Travelers: Trevor
December 16, 2018 1:22 PM - Season 3, Episode 7 - Subscribe

Suffering from a fatal brain disorder, Trevor makes the choice to allow himself to be overwritten as the team races to invent an experimental cure.

*David is walking with his client, Jim, who notices David has been working out, and teases him about Marcy and asks when he's going to marry her, then collapses due to heart problems.

*As Trevor bicycles to HQ, he has another freeze and crashes. Later, as he joins the team for their mission of shooting down a small plane loaded with anthrax, he freezes again and misses his chance to shoot the plane down, but another team completes their mission.

*Marcy comes home to find a despondent David waiting to answer calls on Jim's phone, as he passed away in the hospital earlier. Jim was David's first client.

*Carly looks at a new apartment and is ready to pay for it, but the landlord needs references.

*At HQ, Trevor explains to the team that he has temporal displacement aphasia, that over time the frozen moments will increase in length and frequency until he will become effectively catatonic. Dr. Teslia calls MacLaren and says the Director wants to speak with 0015.

*At Filmore, the team observes as the Director and Trevor speak in private. Afterwards, Trevor says the Director confirmed his diagnosis and that there is no cure, and Trevor says that he has volunteered to be overwritten so that his host body can still serve the grand plan, and the Director has given him 36 hours to get his affairs in order.

*MacLaren helps Carly get her new apartment, and she shows him the place.

*Grace comes to HQ in response to Trevor's texted invitation. He seems to have prepared a romantic dinner, but tells her that he's not trying to seduce her, just saying goodbye. He tells her about how he and his wife were the first successful consciousness transfers, how they raised children in 3 separate lifetimes, that she was the first victim of temporal aphasia, and how she asked to see the sun before she died. He doesn't want to put anyone else through watching him deteriorate, and doesn't want to go through what she went through.

*At the condo, MacLaren tells Kat about a colleague getting a terminal diagnosis. They start making out, pause for Kat to take a pee break. She mentions that the Pattersons have invited them for a boat trip, and when MacLaren slips up by saying he can't wait to meet them (when, as Kat points out, he's the one who introduced her to them), the mood is killed.

*Carly meets her new neighbor, Jessica, who seems to have an abusive partner.

*David rehearses his memorial speech, not sure he's going to be able to do it, and is ready to call the whole thing off when it seems like Marcy won't be coming, but she assures him that she'll be there.

*Trevor meditates at the lakeshore when Grace arrives and convinces him to let her fix his aphasia. Back at HQ, she explains to the team that Trevor was close to a cure in the future, and she believes the Director is wrong about the aphasia being incurable. She tasks the team with building an implant, and with tracking the frequency, length, and duration of Trevor's episodes so that she can take the data to Ilsa for analysis.

*Grace and MacLaren take the data to the lab. Back at HQ, Trevor says he's made his peace with dying, that Philip must know from his update that it's supposed to happen. But Philip says he doesn't know which timeline is the true one, because he's stopped taking the pills.

*At the lab, Ilsa runs through the data multiple times but says there is no permanent solution. The Director takes over and tells MacLaren and Grace that there is still no cure, and that 0015 has just minutes ago confirmed that he is willing to be overwritten. Grace insists that it's against the Director's programing to take a life, but the Director says it was 0015's suggestion.

*Grace and MacLaren return to HQ to find Trevor frozen again, and Grace insists that the Director is wrong, and everyone agrees to shut down all cameras/comms and proceed with the operation. When Trevor comes to he's angry at everyone for going against his wishes, and turns everything back on so the Director can overwrite him but nothing happens. Grace takes it as a sign that she succeeded, but Trevor points out it could mean that the procedure has made his body unsuitable for a new host.

*At the new apartment, Carly knocks on her neighbor's door and tells her that she's not alone, and if Jessica ever needs help Carly will be ready and able to do so.

*At the memorial, Marcy arrives just in time, and David gives a eulogy about how Jim helped him when he was a scared 16-year-old whose father had died, how he inspired him to become a social worker.

*Back at the HQ couch, Trevor reaches out to hold Grace's hand. Kat takes MacLaren to a spot on the shore and quizzes him over what he remembers about it, eventually revealing that it's the spot where they first met, where she felt that she'd found the man she'd spend the rest of her life with, and that she doesn't think he's that man anymore.
posted by oh yeah! (11 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
I recognized Stargate franchise regular Gary Jones as the landlord, and was that Highlander The Series' Jim Byrnes as Jim?

I was worried for Trevor going into this episode, and I'm still worried at the end. And I don't think I'm going to get the wacky Trevor/Grace sex shenanigans I was hoping for going into this season, I fear I'm heading for angstville instead.
posted by oh yeah! at 1:32 PM on December 16, 2018 [4 favorites]


The show really has no problem with having a few jerks appear, the ex-wife of Davids client was certainly abrupt at the end of a short sweet memorial.
posted by sammyo at 2:51 PM on December 16, 2018 [1 favorite]


I don't think I'm going to get the wacky Trevor/Grace sex shenanigans I was hoping for going into this season, I fear I'm heading for angstville instead.

Yup. At least we know now why Trevor was never trying to pick up on any chicks or showed any interest in any. Poor Grace can't compete with soulmates for 3 lifetimes...and he's dying.

I was confused at the end there and am not sure what happened.

Poor Kat. At this point I hope "Grant" just tells her what the hell is going on already. I feel sorry for these poor schmucks being kept in the dark (or dim by now, I guess) for all these years.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:17 PM on December 17, 2018 [2 favorites]


Good catch! I was wondering if that was an older Joe Dawson, cane and all.

The Trevor ghosting kind of makes sense now, both from a character and lazy writers pov. Poor poor Trevor's parents.

Interesting nuance between Director/ Faction philosophies, but at least both are "well meaning" with a (possibly) sufficient amount of self introspection. Director overwriting hosts and the ethics thereof seems to be a heavy handed theme this season.

The theme about biological imperatives (Carly "loving" "her" daughter) is also interesting, likewise Grace's body's/mind's synchronicity.
posted by porpoise at 9:37 PM on December 18, 2018


Grant sure is bad at impersonating his host for a guy who was specifically trained to go back in time and do just that.

I don't think Trevor is ghosting his host's parents and I don't feel too bad for them. They went from having a violent, antisocial thug in the house to having a nice respectful kid, who is emotionally distant, but makes time for weekend dinner and watching golf with Gary. Trevor always recognizes when things are emotionally hard for Gary and validates his feelings, including going out of his way to lie/not lie that Trevor was not sexually assaulted by the football coach just to give Gary an easier time. Gary is no well developed enough emotionally to recognize that this is a little strange, or to give anything back to his kid, really.

I do wish we'd seen more of Teryl Rothery as Trevor's mom in early episodes but by season three I'm way over Protocol 5 for these characters anyway. In fact, I'm sorry to see the Kat situation circle around *again* right away instead of just going away until the last episode of the season or something.
posted by Squeak Attack at 12:43 PM on January 1, 2019 [2 favorites]


but makes time for weekend dinner and watching golf with Gary.

Is he though? Maybe last season Trevor was still watching golf with Gary, but I don't know that I believe this season's Trevor actually went to that weekend dinner Gary reminded him about if his very next act was to leave all the furniture Gary had saved for umpteen years out in the yard to be scavenged and skedaddle off to live with Philip. And I don't know what to call someone (ostensibly an unemployed someone) skipping their own grandmother's funeral besides ghosting - if one wasn't estranged from one's parents before, they sure would be after.

I can understand the writers not wanting to have to use up screen time on Trevor's double life excuses, but I still find their solution baffling.
posted by oh yeah! at 4:19 PM on January 1, 2019 [2 favorites]


The fact that they seem to be setting it up so the Venn diagram of “21st century black men who we see in relationships” and “domestic abusers” is two perfectly overlapping circles is pretty ham-handed, racist, and annoying as fuck.
posted by rmd1023 at 2:38 AM on January 6, 2019 [2 favorites]


that was a really touching episode. I teared up with David's eulogy combined with Trevor almost dying. I wonder where they'll go with him but I was so not ready for Trevor's death.
posted by numaner at 3:28 PM on January 8, 2019 [1 favorite]


I completely agree that this show really falls down on treatment and portrayal of both the black characters.

If you're interested in recaps and analysis of the show that cover that, as well as the baked-in sexism, check out Metawitches. I love Travelers, but they have some great points about racism and misogyny.

In particular, they go hard after what an abusive fucker MacLaren really is to Kat, as well as to Carly. MacLaren is terrible to Kat this season, and any sex he has with her is essentially rape, which this show wants to avoid you thinking about.

I'm happy they didn't write that scenario with any of the other Travelers. I'm much less concerned about Trevor ghosting his family than I am about Mac raping and gaslighting and drugging Kat.
posted by Squeak Attack at 11:16 AM on January 9, 2019 [4 favorites]


I've been reading Metawitches. I appreciate the detailed commentary and lord knows MacLaren's not a great dude, but after a while I start feeling pretty uncomfortable reading/watching the shows after she points out everything awful about them. I also kind of got tired of the frequent cracks about David's balls being in Marcy's purse even though uh, I cannot argue with that whatsoever.

MacLaren's always kinda had issues with that relationship though. Lord knows Carly hasn't had to playact being in love with Jeff (and that scenario's at least just as bad until this season) and the rest of them weren't in relationships. It's bad enough having to separate from your actual girlfriend because now you're married to a stranger, I suppose, but it definitely sucks to be Kat, especially as she slowly/semiconsciously realizes it this season.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:44 PM on January 9, 2019


the ex-wife of Davids client was certainly abrupt at the end of a short sweet memorial.

Yeah, idk, as an ex wife myself, I really sympathized more with her than with David in this episode. Like he has NO IDEA what happened in that marriage. Jim could have cheated on her, beaten her while drunk, drank their own house away - there could be very good reasons she doesn’t want to go to her ex husband’s funeral. I definitely won’t be going to mine.
posted by corb at 10:42 AM on January 23, 2019 [1 favorite]


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