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Everything’s coming together — and just awful! — in the penultimate ‘Timeless’
“What if you had the power to change the course of history? Does that mean nothing’s meant to be? Does that mean God’s not there? Would He stop me?”
With just one episode left in its freshman season, “Timeless’s” long chess game is only now coming into focus. It was never just a show about three people wearing costumes and visiting history’s greatest heroes — though that did happen, on a weekly basis. It was also never just about Mason Industries, or Rittenhouse, or Lucy’s (Abigail Spencer) missing family: As has been made clear, this show is about chaos, the same way life is chaotic, and about how much of our lives is determined by the methods we use to stay above the quicksand.
Lucy’s life was upended when she was, apropos of seemingly nothing, tasked with going on her first Time Team mission: First, with the discovery that such technology was possible, and subsequently, with the dissolution of her family. She found comfort in the new familiar — her camaraderie with Rufus (Malcolm Barrett) and Wyatt (Matt Lanter), the predictability of their missions, always to a time and place with which she was familiar, always in pursuit of Flynn (Goran Visnjic).
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After spending the first half-season setting up this new normal, “Timeless” has made quick work of disassembling it. Not only has the Time Team been forced to create their own shadow organization outside of Mason Industries, but their missions have of late been both increasingly deadly and increasingly psychologically demanding. Wyatt has grappled with the inevitability of his wife’s death, Rufus’s double agent status has broken him several times, while Lucy has faced an internal reckoning on the ethics of murder.
In the face of these seismic, life-changing adventures, of course the team has at points nearly split up — and as this week’s episode begins, Wyatt is still on the lam after his rogue 1980s misadventure. And yet, edging toward the end of the season, the one thing we know we can count on is the ride or die relationship between the show’s core trio… Which is why it’s time for literally everything else to fall apart.
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The costumes have always been a highlight of each episode, and here the vintage clothing helps provide a visual clue that something is not right. Dressed for a mission to 1961 Texas, the trio instead heads to 1930s Chicago without time for a wardrobe change. The incongruity is given brief lip service by Eliot Ness (Misha Collins), both calling our attention to what outsiders they appear to be and also reminding us of his keen detective’s sensibility.
The show itself upends our expectations here, too, with the second-act death of Ness — 26 years too early. We’ve seen time twisted in slight ways before — with the date of the Hindenberg’s crash, the historical record of Lincoln’s assassin — but never to this extent. Another show, even an earlier episode of this series, would lean into their partnership with The Untouchables — but of course this show, at this point, instead veers them to Al Capone’s (Cameron Gharaee) little-known brother, Jimmy (Mather Zickel).
The removal of Lucy’s sister from reality has always been simmering below the surface in her scenes: Seeing her here bring two brothers together — even if only briefly, even if it leads to death — brings that plotline to the fore, making it all but a given that next week’s finale will bring some closure to this issue.
After a season’s worth of build-up, “Public Enemy No.1” is almost entirely climax, which means, of course, that the stakes are ratcheted up about as high as they can get — possibly trapped in the 1930s, Rufus bleeding out, the whole team gone rogue and working against the government. Flynn is as opaque as ever; in his episode opening quasi-confession to the Priest, he questions not just if God would stop him — but whether or not the changes he’s forced on history were, in some way, themselves fated. He has become predictable in his unpredictability, and it is united against his mercurial terrorism that the Time Team has forged their firm bond.
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Next week’s season (and possibly series) finale Monday, Feb. 20, will bring together the canvas we’ve seen created over these past sixteen episodes. Perhaps fittingly, the characters and institutions of this show continue to exist on shifting ground; like the show’s heroes, all we can do is work together and hope for the best.
“Timeless” airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.