Timeless Season 1 Episode 2 Review: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Jay Ruymann
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Welcome, y'all. Let's discuss.
Timeless Season 1 Episode 2 picked up right off the steam of the premiere, with Lucy questioning her new employers about her sister disappearing from existence. Poor Amy.
The quest this time: to prevent Flynn to ruin the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, arguably the most successful President in history. Morbid, right?
One of the downfalls of Timeless so far is created by the series: the consequences of changing time aren't being taken seriously by anyone except Lucy, who is now personally dealing with the consequences; but no one else understands the consequences.
I know it seems crazy, but maybe we can change things. For the better.
Rufus
Plus, if the rules of time are that they can't return to a time where they've already been, when the world inevitably changes to the worst thing anyone can imagine, how can they go back and save it if they can't change the event in question back?
Luckily, the assassination went off with minor repercussions. Instead of John Wilkes Booth committing the crime, an unknown tall man did it with an unrecognized weapon, also known as Garcia Flynn with a semi-automatic.
Somehow the trio prevented the other three officials from being killed, too, but not without Wyatt being shot. If the other three had been killed, though, to what world would they have returned?
Rufus is handling this new job of his quite terribly, especially as he attempted to persuade Lucy to save Lincoln. The thoughts behind his actions were completely justified, but he's going to have to learn the hard way that none of them can purposely manipulate the timeline to their own accord. How does that make them any better than Flynn?
Never in my life have I felt such an attraction to a man from a different century, but Robert Todd Lincoln was an absolute pleasure to watch, despite his real-life counterpart's less-than-charming appearance. It's no surprise Lucy was so astounded by this man and was beginning to grow toward him.
Speaking of, did anyone else catch the eerie resemblance between Robert and Lucy's new fiancé? They could be brothers, maybe even twins. Does it mean anything?
The best line of the night goes to Rufus for this killer remark:
Wyatt: An actor?
Lucy: Pretty well-known, too, his brother Edwin was literally the most famous actor in America. John never quite measured up.
Rufus: So this is like if Donnie Wahlberg assassinated the President?
The biggest problem of this series is going to be sticking with the rules they've laid out for themselves, and the hunt for Flynn and how long they can drag that on without it growing tiresome.
Also, how many little events in history can they change before it alters all of history? Every trip they make into the past to these important, famous events/disasters happened in a certain way that, in turn, made it incredibly significant, and perception of those events can change in a person's mind with the slightest alternation.
That said, this series also has the ability to relive moments in history that many of us self-proclaimed history lovers would've loved to have witnessed or been there to have been a part of history. Even those who enjoyed the fashion of a certain era can tune in to see stunning costumes, because they're done very well on Timeless.
Timeless has potential to be a great hit, it's just going to have a problem sticking to the writing path they've laid out and staying true to the characters.
What has me most curious is Flynn's mentions to Lucy about joining his cause, and his assurances that she will in the future. How does he know? Is he from the future? Is that what made it so easy to break into the base to steal the ship without prior knowledge from working there? Will Lucy ever get her sister back, or will she turn on those around her because they refuse to acknowledge the damage to history (and the future) they're causing?
You can watch Timeless online right here at TV Fanatic, and we will be posting weekly reviews of every episode from here on out. Sorry about missing the pilot!
Jay Ruymann was a staff writer for TV Fanatic. He retired in January 2018.
