S01.E03: Out of Time

[formerlyfreedom]

Quote

H.G. and Jane race against time to fix the time machine and find "The Key Killer" before he strikes again. Meanwhile, Vanessa must decide whether or not to confide in Griffin.

 

[Primetimer]

The list keeps growing but one of them better not be Doug. Chris Huff has questions about 'Out Of Time'!

View the full article

[Bort]

I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop with John's little tête-à-tête and there it was. I knew she was up to something, she was too good to be true. 

So we've got her, the late stalker (they sure dispatched him rather quickly) and Griffin too who all knew about this in advance? Did they accidentally take out an ad in the past or something?

Another Josh Bowman towel shot. I'll be fine if this is a regular occurrance for each episode. 

[Dave in Chicago]

This show is so ridiculous.  Evil doctor woman's whole trap was "I'm confident that I'm attractive and interesting enough that he won't kill me"?  

Also, why does *visionary author* HG Wells get all the fish-out-of-water moments while Ripper just intuitively knows how to work a microwave?  So much so that he gets a frozen burrito the right temperature on the first try?  And how is Ripper so into 2017 fashion already?  His tastes should be antiquated but instead he is so clearly feeling himself.  Ripper hates undershirts almost as much as he loves stabbing people.

[Free]

12 minutes ago, Dave in Chicago said:

This show is so ridiculous.  Evil doctor woman's whole trap was "I'm confident that I'm attractive and interesting enough that he won't kill me"?  

Also, why does *visionary author* HG Wells get all the fish-out-of-water moments while Ripper just intuitively knows how to work a microwave?  So much so that he gets a frozen burrito the right temperature on the first try?  And how is Ripper so into 2017 fashion already?  His tastes should be antiquated but instead he is so clearly feeling himself.  Ripper hates undershirts almost as much as he loves stabbing people.

It's so inconsistent and it makes no sense for it to be so wildly different when they're both from the same time period.

[KaveDweller]

11 minutes ago, Dave in Chicago said:

This show is so ridiculous.  Evil doctor woman's whole trap was "I'm confident that I'm attractive and interesting enough that he won't kill me"?  

Also, why does *visionary author* HG Wells get all the fish-out-of-water moments while Ripper just intuitively knows how to work a microwave?  So much so that he gets a frozen burrito the right temperature on the first try?  And how is Ripper so into 2017 fashion already?  His tastes should be antiquated but instead he is so clearly feeling himself.  Ripper hates undershirts almost as much as he loves stabbing people.

Maybe it wasn't the right temperature, but he didn't realize it because he doesn't know what burritos are supposed to taste like? That's the only explanation. I can never get things right in the microwave on my first try and I have had my current one for 7 years.

He has to have fashionable clothes because TV villians always dress sharply. I think he's been stealing the clothes, so somehow he has figured out who is rich and assumed they would have the best clothes to steal. It's kind of ridiculous. He seems to be very good at watching what other people are doing and going with it, and some people are certainly better at that than others. But he hasn't been surprised at anything he's seen so far, and that's just pushing credibility a bit too far. How would he know from observation how to make a video on his phone.

I do like that they are having more people reveal they knew Wells and Ripper were coming though. Obviously everyone travels into the more recent past in the future.

[Bort]

The fact that he was able to bite into the burrito and not have it burn his mouth like lava pretty much says to me that he didn't get it hot enough.

[MisterGlass]

This was a bit of slog.  Jane is not growing on me as a character so far.  Wells, the head of security, and the Ripper are okay.  I have previously chided shows for keeping too much back during the early part of a season, but I could go another episode or so between the reveals of new conspirators.

I can buy that the Ripper can figure out how to work a microwave, and that he is killing his way through yuppies and dressing from their closets.  However, they are weirdly inconsistent about what the characters are surprised by and what they just accept.  Shouldn't Wells be a little shocked by Jane hugging the gemologist?  It's like they are trying to skip through the fish out of water part as quickly as possible when that is half the point of a time travel show.

Every time travel show I watch makes the longevity of Doctor Who that much more impressive.  Yes it also has aliens and other worlds, but still.

[jhlipton]

1 hour ago, Dave in Chicago said:

Ripper just intuitively knows how to work a microwave?  So much so that he gets a frozen burrito the right temperature on the first try?  And how is Ripper so into 2017 fashion already?  His tastes should be antiquated but instead he is so clearly feeling himself.  Ripper hates undershirts almost as much as he loves stabbing people.

The burrito I'll give hunm 00 th wrapper said to heat 3 minutes.

But along with all the other stuff, John would be a terrible 21st century lover. He might know about the clitoris from his surgeries (and Jack's), but he wouldn't know anything about foreplay or erogenous zones.  Giving a woman pleasure would be a completely foreign idea, and an orgasm would be out of the question.

The "dance" between the doctors was about the only entertaining thing about this episode.  The bit with the reporter (a "snake" -- I didn't see it) was exceedingly dull.

ETA -- from the recap:

Quote

Even before a word gets committed to paper, a lot of issues need to get addressed. The most important is how you deal with the Butterfly Effect—the idea that small, seemingly insignificant changes can have monumental changes at some other point in time or space.

The other is "If something goes wrong, why can't you pop 5 minutes earlier and stop it."  Again, this show gave an BS explanation -- if traveling to the same period weakens "the fabric of time". then you can never go into the past.
 

Quote

And Griffin brings the total number of people who knew that Wells and Jack were on the way up to at least five.

Is it wrong that I read this as Andy Griffin brings the total number of people who knew that Wells and Jack were on the way up to at least five.
 

Edited March 13, 2017 by jhlipton

[Emily Thrace]

1 hour ago, Dave in Chicago said:

This show is so ridiculous.  Evil doctor woman's whole trap was "I'm confident that I'm attractive and interesting enough that he won't kill me"?  

Also, why does *visionary author* HG Wells get all the fish-out-of-water moments while Ripper just intuitively knows how to work a microwave?  So much so that he gets a frozen burrito the right temperature on the first try?  And how is Ripper so into 2017 fashion already?  His tastes should be antiquated but instead he is so clearly feeling himself.  Ripper hates undershirts almost as much as he loves stabbing people.

Surgeons and Psychopaths are both groups known for high IQs and being good at figuring things out. Also a lot of microwavable food has a picture of a microwave on the box. Its just in case its being eaten by someone who can't read or doesn't understand English. I think George being more of a fish out of water is to show hes less arrogant and make him more endearing. It also makes Jane useful.

I like that the story is moving. We are getting a larger story the just George vs Jack. I also really appreciate that they aren't dragging out the UST.

[legaleagle53]

1 hour ago, jhlipton said:

The other is "If something goes wrong, why can't you pop 5 minutes earlier and stop it."  Again, this show gave an BS explanation -- if traveling to the same period weakens "the fabric of time". then you can never go into the past.
 

That's not what the rule is.  The rule is that traveling to the same period too many times weakens the fabric of time.  That's a different rule of time travel than the one on Timeless, which is that you can't ever travel back to any time in which you have already existed.  

[AuntiePam]

1 hour ago, jhlipton said:

But along with all the other stuff, John would be a terrible 21st century lover. He might know about the clitoris from his surgeries (and Jack's), but he wouldn't know anything about foreplay or erogenous zones.  Giving a woman pleasure would be a completely foreign idea, and an orgasm would be out of the question.

The Crimson Petal and the White by Michael Faber was the first I'd heard of doctors providing orgasms to their female patients in the 1800's, to cure "hysteria" (i.e. sexual frustration).  https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/all-about-sex/201303/hysteria-and-the-strange-history-vibrators

It's quite likely that H.G. will know what to do.  Sexual behavior wasn't as openly discussed (and filmed and studied and written about and shared) in the 1800's as it is now, but people did know more than Tab A goes into Slot A.

[jhlipton]

I just realized that Joh has another super-skill:  He can pick any 21st century lock.  How else could he have gotten into that apartment (other than PLOT!!!!!)?

1 hour ago, legaleagle53 said:

That's not what the rule is.  The rule is that traveling to the same period too many times weakens the fabric of time.  That's a different rule of time travel than the one on Timeless, which is that you can't ever travel back to any time in which you have already existed.  

Bah.  They can't go back one day (or a week) to catch John entering Utopia and saving his first victim.  That makes once too many times.

56 minutes ago, AuntiePam said:

It's quite likely that H.G. will know what to do.  Sexual behavior wasn't as openly discussed (and filmed and studied and written about and shared) in the 1800's as it is now, but people did know more than Tab A goes into Slot A.

I found this in the Wikipedia article about Wells:

Quote

With his wife Jane's consent, Wells had affairs with a number of women, including the American birth control activist Margaret Sanger, adventurer and writer Odette Keun, Soviet spy Moura Budberg and novelist Elizabeth von Arnim. In 1909 he had a daughter, Anna-Jane, with the writer Amber Reeves,[23] whose parents, William and Maud Pember Reeves, he had met through the Fabian Society; and in 1914 a son, Anthony West (1914–1987), by the novelist and feminist Rebecca West, 26 years his junior.

With such a wide variety of lovers,many of whom would brook no nonsense in the bedroom, Wells would probably be a good lover.  John, on the other hand, is a sociopath who has shown zero interest in the feelings of others.  I find it highly unlikely that he would know or care about a woman's desires.  Even today, there are plenty of men who don't.

Edited March 13, 2017 by jhlipton

[Dowel Jones]

What I wondered most about was, given that the time machine was broken, why not give Jack the key?  It's useless to anyone and he certainly doesn't know how to repair it.  Plus, it results in him being trapped in the room at Vanessa's house.

2 hours ago, jhlipton said:

Is it wrong that I read this as Andy Griffin brings the total number of people who knew that Wells and Jack were on the way up to at least five.

And if Aunt Bea finds out, the whole town will know by tomorrow.

[zxy556575]

I would have appreciated a little bit of shock from Wells and Jack/John/Stevenson/Ripper (what are we shitting calling him!) about the scanty clothes women wear in these here times.

I agree with Chris Huff about sticking my fingers in my ears and la-la-la-ing through all the time travel business. Whatever you say, writers. It's fine. FINE! I'd prefer not to end up on a fainting couch needing someone to loosen my corset due to stress.

Edited March 15, 2017 by Lord Donia

[Bort]

4 hours ago, jhlipton said:

I just realized that Joh has another super-skill:  He can pick any 21st century lock.  How else could he have gotten into that apartment (other than PLOT!!!!!)?

I imagine John got in that apartment they same way he got into the doctor lady's apartment: romanced the female occupant.

[mertensia]

Why be in such a hurry to fix the time machine? If it takes an extra hour they can just go back in time to meet John.

[greekmom]

I'm surprised that John has not met a female who can best him yet.  He's in New York in the 21st century. Please people. Do not tell me that from all the women he's met and killed, not one of these women has some self defense skills (isn't that part being a New York woman?) and a can of pepper spray?  I've been hoping he meet one who would kick his ass.  Yet, the best we got is crazy doctor lady who stabbed him with a needle. Why? Because she knew who he was. 

*sigh*

I'll keep watching a bit longer but I am getting bored already.

[MrSmith]

Chris Huff, I would like to recommend that you do some additional proof-reading of your pieces before submitting them for publication. Seriously. Please write it, and then set it aside for 6 or 8 hours while do you something - anything - else!

Quote

And Griffin brings the total number of people who knew that Wells and Jack were on the way up to at least five.

That sentence is one that is damned hard to understand. The following makes much more sense:

Quote

And Griffin brings to at least five the total number of people who knew that Wells and Jack were on the way.

Even this is better than what you wrote:

Quote

And Griffin brings the total number of people to at least five who knew that Wells and Jack were on the way.

Of course, that second alternative to your actual writing isn't nearly as easy to understand as the first alternative.

Thank you for fixing your future articles. Reading people appreciate your future efforts.

[angel1008]

1 hour ago, greekmom said:

I'm surprised that John has not met a female who can best him yet.  He's in New York in the 21st century. Please people. Do not tell me that from all the women he's met and killed, not one of these women has some self defense skills (isn't that part being a New York woman?) and a can of pepper spray?  I've been hoping he meet one who would kick his ass.  Yet, the best we got is crazy doctor lady who stabbed him with a needle. Why? Because she knew who he was. 

*sigh*

I'll keep watching a bit longer but I am getting bored already.

Thank you!  I was thinking the same thing.  Pepper spray, self defense, or a good swift kick to the balls should be enough to get away.  Sure, he is sneaky and he is romancing them as he kills them, but after reading about these women who have been killed, you would THINK that New York women would be more cautious.  And, someone has to recognize him to give a description after these women wind up dead.  Surely the police would be questioning patrons of the clubs these women were last seen at.  I live in NYC, and if I were to read that there were multiple women being killed at random, you KNOW I would be more cautious.

[BooBear]

52 minutes ago, angel1008 said:

Thank you!  I was thinking the same thing.  Pepper spray, self defense, or a good swift kick to the balls should be enough to get away.  Sure, he is sneaky and he is romancing them as he kills them, but after reading about these women who have been killed, you would THINK that New York women would be more cautious.  And, someone has to recognize him to give a description after these women wind up dead.  Surely the police would be questioning patrons of the clubs these women were last seen at.  I live in NYC, and if I were to read that there were multiple women being killed at random, you KNOW I would be more cautious.

This! I said this last week. It is likely that Jack's first instinct would be to underestimate a woman because of where he comes from. SO he could never think they would be so unladylike as to kick him in the nether regions.  Not to mention that the police would be all over him with the cameras they have all over New York. I remember the craigslist killer getting caught almost immediately (he was a medical student too humn). I am not saying Jack would get caught but surely someone would have gotten the best of him. My personal fave would be for him to encounter a transgender person. 

But this show... I gave it a second look only because there is nothing else on but it is so bad.... so blah.  First, I kind of am bothered by the idea that Jack would still want to be killing people sure...after accumulating to current society the old urge could come up but with all the stunning ways for him to get excitement in 2017, killing people is so 1800s. Just imho having free reign for any sort of sexual activity I would think alone would be more exciting. He just landed here.  

Then the whole *everyone in the world is aware of this time travelling* is super lame. There are so many better ways they could have explored it with just HG and his friend. No need to be in on the one world conspiracy just yet.  But that said... I thought elderly lady was going to turn out to be Jane. Kind of looked like her. 

And the most super cliche of all time, that Jack is into Jane. Why? He said last week that she was another bleeding hart fool like HG. Well if you really like to sublimate your affection for HG no need to do that in this day and age just kiss HG. But to make this a triangle? Please NOOOOO!!! Also, kind of irks me that HG and Jane can't figure out a way to trap Jack with all the resources the have available to them and the fact that Jack doesn't know everything about the modern world. 

[dr pepper]

Simple explanation: Wells didn't invent the time machine. He was given the information by some faction far in the future that's fighting a time war. The Jack capturing neurologist is Redbeard's mother earlier in her own timeline. They are both from a faction that's trying avert something awful coming in our own future, while Vanessa's boyfriend is from a faction that seeks to reshape the timeline to its own liking. Underneath the mask, this show is really Continuum 2.0. And that's fine with me.

[KaveDweller]

19 hours ago, Emily Thrace said:

Surgeons and Psychopaths are both groups known for high IQs and being good at figuring things out. Also a lot of microwavable food has a picture of a microwave on the box. Its just in case its being eaten by someone who can't read or doesn't understand English. I think George being more of a fish out of water is to show hes less arrogant and make him more endearing. It also makes Jane useful.

We did briefly see him try and put the burrito in the toaster before realizing that didn't work. I really liked that moment, things like that are my favorite part of time travel stuff.

[jhlipton]

17 hours ago, Dowel Jones said:

And if Aunt Bea finds out, the whole town will know by tomorrow.

It seems like the whole town does know!

12 hours ago, mertensia said:

Why be in such a hurry to fix the time machine? If it takes an extra hour they can just go back in time to meet John.

But they can't because of PLOT!!!! disguised as a really dumb explanation ("You can't go to the same period too many times" turns into "You can only go to the same period once" [except when we break that rule]).

12 hours ago, greekmom said:

I'm surprised that John has not met a female who can best him yet.  He's in New York in the 21st century. Please people. Do not tell me that from all the women he's met and killed, not one of these women has some self defense skills (isn't that part being a New York woman?) and a can of pepper spray?  I've been hoping he meet one who would kick his ass. 

Same thought here.

9 hours ago, BooBear said:

Not to mention that the police would be all over him with the cameras they have all over New York.

They'd have him from cameras in and around Utopia.  He would have been caught within 24 hours.

[MisterGlass]

And convicted in record time due to all the fingerprints and DNA he is leaving behind. 

20 hours ago, Emily Thrace said:

Surgeons and Psychopaths are both groups known for high IQs and being good at figuring things out.

Surgeon made at least one list of jobs most attractive to psychopaths.

[Arnella]

For Pete's sake, who DIDN'T know these guys were coming??

[cuppasun]

Chris Huff, I would like to recommend that you do some additional proof-reading of your pieces before submitting them for publication. Seriously. Please write it, and then set it aside for 6 or 8 hours while do you something - anything - else!

  Quote

And Griffin brings the total number of people who knew that Wells and Jack were on the way up to at least five.

That sentence is one that is damned hard to understand. The following makes much more sense:

  Quote

And Griffin brings to at least five the total number of people who knew that Wells and Jack were on the way.

Even this is better than what you wrote:

  Quote

And Griffin brings the total number of people to at least five who knew that Wells and Jack were on the way.

Of course, that second alternative to your actual writing isn't nearly as easy to understand as the first alternative.

Thank you for fixing your future articles. Reading people appreciate your future efforts.

Mr. Smith, I'll pile on (with the caveat that I'm with you in pretty much all the particulars about story, Chris, and totally look forward to your pieces after viewing!) with this little note:

I think here:
<<..."major info reveal is eminent.">>
you meant to say "imminent." I mean, maybe the reveal is prestigious...but I suspect it's supposed to be happening soon, no matter what its credentials are.
Darn those pesky homonyms! : )

[MrSmith]

@cuppasun I agree that I enjoyed his writing style. We had, sadly, forgotten to create a OnePass for this series and so we missed this past Sunday's episode. I'm hoping they'll rerun it. If not, at least we'll get the upcoming episodes.

[iMonrey]

The show certainly knows what they have in Josh Bowman by keeping him unclothed as much as possible. I wonder how the actor feels about being treated like a piece of meat. 

So far I'm enjoying the twists and turns and I'm not too bothered by the timey-wimey stuff but it's only episode 2. 

Quote

The fact that he was able to bite into the burrito and not have it burn his mouth like lava pretty much says to me that he didn't get it hot enough.

I know right? I literally yelled at the TV "You're going to burn your mouth!" That actually would have been pretty funny.

Quote

But along with all the other stuff, John would be a terrible 21st century lover.

He very well may have been for all we know. The neuro doctor could have been faking it - her real interest was in subduing him. 

Quote

With his wife Jane's consent, Wells had affairs with a number of women

I wondered why they changed the character's name from the movie. It the movie, it was Amy Catherine Robbins, the real-life (2nd) wife of H.G. Welles. However, a quick Wikipedia search tells me she was later known as "Jane," for some unexplained reason. However, in this show she is called Jane Walker rather and Robbins. Is Jane really preferable to Amy? And did they change the last name in case people took the time to look it up and see that he married someone by that name, thus spoiling the surprise?

[JaggedLilPill]

I'm really liking the show thus far. Sure, it's a little hokey, but what show isn't these days. And I never saw the movie so I'm not bothered much by the differences, though my hubs did and he's pointed out the differences.

I keep saying John/JTR is assimilating quite quickly to the 21st century as opposed to Wells,  but I suppose it makes sense.

It is slightly ridiculous how many people knew they were coming although I had a feeling that Griffin wasn't being truthful the whole time and now we know for sure that he wasn't. 

I'm curious about Chad's mom and why she wanted him to keep them from going back to 1893. 

[jhlipton]

3 hours ago, iMonrey said:

He very well may have been for all we know. The neuro doctor could have been faking it - her real interest was in subduing him.

That's what I'm thinking.
For all of his affairs, I think Mr Wells is going to have quite a surprise once Jane gets him into the bedroom (unless they have "TV sex" which is remarkably Victorian!)

[blackwing]

Well, three episodes in, and the show has already managed to confuse me.  All of these people (Griffin, "I'm not following you" thug, thug's mom, neurologist, etc) seem to have all this knowledge about HG and John coming to 2017.  How, and why?  And most importantly, why was it necessary to create this overarcing conspiracy drama?  Seems to me that every ABC show I have watched recently (Quantico, How to Get Away, Designated Survivor) feels the unerring need to inject some sort of conspiracy or "wait until the season finale" type of mystery.  Ooooh secrets!  Why?  I would have been perfectly happy watching a time travel show, or watch the adventures of HG and John in 2017.

On 3/12/2017 at 9:20 PM, Dave in Chicago said:

This show is so ridiculous.  Evil doctor woman's whole trap was "I'm confident that I'm attractive and interesting enough that he won't kill me"?  

Also, why does *visionary author* HG Wells get all the fish-out-of-water moments while Ripper just intuitively knows how to work a microwave?  So much so that he gets a frozen burrito the right temperature on the first try?  And how is Ripper so into 2017 fashion already?  His tastes should be antiquated but instead he is so clearly feeling himself.  Ripper hates undershirts almost as much as he loves stabbing people.

This is a pet peeve of mine.  It seems to be an epidemic on TV that no male character ever wears an undershirt.  I find it particularly gross.  Undershirts are there to prevent pit stains.  But I guess if they have an undershirt then it makes it cumbersome when they take their shirt off.  I don't know who this actor is, but I gather that he was on "Revenge" and must have been an underwear model at some point, because it seems that all this show wants to do is to make him take his shirt off.  Why not just set their show on the beach then?  

I too find it particularly unbelievable that John is instantly aware of 2017 fashion, and how to mix and match shirts, without guidance.  With his 1893 sensibilities, he should have been appalled to wear a dress shirt without an A-type undershirt (wifebeater/tank top) underneath.  And although he realised that the frozen burrito did not go into the toaster, he should have been wondering exactly what a burrito was, and how to work the microwave.  It said 3 minutes, but I live in 2017 and sometimes when I encounter someone else's microwave, I'm not sure what to do.  Just press 3 and it express cooks 3 minutes?  Or do you have to first punch "time cook" and then 3-0-0?  Or just 3?  I would have expected him to have cooked that thing for 3 seconds, not 3 minutes, because he wouldn't have instinctively have known to have type 0-0 to make it 3 minutes.

[iMonrey]

Quote

All of these people (Griffin, "I'm not following you" thug, thug's mom, neurologist, etc) seem to have all this knowledge about HG and John coming to 2017.  How, and why?

Without referencing promo spots or the teaser for the whole season at the end of the last episode, it seems fairly evident that Welles will travel to other timelines prior to 2017, given that he has apparently met Vanessa at some point in her past. Somehow his excursions through time have alerted a number of people that his first trip through time landed him in 2017 NYC so for whatever reason these people have been lying in wait to catch him before he can do any more time traveling, and perhaps prevent him from doing whatever he's destined to do on those future trips. I gather he caused some sort of personal harm for Chad's geriatric mother on one of these trips, hence Chad's determination to kill him before he can go on any other trips.

[jhlipton]

2 hours ago, iMonrey said:

He has apparently met Vanessa at some point in her past.

But he can't meet anyone else in their past... riiiiiiiight.... ("fabric of time", my ass)

[legaleagle53]

5 hours ago, blackwing said:

This is a pet peeve of mine.  It seems to be an epidemic on TV that no male character ever wears an undershirt.

Really?  It seems to me to be the opposite.  Practically every male character I see on TV not only wears one, but I can see it showing any time the guy's shirt is open at the neck (which is as gross and unsightly to me as seeing a bra strap showing on a woman is).  You can wear undershirts, guys -- I just don't ever want to see them. It interferes with my fantasizing about what you look like underneath that shirt (especially whether you're hairy or not). In other words, it's just not sexy.  And it makes you look like a grade-A dork.

Edited March 15, 2017 by legaleagle53

[hatchetgirl]

Quote

Just press 3 and it express cooks 3 minutes?  Or do you have to first punch "time cook" and then 3-0-0?  Or just 3?  I would have expected him to have cooked that thing for 3 seconds, not 3 minutes, because he wouldn't have instinctively have known to have type 0-0 to make it 3 minutes.

EXACTLY! 

ok, embarrassed to admit, but I LOVE frozen burritos, and I know you take the plastic off and NEVER cook them for 3 minutes! Shees! And why didn't he toss it around a bit like "ooh hot!" I do it with toast! Man, these time traveling serial killers! 

The NYPD would most definitely have sketches of him around by now or have him arrested! Has he not seen L&O: SVU? 

[iMonrey]

I want to know how John/The Ripper mastered the use of the remote so quickly. I have no less than five of them sitting on my coffee table (TV, DVR, DVD, stereo, Roku) and a time traveler from 1893 would be hard pressed to know which one to use for what purpose. I know this because house sitters from my own century are baffled by them all.

[blackwing]

14 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

I want to know how John/The Ripper mastered the use of the remote so quickly. I have no less than five of them sitting on my coffee table (TV, DVR, DVD, stereo, Roku) and a time traveler from 1893 would be hard pressed to know which one to use for what purpose. I know this because house sitters from my own century are baffled by them all.

Agreed.  I have to write out a "cheat sheet" for my parents and babysitters.  "To watch TV, take black remote, press menu, press left arrow twice, select HDMI 1, if it says no signal, go to mudroom and turn on Direct TV box."  "To watch DVD, stick DVD in slot on DVD player, if it doesn't start automatically, use grey remote, press input and change input to DVD."  There's no way John would have been able to figure it out so easily.  Not to mention, he wouldn't even have been familiar with a television.  He would have thought it was a black piece of glass on the wall.

The cell phone is another issue.  I'm not sure when phone numbers became widespread in England, but I would have thought during his time that he would have been used to calling a central operator and asking for a person or a number directly.  He wouldn't have necessarily known how to use it.  I guess they are just handwaving everything away with "he's a surgeon, he's smart".

I had been wondering how much of the $15,000 he had already blown through.  He apparently has been buying and disposing of cell phones.  In the first episode it looked like he bought at least two suits that looked expensive.  Add shirt, belt, shoes, and socks.  He stayed in the Renaissance in Times Square for at least one night.  Then there's food.  This episode established that now he is stealing clothes from people he kills, so maybe money isn't going to be an issue for him.

[jhlipton]

6 hours ago, blackwing said:

This episode established that now he is stealing clothes from people he kills, so maybe money isn't going to be an issue for him.

Yeah, well, there's no way a guy that rich would be so dumb and trusting.  "Oh, a strange man in my house.  I'll just turn my back on him so I can see my equally-dumb wife bleed."

[KaveDweller]

23 hours ago, jhlipton said:

Yeah, well, there's no way a guy that rich would be so dumb and trusting.  "Oh, a strange man in my house.  I'll just turn my back on him so I can see my equally-dumb wife bleed."

Was it his wife? John referred to him as a roommate, so maybe he assumed the stranger was some guy his roommate hooked up with. Although, a rich guy wouldn't really need a roommate, so I guess it was his wife and I just totally missed that.

[jhlipton]

49 minutes ago, KaveDweller said:

Was it his wife? John referred to him as a roommate, so maybe he assumed the stranger was some guy his roommate hooked up with. Although, a rich guy wouldn't really need a roommate, so I guess it was his wife and I just totally missed that.

He seemed far more distraught than he would over a room-mate.  Still, the point stands: to let John come up behind him, he would have be too stupid to live... oh, wait...

[Feline Queen]

The opening montage of John getting dressed was a copy of the one from American Gigolo with Richard Gere. They even used the same song Call Me by Blondie. 

[TrininisaScorp]

We binged the first 3 episodes this weekend.  It's silly!  I like it!

Like many of you, John picking up 2017 style/culture/gadgetry so quickly was jarring.  But, keep putting that dude in a towel and/or have him dancing sexily and I'm willing to overlook (/shamefully shallow). 

I find H.G. adorably endearing.  I don't know that I care for Jane all that much (IMO, she's a little too cutesy, quirky for me), but there is something very sweet about the way Stroma plays HG and his interest in Jane. 

As a Vampire Diaries fan, I truly hope this doesn't turn into some sort of twisted love triangle with John becoming obsessed with Jane and using that to hurt H.G. even more.  Blah blah nope.

Clearly, they put up a "Hey y'all - HG Wells and Jack and Ripper are coming back with a Time Machine...tell your friends" billboard in Times Square and Central Park.   In my house, we started giggling when Vanessa's bf made his "I have access to the time machine" call.

[Adeejay]

Someone didn’t do their research.  In the summer of 1980, Jimmy Carter was still president.  Ronald Reagan didn’t become president until January 20, 1981.

[methodwriter85]

On 3/19/2017 at 9:27 PM, Adeejay said:

Someone didn’t do their research.  In the summer of 1980, Jimmy Carter was still president.  Ronald Reagan didn’t become president until January 20, 1981.

I'm going to handwave that as Jane not really thinking it over, just that Ronald Regan was the 80's president, even though there were two other presidents at the beginning and end of that decade. Everything she said about the 80's sounded like something she saw on a movie or a t.v. show. She is a curator but her specialty is on art, not American history.

Jack's body is absolutely ridiculous for someone from 1893 that wasn't a laborer or a strongman. Do I care? No.

The person who said that Jane reminds them of Cordelia from Buffy- I can't unsee that.