Travelers: PROTOCOL 4
December 26, 2017 12:43 PM - Season 2, Episode 2 - Subscribe

MacLaren and Walt pursue a mysterious, unexpected group of new travelers, while Marcy helps David recover from trauma and Philip makes a new friend.

*Philip returns to Ops, and after a brief frantic search finds his pet turtle.
*A man in a hotel meeting room gives a timeshare presentation, and after leaving the pitchees locked inside, we hear the sounds of them being 'Travelerated'.
*At home, MacLaren is startled awake by Kat, but she has only returned to get her things, after hearing from MacLaren that the danger was over.

*At David's apartment, Marcy awakes to David having made her pancakes. Later, they walk along a pier and Marcy tells him she thinks he's developing PTSD from the events in his apartment. She tries an exercise on him (tapping his hands while he focuses on his memories). Later, she brings an eye movement therapy kit to the apartment, and we see more of David's experience with the hostage-taker, but he again ends the session in agitation. Later still, she gives him a joint, which he accepts with enthusiasm. The next day, Marcy gives him a new rug to cover the bloodstain. When he tries to give her a new key for the changed locks, she tells him that she's leaving. He tells her that he and Marcy 1.0 were intimate and that he loves her. She says that she cares about him, but what happened to him was her fault and that she would be a source of continued anxiety if she remained.

*Trevor and Grace are still in the hospital. Grace is totally recovered thanks to her nanites, but faking a slower recovery to avoid becoming noticed as a medical miracle. She misses having intelligent conversations, specifically with the Director (but loves hospital food). Trevor is recovering more slowly, but by the end of the episode his batch of nanites have made progress, and he has sensation and movement in his feet.

*Jeffrey drives up to Carly in the patrol car, and thanks her for giving her statement clearing him in the shooting of the teenage misfire-historian/Faction-assassin. She tells him that she has not been allowed to see Jeff Jr. who is still in foster care, and Jeffrey says he has not been allowed contact either. Later, they sit together in the patrol car, and Jeffrey asks that they work together to try to get custody back. They go to speak to the woman in charge of their case, and she tells them that a 72-hour dependency action was filed (by her, because of the shooting and because of her phone conversation with Jeffrey which he doesn't remember because he was drunk during the call, and because she could not get any response from Carly, who was in FBI custody at the time). They cannot have contact with Jeff Jr. until there is another hearing, and that unless there is a radical change it would be for the best if Jeff Jr. was given to a new permanent guardian indefinitely. Later, Carly allows Jeffrey to move back in, so that they can attempt to regain custody together.

*At an addiction support meeting, Philip talks about missing Marcy 1.0. Afterward, another member introduces herself to Philip as Traveler 4514, Jenny. She tells him that the Director assigned her to help him, and gives him eyedrops containing a 20-year-in-the-future drug which cures heroin cravings. She speaks so irreverently of the Director that Philip says he feels like they're going to be struck by lightning. She takes him to a lecture by an anti-immigration bigot, Dr. Edwin Calloway, which she sabotages by inserting a photo of Calloway in a bondage scene as a sub. In the alley outside, Jenny and Philip use some more eyedrops and make out, then go back to Ops and have sex. Marcy arrives to find them in bed together afterwards, and Jenny leaves. Marcy is furious with Philip for bringing a 21st-er to Ops for sex, and still pissed when he tells her Jenny is another Traveler. He shows her the eyedrops, and she takes them to find out exactly what the "and other stuff" components of the drug are. (Later on, in the Ops bathrooms, Marcy does something future-tech-y to the scar on her neck.)
*Later, while Marcy is out apartment-hunting, Jenny returns to Ops and Philip confronts her with the news about Calloway -- his followers turned on him after the leak of his sexual kink, and he killed his wife and child and then himself. Jenny says she's sorry about the collateral damage, but she doesn't regret what she did, that Calloway would have caused more deaths had he lived, and the world is better off without him.

*MacLaren is called to investigate the missing persons report of the 6 people in the hotel. His partner, Walt Forbes, is having trouble adjusting to the 21st - he walked into the wrong bathroom at the FBI, and he's a terrible driver. (In his future, there were no driving simulators.)
*At the hotel, the timeshare seminar leader panics and tries to lock them into the room and run away, but MacLaren catches him, and tells him to show them the security footage. MacLaren watches (while Forbes is somewhat distracted by the blissful taste of day-old donuts), and the video disruption proves to have been a mass arrival.
*Kat asks MacLaren to meet her at her friend Nicole's (who is away for a year on sabbatical) place. He brings wine, but Kat brought separation papers. After MacLaren cuts himself on a shard of his dropped wine glass, he notices something in her medicine bag, and hurriedly signs the papers and leaves.
*Back at the FBI office in the morning, Forbes tells MacLaren that two of the hotel mass arrivals were located by the police after getting stopped for running a red light, and that he had the case dropped by saying that they were having an affair, and that the other 4 missing have had the cases dropped by the FBI and returned to local police jurisdiction.
*Back at Nicole's MacLaren tells Kat that he knows she's pregnant from having seen the vitamin supplements in her cosmetics bag in the bathroom. She tells him she hasn't decided what she's going to do about it yet, and asks him to leave.

*At another time-share seminar somewhere, another mass arrival occurs during the lock-in portion.

PROTOCOLS:
*Protocol 1 = The mission comes first.
*Protocol 2 = Leave the future in the past.
*Protocol 3 = Don't take a life, don't save a life unless otherwise directed.
*Protocol 4 = Don't reproduce.
*Protocol 5 = Resume the host's life.
*Protocol 6 = Traveler cells should not be in contact unless instructed to by a messenger or the Director.
posted by oh yeah! (13 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
This is super helpful to group the summary by plot line and not strictly chronologically. Thanks.

The NA group and Jenny character immediately reminded me of Fight Club.
posted by AFABulous at 6:55 AM on December 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


Also I forgot what city this is taking place in but Nicole's apartment is gorgeous.
posted by AFABulous at 6:55 AM on December 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


I called out "SHE'S DIVORCING YOU" as Mac was trying to open the wine. But I was surprised that they were separation papers, mostly because I forgot that you can officially do that before divorcing.

Jenny is immediately suspect since we've seen Traveler teams helping each other, but not a sole Traveler assigned to help one member of a team like that.
posted by numaner at 11:53 AM on December 27, 2017 [3 favorites]


Bad bad feeling about Jenny, hope it's juicy!
posted by sammyo at 5:07 PM on December 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


It's hard to separate out plot knowledge and discussing "new" episodes. I'll try hard.

I remember really looking forward to how the David/Marcy plotline works out (or if at all) because of the stupid "finger tapping" thing. Hell yeah, PTSD isn't only for those coming back from combat engagements. Thankfully, this is something that's going to be kept exploring.

Trevor and Grace (".... and you're really old(, Trevor)!" / "With age comes patience." / "... besides, I love the food in here. It's amazing, right?", as Grace happily chows down on hospital food) thankfully a thread not overly (overly) pressed upon later.

Where is this show supposed to be set? Cop car license plates are Washington State (USA), but they don't even bother trying to hide that it's shot in Vancouver (BC, Canada) - leaving BC plates on all most of the other cars.

The "Addict Group" - er, I've been mandated to one pre-2000 (in Iowa City, IA) and its complete bullshit and a junior version of "Juvenile Detention" being a finishing school for petty/not-so-petty criminals (hooking up clients and providers; wholesalers and local reps).

(cute, compatible sex, orientation, and age Traveler 4514. "... cure heroin addition... blah blah... stop the craving and curb your withdrawl." -- fucking BULLSHIT ALERT.

BULLSHIT ALERT in front of the Eaton's Building. Around May (Cherry blossoms). Depending on the year.

"These are amazing."

The Carly situation seems really fraught; the tension that the show strings out.

I don't feel that it's healthy.
posted by porpoise at 9:10 PM on December 28, 2017


Where is this show supposed to be set? Cop car license plates are Washington State (USA), but they don't even bother trying to hide that it's shot in Vancouver (BC, Canada) - leaving BC plates on all most of the other cars.

It really is such a Canadian-looking show -- so many beautiful shots of mist-shrouded hills, so many familiar faces of the Vancouver acting community. I think, like the movie "Big Hero Six" being set in the city of "San Fransokyo", I'm going to head-canon that Travelers takes place in the alternate reality country 'Americanada'.
posted by oh yeah! at 4:31 AM on December 29, 2017 [2 favorites]


re: show setting; sorry, senior moment. It's covered in a later episode (the parachute one) that's explicitly set in central-ish Washington state*... with the (Travelerated) FBI not being able to send an agent out to the remote site within 30 minutes (or something).

So... Grant works out of the Seattle offices of the FBI?

re: Americanada; Trevor playing football (and that football is important) suggests much more America than Canada

*at least, that's what the pixelated map on the computer screen says; aerial camera work suggests someplace close to Pitt Meadows

hmm, I'm pretty sure that there was a Canadian border on the screen map

posted by porpoise at 3:57 PM on December 30, 2017


In the season 1 episode with the bus of elderly cult members, there was a throwaway comment about there being a passport issue at the border. Dunno if that helps figure out locations.
posted by Pronoiac at 4:31 PM on January 2, 2018


While the show mentions real nearby(ish) cities like Olympia and Bellingham they seem to purposely avoid mentioning Seattle by name
posted by O9scar at 6:56 PM on January 2, 2018 [2 favorites]


Trevor wanted the doctor to feel good about his (non)accomplishments! I love Trevor.

I understood that Mac saw prenatal vitamins in his wife's bathroom bag, but I didn't understand why he rushed out so suddenly, only to come back later to address the issue.

I have to say, 2 episodes in and I've remembered how much I am over Mac and Carly's respective domestic drama. I really don't care if they get what they want and I'd rather see plot, or more Trevor.

Can someone remind me - does the Traveler get influenced by feelings, etc. from the previous inhabitant of the body? Why is Carly so invested in the kid and why does Mac have such strong feelings for Kat?
posted by Squeak Attack at 6:51 AM on January 23, 2018 [1 favorite]


Traveler Mac’s feelings were strongly influenced by experiencing actual Grant MacLaren’s memories of Kat last season when he nearly died (though, as I recall he seemed way into her and over Carly even before that near-death-experience episode). As for Carly’s feelings for Jeff Jr., I think we’re just meant to infer that her maternal instincts kicked in.
posted by oh yeah! at 7:29 AM on January 23, 2018 [3 favorites]


I'm not sure if this is a spoiler because I don't remember which episode it was discussed in, but it was implied that either people from the future have low birth rates, or travellers are not allowed to have children. So having maternal instincts and then suddenly having a child brings out a lot of emotions.
posted by numaner at 8:25 AM on January 24, 2018


Yes, I was thinking about that, numaner.

I think part of my problem is that Carly's personal life bores me, and also, she's incredibly poorly suited to care for that child. I can see protecting the kid from Jeffrey, but now that he's in foster care she could back off since, as a person who vanished abruptly for days at a time, she really cannot make good parent.
posted by Squeak Attack at 9:51 AM on January 24, 2018


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