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Anyways, back to Timeless! Now, usually with shows I would review and talk about each episode individually but this show runs together so smoothly, the first six episodes (how far I've gotten) feel like one kind of long episode. No joke, I wasn't even sure the show was an hour because it felt like I was moving through it so quickly last night. I thought about doing just one long post about everything I've seen so far but I'm going to break it up into two. This post will explain the pilot and the next one will go through episodes 2-6. Every episode begins by showing you the event in history, the way we all know it, that will be dealt with over the next hour. In the pilot, we start with the crash of the Hindenburg.
First, we meet history professor Lucy Preston, played by the brilliant Abigail Spencer. After hearing news that she won't be receiving tenure, she goes home to her sister and very sick mother (who just so happened to have built the department she works for). Cut to a warehouse with a very large, white sphere in the middle of the room and lots of millennials working on computers. This is where we meet Rufus Carlin (Malcolm Barrett), coder extraordinaire and all-around introvert. In the middle of his boss telling him he should ask out one of his colleagues, Jiya, a group of men storm into the warehouse, guns blazing. The men, who are carrying a mysterious diary with them, kidnap Anthony, the boss who encourages inter-office romance, and force him into the large white sphere. With Rufus and Jiya watching from a hiding spot in the corner of the warehouse, the men and Anthony disappear as the sphere seems to vanish into thin air.
Homeland Security shows up at Lucy's door while she's having drinks with her sister, asking for her help. She is taken to the warehouse and put in a waiting room with Wyatt Logan (Matt Lanter), a soldier who also has no idea what's going on and won't stop calling her ma'am. Finally they are brought into the main room and shown the security tapes of the break-in. After witnessing the unbelieveable, the company owner, Connor Mason (Paterson Joseph), comes out and tries to explain everything scientifically. Luckily, for those who haven't studied physics or watched Doctor Who, a government agent says, "Basically Mr. Mason built a time machine and didn't tell the U.S. Government about it." Lucy and Wyatt are then briefed about Garcia Flynn, an ex-NSA agent who apparently killed his family and is the man behind the robbery/kidnapping. It's been determined that Flynn took the time machine to May 6, 1937, the crash of the Hindenburg. Lucy, Wyatt, and Rufus are then told they will using the other time machine, nicknamed "The Lifeboat" to go after Flynn, because who doesn't have a spare time machine just incase the new one is stolen by terrorists. Rufus, being the realist that he is, questions why he has to go and points out that he's black and claims "there is nowhere in American history that will be awesome for me." Side note: I love that Kripke and the show address this. They don't gloss over it in any episode or pretend like everything is fine. Back to time travel! After going through the whole ordeal of "time travel can't be real, you're all crazy," Lucy, Wyatt, and Rufus are costumed up, ready to go back to the Hindenburg.
Landing is not the best experience so once everyone (Wyatt) stops getting sick, the search for Flynn begins. Using Lucy's historical knowledge and some of the locals, the team is able to track down Flynn to the landing/crash site of the Hindenburg. They alert an officer about the dangers of Flynn, using the best excuse ever ("This is Dr. Dre, I'm Nurse Jackie, we're from General Hospital. This man has the Spanish Flu."), and everyone splits up to find him. However, they're all too late. The Hindenburg lands gracefully and totally not in flames like it should have. Turns out Flynn saved the zeppelin from crashing so that he could plant a bomb and blow it up the next morning when it takes off again with super important people on board. The crew end up in jail but break out just in time to get onto the Hindenburg so they can try and find the bomb and disarm it. Lucy and Rufus storm the pilot's cabin, claiming they are the Anarchist Black Cross and demand that the ship land immediately. As the pilot's start to land, the Hindenburg blows up anyway. Lucy, Wyatt, and Rufus are able to escape but Lucy finally runs into Flynn. He shows her the mysterious diary and she realizes it's all in her handwriting but she hasn't written it yet. Oh time travel problems. Flynn tries to convince her that he's not the bad guy and tells her she needs to questions why the government really chose her and what Rittenhouse is. Wyatt arrives and tries to kill Flynn but only succeeds in injuring him. Flynn gets away and Lucy, Wyatt, and Rufus go back to present day.
When they return, Lucy tries to ask about Rittenhouse like Flynn told her to but no one understands what she's talking about. Instead, the team is told they will be called when they're needed again but for now to just go home. History has changed some since the Hindenburg was destroyed in a different way but it doesn't seem to have changed much. Wyatt and Lucy walk out of the warehouse while Rufus goes into a meeting room with Connor Mason. Mr. Mason asks for something Rufus has and Rufus pulls out a recording device. Turns out, he was recording everything that happened on the trip. He asks Mr. Mason why Rittenhouse (WHAAAAAAT?) needs recordings of Wyatt and Lucy and Mason tells him not to mention it. Meanwhile, Lucy returns home, hoping to pick up the conversation she was having with her sister. However, when she walks into the kitchen, she sees her mother standing there fixing something to eat. Yep, that's right her super sick mom who was in a coma about 45 minutes ago. Turns out history did change. Now, Lucy has a healthy mother but her sister never existed. Without even being given the chance to process it all, Lucy is called right back to the warehouse to chase down Flynn again. Cut to black. Dun-dun-dun!
Eric Kripke is a genius at pilot episodes. He knows how much humor to have, how much action to put in, and the cast always seems to mesh well together. Timeless is no different.
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Keep coming back for more on Timeless but for now, go watch it! It's on the fence of getting cancelled by NBC so please tweet about it using #RenewTimeless and use any way you can to watch the first season!
