So Here’s What You Missed on Timeless: Chinatown Part II
It’s so disappointing that we didn’t get a Christmas episode, but while you’re all struggling through the hiatus until @timeless-season-three comes back, have some fun recaps!
After that flaming bag of shit Christmas episode that didn’t happen, plenty of people are flocking to the canon season three and wondering how to catch up in time for its return from hiatus on January 13, 2019 (8/7 central). Or maybe you’re not new, you just want a refresher, and you want it delivered by that fast-talking announcer from Glee who recapped each previous episode.
Well well well, would you look who’s here to do that for you. For best effect, please read this at top speed in a snarky tone of voice.
And so, below the cut--here’s what you missed on Timeless!
The end of season two brought us a real doozy, with Rufus getting shot and dying despite Jiya’s best efforts to save him. With Lucy broken after Emma killed her mother and Rufus, Flynn injured, and Jessica betraying them meaning their bunker home is no longer safe, the team couldn’t really be in a worse position until--
--future Wyatt and Lucy show up! They promise they’ve got the technology to help bring Rufus back, but that wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey ball doesn’t like to be messed with, and the timeline’s already destabilizing. Flynn, Wyatt, and Mason use the tech to hop back to Chinatown, where Wyatt immediately breaks protocol and goes to intercept Jessica during her earlier meeting with him.
Fortunately for the timeline, he’s stopped--by a mysterious girl who also gives them a vial to save Rufus. She says for them to call her Jane, and she’s not too keen on sticking around or providing explanations. She’s also got a weird habit of making the timeline destabilize. Oops!
With Rufus saved (which I’m sure won’t ever come up or have complications or be a problem again... oh dear...) the four return to find that the Lifeboat... isn’t working. Like a tape (you remember VHS tapes right?) with all of the spool yanked out, the four are now stuck in a singularity--and they only barely make it back to their present timeline.
Our future Lucy and Wyatt have vanished in the meantime--leaving Lucy, Jiya, and Denise no memory of them, and disconcerting gaps. This means Lucy can’t even remember the advice her future self gave her about her life or about the timeline collapsing. Luckily Wyatt remembers the advice he got from his future self, “figure out what you’re fighting for,” but whether he’ll take it or not remains to be seen.
Rufus’s reunion with the others is marred by uncomfortable revelations: Lucy and Flynn realize Rittenhouse might have her journal, causing Lucy to wish she’d never written it at all; Denise struggles under the burden of leadership and the appearance of Jane and what it means for all of them; and Rufus struggles with the implications of his own death and his relationship with Jiya.
Rittenhouse, however, has not been idle. With the shake-up in leadership, Emma needs a hand to help her retain her control, and she gets a helping hand in the form of the mysterious Michael Temple, a D.C. guy who knew Cahill back in the day and now claims he wants to help Emma. But as we all know, don’t trust the old white guy, and his “help” for Emma might be more insidious--it’s time for Rittenhouse to get scary again.
Collapsing timelines, dark!Lucy rising, Rufus’s return not being what everyone had hoped for, the mysterious Jane, and disturbing new Rittenhouse players--it’s going to be a hell of a season.
Welcome to EverythingTimeless’ Weekly Roundtable, a sprawling discussion in which your friendly neighborhood Mod Time Team breaks down episodes of our favorite show, Timeless. We can’t promise to be coherent, but we’ll try our best. Lovely header gif courtesy of our pal @lady-demelza.
This week: Season 1, Episode 1 - Pilot
Sarah: I think that we should first state that we are currently blogging this from what we consider the present: Wednesday, the 11th of July.
Ann: I hate to break it to you, Sarah. But it is actually the 12th of July.
Sarah: Well, I am in the past. Apparently. Changing it.
Ann: *Lucy screams in the distance*
Sarah: Can we call ourselves The Time Team? Time Team Part II?
Gissane: I like The Time Team Part II!
Ann: So I am actually just now rewatching the pilot (because if there is anything I excel at it's procrastination) and I still die over 2 things right off the bat: the cinematography of this show and MA'AM.
Sarah: That scene? With Lucy, Wyatt, and Kate silhouetted by the fire? Gorgeous.
Gissane: Agreed. It's STUNNING. And good grief, ma'am. Ma'am is everything.
Ann: Omg, for a minute I thought you were talking about /our/ Kate and I was VERY confused.
Kate: Ma'am forever and always. The little battles that Lucy and Wyatt have in that first episode create some great tension.
Ann: I swear she is a little happy when he gets time travel sick. And I appreciate that level of petty.
Sarah: Oh, definitely Ann. In retaliation for that self-satisfied look when she couldn't handle all of the seat belts. Surely.
Kate: He gets that same look when he tells he he needs her very modern bra.
Sarah: Perhaps we should start from the very beginning? I'm told it's the very best place to start.
Ann: The very best.
Kate: Maria Von Trapp was a wise woman.
Sarah: Lucy: First impressions.
Kate: Besides her phenomenal hair game? This woman is incredibly intelligent, but even better, she is witty. But Lucy in that classroom? All confident and full of facts. Leading lady swoon.
Sarah: Leading Lady Swoon™
Gissane: I loved Lucy's excitement! She puts so much heart into everything she does, and she is flat out perfect.
Ann: My first impression of Lucy was OH BUT I LIKE HER. She's a nerd through and through, in that she is hella passionate about history and is basically just Jazzed Beyond Belief about it all.
Sarah: I could definitely do with more of Professor Preston.
Kate: And having trouble with the establishment bros getting tenure? I was indignant on her behalf. But it leads nicely into her struggle to start her own legacy or fulfill her mother's. Which I think if you juxtapose with the last episode makes you go DAYUM.
Gissane: Amen to that, Kate!
Sarah: Definitely, Kate. But is also makes her intelligence and success working as part of the Time Team more satisfying. She's the fricking best.
Kate: She really is.
Gissane: Lucy was so easy to love from the moment she was on screen. Maybe it's because Abigail Spencer is a brilliant gorgeous unicorn, but she just had so much personality.
Ann: It's funny rewatching this after so long, and after being such a fan of everything about it, how different they all were at the beginning. It's like as much as I loved Lucy from the get-go, I did NOT like Wyatt.
Kate: So true. They became such a cohesive and indivisible unit i was hard to go back and see them before.
Sarah: Amen, Ann.
Ann: He was brash, kinda ruthless, and a little unhinged, to be honest.
Sarah: I thought Wyatt was boooorrring.
Ann: The dimples happily remain unchanged, however.
Kate: And besides the ma'am that stopped my heart, I was so very worried that Wyatt was going to be Vanilla Male Lead #950643
Sarah: Yes, Kate. Yes. I was like - Oh. Pretty and Generic.
Gissane: You know what I just realized, we never get a scene of what Wyatt's doing before he gets called in. We have Lucy's life and Rufus', but Wyatt nothing and now I'm very intrigued. Are we even told where he was? My memory is blanking on this.
Sarah: No! You are so right, Goose.
Sarah: We start in medias res on Wyatt.
Kate: I think Wyatt is meant to be the mystery as he is the military man. Shrouded in secret missions and all that.
Sarah: I think it also keeps him as Generic Military Pretty Boy.
Ann: I really expected him to be a cardboard cutout of the media's interpretation of a Super Soldier. As well, this episode did a really good job painting him as such. I was so happy to be surprised later on.
Gissane: And I agree. I didn't have any thoughts on him particularly rather that I didn't care. But then he mentioned his wife's death and I was like oh? Tell me more. Tell me more about the mysteries behind those blue eyes. Please and thank you.
Ann: I am at that scene right now. The whole jail scene with him and Lucy really deepened my interest in all of the characters.
Kate: And Rufus. Rufus is never not just everything and more.
Ann: E V E R Y T H I N G.
Sarah: I think that's one of the aspects of this show that really hooked me: It took character archetypes I thought I knew, and made them real, likable, and interesting.
Gissane: That entire scene in the jail is perfection. I get chills every time I think of Rufus' speech to the guard. Brilliant. EPIC.
Sarah: Fun fact: Malcolm Barrett improvised most of that speech!
Ann: He did?? I didn't know that!
Kate: That scene is even more profound now.
Gissane: That's when Rufus went from aww, what a sweetheart to OH MY GOD, YOU ARE EVERYTHING TO ME.
Sarah: Yeah! Kripke and Ryan talked about it at the screening I went to. He also improvised the "the back of the bus was great" line.
Kate: What this show does with Rufus, giving him this complex, meaty character and actually allowing for discussions of race through history is one of my favorite parts of the show.
Sarah: Yes, Kate.
Gissane: All the awards because that scene was the episode's best -- context and performance wise.
Ann: Hard agree, Kate. And they did it right from the start and kept it up the whole damn season.
Sarah: The moment Rufus says to Mason that it has never been a good time to be a black person in history was when I knew this show was self-aware. You can have fun, you can have irreverence, you can have a family show and still address very real, very important, very serious issues.
Kate: It's a perspective that demands to be told. I could not be happier they were brave enough to.
Sarah: And by Malcolm Barrett, who is the most perfect cinnamon roll as Rufus.
Gissane: This show's self-awareness is what makes it so unique. Time travel? Cool, it's been done a couple of times. But to actually highlight the negativity in history makes it much more unique and intriguing.
Ann: Another thing the show does well? Guest characters you care about. These random, one-off historical people...somehow relevant and fleshed out in 45 minutes every week.
Kate: I could write sonnets about Timeless and their guest characters. Maybe I have and they are hidden in my sock drawer... you don't know.
Sarah: Kate Drummond appears. Could be some sort of Male Brand Strong Female. But is somehow so careful and wonderful
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Delve into the kickass history of the amazing female journalists who could have served as inspiration for the fictional Kate Drummond with this week’s Historical Hour with Hilary, our resident historian!)
Kate: She is ballsy and capable. I love her.
Sarah: Both Lucy and Wyatt's interactions with her.
Ann: Exactly! Kate Drummond was brilliant. Also kickass red lipstick, which is bonus.
Sarah: Are meaningful and lovely.
Gissane: And so dedicated to her work. No distractions. I loved that!
Kate: And I think it is important they chose her, a character she who was fated to die. Because they make us love her and it makes the implications and the desire to change history to save her real for us. Just as it is real for the Time Team.
Sarah: Right, Kate. Contextualizing what it means to change - or not change - history. Kate is someone Lucy admired and had to watch die. Kate is someone Wyatt identified with immediately on a very intimate level - and had to watch die.
Ann: It's so powerful.
Sarah: Wyatt, as we see briefly here, is obsessed with saving his wife because he feels responsible. But in the very first episode, we see him save someone from their "fate" - only to see that effort thwarted minutes later.
Ann: OH A WILD GARCIA APPEARS. Quite literally wild. But also dayuuum.
Sarah: AND WHAT A FINE SPECIMEN HE IS. I will never not love Goran Višnjić.
Gissane: WHAT A COMPLEX SPECIMEN. And now he is someone I literally couldn't for the life of me imagine caring about and yet, here we are.
Kate: I could stare at those broody eyes, flippy hair, and angular cheekbones all the days.
Sarah: He could have chemistry with a piece of anthracite.
Kate: Yes, Goose. I knew the second he was supposed to be our "villain" we were in for a much more layered portrayal of a man with much more to show us.
Ann: That's the brilliance of well-written character-driven stories. I demand more.
Kate: We all did, so much so they were forced to renew it. Hahaha But I digress.
Ann: You also speak the sterling truth. (CONGRATS CLOCKBLOCKERS.)
Kate: (PAT YO SELVES ON THE BACKS, SIRS AND MADAMS)
Gissane: Can I just mention how much I love that fandom name?
Kate: You most certainly can, and I will heartily second it.
Ann: Also can we talk about the supporting cast for a quick second? A Denise Christopher or a Jiya Marri perhaps? Because again with the fleshed out, interesting REAL secondary characters.
Gissane: YES. And right from the start they're both such a presence on screen. You instantly want to know more.
Kate: I love Denise and her no nonsense attitude. I need to you save time guys. You will do it. I will need you again. You will do it. Wonderful, thanks, bye.
Ann: Ha ha ha, exactly!
Kate: And smart, capable Jiya! Rufus was making heart eyes at her in the very first scene and I both understand that on a spiritual level and am here for it.
Ann: Again though, another example of characters I expected them to just leave as cardboard cutouts. But nope. Not Timeless. No simple Hard Liner Bosses or Nerdy Tech Girls here. We get warm, lovely, interesting people.
Sarah: And then he asked her out like a normal person instead of weirdly objectifying her. And then she said yes like a person instead of being some strange Unattainable Manic Pixie Dream Girl.
Gissane: Shout it from the rooftops, y'all. From the rooftops!
Sarah: Yes - Annie. We actually get people!
Kate: And these people are women! How often does that happen?!
Ann: This and Wonder Woman? *laughs to keep from crying*
Kate: And women of color, no less. Be still my heart.
Sarah: I think one thing that really struck me upon rewatch was what a STRONG pilot this is. I always give myself the 3 Episode Rule.
Ann: Yes Sarah! I was just thinking that as it concluded. I immediately want to watch 15 more.
Sarah: Which is: Watch 3 episodes of a show before deciding it it's worth a watch. There wasn't huge amounts of obvious exposition. The plot was not throw-away.
Kate: It really had everything I was looking for.
Sarah: We were invested in the characters. And, as a person who is very picky about time travel, it handled that aspect so well.
Ann: I think, aside from Back to the Future, it's one of the only pieces of media that has handled time travel in a way I enjoy. Because OBVIOUSLY Back to the Future.
Kate: You can always tell when writers care about their characters because they give you no choice but to also. And they managed that with all of them which is no easy feat.
Gissane: See I liked the pilot. I didn't LOVE it. Until like the second rewatch after I'd already been invested, but it was just right to keep me wanting more. And then episode two happened. I have never looked back after that.
Ann: Oh man, episode 2. I think that is still my favorite episode.
Kate: I am not emotionally prepared to discuss episode 2. Lock it up, you two.
Ann: Gah, ok. You're right. That's for next week.
Sarah: So if we're going to sum up our feelings on rewatch:
Lady Swoon™
Wild Garcia Yes
Rufus FTW
Ann:
No One Likes Wyatt Yet
Kate:
(except Kate for shallow reasons only)
Sarah: Because that hat. Always the 40s fedora on classy, attractive gentlemen.
Gissane: He should always wear hats.
Kate: Ah yup. I mean all the Timeless men are yummy. I just want them all in various period hats for my viewing pleasure and I am not sorry.
Ann: And you shouldn't be.
Sarah: Never apologize.
Kate: The ladies, too. We are blessed.
Sarah: Any final thoughts on the first episode before we bring this Lifeboat back to dock?
Gissane: It's a damn good pilot when you think of it. So rich and full. And so very promising. I've converted about five of my friends into fans already. I'm stupidly proud of this.
Ann: I've got a question: What time period would you you guys travel to?
Gissane: One cannot simply choose. Nope. Don't make it.
Kate: Time travel questions are hard because being a lady in history could truly suck.
Ann: Yes it could. And probably will?
Kate: But I am not going to pretend like I didn't read all the Jane Austen and wish I wasn't Elizabeth Bennett.
Gissane: S A M E.
Ann: Oh hell yes. Or watch Meet Me in St. Louis and want to wear one of those outfits Judy Garland sports and sing on trolleys?
Sarah: Don't want to go all Owen Wilson on y'all, but send me back to that Lost Generation in Paris 1920s.
Ann: Only if I can drink with Hemingway.
Kate: Obvi.
Sarah: So long as you are Brave and Strong, Annie.
Kate: Can we just quickly pour one out for poor Amy?
Gissane: I wasn't prepared for that one, Kate. BRING AMY BACK.
Kate: Timeless and their twists man. MY HEART STRINGS CAN ONLY TAKE SO MUCH.
Sarah: *frantically makes buttons and posters* BRING BACK AMY. SAVE AMY 20K17.
Gissane: Seriously. MAKE ALL THE POSTERS.
Kate: They rip her away from us and Lucy and right before the episode with Robert Todd Lincoln. It is too much. I need to rest.
Sarah: May Robert Todd all carry us softly to sleep. Thanks for the great chat, ladies. Cannot wait to really unpack and dig in.
