Travelers: Ave Machina
October 25, 2017 7:15 PM - Season 2, Episode 1 - Subscribe
Grant MacLaren and his team find themselves in FBI custody with no means of escape, while a mysterious new traveler reveals secrets to his psychiatrist.
*A new character, Vincent, reveals to his house-visiting psychiatrist (at his double-digit million dollar home in the West Point Grey area of Vancouver), that he is Traveler 0001 - the creator of the Traveler technology - who was sent back to alter the events of September 11, 2001. Instead of dying during events, he went rogue.
*Grant, Marsha, Philip, and Carly are in custody and stonewalling.
*Grant gets multiple grillings. "Destroy the device."
*Grace and Trevor get emergency trauma surgery.
*David is in custody and being questioned about the murderated corpse in his apartment
*Walt gets flack (and loses his badge) for shooting Carly's teenaged Travelerated assassin.
*Vincent further reveals how his market foreknowledge profiteering racket led to romance.
*The insane 'crazy on the face of it' of the team's composition gets hammered on. Everyone gets a slice of grilling.
*... and coordinate an escape attempt through their internal comm devices.
*Only to discovery that it was a ruse.
*Trevor's out of the woods, but may be parapalegic.
*Enrico Colantoni chews scenery and states that there is (an) AI in (a) future who callously disregards past lives and is willing to Travelerate messengers indiscriminatorily - and that its/they are out to get him. His therapist doesn't understand what that means, either.
*New rule explains why only creepy children have so far been seen as the medium for "voice messages to the past."
*The Team's comm implants are allowed to stay implanted; even after the feebs found the comm device in Trevor(? or Grace?) and let Grant know about it.
*The Team opts to "burn their modems." (?)
*David returns home to a stain. Whether the carpet was affected isn't revealed.
*Vincent/Colantoni recalls when he was forced into revealing his secret to his frontman partner.
*The Blinkenmaschine AI that's in custody with the feebs gets it's day.
*Vincent tries to (professionally) retain his therapist.
*Grace is good! And tries to medically help Trevor with future tech. "You've lived longer than any other human in history, and you're complaining?" and "I stepped in front of you. Remember?!"
*All those feebs drawn to the blinkenlights? Yeah.
*Vincent's therapist rethinks her skepticism.
*The Team's good to go for another season, Carly does a mild human submission display to Grant.
*Marsha returns to David's place. For a split second, I thought that Marsha would do a Swayze/Moore Ghost pottery wheel thing, only with a scrub brush and a blood stain.
*Enrico Colantoni is the villain behind the team getting kidnapped last season.
*A new character, Vincent, reveals to his house-visiting psychiatrist (at his double-digit million dollar home in the West Point Grey area of Vancouver), that he is Traveler 0001 - the creator of the Traveler technology - who was sent back to alter the events of September 11, 2001. Instead of dying during events, he went rogue.
*Grant, Marsha, Philip, and Carly are in custody and stonewalling.
*Grant gets multiple grillings. "Destroy the device."
*Grace and Trevor get emergency trauma surgery.
*David is in custody and being questioned about the murderated corpse in his apartment
*Walt gets flack (and loses his badge) for shooting Carly's teenaged Travelerated assassin.
*Vincent further reveals how his market foreknowledge profiteering racket led to romance.
*The insane 'crazy on the face of it' of the team's composition gets hammered on. Everyone gets a slice of grilling.
*... and coordinate an escape attempt through their internal comm devices.
*Only to discovery that it was a ruse.
*Trevor's out of the woods, but may be parapalegic.
*Enrico Colantoni chews scenery and states that there is (an) AI in (a) future who callously disregards past lives and is willing to Travelerate messengers indiscriminatorily - and that its/they are out to get him. His therapist doesn't understand what that means, either.
*New rule explains why only creepy children have so far been seen as the medium for "voice messages to the past."
*The Team's comm implants are allowed to stay implanted; even after the feebs found the comm device in Trevor(? or Grace?) and let Grant know about it.
*The Team opts to "burn their modems." (?)
*David returns home to a stain. Whether the carpet was affected isn't revealed.
*Vincent/Colantoni recalls when he was forced into revealing his secret to his frontman partner.
*The Blinkenmaschine AI that's in custody with the feebs gets it's day.
*Vincent tries to (professionally) retain his therapist.
*Grace is good! And tries to medically help Trevor with future tech. "You've lived longer than any other human in history, and you're complaining?" and "I stepped in front of you. Remember?!"
*All those feebs drawn to the blinkenlights? Yeah.
*Vincent's therapist rethinks her skepticism.
*The Team's good to go for another season, Carly does a mild human submission display to Grant.
*Marsha returns to David's place. For a split second, I thought that Marsha would do a Swayze/Moore Ghost pottery wheel thing, only with a scrub brush and a blood stain.
*Enrico Colantoni is the villain behind the team getting kidnapped last season.
Ok - it looks like it's showing in Canada on Showcase eith a season finale December 23, and that's when it lands on Netflix. I'll drop this from my activity until then.
(Sorry about the whinging.)
posted by Pronoiac at 8:42 PM on October 25, 2017
(Sorry about the whinging.)
posted by Pronoiac at 8:42 PM on October 25, 2017
(Oh shoot! So sorry, I had no idea there were region embargoes for anything anymore [other than SNL]. I'll stop posting episodes.) /Canadian
posted by porpoise at 8:52 PM on October 25, 2017
posted by porpoise at 8:52 PM on October 25, 2017
Oops, that wasn't to say you shouldn't make posts! I'm sure Canadians and other people want to discuss this. There just might not be too much discussion for a while.
The pacing of Fanfare posts for weekly shows is less complicated than Netflix shows, too.
posted by Pronoiac at 11:06 PM on October 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
The pacing of Fanfare posts for weekly shows is less complicated than Netflix shows, too.
posted by Pronoiac at 11:06 PM on October 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
omg yes season 2! uuugh we gotta wait till Dec. 23!
posted by numaner at 7:51 AM on October 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by numaner at 7:51 AM on October 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
Hmmm. I feel like if the entire FBI department got Travelered that puts Grant on easy mode for maintaining his cover, while Trevor's still stuck in high school (presumably.)
posted by tautological at 11:26 PM on October 27, 2017
posted by tautological at 11:26 PM on October 27, 2017
My understanding is that Vincent was sent to the WTC specifically not to change anything but to send a confirmation and then perish.
posted by Marticus at 3:36 PM on October 29, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Marticus at 3:36 PM on October 29, 2017 [3 favorites]
Yes. I agree. he was supposed to go into the body of the stock broker and then die in the collapse. Odd that he decided to be selfish and survive, having taken the life of an innocent. doesn't seem to necessarily fit the profile of the future peeps working on the travelers program, especially the first ones. but then again the M.O. now seems to be just take over whomever is nearby and screw the consequences.
I have to say that I was not impressed with this episode.
First off, casting the FBI guy with a guy who played a baddie in the Continuum seems lazy.
Secondly, the whole let's just travelerize an entire FBI branch seems wildly out of character with the stealth mode of season 1. if the crew didn't get the job done why not go back and send another crew to the original time of season 1 and try again?
I guess this is just the way poorly thought out time paradox stories work now.
posted by OHenryPacey at 10:08 AM on October 30, 2017
I have to say that I was not impressed with this episode.
First off, casting the FBI guy with a guy who played a baddie in the Continuum seems lazy.
Secondly, the whole let's just travelerize an entire FBI branch seems wildly out of character with the stealth mode of season 1. if the crew didn't get the job done why not go back and send another crew to the original time of season 1 and try again?
I guess this is just the way poorly thought out time paradox stories work now.
posted by OHenryPacey at 10:08 AM on October 30, 2017
Ah, sorry, I missed that. Yes, I believe he was sent to 9/11 specifically to confirm that the tech works (send an electronic message that could be retrieved in the future) and to perish (the broker he took over would have died regardless, so still consistent with only taking over people who were going to imminently perish).
I think that the disregard for changing the future/not taking the lives of someone who wasn't imminently going to do has been "snowballing" since those soldiers got Travelerated into turning on the laser and destroying the meteoroid.
Travelerating basically an entire FBI department has got to change the future's past pretty significantly (unless something very drastic happened in the very near future and, like, 98% of everyone perishes anyway, and the only changes that could happen would be less bad result than what did happen [in the frame of the entity indiscriminately Travelerating people in the past]).).
The interesting thing is why that is the case. Does it have to do with changing history? Changing the AI/director? I'm not sure it's merely being lazy/poorly thought out; Vincent's stalker is totally willing to kill innocents/change the future - does this behaviour occur before or after the meteoroid strike was averted/Shelter 41 no longer exists [in our frame]?
Victor was the (main?) inventor and first Traveler and the MO of not severing lives carried over to the Team's MO of not severing lives. Maybe there are multiple camps or the AI has diverged into different entities (the original AI is now in the present, future AI is a monster/98% scenario)?
posted by porpoise at 4:49 PM on October 31, 2017
I think that the disregard for changing the future/not taking the lives of someone who wasn't imminently going to do has been "snowballing" since those soldiers got Travelerated into turning on the laser and destroying the meteoroid.
Travelerating basically an entire FBI department has got to change the future's past pretty significantly (unless something very drastic happened in the very near future and, like, 98% of everyone perishes anyway, and the only changes that could happen would be less bad result than what did happen [in the frame of the entity indiscriminately Travelerating people in the past]).).
The interesting thing is why that is the case. Does it have to do with changing history? Changing the AI/director? I'm not sure it's merely being lazy/poorly thought out; Vincent's stalker is totally willing to kill innocents/change the future - does this behaviour occur before or after the meteoroid strike was averted/Shelter 41 no longer exists [in our frame]?
Victor was the (main?) inventor and first Traveler and the MO of not severing lives carried over to the Team's MO of not severing lives. Maybe there are multiple camps or the AI has diverged into different entities (the original AI is now in the present, future AI is a monster/98% scenario)?
posted by porpoise at 4:49 PM on October 31, 2017
I guess it's possible there are two (or more) possible futures now with different Directors who are sending people back from their respective timelines, and that's why there's still rival organizations? I'm not sure the show makes that much sense, though.
posted by tautological at 9:58 PM on October 31, 2017
posted by tautological at 9:58 PM on October 31, 2017
New rule explains why only creepy children have so far been seen as the medium for "voice messages to the pas
Perhaps I am missing something here since I am US based and haven’t seen this ep yet, but didn’t this get explicitly explained in S1 as being that kids, with more malleable not yet fully formed brains, could be used this way without permanent damage?
posted by phearlez at 8:25 PM on November 1, 2017 [6 favorites]
Perhaps I am missing something here since I am US based and haven’t seen this ep yet, but didn’t this get explicitly explained in S1 as being that kids, with more malleable not yet fully formed brains, could be used this way without permanent damage?
posted by phearlez at 8:25 PM on November 1, 2017 [6 favorites]
Scrolling past the spoilers to say: only eight more days! YeeeeHA!
One more thing to envy Canada for, I'll add it to the list.
posted by BS Artisan at 10:22 AM on December 15, 2017
One more thing to envy Canada for, I'll add it to the list.
posted by BS Artisan at 10:22 AM on December 15, 2017
Well, I just watched the last episode of the season and I still think this is one of my favorite shows. In case anyone is wondering who just finished this first episode.
I really would have preferred that we'd posted these along with the Canadian airing of (mostly) once a week, because the Netflix all-at-once shows always end up with sparse episode threads, with the first and last getting most of the action. If it had been posted along with the first airing, at least some of us could have discussed it week by week. Not a criticism of the decision not to, and of course I could have done so. But I don't think there's a "rule" (and I'd object if there were) that US airings get precedence. I'm not Canadian, BTW, I'm just, um, well, you know.
I've enjoyed the show so much that I plan to re-watch this season with someone else who hasn't yet watched it.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 1:37 PM on December 20, 2017 [1 favorite]
I really would have preferred that we'd posted these along with the Canadian airing of (mostly) once a week, because the Netflix all-at-once shows always end up with sparse episode threads, with the first and last getting most of the action. If it had been posted along with the first airing, at least some of us could have discussed it week by week. Not a criticism of the decision not to, and of course I could have done so. But I don't think there's a "rule" (and I'd object if there were) that US airings get precedence. I'm not Canadian, BTW, I'm just, um, well, you know.
I've enjoyed the show so much that I plan to re-watch this season with someone else who hasn't yet watched it.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 1:37 PM on December 20, 2017 [1 favorite]
oh yeah!, I'm neither usurping nor volunteering to take over posting episode threads/summaries. If anything, it's only a "Hi Season 2!" You're so very good at these, and after doing one inspired/loosely-similar to yours, yeah, I realize now that it takes a goodly chunk of work to do well.
Aww, thanks, porpoise. I didn't want to comment in this thread when I saw it pop up back in October. It was nice to be able to just watch the first episode for pure enjoyment without having to take notes as I went. I'm starting the binge-postathon now, as I'm off work all week, so hope to knock the season out over the next two days.
But I don't think there's a "rule" (and I'd object if there were) that US airings get precedence.
I think in the case of Travelers the precedent was set by the fact that season 1 aired in Canada & the UK first, but there were no threads until I started doing them for the Netflix US launch. If porpoise or any other Canadian mefites had wanted to post all of S2 as it aired, I wouldn't have objected (though, I can't deny I would have probably had some twinges of possessiveness over it, but hopefully I would have kept any backseat driving pettiness to myself :-) , but it seems like the majority of Fanfare commenters are watching this show on the US schedule.
Anyway, very happy to finally get to see the show again. I got a later start this morning than I meant to - I ended up rewatching the entire S1 finale first, as my 'continue watching' mode was only partway into that episode and as I kept watching I realized I had forgotten everything that had happened aside from Carly leaving Jeff to deal with having shot the teenage historian/assassin and the cliffhanger of the FBI rushing the barn.
Was very excited to see Enrico Colantoni appear, always a great addition to any show. I couldn't remember if Amanda Tapping had been in S1, had to risk a peek at imdb to find out she wasn't. (And now I'm realizing that I was conflating her with a therapist character in another time-travel movie, where the therapist turned out to be a fellow traveler.)
posted by oh yeah! at 9:40 AM on December 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
Aww, thanks, porpoise. I didn't want to comment in this thread when I saw it pop up back in October. It was nice to be able to just watch the first episode for pure enjoyment without having to take notes as I went. I'm starting the binge-postathon now, as I'm off work all week, so hope to knock the season out over the next two days.
But I don't think there's a "rule" (and I'd object if there were) that US airings get precedence.
I think in the case of Travelers the precedent was set by the fact that season 1 aired in Canada & the UK first, but there were no threads until I started doing them for the Netflix US launch. If porpoise or any other Canadian mefites had wanted to post all of S2 as it aired, I wouldn't have objected (though, I can't deny I would have probably had some twinges of possessiveness over it, but hopefully I would have kept any backseat driving pettiness to myself :-) , but it seems like the majority of Fanfare commenters are watching this show on the US schedule.
Anyway, very happy to finally get to see the show again. I got a later start this morning than I meant to - I ended up rewatching the entire S1 finale first, as my 'continue watching' mode was only partway into that episode and as I kept watching I realized I had forgotten everything that had happened aside from Carly leaving Jeff to deal with having shot the teenage historian/assassin and the cliffhanger of the FBI rushing the barn.
Was very excited to see Enrico Colantoni appear, always a great addition to any show. I couldn't remember if Amanda Tapping had been in S1, had to risk a peek at imdb to find out she wasn't. (And now I'm realizing that I was conflating her with a therapist character in another time-travel movie, where the therapist turned out to be a fellow traveler.)
posted by oh yeah! at 9:40 AM on December 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
Confirming numaner above: season 2 is on Netflix US now.
posted by Pronoiac at 11:58 AM on December 26, 2017
posted by Pronoiac at 11:58 AM on December 26, 2017
I watched this episode last night and I was so confused I had to go back and watch the season finale of season 1. That cleared up about half of my confusion but I'm afraid I might have to go back and watch the whole thing. I hope I'm not the only one who feels this way.
It would be helpful if people used the character names and not nicknames or actor names, thanks.
posted by AFABulous at 6:50 AM on December 27, 2017
It would be helpful if people used the character names and not nicknames or actor names, thanks.
posted by AFABulous at 6:50 AM on December 27, 2017
I had to watch most of the finale of last season too to get caught up. I actually wouldn't mind a "previously" on Netflix if they were also skippable like intros are.
Just to reiterate since it seems like some have forgotten:
- children can be used as messengers because their brains are malleable enough to trigger an aneurysm
- a new Traveler can only be sent back as early as the most recent Traveler was sent back. so no redos.
- her name is Marcy
- Walt is Grant's FBI partner / recent traveler; Jeff is Carly's baby daddy
If you're complaining about the lack of discretion in mass traveling via quantum frame, keep watching! I was wondering about that too but the next episodes really explained it.
Man, David... he might be one of the most relatable characters to me on TV ever.
posted by numaner at 11:48 AM on December 27, 2017 [2 favorites]
Just to reiterate since it seems like some have forgotten:
- children can be used as messengers because their brains are malleable enough to trigger an aneurysm
- a new Traveler can only be sent back as early as the most recent Traveler was sent back. so no redos.
- her name is Marcy
- Walt is Grant's FBI partner / recent traveler; Jeff is Carly's baby daddy
If you're complaining about the lack of discretion in mass traveling via quantum frame, keep watching! I was wondering about that too but the next episodes really explained it.
Man, David... he might be one of the most relatable characters to me on TV ever.
posted by numaner at 11:48 AM on December 27, 2017 [2 favorites]
I was also confused because I had forgotten a bunch of stuff.
I have to say the 9-11 stuff made me queasy. I realize it's been 16 years, but still…
posted by O9scar at 3:09 PM on December 27, 2017 [2 favorites]
I have to say the 9-11 stuff made me queasy. I realize it's been 16 years, but still…
posted by O9scar at 3:09 PM on December 27, 2017 [2 favorites]
So, Enrico Colantoni is really getting a niche, here, for "bad guy in shows with super powerful predictive computers."
I watched the last episode of season 1 last night and then this episode. I was also surprised by "yeah, okay, all those guys? we're gonna travelerate them" on that scale.
oh yeah: I loved that movie! And I kept watching this therapist's expressions to see if she's likely to be a traveler. They sort of pulled that plot twist with an episode last season, so I hope they don't do it again, but I will be very surprised if she makes it through the season without getting travelerated.
posted by rmd1023 at 10:15 AM on December 28, 2017
I watched the last episode of season 1 last night and then this episode. I was also surprised by "yeah, okay, all those guys? we're gonna travelerate them" on that scale.
oh yeah: I loved that movie! And I kept watching this therapist's expressions to see if she's likely to be a traveler. They sort of pulled that plot twist with an episode last season, so I hope they don't do it again, but I will be very surprised if she makes it through the season without getting travelerated.
posted by rmd1023 at 10:15 AM on December 28, 2017
oh yeah: I loved that movie!
Yay, another person besides me remembers that movie! (I didn't want to name it and spoil the 'is he a time traveler or a crazy person' twist for someone, but I loved it too.)
posted by oh yeah! at 3:31 PM on December 28, 2017
Yay, another person besides me remembers that movie! (I didn't want to name it and spoil the 'is he a time traveler or a crazy person' twist for someone, but I loved it too.)
posted by oh yeah! at 3:31 PM on December 28, 2017
I was going to make a reference to the name of the movie or perhaps quote the line where the therapist reveals that she's a time traveler, but opted for discretion. I got to see it fairly cold at the Boston Science Fiction Movie Marathon a couple of years after it came out.
posted by rmd1023 at 5:33 PM on December 28, 2017
posted by rmd1023 at 5:33 PM on December 28, 2017
Yeah, I was really excited for this but couldn’t remember a lot of stuff clearly enough to really get the full benefit. I too would be down for some skippable previouslies.
posted by corb at 7:12 PM on March 6, 2018
posted by corb at 7:12 PM on March 6, 2018
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posted by porpoise at 7:26 PM on October 25, 2017