Timeless Season Finale Review: Back to the Future
Dale McGarrigle
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All I can say is that NBC had better renew Timeless when its fall schedule gets announced Monday, May 14.
That's because the series' powers that be answered damn few questions on the two-episode season finale.
In fact, they just raised more. So, if you were confused before, it's even more complex now.
The finale opened with a fairly standard event of the week on Timeless Season 2 Episode 9.
The Lifeboat crew had to go back to one of Rufus's favorite places and times: the Confederacy during the Civil War.
Rittenhouse's idea of how to change history is to hand out history books to its sleeper agents? I guess that can work, an agent carrying around a textbook in a messenger bag. It just seems so low-tech.
Related: Timeless Season 2 Episode 8 Review: The Day Reagan Was Shot
How to find the sleeper agent? I know. Let's send the white guy with the bad accent to the party at the plantation house, and listen to the locals brag about their recent victory.
How to get rid of the crucial future intel? Toss it in the fireplace.
Sometimes, the simple strategy is the most effective one.
I find it hard to believe that Lucy got a Union colonel to ignore orders and supply troops for the raid just by raising her voice and making intelligent arguments.
Once again, there was a great guest character in Harriet Tubman. I mean, everyone is familiar with the concept of the Underground Railroad. But I didn't know she was right in the teeth of the battle.
And, as Rufus pointed out, she was a real hard-ass.
Didn't she do a great job taking out the slave trader and the fleeing sleeper agent with her quick draw?
Most importantly, Harriet had visions, just like Jiya. So Rufus had a source to get more information about that condition.
Related: Watch Timeless Online: Season 2 Episode 8
Jiya did her own research as well, making Connor take her to talk with Stanley Fisher, the pilot who was institutionalized because of his premonitions. Stanley was pretty loopy, but he did teach Jiya how she can bring on her premonitions.
All the real action happened in the last five minutes. Wyatt couldn't believe there was anything unusual about Jessica, despite the fact that her brother was mysteriously cured of leukemia.
Apparently, this Jessica fell for Wyatt even though he wasn't her Wyatt.
So when he kept digging at Jessica about her brother, that spooked her. So she grabbed his gun, kidnapped Jiya and stole the Lifeboat.
That led into Timeless Season 2 Episode 10, which I see as the debuts of Jiya and Lucy, action heroes.
I thought that the moments right after the theft were going to be the end of the resistance. No Lifeboat, no idea where Jiya was, the fact that Jessica betrayed them all despite them believing in her, especially Wyatt.
But Jiya, quiet Jiya, even while drugged, managed to strangle a Rittenhouse thug and escape in the Lifeboat, while Emma halfheartedly shot at her. It certainly didn't hurt Emma's feelings that her replacement pilot escaped.
Emma did enough damage to leave Jiya bouncing around history. Her ending up in San Francisco, which she had been researching while trying to interpret her visions, seemed pretty far-fetched, but this is TImeless. Far-fetched is a relative term.
Related: 19 TV Twists That No One Saw Coming
I still have no idea how Jiya managed to get her photo into Lucy's book about San Francisco to communicate with the future. Again, just roll with it.
The coordinates in Klingon was such a perfectly nerdy touch, a language only Rufus and Jiya would understand. Too bad Rufus didn't obey her "Don't come" note.
The Lifeboat crew has been just reacting to Rittenhouse's moves for two seasons. Their luck was bound to run out sometime, and it certainly did this episode.
The wildcard in this episode was Emma, shooting at everyone on both sides, with Jessica her new No. 2.
Emma didn't like the way the tide was turning at Rittenhouse. So she shot both Carol and Nicholas.
Nicholas was no great loss. I was hoping Carol would turn away from Rittenhouse and back to Lucy. But no, even as she was dying, Carol was more concerned with getting Lucy to come over to the dark side.
Jiya was determined to stay alone in 1888 if that's what it took to keep Rufus alive. Even after he showed up, she still tried to find a way to change his fate, even if it meant picking up a gun and shooting a Rittenhouse thug.
Even after the team thought they were safe, they walked out into a hail of bullets courtesy of Emma, with Rufus ending up dead.
Everyone was rightfully stricken when they got back to the future.
But what a lovely twist, having a second, improved Lifeboat appear. Even better, a Lifeboat with Future Lucy and Future Wyatt on board, with an idea how to go back in time to rescue Rufus before he's killed.
How? Who knows? Obviously, the future couple has figured out how to co-exist with the current selves in the same time period. This means they can go back to 1888 Chinatown.
What happens after that is anyone's guess.
Also, what will a Rittenhouse led by Emma look like? Even though Emma is supposed to be a brilliant scientist, I'm betting the new Rittenhouse will shoot first and ask questions second.
So, this is why NBC has to stop stalling and renew Timeless because way too many questions have been left unanswered.
To review the new Rittenhouse-Lifeboat dynamic, watch Timeless online.
How will they get Malcolm back, if NBC lets him get resurrected? Will you miss Carol or Nicholas? Did you foresee Emma going Rambo on her own people?
Comment below.
Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on X.
