S01.E03: Atomic City

[Tara Ariano]

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The trio go on the run with an infamous mistress when they land in 1962 Las Vegas. Also, Rufus meets his past mentor; Wyatt tries to alter history for himself; and Flynn may be gambling with far more human life than originally thought.

[Shellygrl290]

It didn't feel like the romance was being shoved down our throats. -plus
Gave more story to Wyatt and Rufas - -plus 
Story was really well done -plus
Wyatt back story -plus
Costumes -plus
Everything Wyatt lol -plus
Teamwork -plus 
The old guy double cross -plus
Rufas using his smarts to solve the crisis for a change. -plus
The guest actress --plus

Lucy. I'm really not liking her -negative
WHY DIDN'T THAT THINK TO TRACK THE OTHER MACHINE TO BEGIN WITH?! Oh, yeah, story. 
How Wyatt, decorated Delta force lost to Flynn. Oh yeah, story. -negative 
Wyatt thinking the letter would work. Even just a little. -negative 

That ending! I enjoyed it, I guess the team couldn't "win" everything.

[Shaynaa]

So what does Flynn want with plutonium?  Isn't it radioactive?  Dear Wyatt, BTTF 2 was kind of a big lesson in how badly you can screw up history when you try and change it. 

[KaveDweller]

So did Flynn steal the plutonium and bury in 1962 and was digging it up in 2016? Isn't it a bit risky to just bury radioactive material? Was it just easier to steal plutonium then?

I did laugh when Wyatt referenced Back to the Future II because when he was trying to send the message I was thinking of the scene in that movie. It looks like his wife died in the wilderness or something? Maybe she was mad at him and tried walking home from somewhere? I didn't get a good look at those articles they showed.

Lucy's got a pretty understanding fiance. I mean, I totally get why she doesn't want to live with a stranger, but he doesn't know any of that. You'd think he'd be a little more surprised/upset at his fiance walking out.

[green]

I wondered about the older guy that was "kidnapped" -- Anthony -- from the beginning.  He didn't seem to struggle much when he was shoved aboard the time machine by Flynn originally.  Glad to see his story starting to appear. 

Seems he and Flynn both want Rittenhouse never to have existed or something.  But Anthony is on to the important lesson of ends and means and Flynn not so much.  So Flynn will never be the totally good guy as much as possibly the gray guy in league with the possibly good-ish guy, Anthony.  Which is good cause he has already crossed some lines.  Flynn is like the counterpart to soldier boy who has no sense of what effect his actions might have and doesn't care so has also crossed a lot of lines too messing with history.

Of course Flynn seems to know "why" he is doing what he is doing while soldier boy is all about following orders and never asking why.  Good to see Rufus call him on that.

You know when they first mentioned Rittenhouse (Rittenhause? Ritten House) in a previous episode I confess I misheard it as Briton House and thought how funny is this that some Anglophiles built a time machine so they can go back and change the results of the Revolutionary War.  If they succeed and tweak away democracy some too (Magna Carta, what Magna Carta, must have misfiled it) the evil House of Windsor will rule the world, hah.

[shapeshifter]

35 minutes ago, KaveDweller said:

...Lucy's got a pretty understanding fiance. I mean, I totally get why she doesn't want to live with a stranger, but he doesn't know any of that. You'd think he'd be a little more surprised/upset at his fiance walking out.

The actress has an expressive face. I interpreted her as thinking "this guy is really understanding — I don't want to hurt him — will I be sorry I didn't marry him?" 

 

Will our intrepid team of 3 figure out that the plutonium traveled through time at the normal rate rather than being brought in the time machine? Interesting that on Frequency burying a can in the lead's yard and digging in a basement where the above ground structure was long gone also yields items from the past known about because of information from the past. I'm very good at adjusting suspending disbelief with time travel shows, but I'm having trouble watching two such shows with overlapping plot devices.

Edited October 18, 2016 by shapeshifter

[legaleagle53]

2 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

The actress has an expressive face. I interpreted her as thinking "this guy is really understanding — I don't want to hurt him — will I be sorry I didn't marry him?" 

 

Will our intrepid team of 3 figure out that the plutonium traveled through time at the normal rate rather than being brought in the time machine? Interesting that on Frequency burying a can in the lead's yard and digging in a basement where the above ground structure was long gone also yields items from the past known about because of information from the past. I'm very good at adjusting my reality-omoter with time travel shows, but I'm having trouble watching two such shows with overlapping plot devices.

To say nothing of how it overlaps with The Flash's continual theme of "when you play God with the timeline, there's always hell to pay."

[ketose]

I get the feeling Timeless is going to drag out this Rittenhouse thing for the rest of the season. So far we know that Rufus is indirectly working for Rittenshouse and that Flynn and Anthony are working against it / him. We're also pretty sure that at some point in her future, Lucy is going to write the instruction book. So, we're left to assume that RH is either influencing history as some sort of generic Illuminati or that RH is actually using time travel, which is an even more confusing possibility.

Did Lucy look up the date on the internet? Couldn't someone else had done that before she got there? Also, living with her mom is going to be uncomfortable since she probably can't figure out why Lucy needs a break from the fiance. On the plus side, more Susanna Thompson.

 

49 minutes ago, KaveDweller said:

So did Flynn steal the plutonium and bury in 1962 and was digging it up in 2016? Isn't it a bit risky to just bury radioactive material? Was it just easier to steal plutonium then?

I did laugh when Wyatt referenced Back to the Future II because when he was trying to send the message I was thinking of the scene in that movie. It looks like his wife died in the wilderness or something? Maybe she was mad at him and tried walking home from somewhere? I didn't get a good look at those articles they showed.

Lucy's got a pretty understanding fiance. I mean, I totally get why she doesn't want to live with a stranger, but he doesn't know any of that. You'd think he'd be a little more surprised/upset at his fiance walking out.

I imagine is was much easier to steal Plutonium back then since extremely few people could even think of anything to do with it, let alone handle it without dying. Plus, the only rogue nation in a 1960's scenario was the USSR.

Lucy's fiance is TV perfect. Also, if Lucy hasn't fundamentally changed between the two timelines, she would find him a pretty awesome guy once she gets to know him.

[txhorns79]

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I imagine is was much easier to steal Plutonium back then since extremely few people could even think of anything to do with it, let alone handle it without dying. Plus, the only rogue nation in a 1960's scenario was the USSR.

I can't imagine a time when it was ever "easy" to steal plutonium.  I'm reminded of Doc Brown from Back to the Future making the comment to Marty (after watching the video of his future self saying the time machine required a nuclear reaction to get to 1.21 gigowatts) that maybe plutonium was available in every corner store in 1985, but it was a little hard to come by in 1955.  

I think that would be pretty heavily guarded, along with anything else related to nuclear weapons.  It's extremely dangerous stuff that could cause a huge amount of harm, even if the person or group who took it had no idea how to weaponize it.  As to rogue nations, while the Soviets may have been the largest threat at the time, there were plenty of other state actors out there who would have loved to get their hands on our nuclear secrets.   To give some perspective, China tested its first nuclear weapon in 1964. 

[Sarah D. Bunting]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Rittenhouse

Just an FYI on the larger reference. I once wrote a story containing a cabal called the Fraternal Order of Rittenhouse that involved currency-keyed codes. Because I am a massive, massive nerd.

[smiley13]

I did not like Lucy sticking up for Judith Campbell.  It seemed like she felt sorry for her or something.  Judith Campbell was not a good person.  And due to the stupidity of Kennedy thinking with the wrong head, she was able to pass information to Sam Giancana.  

[Bookish Jen]

I started watching last night's episode but soon got bored. I just can't get behind Lucy. I just don't buy her as this brilliant professor. I think the actress lacks the gravitas to play her. And other things about the show just seem off to me but I can't quite explain it. I'll try watching next week's episode but if it bores me I'm out.

[Chaos Theory]

36 minutes ago, smiley13 said:

I did not like Lucy sticking up for Judith Campbell.  It seemed like she felt sorry for her or something.  Judith Campbell was not a good person.  And due to the stupidity of Kennedy thinking with the wrong head, she was able to pass information to Sam Giancana.  

I think it had more to do with her own issues and not recognizing her own life.   I don't know enough about this woman to make judgements but any woman who makes an impact on history would at least be fascinating to someone like Lucy.  

[tankgirl73]

smiley13 - I'm not knowledgeable about this area of US History at all (not an American) so maybe you can clarify your comment for me? It sounds like you're saying that Campbell passed information on to Giancana without Kennedy's knowledge, basically betraying him. But on the show, I thought Lucy was saying that Kennedy and Giancana were deliberately working together, and Campbell was their go-between, secretly working for Kennedy essentially. In which case it wasn't "thinking with the wrong head" on his part, but using an asset that he had at his disposal - however he may have come to, um, acquire that asset. What do the history books say?

[dubbel zout]

9 hours ago, Shellygrl290 said:

WHY DIDN'T THAT THINK TO TRACK THE OTHER MACHINE TO BEGIN WITH?! Oh, yeah, story. 

I know. I wish the show had had an answer for that, like, they needed to establish an energy signature or something.

8 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I'm very good at adjusting suspending disbelief with time travel shows, but I'm having trouble watching two such shows with overlapping plot devices.

It's the same idea as a time capsule. How else can you set something aside for the future?

I'd complain that Lucy doesn't do enough research on Flynn in her downtime, but she doesn't have much downtime. She had one night with her fiancé and then it was back to work. When do the people at the lab sleep? They always seem to be on duty.

I'd like Agent Christopher to lighten up a bit. If she thinks it's so easy for the team to catch Flynn, she should go on a trip herself. What a thankless role for Sakina Jaffrey.

[BooBear]

Ok

(1) Wyatt is not working for me. As a specially trained Delta Force agent, presumably the best they could pick, he cannot hit the broad side of a barn door. I suppose that is required for this show to work. Someone who could shoot would take out Garcia and that would be the end of that. Not to mention that Wyatt looks about 10, has the hair and demeanor of a fashion model and all around screams... nope. So my proposal to the writers is this... Wyatt will turn out to be a plant who isn't Delta Force but is meant to keep them from taking Garcia out.  Perhaps he is involved because someone promised him that by going back in time he would have the opportunity to try to change his wife's destiny.

(2) While good for them for getting off the big historical figures... Campbell?  Beyond that... just going to say it... why did they need her at all? Walk into the General's office, shoot him, take the keys. Done! Not to mention that she could have blabbed what they did easily. I also don't like them making an opportunist out to be a feminist icon.

(3) I am lost as to what Garcia wants with the plutonium. I suppose I could give it time but he seems to have a new crazy objective every week that doesn't seem to have a plan. That is annoying me.

(4) I am not sure Lucy is on the team because she is a brilliant professor. I believe in secret she is on the team because she writes something in the future based on what she is doing now... that allows Garcia to know what to do... only she and most of the team and Homeland Security don't know that.  On Lucy's fiance man, what a god like creature. I am suspicious already that he was like ok sure hon.  Wondering if the speculation someone did a few weeks ago is true that Garcia is Lucy's son because I see no UST between them and the writers don't seem to be focusing on it.

I like Rufus. 

[Primetimer]

While also learning the difference between a bomb and a bombshell.

View the full article

[marketdoctor]

Some of this was fun (JFK and the Rat Pack)--and recognizing that they were already famous and hard to reach.

Some of it was bothersome:  that amount of plutonium would kill you as soon as you opened the container, provided you could lift it (plutonium is HEAVY), and there's a reason you don't store the entire lump of plutonium in one big ball.  There are other physics problems, but dying and blowing up the plutonium when you put it together like that* are big enough problems.  

* Exactly how much plutonium you need to explode is probably a secret, but if that's all the plutonium the bomb has, and it's in one (critical) mass, that's what we'd call "bad."

[kili]

(1) Wyatt is not working for me. As a specially trained Delta Force agent, presumably the best they could pick, he cannot hit the broad side of a barn door. I suppose that is required for this show to work.

The problem is that the show can't work long-term like that. Each episode seems to feature a gunfight between Wyatt and Flynn and Flynn has to win every time or the main plot dies. Wyatt is basically the Charlie Brown of this show and Flynn is Lucy van Pelt with the football. We will endlessly have to watch poor Wyatt lose. That is going to get old, fast. At least Wyatt got to win against one of the assassins last week. They need to have more of that and less battles with Flynn.

Wyatt seems to show no ill-effects from being shot yesterday. I bet that Western Union guy just took the money and pocketed it. Is Wyatt going to come back and complain when his letter doesn't get through in 2011? How does his wife die? He made it sound grisly.

How does Campbell not end up in jail? Surely the general was courtmartialed after a plutonium core was stolen by his booty call. Somebody had to have noticed it was missing. When the anti-Rittenhausers were digging that hole in the desert in the dark, I thought they were going to bury somebody. Either that, or they were operating right next to a mob burial ground - busy patch of desert.

Rufus was wicked smart this episode except when it came to his former boss. I guess I can forgive him for not noticing that the case was too light when he got it from him due to all the adrenaline, but plutonium is very heavy.

[maxineofarc]

They couldn't get Lucy a dress that fits? I'm the shallowest.

[sjohnson]

The plutonium in fission bombs is never a critical mass at normal pressures. Only when an implosion radically compresses the plutonium does the density of decaying atoms reach a high enough level to sustain a chain reaction that escalates into a nuclear explosion. That said, the physical danger from the toxic metal and the normal radiation does make the casual way they were handling the pit kind of hair-raising. 

The thing about Campbell was supposed to be they could sneak in and out of the base with her, because of her services to the general. Their time machine doesn't carry enough gun men to shoot their way onto the base. 

I have no idea why the professor thinks an adventuress like Campbell was so impressive. And even less why anyone thinks cancer is somehow a judgment on a person's life, rather than a truly unfortunate disease.

Being a widower myself seems to make it impossible to really feel the absurdity of so many widowers on TV. Perhaps the dude is awfully pretty and perhaps that makes the audience feel more horny than awed by his prowess. But I still relate to his situation, so I'm down with him. Rufus wanting to know, ditto. Don't really know what to make of that woman yet. She didn't seem to be very adept in dumping the fiance. 

[Ariah]

I'm ok with all three main characters. I like their dynamics and dumb decisions. I still believe there's a hidden agenda behind who was picked to join the team and that Wyatt was not the actual best there is, but has been picked to screw things up eventually.

Rittenhouse knows the future and designed the team to make it happen - whatever "it" may be.

Long story short:

I think Lucy was not picked because she was the best historian available, but because she will write the memoir Flynn will use/is using now.

Wyatt was picked because he is likely to screw things up with his wife-obsession and can't take Flynn in a one-on-one fight.

Rufus already spies on the two and is the only pilot available.

Theory: There is another mole in the organisation and mid-season finale will address that.

[dubbel zout]

13 minutes ago, sjohnson said:

I have no idea why the professor thinks an adventuress like Campbell was so impressive.

I think it was more that Lucy admired her for living life on her own terms and making no apologies for what she did.

Another way to look at it is that Campbell was used by powerful men and was at their mercy for her survival. So...

I really need to know what Rittenhouse is/does. If it's so important to get rid of him/it/them, why doesn't Flynn go back to a point where he can take him/it/them out? Then there's no show, obviously; but that's why we need more information.

Edited October 18, 2016 by dubbel zout

[basiltherat]

I really am so tired of TV and movies glorifying all of JFK's whores, whether it be Monroe or Campbell or many of the hundreds of others.  Did he have any time to do anything, you know, presidential?  Oh, yes, what he did do almost got US into war a couple three times.  Why would Lucy admire a woman who was nothing but a sexual conduit between JFK and a notorious mob boss and generals and who knows who else?  (Also, if cancer is a 'punishment' for Campbell, dear Lucy, what was your mother being punished for?!)

If anyone out there remembers The Stand, the Stephen King miniseries, you will enjoy the parallels of Matt Frewer playng a character there who delivered a bomb to a bad guy named FLagg, IN VEGAS and here delivers bomb to a baddie named Flynn, also in Vegas!

[officetemp]

2 hours ago, basiltherat said:

. . . If anyone out there remembers The Stand, the Stephen King miniseries, you will enjoy the parallels of Matt Frewer playng a character there who delivered a bomb to a bad guy named FLagg, IN VEGAS and here delivers bomb to a baddie named Flynn, also in Vegas!

Yeah, that's what got me--what is it with Matt Frewer, atom bombs and Vegas, anyway?  First The Stand, now Timeless!

Speaking of miniseries, I think Timeless would have worked better as a miniseries with a definite beginning, middle and end.  As someone mentioned previously, the whole series' continuation hinges on the team not being able to stop Flynn.

The actor that plays Lucy's surprise fiance just played an undercover detective infiltrating a white-supremacist organization in Major Crimes.  Guess he's spending his off-time between seasons on this show.

I watched the Pilot episode attentively, Episode 2 peripherally, this one kinda-sorta.  Time-travel stories give me headaches and I can't get over that Flynn is depending on Lucy's journal to guide his moves, since one would expect that the contents of the journal would change with each trip that they all make.  Not to mention that Wyatt has got to be the most ineffectual Delta Force person ever.

When Lucy started out her little talk with her fiance with:  [paraphrasing] "I met a woman at work today and I realized. . .", I was thinking that the fiance might have thought that Lucy was going to break up with him because she had realized that she was gay and the fiance was so sweet to her because he was just so relieved when she just said that she needed time to think things over.  Anybody else?

Edited October 18, 2016 by officetemp

[BooBear]

LOL I thought the same thing.

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They couldn't get Lucy a dress that fits? I'm the shallowest.

What was that god awful yellow smock. Glad to see it was included the recap so we can all gawk at it.

[withanaich]

It killed me that they kept saying how it really seemed like Campbell had her life together. Oh yeah, shacking up with a bunch of married men and later shamed by her country for it, she totes had it goin' on! I can almost accept Lucy just being interested by a woman whose story didn't fit the status quo of her time, but when Rufus kinda softly went, "Wow, she really seemed like she had it all together" like he was in awe, I cracked up. I'm sure she was a real person with hopes and fears and shit, and it's a shame that she died of cancer, but let's stop trying to elevate somebody's mistress to hero status. She slept with some married men and acted as a go-between in their plans. Maybe it was tacky, maybe it was shrewd, maybe she planned things to work out the way they did, or maybe history just happened to her. But I don't find anything admirable in what she did. This isn't Amelia Earheart or Marie Curie, people, damn.

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When Lucy started out her little talk with her fiance with:  [paraphrasing] "I met a woman at work today and I realized. . .", I was thinking that the fiance might have thought that Lucy was going to break up with him because she had realized that she was gay and the fiance was so sweet to her because he was just so relieved when she just said that she needed time to think things over.  Anybody else?

Not just you. I mean, what was he supposed to think? The fact that he didn't seem very upset or even surprised that she was calling a time-out makes me think he's either some kind of Rittenhouse plant, or they'd been having problems for a while. There's "understanding" and then there's ... "Oh, okay, maybe you don't want to get married? Oh okay cool yeah cool. You take all the time you need, honey."

This Wyatt dude is such a petulant child, and it's actually kind of dangerous for him to be along on the mission. No, it's not cute that you did something because you saw Marty McFly do it. I wish they'd stop trying to shoehorn his tragic dead wife into this story. Okay, he tried it and it didn't work. Can we please let it go now? But this time, when he was actually trying to implement a plan, one that had to do with their actual mission, Lucy was the one being a baby. No real reason why you shouldn't use Judith to lure Flynn out except, "No, she slept with JFK and she's really cool so we can't be, like, mean to her!" So he's not in charge, and she's not in charge, but heck if someone doesn't need to be in charge of this mission. Not Too Forceful Delta Force can't just go off and do whatever he wants, and Lucy needs some kind of historical/scientific reasoning WHY a particular plan is a bad idea. Too bad they couldn't send Rufus to spy on two adults.

[NorthstarATL]

3 minutes ago, withanaich said:

It killed me that they kept saying how it really seemed like Campbell had her life together. Oh yeah, shacking up with a bunch of married men and later shamed by her country for it, she totes had it goin' on! I can almost accept Lucy just being interested by a woman whose story didn't fit the status quo of her time, but when Rufus kinda softly went, "Wow, she really seemed like she had it all together" like he was in awe, I cracked up. I'm sure she was a real person with hopes and fears and shit, and it's a shame that she died of cancer, but let's stop trying to elevate somebody's mistress to hero status. She slept with some married men and acted as a go-between in their plans. Maybe it was tacky, maybe it was shrewd, maybe she planned things to work out the way they did, or maybe history just happened to her. But I don't find anything admirable in what she did. This isn't Amelia Earheart or Marie Curie, people, damn.

I worked at a bunch of mob clubs, and women like that are/were NOT a rarity. our gang lives a pretty sheltered life, no matter the timeline. That said, glad we didn't have to deal with Lucy staying with the fiancee, because there's a whole lot of weird ethical and sexual dilemmas there. HE would be sleeping with someone he thinks he knows, and she would, obviously, not.

 At the end of the day, though, "at the end of the day" sure seemed anachronistic coming from Judith. I am certain  that the past decade was not the first time those words were strung together in that order, but it was jarring to me. Also, Judith constantly brushing her hair back, and having it have a life of its own. The ozone layer can attest to the fact that, especially among Judith's crowd, that hair would NOT be moving! Ditto Wyatt's stubble. Whoever was in charge of waitstaff would have grabbed him and sent him home to clean up. Nitpicky, but I recall that time period.

[dubbel zout]

4 minutes ago, withanaich said:

let's stop trying to elevate somebody's mistress to hero status.

Then we should stop stop slut-shaming her, too.

7 minutes ago, withanaich said:

So he's not in charge, and she's not in charge, but heck if someone doesn't need to be in charge of this mission.

Seriously. 

[saber5055]

I agree with everyone who is down on Wyatt, the most useless "Delta Force" guy ever, too young to actually have any skills or life experience, plus he is NOT handsome IMO, even if Judith Campbell said he was, to his face. This ep I really was liking Rufus. Why not give him some fighting/shooting skills and forget the useless Wyatt person. And yeah, Lucy's future husband is just "too good to be true" so I'm thinking he's not. Or else he is being written by a bunch of wishful women. But hey, burying something from the past to dig up in the future was brilliant. Our team could have been burying tons of stuff from the Civil War era to dig up and sell later, then retire on the proceeds. What a great retirement option!

[withanaich]

2 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

Then we should stop stop slut-shaming her, too.

I didn't think anyone was slut-shaming her. It is what it is. She slept with a bunch of different men, at least some of whom were married. It's not the fact that she slept with a bunch of men that I personally find scummy, it's the fact that they were married and in the public eye, and there would have been other real people hurt if news of those affairs came out. (The men who indulged are just as scummy -- and irresponsible and dumb, in the case of the guy who invited Judith onto the base for a hookup and left her alone with his keys. But this show, at least, isn't trying to make it look like they "have it all together" because they have a wife and a piece on the side.) I just think it's sad that, even with the understanding of hindsight, the time travelers were acting like what Judith was doing was something to aspire to, even in that time period. Are people still that wowed by JFK? For her part, Judith did seem to understand (on the show, anyway) that her life wasn't all that glamorous. I did like when Lucy dopily asked her if she wanted the photos to protect "Jack" and she was like, "Um, no I wanted them to protect ME."

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I agree with everyone who is down on Wyatt, the most useless "Delta Force" guy ever, too young to actually have any skills or life experience, plus he is NOT handsome IMO, even if Judith Campbell said he was, to his face. 

People acting like he's handsome reminds me of those true crime shows where the narrators and friends and cops carry on about how good-looking the killer or victim was, and then when they finally show a picture of the real person, it's like: "Noooooooo. THIS guy?!" Wyatt might be good-looking ... in about ten years of life or so. He looks like he might actually be wet behind the ears right now. 

[dubbel zout]

17 minutes ago, withanaich said:

I didn't think anyone was slut-shaming her.

I'd consider this slut-shaming:

2 hours ago, basiltherat said:

I really am so tired of TV and movies glorifying all of JFK's whores, whether it be Monroe or Campbell

[LittleIggy]

Why is a Croatian actor's character named "Garcia Flynn"? ;-)

[BooBear]

28 minutes ago, withanaich said:

I just think it's sad that, even with the understanding of hindsight, the time travelers were acting like what Judith was doing was something to aspire to, even in that time period. Are people still that wowed by JFK? For her part, Judith did seem to understand (on the show, anyway) that her life wasn't all that glamorous. I did like when Lucy dopily asked her if she wanted the photos to protect "Jack" and she was like, "Um, no I wanted them to protect ME."

Yes it came across like stupid men were writing this script **oooohhh she and her feminine wiles were so cool...**  as I did point out I really didn't see the need for her to be involved in this Garcia plot at all.  Maybe it was easier to get them on the base but I think they could have figured something else out that was easier - as we saw -- security wasn't exactly tight and they have the benefit of history and a time machine.  Though I will give her credit for knocking Wyatt out while his back was turned. Or example 1001 why Wyatt can't seriously be a military man. Or even a rent a cop.

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This ep I really was liking Rufus. Why not give him some fighting/shooting skills and forget the useless Wyatt person.

Give them both gun training, get rid of Wyatt. Done! Or get another Wyatt.

[Chaos Theory]

34 minutes ago, withanaich said:

I didn't think anyone was slut-shaming her. It is what it is. She slept with a bunch of different men, at least some of whom were married. It's not the fact that she slept with a bunch of men that I personally find scummy, it's the fact that they were married and in the public eye, and there would have been other real people hurt if news of those affairs came out. (The men who indulged are just as scummy -- and irresponsible and dumb, in the case of the guy who invited Judith onto the base for a hookup and left her alone with his keys. But this show, at least, isn't trying to make it look like they "have it all together" because they have a wife and a piece on the side.) I just think it's sad that, even with the understanding of hindsight, the time travelers were acting like what Judith was doing was something to aspire to, even in that time period. Are people still that wowed by JFK? For her part, Judith did seem to understand (on the show, anyway) that her life wasn't all that glamorous. I did like when Lucy dopily asked her if she wanted the photos to protect "Jack" and she was like, "Um, no I wanted them to protect ME."

People acting like he's handsome reminds me of those true crime shows where the narrators and friends and cops carry on about how good-looking the killer or victim was, and then when they finally show a picture of the real person, it's like: "Noooooooo. THIS guy?!" Wyatt might be good-looking ... in about ten years of life or so. He looks like he might actually be wet behind the ears right now. 

Men NEVER face the same consequences as women do.  It is slut shaming. The mistress is a stupid whore.  The husband should have known better but boys will be boys and should be allowed to get back to his marriage.  In most cases the husband is eventually forgiven but the mistress is vilified for life.  

The fact is Kennedy is looked uppon favorably even though he had many many affairs but his mistresses never fair as well.

[iMonrey]

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As someone mentioned previously, the whole series' continuation hinges on the team not being able to stop Flynn.

And there's the show's problem, in a nutshell, which is becoming more and more apparent with each passing episode. How much longer can they rinse and repeat this same formula? Go into past, screw up trying to stop Flynn, Flynn gets away. Only this time they did not manage to prevent him from achieving his goal. Maybe the story will shift now? Hope springs eternal.

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Each episode seems to feature a gunfight between Wyatt and Flynn and Flynn has to win every time or the main plot dies. Wyatt is basically the Charlie Brown of this show and Flynn is Lucy van Pelt with the football. We will endlessly have to watch poor Wyatt lose. That is going to get old, fast. 

The people in charge of this mission should be employing the "three strikes and you're out" rule. They need new team members, the ones they've got aren't getting the job done.

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Did Lucy look up the date on the internet? Couldn't someone else had done that before she got there? 

When they called her they asked her what was going on in that year and she didn't know. It wasn't until after she got there (to  . . . headquarters?) they figured out Flynn had gone to Vegas. At that point she cross referenced Vegas with the specific date.

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Ditto Wyatt's stubble. Whoever was in charge of waitstaff would have grabbed him and sent him home to clean up.. 

I noticed that too, and it's going to be a continuing problem, because apparently TV says love interests have to have that stubble look that's so popular today. But you're absolutely right. In the 1960s that look we think is so "sexy" today was called "looking like a bum." Men who walked around unshaven like that were taken for bums and hobos. They wouldn't have just blended right in. I guess we're supposed to overlook this because the show thinks Matt Lanter is just so damn sexy, but  . . . no.

[JackONeill]

To me, all three leads are too young. I don't think I'm saying that because I'm...um, old. But most shows I watch seem to have age-appropriate leads. Lucy (that's her name, right?) is supposed to be some world-renowned historian, but she looks like she just graduated from college (undergraduate, at that). And Wyatt -- well, like so many people have already said, he may have have been in the Delta Force for the Boy Scouts, but that's about it. I think a younger Mark Harmon (when NCIS first started). To be Delta Force, or Green Beret, or whatever you're supposed to be, you need to have...gravitas. You need to look like might have actually show someone, instead of missing everyone constantly. The guy who plays Wyatt looks like he'd be more at home on Modern Family. And he misses his wife -- well, I don't buy it. (And I have lost a wife. If you want to see someone missing their wife, look at Longmire. Or Riggs in Lethal Weapon, the movie especially but even TV show.)

The actor playing Rufus comes across better than the other two, but that brings up another problem: the three of them don't seem to have a united game plan.

[saber5055]

BooBear said: "Give them both gun training, get rid of Wyatt. Done! Or get another Wyatt." Which made me think, maybe, just MAYBE (hope and wish), on some trip history will be changed and Wyatt will cease to exist, or become another person, one who is handsome AND capable, two things Wyatt are not. I mean, it worked for Lucy's fiance/not fiance, right? (I still wonder why only Lucy's present has been changed and no one else's. And I still hope Amy isn't really her "sister" but her real love interest.)

[NorthstarATL]

28 minutes ago, LittleIggy said:

Why is a Croatian actor's character named "Garcia Flynn"? ;-)

I'm assuming that it was a casting director who decided a Croatian actor deserved a chance at a role. The name was probably there first, as was the script.

[Chaos Theory]

The series will live or die in its ability to switch focuses. Right now Our Heroes are chasing Flynn but what is to say they season two won't be them all joining forces to go after Riddenhouse or Rufus and his scientist friend suddenly becoming the bad guy or Lucy doing something she can't take back and having to run.  The show is called Timeless  Not "Let's Chase Flynn through time"

Edited October 18, 2016 by Chaos Theory

[RemoteControlFreak]

13 hours ago, ketose said:

Also, living with her mom is going to be uncomfortable since she probably can't figure out why Lucy needs a break from the fiance. On the plus side, more Susanna Thompson.

Is Lucy actually going to live with her mother or is that just a line that she gave to her fiance?

[RemoteControlFreak]

17 minutes ago, JackONeill said:

To me, all three leads are too young. I don't think I'm saying that because I'm...um, old. But most shows I watch seem to have age-appropriate leads. Lucy (that's her name, right?) is supposed to be some world-renowned historian, but she looks like she just graduated from college (undergraduate, at that).

The timeline pushes the believability of Lucy's age. Ep. 1 I believed showed her birth date as 1983. That makes her around 33. Abigail Spencer is 35.  The episode also showed her being told that her tenure hearing was canceled so that means she's been teaching for 7 years minimum.  That could work if she graduated from college at 21, went right to grad school, finished her PhD in 5 years at age 26, and immediately got a tenure track position. But it rarely works out that quickly.

Plus, she had to have time in there to write a book on the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

[dubbel zout]

35 minutes ago, RemoteControlFreak said:

Is Lucy actually going to live with her mother or is that just a line that she gave to her fiance?

She could sleep at HQ, I guess, but otherwise, where else would she go if not her mom's? She had her bags packed.

[Shanna Marie]

2 hours ago, NorthstarATL said:

Ditto Wyatt's stubble. Whoever was in charge of waitstaff would have grabbed him and sent him home to clean up. Nitpicky, but I recall that time period.

I suspect this is going to be a constant irritant for me in this show. Really, that stubble look is all over TV right now, and maybe I don't know any hip or cool men, but I don't know anyone in real life who has that look. When I see a man looking like that, it's usually a case of "I didn't shave this weekend because I'm just hanging around the house." I've wondered if it's something to do with HD, where the resolution is fine enough that you could see the difference between a fresh shave and one that's about five hours old, and it can take all day to film a few minutes worth of footage, so particularly with fair-skinned, dark-haired men, it might create continuity issues, or else the actors might have to shave several times a day, and with that constant two-days scruff, you don't notice the difference as much?

I do find Wyatt attractive, but more in the "he's so cute, I want to give him cookies" way, not in the badass soldier way. He also seems awfully little to be in this team as the resident muscle. That was painfully obvious in his fight with Flynn, where I found myself thinking that it didn't matter how well-trained he was, him being up against someone that much bigger than he is who has any skills at all is never going to work.

I also suspect it's going to get more and more weird to have Lucy as an all-purpose history expert whose knowledge doesn't seem to go much deeper than your average school history course and maybe reading a few popular bestselling books on historical figures (the ones that give historical figures the celebrity treatment). The people in the lab could have Googled that date. They didn't need a PhD historian to do that much.

However, I do like the way the team is starting to gel as a team.

[iMonrey]

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To me, all three leads are too young. I don't think I'm saying that because I'm...um, old. But most shows I watch seem to have age-appropriate leads. Lucy (that's her name, right?) is supposed to be some world-renowned historian, but she looks like she just graduated from college (undergraduate, at that). And Wyatt -- well, like so many people have already said, he may have have been in the Delta Force for the Boy Scouts, but that's about it.

I don't have a problem with Lucy or her age. There's obviously some connection between her and Flynn since he's got her yet-to-be-written journal as his map through time. Which leads me to believe there's some other reason she's been chosen for this mission than the one they're telling her.

Wyatt, on the other hand . . .

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I do find Wyatt attractive, but more in the "he's so cute, I want to give him cookies" way, not in the badass soldier way. 

LOL! Brilliantly stated.

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MAYBE (hope and wish), on some trip history will be changed and Wyatt will cease to exist, or become another person, one who is handsome AND capable, two things Wyatt are not. 

Now that's not a bad idea, if the show has the balls to do it. They've certainly got the premise for it. Make Wyatt sit one trip out for some reason, send Lucy and Rufus with another soldier, and when they come back, Wyatt's a completely different person because his father married someone else or some such. Get a stronger actor with a bigger build.

[sjohnson]

One of the things that doesn't bother me about Wyatt is the notion that he's too young, too lacking in gravitas, too unimpressive to be Delta Force and so forth. Sorry but I think the image people are looking for is recruiting poster, not real people. The remark above about Campbell bopping Wyatt that implied this couldn't happen to a real military person strikes me as total wishful thinking. The win/loss ratio for real US army types isn't matching the reel US army types at all, in my opinion. Bad assery has to with ruthlessness, not being bulked up. There's every indication Wyatt has no problem with killing. 

As to his stubble...the perfect complexions of women in the movies of the time are just like the perfect shaves of men in the movies of the time. Or like the amazing perfection of women in movies today. It's SFX. The phrase "five o'clock shadow" came from the common presence of stubble on real men. And the effort at realism wasn't people calling the stubbly bums but showing the smooth-faced doing things like a quick second shave.

The general's girl friend didn't need to be Judith Campbell, she was just dragged in for sensationalizing about JFK. You'll notice they barely said Giancana. The real use for the character is quiet access to the base and that's all fiction. 

[Chaos Theory]

Normally I disagree with the "too young and pretty" complaint that comes with a lot of (especially) network tv.  WithbRufus and Lucy I can at least believe they are young in their field; Lucy being a young great who rose in the ranks quickly and made a few enemies in the process.   It happens.  Wyatt not so much.  He comes off too much like random muscle pulled off a random assignment because he had decent security clearance.   I think that is his problem.  I don't. It him as anything other then some guy any guy who just happened to be assigned to the mission because why the hell not?

[RemoteControlFreak]

1 hour ago, dubbel zout said:

She could sleep at HQ, I guess, but otherwise, where else would she go if not her mom's? She had her bags packed.

She could rent her own apartment or stay in a hotel, to name just two options.  Not saying she will, but these are completely viable options.  I'm not sure introducing her mother into the story adds that much unless there is, as some have speculated, a link between her mother and Flynn.

Edited October 18, 2016 by RemoteControlFreak

[RemoteControlFreak]

11 minutes ago, Chaos Theory said:

Normally I disagree with the "too young and pretty" complaint that comes with a lot of (especially) network tv.  WithbRufus and Lucy I can at least believe they are young in their field; Lucy being a young great who rose in the ranks quickly and made a few enemies in the process.   

Rufus is not particularly young. He's at least in his mid-30s as is the actor who plays him. And Lucy is not "a great" if she is just now coming up for tenure for which she is being denied.  Universities almost never deny tenure to their star faculty members, even if the stars have ruffled a few feathers along the way.  Lucy was not just chosen for this job because she is a great historian. There's more to it than that.

Edited October 18, 2016 by RemoteControlFreak

[OtterMommy]

I don't know how much longer I'll be able to stick with this show.  I normally give a new series 5 episodes before I make a decision, and time is running out.  I did think the historical part of this episode worked more than the first two episodes--and that might only be because it was recent enough that it was easy to recreate.  Also, it focused on more of a secondary historical character instead of the likes of Abraham Lincoln.  I think that will probably be a more successful formula for the show in the long run. Strangely, even though it is the historical aspect that attracted me to the show, I'm far more interested in what is happening in the changing present...and the show is pretty tight with what they are giving us with that.

What I did like...I think Goran is perfectly cast and have liked him from the first episode.  Rufus, I think, has finally grown on me--I attribute that to the fact that his character is starting to get more depth and isn't just the token minority character (even from the first episode, I felt that Malcolm Barrett was the strongest actor of the 3 leads).  Lucy and Wyatt do absolutely nothing for me, which I think is equal parts of what the show has done with the characters so far and the fact that I'm not impressed at all with either actor.

Still, this episode was good enough--or at least showed enough improvement--to get me to tune in one more week.....