Timeless: You Were Gone Too Soon
I’ve always loved time travel stories. I know it has something to do with my love of history, but it’s also related to my indulgence in the fantasy of believing that I could fix things if I could go back in time. I could change things for the better. That’s what the characters in Timeless believe, too.
A while ago, I wrote my own time travel story about a young woman who moves into a new apartment and discovers a time portal in her bedroom closet. She soon finds herself caught up in a crazy adventure as part of a secret government agency whose operatives travel through time protecting history. Timeless’s premise is similar, so of course I was interested in it from the first trailer I saw.
Timeless follows a group of time travelers whose initial mission is to hunt down a terrorist who stole an experimental time machine. As the series progresses, the team’s mission evolves as they learn more about the man responsible for the theft and about those responsible for the time machine’s development.
Despite my initial enthusiasm for the show, I didn’t actually get around to watching until the Fall of 2018. I looked it up on Hulu and was hooked after the pilot episode, just as I’d known I would be. I dove in.
I’ll just get right to the point — this show was awesome! I loved the way the plot evolved, and I loved the characters. That said, I do have a few qualms, which I’ll get into below. From this point onward, I’ll be discussing my opinions of specific aspects of the show, and I won’t be providing much summary, so you might not get much out of it if you haven’t seen at least some of the show. And for those who haven’t seen all of it yet, consider yourselves warned:
SPOILER ALERT!
Rittenhouse
- I didn’t understand all the hate for Rittenhouse at first. In my mind, the main characters kept telling us how bad Rittenhouse is and trying to drive home the point, but I just could not see it at first. The writers didn’t do a good job of convincing me. Maybe that was intentional. I don’t know, it just felt a bit forced in the beginning because there wasn’t much evidence to back it up in Season 1. I began to see things their way in Season 2. At the end of the second season episode “The Darlington 500”, Nicholas, Lucy’s great-grandfather, reveals a map and espouses on Rittenhouse’s mission, which is to change history in order to improve humanity. It sounds pretty noble and admirable, actually, but what’s bad is that they (only Nicholas really) get to decide what the improvements are — they’re taking on the role of God. The definition of “improve” is also key here. Would this be an improvement to try to make things truly better for everyone? Or only better for Rittenhouse?
- It seems like no one wants to be part of Rittenhouse when they initially find out about their family’s role in it. They all have the same reaction that Lucy has when she learns that her father is part of Rittenhouse, but they all (except Lucy) come around to seeing that Rittenhouse is the path for them. Still, as I watched Season 1, I didn’t understand the outrage and disgust. I didn’t understand the attitude of rebellion toward Rittenhouse, mostly because I wasn’t convinced of Rittenhouse’s evil at first. But also, it didn’t seem realistic for people to be so appalled that their family is part of Rittenhouse. In real life, I think most people wouldn’t be that high-minded. Most people would probably be thrilled to know that their family was part of a powerful, centuries-old organization that had the ability to change history.
Initially, the only member of Rittenhouse that seemed to be bad was Emma. There didn’t seem to be any redeeming qualities about her at all. Also, she was super loyal to Rittenhouse — willingly — but why? Most of the other members we saw had to be dragged into the organization due to being born into it, and they only got down for the cause because they had no choice.
I couldn’t stand Emma, but she did make an interesting character. I wanted to know her motivations. Why was she so loyal to Rittenhouse? Maybe this was explained at some point, and it went over my head. Is it the power that Rittenhouse has, or does she truly believe in their mission? And what were the circumstances surrounding how she get involved with the organization? I know they recruited her when she was at CalTech, but did that recruitment come about by force or by choice?
After watching more of Season 2, I knew that Rittenhouse was definitely evil. Nicholas was Lucy’s great-grandfather, and he wanted to have her killed because she kept interfering in Rittenhouse’s plans. And he was so casual about it, too. He didn’t even flinch when he said that it needed to be done. That’s cold.
And I thought that Carol, Lucy’s mom, was just as bad after she volunteered to do the deed herself. But then she turned out not to be that bad — in volunteering, she was actually trying to save Lucy while working within the constraints of Rittenhouse. Carol lured Lucy and her team to the Salem witch trials so that she could kill Lucy — that’s the official story that she gave to Rittenhouse. But really, she was planning to use the opportunity to try to save Lucy by trying to convince her to join Rittenhouse. When that didn’t work, she slipped a knife to Lucy so that she could save herself from being hanged as a witch. That makes me wonder, though, what the whole point of Carol’s mission was. She had to have known there was a strong chance that Lucy wasn’t going to join Rittenhouse, so what was the point of nearly having her hanged only to end up saving her? I guess she wanted to try to scare her into joining Rittenhouse but knew that she couldn’t let her daughter die.
Surprise, Surprise
I watched the last episode of Season 2, “Chinatown”, in late October 2018, and even though I knew some of what was going to happen (that Rufus dies), there were still plenty of shockers:
- Emma is truly crazy. She killed Carol and Nicholas. And it wasn’t even planned! She just shot them both, spur-of-the-moment, out of frustration.
The sad thing about Emma is that she actually made me sympathize with her a bit during the women’s suffrage mission (“Mrs. Sherlock Holmes”). That episode depicts how dangerous Rittenhouse actually is. Nicholas wanted to prevent the women’s suffrage movement from happening because he wanted women back in “their place” (as property of men and having no rights). Emma wasn’t having any of that, so she sabotaged the mission. She actually worked with Lucy’s team in this one. That gave me a glimmer of hope for Emma’s character. It was a glimmer that was snuffed out when Emma nonchalantly shot Carol and Nicholas.
- Jessica is part of Rittenhouse. I had a feeling this might be the case, but I was hoping I would be wrong. Oh, and she’s pregnant (supposedly).
- Flynn has feelings for Lucy. Another one that I’d suspected, and I’d hoped was true. I figured the odds were probably against me, though, since Flynn seemed so intent on bringing his wife back. But if Wyatt got over losing Jessica, it’s plausible that the same could be true for Flynn.
- Wyatt professes his love to Lucy. I was really annoyed with Wyatt throughout Season 2. The entire series, all he wanted to do was get his wife back. Then he gets her, and he can’t get over Lucy. On top of all that, he’s actually jealous when Lucy appears to be spending more time with Flynn. I get that it’s complicated and that he can’t turn off the feelings that he has for Lucy just because his wife has returned, but dude could at least let Lucy find comfort with Flynn if it makes her happy.
- The biggest shocker of the entire episode was the ending. An upgraded lifeboat lands in the bunker, and future versions of Lucy and Wyatt emerge and ask if the team wants to go get Rufus.
Finale
I was not disappointed by the Timeless finale. The writers managed to tie up the loose ends in the series while raising a compelling possibility with the final scene. It was a nice way to give fans closure while not making the ending too neat.
Some highlights:
- I really liked that Flynn ends up being the hero despite having been positioned as the villain for nearly the entire series. It’s a brilliant twist. The final scene between Lucy and Flynn is touching. I can’t help but be curious about the alternate future where Lucy and Flynn were in a romantic relationship.
- I nearly died when Lucy was flipping through the diary and there was a section about a Titanic mission. I was praying that we’d get to see that mission on the screen, but it didn’t happen. That would have been too perfect for me (my time travel story involves the Titanic, fyi).
I hate that the series had to end. There was so much potential for future missions (including that Titanic mission that was alluded to!), and the history nerd in me would have loved to see those missions play out on screen. That said, I’m glad that there was a proper finale. Too many cancelled shows don’t get an proper ending, leaving unresolved plot threads and frustrated fans. There’s always fan fiction, I guess.
