Timeless: Stranded

November 22, 2016 4:41 PM - Season 1, Episode 7

The trio get stranded in 1754, and must find a way to repair the capsule and rebuild trust in hostile territory.

Vulture - Timeless Recap: Message in a Bottle

posted by oh yeah! (7 comments total)

Really enjoyed the break in formula of this episode. And all the Rufus -- in the previous episode when Rufus & Lucy said they wouldn't continue without Wyatt as their military dude, and Agent Christopher told the suit that Rufus was the only one who could pilot the ship, I remember wondering what he actually did piloting-wise if the destination was linked to wherever the mothership went. So, it was nice to have him being super-heroic science-geek here.
posted by oh yeah! at 4:49 PM on November 22, 2016

So, I'm finally caught up between this show and Legends of Tomorrow. I must say, both shows have a high degree of "fuck history, let's not keep things the way they are because morals", but this show has a much lower degree of fucking things up. I do love that they recap the little changes in history every episode, and that they don't have superhero-comics-logic to get them out of trouble all the time, albeit sometimes they still make some really dumb decisions.

Like why is Wyatt still the only one with a gun? By now all 3 of them have shot guns, and you'd think they could at least train to shoot them during downtime. One of the others could've provide cover fire so the second bad guy couldn't shoot at the C4s.

Anyways, the rest of the episode was fun! I think everything is falling into a good groove, and the whole Rittenhouse conspiracy (going back to 1778!) is pretty interesting.
posted by numaner at 6:45 PM on November 22, 2016 [1 favorite]

I always get stuck whenever I hear mention of the French-Indian war. I know what it is, but I also know how I learned about it, and it wasn't under that name.

I was also having a really tough time with the French in this episode. Now, I'm not fluent by any means, but usually I can make out just fine with TV French. This time, I hardly understood anything at all. I think it was the pronunciation rather than just my tin ear, although I'm willing to be told I'm completely wrong. Given where they shoot this, they should be able to find some guest actors who actually speak the language.

I realize neither of these comments really have to do with the essence of the show, but for the most part I'm settling in and starting to enjoy this and don't have a lot of nitpicks or criticisms or comments. (Sure I could go on about how quickly Rufus developed his smithing skills but I won't.)

I mean, sure the team needed an episode like this to come together and relearn how to trust each other after the fallout from the previous episode. I appreciated seeing the relationship develop between Rufus and Jiya. It was also satisfying to see that people outside of the team are starting to get suspicious about the shenanigans going on behind the scenes.
posted by sardonyx at 8:47 PM on November 22, 2016

Rufus is turning into a timetravel McGyver!

(why would something like that go into the unknown without a toolkit and spare parts?, omfg stop me before I start thinking...)
posted by sammyo at 2:32 PM on November 23, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'd been waiting for an ack!-the-lifeboat-is-broken! episode and I thought this worked really well.

I'd been thinking it'd be fun to have an ack!-we-changed-history-so-much-there's-no-lab-anymore! episode someday, but that would mean that Flynn had succeeded in taking down Macguffin, er, I mean Rittenhouse, and that means if he did, then the time travel machines wouldn't exist, and then they're stranded, but there's no mission if there's no Rittenhouse (Macguffinhouse?). And then I get a headache.

Anyway, Rufus is swiftly becoming my favorite character and I am enjoying this show immensely. (Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman!)
posted by mochapickle at 6:14 PM on November 23, 2016 [1 favorite]

I thought this was one of the better episodes so far, although I dismissed the whole capacitor thing as hand-wavey reason they have to go visit the fort [insert real reason here]. This is the second time they've used the bury it back then and dig it up in the present day trick, as that's also how the bad guys got their nuclear battery for the mothership home. I am now anticipating an episode where the bad guys having that power source will make a dent in the plot.
posted by Bringer Tom at 7:41 AM on November 27, 2016

If the protocol says they leave a message each time they're stranded, why aren't there dozens of bottles in the present day to look for? Surely they'll get stranded on enough future missions to necessitate that. (Also, if they have some kind of sensor looking for that, they should be able to do that as soon as the team time-traveling leaves. They don't need to wait until they miss their return time.)
posted by Margalo Epps at 9:58 PM on December 6, 2017