So what would’ve happened if the Hindenburg didn’t blow the fork up? NBC’s Timeless is all about that, and more.
Yes, I also watch another NBC show–The Good Place. Where the fork did you think I got that? Truth be told, I’ve been veggie cussing for decades, but that’s neither here nor there.
So let’s get into Timeless, which first aired a few weeks ago, but I’m just now getting to this. Shame.
My favorite line in this pilot: “I am black. There is literally NO place in American history where that would be awesome for me.”
Lucy Preston is a history professor who is pissed she didn’t make tenure at the university where her sick mom used to work. No, I don’t think her mom was some kind of degenerate. She’s really sick. I’m guessing cancer, but they don’t say. All we know is she’s hooked up to a vital signs monitor and has been unconscious for a while. Lucy confides in her sister about the disappointment. Amy advises Lucy to start making her own future instead of worrying who she’ll disappoint by diverging from the same life path as their mom.
Rufus Carlin is a total coder geek (that word geek is NOT a pejorative in my world), a brotha who’s taken a fancy to a fellow nerd at the lab where he works.
About that lab… it’s housing a project so top secret that the gov’mint didn’t even know about it. Well… they didn’t until gun-toting capsule thieves commandeer it so it gets sucked it away to the Hindenburg disaster date—May 6, 1937—a few hours before it’s supposed to combust. Side note: I noticed the capsule resembles the logo of longtime network competitor CBS. What the what?
Delta Force member Wyatt Logan is the third main character. He’s introduced after the shootout and time capsule disappearance.
Homeland Security calls on Lucy, Logan, and Rufus to chase the capsule. Lucy’s the history expert. She’ll help them stay hidden in plain sight because she’s familiar with world events and customs, fashions and other norms of past eras. Rufus will pilot the rickety-looking prototype time machine. The developer, Connor Mason, kept it functional in case anyone got stranded while using the sleek time capsule. Logan is the muscle, an elite special-ops soldier. He can beat a mo-fo down if needed. And he does.
But poor Rufus. Woke Rufus. Bro was pushing back against the capsule’s developer, who heads Mason Industries. Mason’s also a black man—but from England, I think. While he was trying to convince Rufus he was the only person who could take the time-travel trip, his employee wasn’t having it. My favorite line in this pilot: “I am black. There is literally NO place in American history where that would be awesome for me.”
And it wasn’t. Rufus couldn’t walk in a bar without some locals looking like they wanted to go “on swoll” like puffer fish and start some mess. The three landed themselves in some Manchester Township jail in New Jersey—in 1937. But it wasn’t because they walked into a bar. A whole lot happened between the bar scene and them landing in jail.
At least NBC isn’t trying to sugar coat time travel with the foolish notion that it would have been a rosy halcyon time for black folks. Our reality in 2016 still isn’t the same as some folks for sure, but back in the day, membership had it’s non-perks.
So back to how they ended up in the clink. They’re chasing this guy through time. Name’s Garcia Flynn, one of the dudes who shot up Mason’s secret lab joint and got away with his sleek CBS-eye time machine. Our three heroes (?) want to stop Flynn from changing history in any way… but they’re not successful. First of all, the Hindenburg doesn’t burst into flames because folks on the ground don’t drag the mooring ropes through water, which doesn’t ground the Zeppelin, so no spark is created that would ignite at the source of a hydrogen leak on the air ship (that’s according the explanation on the show). Disaster averted.
So our heroes try to figure out why Flynn would want to stop the Hindenburg’s original fate. Preston determines Flynn doesn’t want to doom the passengers coming into the U.S.A. but to bomb the return flight to Germany instead. Some important folks were supposed to be on board—including folks instrumental in forming the U.N., a man considered the father of the helicopter, and another who (if I recall correctly) was instrumental in making some huge medical advancement. Anyway, they were all eventually headed to the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in London. Preston’s guess is that history would be dramatically changed if those three perished.
Lucy, Rufus and Logan succeed in stopping the airship from being bombed out of the sky, but one of the guys who tried to stop them from stopping the bomb was dumb enough to fire a gun in an airship filled with hydrogen. Yup. Oh the fire, but not so much humanity. They found out only two people died—a journalist Logan tried to save when the Hindenburg was supposed to combust the first time, and an unidentified man. Lives saved.
All seems well, and our heroes go back to their normal routines for two seconds. Homeland Security is still tracking Garcia Flynn, but will call the three if they’re needed.
Lucy heads home, and calls out so Amy can know she’s back. She walks into the kitchen only to find her healthy mother standing up cooking dinner. And mom is wondering why she keeps talking about this Amy person. Lucy checks a family photo to confirm if what she’s thinking is actually the new real.
Unintended consequences from changing history land smack-dab in Lucy’s lap. There are only two people in that photo. Lucy and her mom. Amy doesn’t exist.
Lingering questions:
What’s Garcia Flynn’s motivation? Why did he tell Lucy to ask why homeland security chose her to time travel? I’m getting the feeling either the gov’mints aren’t telling the truth or Mason isn’t being up front. Maybe all of them are deceiving cads and caddesses.
Why did Mason tell Rufus he was the only person who could time travel? Does Rufus has some special thing that makes him bend through time better than others? Is he going to travel back in time and become Dave Chapelle instead of a coding geek?