CLEVELAND, Ohio - We're here: Season finale. The 'Timeless' trio heads to 1954 and the Red Scare.
Rufus - with a bullet in him - gets the trio back. Lucy calls Noah, her fiance-ex-fiance, who operates on Rufus in a warehouse.
Soon the trio - and Agent Christopher, their now former boss, and Jiya - are debating how to stop Flynn. Jiya accompanies them to co-pilot, since Rufus just had a bullet taken out of him.
Flynn has Sen. Joseph McCarthy capture Wyatt and Lucy. They escape and meet up with Lucy's grandfather, a member of Rittenhouse.
Jiya and Rufus hang back, but Jiya becomes sick, presumably from the trip.
Wyatt aims to kill Flynn, but Lucy steps between them and says she wants to help Flynn. "I know a way we can really take out Rittenhouse," she says, by focusing on the present and not trying to fix the past.
They take Ethan Cahill, Lucy's grandfather, to see the time machine, to enlist his help to stop Rittenhouse. And ...
... they go back to present and meet Ethan, elderly, in present-day. They ask if he stopped Rittenhouse, and he leads them to a cache of records on the secret society.
Flynn meets Lucy, who gives him the info on who killed his family. He hands Lucy her journal and makes a vague reference to her aging well. But before he can get away, Agent Christopher's troops capture him.
Wyatt and Lucy quietly say goodbye to each other. Wyatt repeats Lucy's line about concentrating on the present and not trying to fix the past.
Lucy then tells her mother about the time machine and about her sister. Mom doesn't think she's crazy. Mom reveals she is part of Rittenhouse.
"Together," she tells Lucy, "we will change history."
Did you notice ...
... that the crew goes back on the show's air date? Feb. 20.
Lines of the show
* "I've logged over 60 hours in the simulator - but I've died a lot." - Jiya, when Wyatt asks her if she can drive them back in time.
* "... You're a coward, you're arrogant and a loudmouth, and terrified people will find out you're a fraud. Just like every bully." Wyatt to Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
* How about we make a deal? You promise to hang on, and I promise to stop holding back." - Rufus to an unconscious Jiya.
Commentary
This show found its footing, and viewers can jump in fairly easily to its episodic and formulaic approach. The writers did a nice job developing Jiya's and Rufus's relationship, and the buildup between Lucy and Flynn also is well done. The gratuitous actions scenes were kept to a minimum, and the historic footnotes were consistently accurate. Here's hoping for a full-season renewal.
Historic touchstones
Joseph McCarthy's notorious career is based on, of course, his anti-communist witch hunt. He was in office in 1954, when the time travelers confront him.
REMINDERS
Cast: Abigail Spencer (Lucy Preston), Matt Lanter (Wyatt Logan), Goran Visnjic (Garcia Flynn), Malcolm Barrett (Rufus Carlin), Patterson Joseph (Connor Mason), Sakina Jaffrey (Denise Christopher).
When it's on: 10 p.m. Mondays, NBC. Will it return?
Next week: Season finale: One last mission to save history.
PAST RECAPS
Episode 15: Public Enemy No. 1: Al Capone
Episode 14: The Lost Generation
Episode 13: Karma Chameleon
Episode 12: The murder of Jesse James
Episode 11: The World's Columbian Exposition
Episode 10: The Capture of Benedict Arnold
Episode 9: Last Ride of Bonnie and Clyde
Episode 8: Space Race
Episode 7: Stranded - 1754 French and Indian battles
Episode 6: The Watergate Tape
Episode 5: Remember the Alamo
Episode 4: Party at Castle Varlar
Episode 3: Atomic City
Episode 2: The Assassination of President Lincoln
The pilot
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