Timeless Season 1, Episode 1 The promos for Timeless thankfully had already introduced the fact that the show’s supposed villain, Flynn, who stole the time machine from Mason Industries, was working from a notebook purportedly written by the reluctant hero, Lucy. The idea that something in the history professor’s future would cause her to guide someone on their path towards sabotaging the rise of America as a world power was a great way to engage fans of time travel. On the surface, Flynn’s mission does seem horrific if what Lucy surmises is true. Although he and his team of so-called terrorists save the Hindenburg by preventing the ropes from being dragged through the mud, they instead plot to blow up the airship once it departs with such heavyweights as UN-cofounder Rockefeller, D-Day mastermind Bradley, and helicopter inventor Sikorsky. What could possibly warrant such a historical change, for ill or for good? And even though Flynn is foiled, the repercussions — at least in Lucy’s life — are still felt. Such butterfly-effect stakes make it easier to accept certain glossed-over details at face value, such as the unsubstantiated rule that the time travelers can’t visit a place they have already been or the fact that Mason Industries, headed by mysterious (and perhaps devious) genius, Connor Mason, built a time machine outside of government control but which now finds itself dealing with Homeland Security. The audience is just supposed to take all that at face value, and that’s fine. The fun ending also smooths over some bumpy narrative elements of the premiere, including Wyatt’s stereotypical military brusqueness and Rufus’ somewhat contrived reactions to problems he encounters as a black man in an unwelcoming past. Despite these stilted moments, both Wyatt and Rufus have great potential as characters: Wyatt feeling guilt over his wife’s death that he can’t undo even with time travel, and Rufus having to navigate a racially-divided past (reminding viewers all too well of their own troubled present) while clandestinely recording Lucy and Wyatt at Mason’s behest for some reason. And of course, Timeless viewers will wonder each week, “What historical event will the show visit this week?” Flynn was seen flipping to pages in Lucy’s notebook that mentioned the moon landing — could that be a possibility? Just by posing this potential, the show has its hook. As full-blown sci-fi, Timeless might feel a bit light, but for a procedural with a twist, it succeeds nicely. As long as the characters and their circumstances get fleshed out a bit more, viewers will be back for more.
