Chinatown
“The General” is build up – “Chinatown” is its payoff. And it is so freakin worth it!
Betrayal
We expect it from our enemies, but we never see it coming from the people that we trust. When it happens it’s a huge shock and it hurts like hell. Timeless played this to absolute perfection in the opening scene of “Chinatown”.
When the team comes running after hearing the sounds of the Lifeboat, Wyatt immediately tells them what happened. There’s no time to process that Jessica is, in fact, Rittenhouse, the focus is on trying to find Jiya. The biggest betrayal here isn’t Jessica’s though -it’s Wyatt’s. Rufus calls Wyatt out, reminding him that they asked if Jessica had said or done something to cause suspicion. When Lucy tries to defend Wyatt saying he didn’t suspect anything, he’s forced to admit that he did have suspicions but kept them to himself.
This scene took Wyatt to rock bottom. He lied to his team, jeopardizing not only their safety but their mission. Instead of apologizing right away he tried to justify his decision by using Lucy’s sister. Then he gave into his temper and got into a testosterone fuelled fist fight with Flynn where he ended up hitting Lucy as she tried to break it up. It was that moment which made Wyatt realize just how much he had screwed up. But like Rufus said, too little too late.
I have to shout out Malcom Barrett. He is phenomenal in this scene, setting the emotional mood of fear and panic as Rufus tries to track the Lifeboat and fails.
Rittenhouse Victorious
They have the Mothership and the Lifeboat. There’s no way to stop them now, Rittenhouse has won. They certainly celebrate like that have least, but that celebration is definitely premature.
Jiya’s not going to just sit around and wait for Rittenhouse to try and use her against her will. The team isn’t going to sit around and do nothing to get her back. Emma doesn’t like Carol’s implication that she’s dispensable now that they have a back up pilot. (Carol if you think that Jiya is ever going to fly for you, you are an idiot.) She’s really not happy that she was not consulted about Jessica’s mission turning from intel to theft and kidnap. And she is so done with Carol’s reminder that Rittenhouse is family.
Carol and Nicholas had better watch their backs because I’m pretty sure that Emma is about to turn on them. I said in my review for “Mrs. Sherlock Holmes” that Emma could be just be playing a game with Nicholas by sleeping with him. Now I’m saying that game could lead her to the Time Team. It wouldn’t be the first time they’ve teamed up to stop Rittenhouse.
Before moving on I just want to make sure that I’m not the only one who was shouting “BITE HIM JIYA” when Doug was checking to make sure she swallowed that sleeping pill, right?
One last thing – shut up Jessica! Your words are meaningless now.
Operation Save Jiya
I told you that Jiya wasn’t going to sit around and do nothing. Hell no! This badass woman is going to save herself. I’ll admit I did think that Emma was going to play a part in Jiya’s escape, the shooting at her changed my mind. Though I’m still convinced that Emma is going to turn on Rittenhouse in some way.
Jiya manages to steal back the Lifeboat and there is a moment of relief when it seems like she is going to make it home. Unfortunately between her drugged state and the damage Emma’s bullets did, Jiya is unable to stick the landing and winds up lost in time. Thankfully there is a protocol in place for situations like this. We’ve seen in before, back in season 1 when Flynn stranded the team in 1754.
Rufus is running facial and text recognition throughout history to find any messages Jiya may have sent them and the rest of the team are thinking back any conversations they shared with her that might be a clue where to start looking. It seems like an impossible task but that’s what this team does – the impossible, and they are not going to give up on one of their own.
It’s Lucy who strikes gold, finding Jiya’s picture in the book her and her mother wrote on San Fransico, dated in Chinatown 1888. Jiya also included a message for Rufus, in Klingon (because of course Rufus reads Klingon). It’s the coordinates to where she left the Lifeboat and a message to not come after her.
Like any good team they ignore the last part.
I Called It Again! Sort Of
After finding the Lifeboat and getting it back in working order the team, including Flynn, head back to 1888 to bring Jiya home. Rufus is not taking anymore risks when it comes to Jiya. He wants as much muscle on this mission and decides to put Flynn in Jiya’s seat, saying she can fly everyone home and then go back for him after. Probably a good call because when they get to San Francisco Rittenhouse is waiting, and not just Emma and some goons. No, Carol and Nicholas have made this trip along with Jessica. The fact that they are there makes me think this goes beyond just the Lifeboat. This is about Jiya – more specifically her visions. They know about them and they want to use them.
Not that they will get the chance.
Remember when I said that Emma would turn on Rittenhouse? Well she did, just not in the way I ever would have guessed. She doesn’t betray them, doesn’t sabotage them. Nope, she takes out their leaders with three bullets.
It starts with Carol, who takes two to the chest after stopping Emma from killing Lucy, again. Emma then turns on the gun on Nicholas with a single shot to the head. Cold, calculated, with zero remorse.
There was a LOT of LOUD “WTFing” when this all went down. Never in a million years would I have seen that coming.
Family Secrets
After the shots ring out Emma and Jessica take off, with Flynn and Wyatt chasing after them. Lucy goes to her dying mother.
Carol says she was a fool to try and run from it – meaning death. It was supposed to be lung cancer, instead she took Lucy’s sister away from her for more time and is dying in 1888 estranged from her daughter. It’s the more time part that interests me. She wanted the extra time because there’s still so much Lucy doesn’t know about Rittenhouse and her role in it. There are still things that Lucy doesn’t know about her father. Carol was too afraid to raise her daughter truthfully. What are these things and do they change anything? Carol uses her dying breaths to remind Lucy that Rittenhouse is hers for the taking. Why would she do that when she knows how Lucy feels about Rittenhouse and their manifesto, unless there is more to the story than we know?
We spent season 1 thinking Flynn was the bad guy only to find out that wasn’t entirely true. It’s possible that the same can be said about Rittenhouse. And I want to know one way or another and I have a feeling we’ll find out if (when) we get a season 3.
Silver Lining
We also, finally, get the full truth about Jessica when Wyatt catches up to her. The trip that Rittenhouse took to bring her back was Carol and Emma offering to save her brother with 21st century medicine in exchange for Jessica, knowing she’d grow up to marry Wyatt. She’s been a Rittenhouse agent since she was a child. She tells Wyatt that Rittenhouse raised her, they are her family. The Jessica he knew was just a bartender, but thanks to Rittenhouse she’s now part of something important and she has to protect them. She also reasserts that she’s pregnant and it’s Wyatt’s. I’m still not convinced that’s true.
The silver lining in all of this is that Wyatt can finally let her go and move on without feeling guilty.
That Was Not Part of the Plan
WE FOUND JIYA!!
She’s alive and somewhat safe working in a saloon. Rufus is too impatient to wait for Flynn and Wyatt to come back that he goes after her himself. Rufus, my love, I am so freaking happy to see you fighting for Jiya like this but I want to give you one good smack for taking so damn long to get here! You should have been like this from the beginning instead of pushing your girlfriend away like you were.
When Rufus finds Jiya in the saloon he doesn’t get the warm welcome he’s expecting. In fact Jiya is downright pissed that he ignored her warning not to come.
She reveals that this is her vision. This is where she saw Rufus die.
She’s spent the last 3 years taking Stanley Fisher’s advice and learning how to let go and sink into a vision and she can see it clearly now. Rufus dies because he tries to being her home. One of Emma’s goon stabs him as they try to escape. So, she’s not leaving. Rufus refuses to leave her behind. He tells her he’s willing to die if it means getting her home.
RIYA PEOPLE! RIYA!
Flucy
WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON BETWEEN LUCY AND FLYNN?? It’s not romantic or sexual, not in my opinion, but there is something and it’s driving me crazy not knowing! When Flynn meets back up with Lucy after chasing Emma (she got away) he makes the comment that he couldn’t kill Wyatt even if he wanted to. WHY FLYNN, WHY CAN’T YOU? It’s not because you’ve suddenly grown fond of Wyatt and can’t bring yourself to hurt him. It’s something bigger than that and it has to do with that damn journal. WHAT DO YOU KNOW FLYNN?
Flynn tells her he doesn’t give a damn about Wyatt, that’s not why he’s there. WHY ARE YOU HERE FLYNN? WHAT IS GOING ON? He’s on the verge of telling Lucy, and answering my screaming questions, when he’s interrupted by Wyatt coming back.
WYATT I LOVE YOU BUT YOUR TIMING SUCKS!
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