Timeless Season 2 Finale!
WOW!! HOLY SHIT WOW!! WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST WATCH?!
To say that Timeless just took us on the biggest rollercoaster ride of the season, possibly even series, is an understatement! The fast pace, high stakes, and raging emotions have left me shaking! I had so many theories going into the 2 hour finale tonight but I never would have guessed at HALF of what just happened. I’m still in a state of shock! “The General” and “Chinatown” are absolute TV gems and the Timeless writing team deserves all the respect and recognition they get and then some! So let’s dive right in and try to work though the mindblowing season (I REFUSE to think series) finale that was Timeless.
The General
“The General” was good, but it wasn’t edge of your seat excitement and that’s okay. It wasn’t mean to be. “The General” is build up. It’s the final pieces of the puzzle needed to start putting the picture together – and those pieces are very important.
Family Matters
Family. It’s been such an important theme through this entire series. Flynn looking to avenge his family. Lucy and Wyatt trying to bring back theirs. The sacrifices people are willing to make to protect the ones they love. The lesson that sometimes the family you were born into isn’t as important as the one you make. In many ways family is the cornerstone of this show so it’s unsurprising that “The General” starts off with family.
We meet our Civil War sleeper – family man and cheeseburger lover Colonel Reyerson. Reyerson clearly didn’t pay enough attention in his high school history classes because when Emma activates him she gives him a civil war history book to use as his mission briefing. (Oh come on, I’m not the only one who found that funny.)
The important part of the opening sequence wasn’t this week’s sleeper agent though, but rather the exchange between Carol and Nicholas. Rittenhouse is family she reminds him, Lucy is family – Emma isn’t, and she doesn’t trust her. She drives home her point by taking Nicholas to her mother, his daughter’s, grave.
One of my favourite things in any form of entertainment is the subtle foreshadow and with Carol’s speech the Timeless writers prove they are masters at it!
Loyalty
Is there ever such a thing as too loyal? Some would say no but I politely disagree. Loyalty to the point of blindness in not a good thing. I’m looking at you, Wyatt Logan.
I completely understand Wyatt’s need to try and protect Jessica. She’s his wife, she says she is pregnant with his child, but dammit he knows something isn’t quite right here. After everything this team has been through they owe each other their trust. He should have told everyone about Jessica’s brother after Agent Christopher and Connor revealed what was on Rittenhouse’s computer. Agent Christopher even asked if he had any reason to be suspicious. Even if he remained adamant that Jessica stay in the bunker afterwards it would have least made everyone keep a closer eye on her. He really should have told Rufus while the two were talking before the raid in 1863 when Rufus asked him again.
I’m actually surprised that Wyatt has been keeping this to himself. We are so used to seeing him think 10 steps ahead in every situation that it’s weird seeing him not consider what the consequences of keeping this secret could be. Wyatt’s had a very one track mind since Jessica’s returned and I’m pretty sure that’s going to come back and bite him in the ass – soon.
The Mission
Wyatt drops the bomb that Jessica is pregnant (so she says) after having it out with Agent Christopher about Jessica leaving the bunker. I didn’t think it was possible for my heart to break for Lucy anymore than already has but her look of devastation at Wyatt’s revelation proved me wrong. The team has no time process this new information because it’s at that moment that the alarms signalling a Mothership jump go off.
It’s here where we see just how badly Wyatt’s bombshell has shaken Lucy. The Mothership has gone back to June 1st, 1863 and Lucy draws a complete blank as to why that date it important. It’s Rufus who remembers the Combahee River Raid led by Harriet Tubman. With her memory jogged, Lucy is able to get herself together and fills in the details of the raid. We’ve seen Lucy not know history before but this is the first time we’ve seen her know and forget. It’s painful moment to watch knowing why she forgot. Did you all know that Harriet Tubman was a Union spy during the Civil War? I didn’t – thank-you Timeless for another history lesson.
Good TV has balance. It can’t be all doom and gloom nor can it be all sunshine and rainbows. Timeless has that balance and this scene is the perfect example of that. We just watched our team get clobbered with information that has left them stunned and hurting. We’re still feeling that during the new mission briefing but the writers managed to sneak some humor in there with Rufus’ deadpanned “yay” to Flynn’s “come one Lucy, defend your territory” and “atta girl, show him who’s boss.” It was enough to give us a few chuckles without taking away from the dark cloud now hovering over everyone heads.
It’s Time for Some Answers
While Lucy, Wyatt, Rufus, and Flynn are back in the Civil War posing as Union spies, Jiya confronts Connor. She’s been hacking his laptop and discovered that Connor has been hiding things about her visions from her, specifically someone. Stanley Fisher is a former Lifeboat pilot who started having visions after test flights and is currently in a mental hospital. Jiya is hoping he has answers to her questions and demands Connor take her to see him.
When the two first arrive at Stanley’s room he’s having a vision but immediately comes out of it when Jiya says that’s what’s happening. He’s clearly disgusted that Connor is still training pilots and tells him that he is worse than Genghis Khan, Josef Stalin, and Adolf Hitler. He turns his focus to Jiya asking her if she’s seen any new forbidden colors in her visions yet, saying that she will and she’ll love them.
Stanley sounds like nothing more than a madman but Jiya still questions him. He tells her the visions are a gift from God. They are a way to time travel without the machine, he once spent a week in 1912. Stanley tells her that the reason her visions are fragmented is because she’s been fighting them. In order to see the vision in its entirety she needs to stop resisting and let herself fall into it. He demonstrates how easy it can be by slipping effortlessly into a vision. Connor tells Jiya it’s time to go because Stanley could be in this state for days. As they leave Connor stops and apologizes to the catatonic Stanley for what’s happened to him.
This season has me actually liking Connor Mason.
A Gift From God?
That’s what Stanley Fisher calls the visions he and Jiya have, could he actually be right?
The moment the team meets Harriet Tubman she’s sure she’s seen them before but that’s obviously not possible. Except while Wyatt and Rufus are getting ready to infiltrate a plantation, Harriet remembers why they look so familiar. She tells them God came to her in a dream telling her they were coming. This is still easy to brush off as nothing, especially for someone like Rufus who doesn’t believe in a higher power. The surprising thing is that he doesn’t, instead he talks to her about them. Is Rufus becoming a believer? If he wasn’t before the raid he sure is after.
He and Harriet talk again about how she saw him coming, only this time she tells him she saw him stepping out of a giant metal ball. I don’t know about you, but that sure sounds like the Lifeboat to me. So how did Harriet Tubman know about a 21st century time machine back in 1863?
Harriet also mentioned something else very important about her visions – not all of them come true. Is it possible that the same can be said about Jiya’s? If so, does that mean it’s possible that Rufus doesn’t die?
There’s more to be learned about the visions that Jiya, Harriet, and Stanley share. I just hope that we get the opportunity to explore them more with another season.
Jessica Logan
I know I’ve said this before and I really hate to sound like a broken record, but I just have to say it one more time – I CALLED IT!!
All those suspicions in the back of my mind since she first came back have been justified. The “is she or isn’t she” question has been answered. There’s no more room for speculation. Jessica is Rittenhouse. She’s not just an unwitting pawn but a full blown sleeper agent they planted in the bunker.
It was pretty clear this was the case after the whole “brother who died as a kid in the original timeline is somehow alive in this one” thing. If that didn’t convince you she was trouble then her good-bye with Wyatt this episode should have. The expression on her face when Wyatt brought up her brother, the way she tried to brush it off then changed the subject when she couldn’t were all red flags that she was hiding something. More red flags that Wyatt noticed but decided to ignore and keep to himself instead of letting his team, his family, know that things weren’t adding up. I said it would come back to bit him in the ass and it did.
Thanks to Jessica, Rittenhouse has Jiya – and the Lifeboat.
Continue reading…
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!
Continue reading…
Everyone Needs a Hobby
Agent Christopher knitting to keep her anxiety under control while the team is on a mission is information I didn’t know I needed until I have it. To be completely honest I’ve never given much thought as to what the home team does while the time team is in the past. I didn’t stop to think that Agent Christopher, Connor, and Jiya are probably worried sick and terrified from the moment the Lifeboat leaves until the moment it returns with everyone safe. Connor talks about life before he met Rufus, when he love anyone. Life wasn’t better back then, except that now he worries that everyone he loves will be horribly maimed.
“There’s a word for that. Family”
When a show takes time away from the action to remind it’s viewers what the characters mean to each other and what they stand to lose you know you are about to experience major heartbreak.
Rittenbitch
Yes, Emma I’m talking about you.
Despite just executing her superiors, Emma is still cool and collected. Confident. She tells Jessica that they know what they are doing and can run Rittenhouse better than Nicholas and Carol did. She’s the bitch with a time machine, she’s no worried about retribution from the others back home. But first they have work here to do.
Jiya is still trying to convice Rufus that she has an okay life in 1888 and he needs to leave her behind. Rufus is still having none of that shit. The rest of the team shows up and it’s hugs all around, except for Flynn, but Jiya is still adamant that she’s not leaving. Lucy puts her foot down. She reminds them all that none of them have anyone left but each other and they stick together. They are going home together. It’s a terrific speech but it has no impact on Jiya.
Cue Rittenbitch. With Carol dead, Emma can finally take out Lucy, and she means to.
Escape Plan
Wyatt asks Jiya if there’s another way out of the saloon and she tells him the rear door. Flynn grabbing her arm and pulling her back when she tries to step forward and show them is one of my new favourite things. There was a time where Flynn wouldn’t have cared but that time has long since passed. He’s practically family now and he’s not letting Rittenhouse take his family from him again. Which is why he doesn’t hesitate when Wyatt makes a plan that involves the two of them covering the others while they make a run for it to the Lifeboat. Wyatt tells Lucy to get the others home safe and then come back for him and Flynn. Then he and Flynn get to work.
Watching these two men who have been enemies for so long work together as a perfect team was one of the highlights of the episode for me. They still don’t like each other but there’s a grudging respect for each other and there’s a glimmer of trust. I don’t think either of them will ever fully trust each other but there’s enough there to know they can count on the other in situations like this, when the lives of everyone are at stake – especially Lucy’s. Neither of them would ever let anything happen to her and both of them know it.
Jiya agrees to go with them and her vision plays out just as she saw it, except that she does get to the gun in time. She shoots the Rittenhouse goon before he can stab Rufus, saving his life. They all walk out of the saloon together and alive. Where Emma is waiting.
Fixed Points in Time
Rittenbitch (I’m never calling her anything else) fires off shots in their direction then takes off. She hits Flynn – and Rufus.
Flynn is hit in the shoulder, he’s hurt but he’ll be okay.
Rufus, my precious Rufus, dies with Jiya and Wyatt at his side. Jiya changed her vision but she didn’t stop it. Like the pilgrim in Salem, like JFK, Rufus still died. Somethings are fixed and can’t be changed. Some things are meant to happen. I didn’t cry. There was into much shock for that.
I barely even registered the fact that Lucy grabbed a gun and went after Rittenbitch, or that Wyatt had Flynn chase after her, until Lucy starting shooting. She’s a terrible shot but does manage to hit Rittenbitch in the leg taking her down. As Lucy was standing over her, gun to her head, I honestly wasn’t sure if I wanted her to pull the trigger or not. Part of me was screaming for revenge and the other part was screaming that Lucy isn’t this person. I don’t know if I was disappointed or relieved when Lucy pulled the trigger but was out of bullets. Then Flynn showed up and I was disappointed that Rittenbitch took off before he could shoot her.
The way Flynn shouted Lucy’s name and he way he pulled her into his arms, despite a BULLET WOUND, and held her has me going back to the WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE from earlier. I really, REALLY, need to know what is up there.
The Loss is Sinking In
The shock is starting to where off and watching Connor run towards the Lifeboat, not knowing that Rufus wouldn’t be there, started my tears. Seeing his eager face then his and Agent Christopher’s excitement at seeing Jiya turned the tears into sobs. And did I sob. We’re talking ugly crying. I lost it completely when Connor said he’s fly the Lifeboat himself to get Rufus back.
And Jiya, my poor Jiya. She takes her anger out on everyone for making her leave despite what she told them but deep down the person she’s angry with is herself. That breaks my heart more than losing Rufus does. She’s going to blame herself for this for the rest of her life.
Alone in her room Jiya lets herself go in her visions, searching for Rufus but she can’t find him. He truly is gone. Connor comes in and takes her hand asking her to tell him that she doesn’t have to worry about her losing herself inside her own head – like Stanley Fisher. He tells her he can’t lose her too. They hold each other, the two people who loved Rufus most, and mourn their loss together.
By this point if you aren’t emotional you don’t have emotions.
THOSE THREE WORDS
“I love you Lucy.”
We’ve been waiting so long to hear them. It’s all we’ve wanted for a long time. But to hear them now, to hear them because Rufus is gone, that’s just too painful. This is not the Lyatt reunion I’d hoped for and I’m okay with Lucy not saying them back. There’s still too much for these two to work though and declarations of love aren’t going to change that. I’ve talked about the Lyatt journey before and the steps each of them needed to take for them to really be together. Wyatt admitting his feelings is part of that journey but they still have so far to go. I just hope we get to see it happen because I still firmly believe that Lyatt is endgame.
WIBBILY WOBBLY TIMEY WIMEY
Season 1 ended on the cliffhanger of Lucy’s mother being Rittenhouse. The middle of season 2 ended with a cliffhanger of Wyatt’s wife not being dead. You HAD to know that season 2 was going to end on a WTF moment!
I would say that Lara Croftesque Lucy and desperately needs to shave Wyatt appearing in the bunker in an upgraded Lifeboat qualifies as WTF! The only person who didn’t look surprised was Flynn so I’m assuming this is the Lucy who gave him the journal.
I mentioned before that I thought that figuring out how to travel back in your own timeline might be the key to saving Rufus and it appears that I was right. Now we just need another season to see how exactly that is going to work. I NEED a season 3! The fate of Rufus’s life (and my sanity) depend on it. Who can put me in touch with the devil so I can sell him my soul to make this happen?
That’s it for this season of Timeless. At the time I’m writing this review for the Timeless Season 2 Finale, a renewal is still up in the air, but I remain hopeful. If we do get a renewal, I’ll see you next season for more reviews! Catch up on my previous Timeless reviews here. And you can follow my person twitter @brynn5xox.
Safe travels Clockblockers! It’s been fun!
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