because the time period allowed her to do so. Maybe there was a scene
missing in which Lucy had her admiration for Westerns as well, which is
why she wanted to ride with the posse. There should be more episodes set in the Wild West, just for Lucy to slowly turn into a real cowboy.
Meanwhile, I saw some inconsistencies. Apparently, Rufus was feeling the weight of having killed a person in 1969’s Houston in this episode, but four episodes ago, when he had that talk with Lucy, during which I noticed that they could end up being a couple (well, that is not going to happen any longer), he did not feel anything after killing a man. So, what really changed between then and now for Rufus? I accept that he changed as a character, and that the guilt may have set and vanished much later than a few hours after he killed one of Flynn’s men and after having that conversation with Lucy, but the change in character is too sudden to be consistent.
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| Emma is living her best life in the Wild West. |
Also, why is Jiya all of a sudden living her life to be a spy, sneaking into the Mason Industries history to find answers to questions no one is answering to her? She looked way too much like someone who was trying to find one of Connor’s dirty secrets when she downloaded whatever she was downloading (it could not have been just information about past pilots?). Her behavior, when Connor was suddenly in the room with her, smelled like she knew about Connor’s secret business with Rittenhouse. But there is not even a reason for her to believe that something is wrong with Connor, since Agent Christopher has not talked much about her suspicions of Connor. Anyway, now that Connor is a villain, maybe it will put some fire under that story. Rufus saw that Jiya was being led into danger, so it is time for him to play the boyfriend card and be the hero.
