Timeless Season 2 Premiere!
All aboard the Lifeboat Clockblockers, Timeless is back! This episode focuses on dastardly Rittenhouse plots and our Time Team trying to save Lucy. So grab your travelling partner and hang on tight because this is one hell of a ride! Warnings This review contains spoilers of the Timeless Season 2 Premiere.
Where are we this time?
“The War to End All Wars” opens with a young soldier searching for Captain Albright on a battlefield near St. Mihiel, France on September 14, 1918. When Captain Albright is found, he has a 21st century cell phone which he clearly knows how to use. How does a man from the 21st century end up in the early 20th during the Great War? I think we all know the answer to that question; Rittenhouse. These guys just refuse to go away.
Everybody do the time warp…
In present day, Wyatt and Rufus are preparing the Lifeboat to bring back Lucy’s sister but Lucy is MIA. As Wyatt sticks his head out of the Lifeboat to call her again he notices the bomb. We don’t get to see the immediate aftermath of the explosion. This is fine because it’s easy enough to imagine and the time constraint would mean cutting more essential scenes later in the episode. Instead we time jump six weeks and find the team staying in an off-grid government bunker. Rufus is trying to fix the Lifeboat. Wyatt, who is sure that Lucy is still alive, is barely holding it together.
When we finally catch up with Lucy she’s putting the finishing touches on a World War I era outfit. There is a newspaper article in front of her detailing the explosion at Mason Industries. Mommy dearest enters the room in matching time period garb informing Lucy that it’s time to go and reminds her how important this trip is to prove her new loyalty to Rittenhouse. From the look on Lucy’s face when Carols leaves – it’s clear that our favorite historian’s loyalty remains with her friends and she is planning to continue the fight against Rittenhouse on her own.
The waiting game.
We follow Lucy, Carol, Mothership pilot Emma, and some Rittenhouse muscle to St. Mihiel where they spend two days waiting at a farmhouse for the reason they came to this time and place. That reason is an injured soldier whose name is Nicholas Keynes. While trying to save Nicholas’ life Emma puts Lucy in a situation that tests her loyalty, forcing Lucy to make a decision that will haunt her in order to maintain her cover.
Back at the bunker Jiya is able to get some of their systems back up and running, discovering that the Mothership jumped back to 1918 two days ago. Wyatt and Rufus immediately prepare the Lifeboat to go after them. Wyatt refuses to allow Agent Christopher to accompany them in Lucy’s seat. This mission isn’t about stopping Rittenhouse, it’s about bringing Lucy home and Wyatt has the face of a man who will move heaven and hell to make that happen.
Meet the Curies!
Back in France, Emma can’t see where the shrapnel is in Nicholas’ body to remove it. They need a portable x-ray machine. Luckily (or perhaps unluckily) that is an entirely possible option thanks to Nobel prize winner Marie Curie and her Petite Curies. Heading to a nearby field hospital in search of one, Lucy and Carol meet the woman herself and her daughter, Irene. The two women insist on accompanying them to show them how to work the machine.
Before returning to the farmhouse, Lucy slips off on her own to find something to stop her mother and Emma succeeding in their mission. What she finds is grenades and Wyatt. An emotional reunion joined by Rufus follows and it felt so damn nice to have my whole team back together even if it didn’t last long. Lucy tells Wyatt her plan to destroy the Mothership, she gives Wyatt one of the grenades and tells him where it is asking him to blow it for her while she heads back with her mother and the Curies.
Wyatt and Rufus are found by our 21st century friend Captain Albright, and the ensuing fight results in his and another Rittenhouse agent’s deaths and Wyatt discovering Albright’s phone.
On a personal note, I’ll fully admit to holding my breath while the Curies were at the farmhouse. Rittenhouse has changed so much history already, they wouldn’t have hesitated to eliminate the Curies if it proved beneficial to their cause.
Admissions and realizations.
“Look you spent the last 6 weeks worried about the woman you love, I think you’d understand.”
“Lucy you idiot! You’re in love with Lucy just admit it!”
THANK YOU RUFUS FOR FINALLY SAYING WHAT WE’VE ALL BEEN THINKING!
After that very refreshing moment from Rufus, which Wyatt opted not to admit to, attention turns to the cell phone. A completely useless piece of technology in 1918, why did Albright have it? And more disturbingly, how did a Rittenhouse agent manage to rise through the ranks to become a Captain in World War I? As Rufus pointed out, it takes more than 2 days to earn that kind of trust. Wyatt asks the even more disturbing question, “How long has this guy been here?”
Lucy goes to make her move against Rittenhouse by killing the soldier they came back to save only to be caught by Carol. She tells Lucy that as much as she loves her and that everything she has done has been for her there are powerful people in Rittenhouse. If Lucy ever tries going against them again, she won’t be able to protect her. Then she drops the biggest bombshell. They didn’t travel to 1918 just to save Nicholas Keynes’ life, they are bringing him home with them.
Discoveries
Wyatt uncovers the reason why Albright had that cell phone on him. Uploaded to it are photographs of handwritten letters dated 1910 about how, if they had a time machine, Rittenhouse could go back and change history to create a future where they were in charge.
Hey, remember when I said that Rittenhouse wouldn’t hesitate to eliminate the Curies if it benefited them? Well guess who found the Mothership. Emma is immediately ready to pull the trigger on not just the Curies but Lucy as well for disrupting the mission. When Lucy tries to protest Emma pulls out the grenade she found in Lucy’s bag.
“Someone who is willing to die fighting against us will never fight for us. You can’t protect her anymore.”
“I can.”
CAN WE TAKE A MOMENT TO APPLAUD WYATT’S PERFECT TIMING?
Happy ending… except not really
The Curies escape, thankfully! After a little gun negotiation Wyatt convinces Emma to let Lucy go in exchange for him not shooting an unconscious Nicholas Keynes in the head. Carol refuses to leave with them, despite Lucy’s begging and promises of forgiveness. Emma reveals that she made some Mothership trips to ensure that Lucy would never be able to get her sister back.
LYATT!!!!!!!!
Back at the bunker everyone is glad to see Lucy alive and safe but Lucy herself is struggling. Between guilt over the soldier she had to kill, the knowledge that her sister is gone, the wondering if she would have been able to blow up the Mothership and stop Rittenhouse, if Wyatt and Rufus hadn’t been there, the uncertainty of whether or not her mother would have let Emma kill her – she is falling apart. As Lucy finally lets herself break, Wyatt is right there to hold and comfort her.
“I’ve lost everything.”
“You haven’t lost me.”
It was a sweet and beautiful moment that Lyatt shippers have been dying to see since the pilot episode. Of course this means it has to be interrupted before the pair can actually kiss. Still, it doesn’t take away from the emotion of the moment. I can’t wait to see the Lyatt relationship unfold over the rest of the season.
The long game.
With their systems back up and running Jiya and Mason have made a startling discovery from the last 6 weeks; the Mothership made 10 separate trips to different destinations. Rufus pulls out Albright’s phone and mentions how the Rittenhouse letters are different from Flynn’s run and gun plan. The letters talk about specific moments in history to change in order to make a perfect future that they fully control. It’s Wyatt’s military trained mind that realizes Rittenhouse was planting sleeper cells throughout history, countless agents just waiting to be activated. When Lucy asks if the plans mention a Nicholas Keynes it is revealed that Keynes is the man who wrote them. It just so happens that he is also her great-grandfather. Understanding that they are in over their heads Agent Christopher seeks help from a man with knowledge of Rittenhouse and experience in chasing them through history. Garcia Flynn refuses to speak to anyone but Lucy.
After that episode I think it’s safe to say, buckle in Clockblockers! We are in for an intense season! I am so glad this show is back!
I’ll be reviewing Timeless each week so be sure to like/follow us: