Rittenhouse’s master plan is starting to take shape, and it looks really, really scary. Do you think the show has done a good job of upping the stakes in regards to the ‘Big Bad’? How do you feel about Rittenhouse?
Lizzie: Well, before they were kinda like the bad guy in the shadows and now there are stakes involved and wow, are there big stakes, so yes, I’d say Timeless has done a good job in this regard. Especially because they’ve made the people we love involved in the endgame, or at least so it seems. I get the feeling we’re not even close to how scary Rittenhouse can be, though, and that scares me even more.
Alyssa: I love how Timeless was able to give us an enticing Big Bad in Garcia Flynn in season 1, and how they still managed to deliver us this terrifying new villain in Rittenhouse, which is terrifying in every way. The thing that makes Rittenhouse terrifying is the uncertainty. The uncertainty of their master plan. The uncertainty of how large their reach is. The uncertainty if they’ve really put sleeper agents throughout time if they can ever really be truly stopped. Rittenhouse isn’t a single-season Big Bad. This is a Big Bad that our Time Team will be battling for the foreseeable future and, presumably, most of the series. This is the kind of Big Bad with so much potential and possibilities because of many things, including the personal connections we’ve seen, as well as that terrifying uncertainty about what they’ve done, what they’re doing, and what they will do.
Erin: Just give me more. I need all the things now. But here’s the hard part of answering this question – I don’t think we know what the big bad really is. Cause history has a way of changing on this show, and who knows what Rittenhouse didn’t think of and how something can change because of that.
Lyra: Timeless has done a great job at making me lust for a season 3, 4, and 5. And not just for Lyatt. That baby is important, no doubt, but I need to know what Rittenhouse is doing and what kind of journey it’s going to take our Time Team on. So thank you Timeless writers. You gave your bad guys a master plan that I don’t totally understand but that I know I’ll need multiple seasons to explore. So get to it NBC!
Charles: Shows like Timeless need a strong villain for the heroes to defeat. Rittenhouse is becoming that very slowly and very dangerous enemy for the Time Team. Rittenhouse is as ruthless as they come and with Lucy’s mom leading the charge with Lucy’s great-grandfather, things are as personal as they can get. When the stakes are personal, that just raises the level of the show.
Lariel: Last week I’d been wondering whether the future Jiya had seen was the result of a Rittenhouse future or a non-Rittenhouse future. Now I’m a little more convinced that it’s the former. Rittenhouse isn’t just bad – it’s nutso. And it’s a perfect big bad for the Time Team. The stakes are huge, and they should be. I’m looking forward to seeing how the huge master plan unfolds.
Kayla: Yes, I feel that Timeless has brought Rittenhouse out of the shadows and into the light and made them a formidable big bad. The stakes are HUGE, and if they don’t do something right – major historical events could be wiped from existence.
Bex: I am all kinds of excited for the Rittenhouse arc this season. I’m trying not to speculate because I just want the writers to surprise me at every turn – like they’re already doing. Slowly things are being revealed, I’m understanding their goals more, and it’s disturbing, yes, but also really interesting. I know we won’t learn everything this season, but one thing that I’m really curious about is if Carol became a historian because her Rittenhouse parents demanded it, or if she did that out of her own interest – because right now she doesn’t seem overly interested in preserving history like Lucy.
Funmbi: I really don’t understand how Lucy is descended from cuckoo megalomaniacs ON ALL SIDES. As Nicholas Keens reveals his (albeit artistic) plans for world domination, I remember just thinking to myself that Rittenhouse are basically Nazis. “It’s time to begin preserving human culture. Taking what’s best of us and subtracting and sloughing away the worst.”
Ummmm, eugenics?! That’s going to be a hard pass from me.
*SIDENOTE* Nicholas’ resentment of electronic devices straining your eyes is also my resentment (she types on her laptop, while her glasses rest on her nose).
With that said, I am curious to see how/when the Time Team learns of Rittenhouse’s plans. It absolutely ups the stakes in the scariest way. And it’ll be interesting to see these various sleeper cells in history be activated and the ways the missions would reshape history. Lucy, Wyatt, and Rufus will be on the case to stop them, but this episode demonstrates that Rittenhouse is *already* changing history and our collective memories. SCARY!
Priya: I am sincerely terrified of Rittenhouse and I love it. Given the way things ended last year, they had to change the game because what was happening with Flynn just couldn’t continue because then the show would devolve into procedural. Nicholas is terrifying because he is brilliant but also has no heart or soul. Oddly enough, I really like the fact that it does not look like there is any way this can be resolved in 8 remaining episodes because there are so many ways this can go. We’re not sure what has already been changed and what will change from what point. Wyatt remembers Ryan Millerson having a long career, so everyone was blindsided when he turned out to be the sleeper agent. Likely the fact that Ryan didn’t die in 1959 is why Emma went back, to make sure he did and did so as ordered. Rittenhouse is not messing around and sadly while we didn’t see it, I don’t think Emma left Ryan’s wife alive.
That being said, I’m curious to see what Emma’s arc in all this will be. As Lizzie mentioned in a review, Emma is very one note, especially compared to Flynn. As the actress who plays her is phenomenal and we know we’ve got a good writing crew, something will either present itself to give Emma more layers or she’ll be written out. Unless there’s something we don’t know, she’s likely the only pilot Rittenhouse has, so that could come into play. Training a replacement makes her expendable and Emma is clearly devoted to working her way up. It’s also jarring to see Rittenhouse in the position of having the funds and facilities vs last season where the Time Team had the benefit of Mason’s money and Christopher’s legal connections (I assume Agent Christopher didn’t have legit IDs made for them this time to keep quiet the Time Team is still alive and active). Rittenhouse is not going to go quietly into the good night, and I hope they’re being a more complex villain allows for multiple seasons of stories.
Flynn was actually helpful this week, but he’s not a patient man and he wants something in return. Where does the Time Team go from here? Can they actually work with him? Do you want them to? What does he bring to an already established dynamic?
Lizzie: Well, you know what they say, the enemy of my enemy …and Flynn is truly Rittenhouse’s enemy, so? I speculated before that our Time Team was going to find themselves in a: Do the ends justify the means conundrum soon enough, and here they are. In Flynn’s case, I’d say they do, not just because I like Flynn – which I do, he’s a fascinating grey character that you can’t help but feel for and yet, sometimes, want to strangle, but because what other option do they have right now if they want to move forward?
Dynamics wise, I still expect Lucy to be the only one who sort of trusts him, Wyatt to be, well, less than happy to see him, and Rufus to be sort of in the middle, but more on Wyatt’s side. I think other things are going to affect the group dynamics, not Flynn. I’m not worried about this aspect of it.
Also, let’s remember Flynn knows a great deal they don’t. He’s probably been to the future – or met Future Lucy somehow, and he had that future diary filled with secrets for a hell of a long time. He probably memorized that thing. So, what does Flynn know and how can he help? I can’t wait to find out.
Alyssa: It’s just a matter of time before Garcia Flynn is out of prison, whether it’s with the Time Team’s help or his own resourcefulness. It’s no secret that the Time Team and Flynn aren’t on good terms. Even when forced to work together, there was never a sense of trust or reliability there. But because they have that common enemy — Rittenhouse — it makes this partnership not only necessary but expected. I fully expect Lucy, Wyatt, and Rufus to work with Flynn. It said it in Lucy’s journal. It’ll come to pass. Somehow. Sure, they can work with him. It doesn’t mean they’ll trust him. But they need him more than he needs them at this point. They’re going to have to make this work. Somehow. Flynn definitely brings a lot of emotion to this established dynamic. And he brings a lot of change. The Time Team have been working together for quite awhile, and they know that they can depend and trust each other. Flynn is a wild card. I don’t want this becoming a full-time thing — because the Lifeboat can only hold 3 — but I’d be interested to see what it brings out in these characters. But let’s be honest, there’s nothing like Lucy, Wyatt, and Rufus. They’re the OGs. Ain’t nothing going to change that.
Erin: I love Flynn. We need Flynn. The enemy of your enemy is your friend, people.
Lyra: Desperate times call for desperate measures. The handsome hot mess known as Garcia Flynn is the perfect desperate measure to change the dynamics in the team, teach them new things, and set them on the track to Lucy giving Flynn the journal in the future. So far both of their methods have lead to nowhere when it comes to destroying Rittenhouse so maybe they can all learn from each other and grow as people. Yes, that even means Flynn. SO BREAK HIM OUT! We got asses to kick and Rittenhouse to destroy!
Charles : Flynn is interesting as I could see him becoming a sort of Spike in season 4 of Buffy character to the Time Team. A sort of anti-hero who helps the team while also scheming against them as well. Except for Lucy though…I’ve always sensed a father-daughter type of vibe between Flynn and Lucy as Flynn cares for Lucy but only in that paternal sense in my opinion. (Also remember that weird theory in season 1 that Flynn was Lucy’s son from the future? I doubt it but…..)
As for how the team would feel about working with him – Lucy has always shown a almost willingness to work with Garcia, mostly due to understanding his pain over losing his family. Rufus would give off the vibe of being willing to forgive but not forget. Wyatt…well Wyatt would tell him to kiss his ass and then go somewhere to brood for a bit before Lucy asked him to help with the mission. So as Lizzie said at the top of her answer: “The Enemy of the Enemy is my friend.” Friend might be too strong a word for Time Team/Flynn but “reluctant ally” might be perfect.
Lariel: Flynn is such a wonderfully complex, layered character. He’s not supreme, insane evil the way Nicolas seems to be. And of course, he’s no saint. With what we’ve learned about Wyatt this week, I think the two of them might eventually find they have more in common than not. I think Flynn will be the antihero the team needs to try to work with.
Kayla: Flynn is complex. He is interesting. He has layers. His mission last season was as personal as it gets. I do think they will have to work with Flynn because he obviously has information they need. Despite him being the enemy of the enemy – the Time Team will have to make Flynn their ally to stop Rittenhouse’s master plan. If they succeed, will Flynn get redemption and be trusted eventually?
Bex: I. Love. Flynn. There isn’t a lot of trust, or love, between him and the Mason Industries crew, but I like to think that deep down he’s a good man who just acted out of desperation, and that he is someone the time team can work with in the future. I desperately want him to. I want to see him redeeming himself, proving he can be trusted. And, vice versa, I want him to see that Lucy never betrayed him, that it was all Agent Christopher. I want to see more of Flynn and Lucy working together, and not building towards a romance because I am Lyatt endgame, Lyatt trash, Lyatt OT-freaking-P, but some Garcy-ish friendship moments would be amazing. So yes, get him in that lifeboat with Lucy and Rufus, and let’s watch that dynamic evolve (or implode).
Funmbi: You’re absolutely right the Flynn isn’t patient. He won’t keep helping the Time Team while sitting in that jail cell for much longer. I don’t know how or if the Time Team will be able to break Flynn out, but I do see how he could be an asset to the team. He knows more about Rittenhouse than any of them and he certainly wants his vengeance. Yet, I don’t know if Flynn can be trusted. When the chance comes, I wouldn’t put it past him to seize the Lifeboat, abandon the others, and peel out on his own mission. Although, I’m with Lizzie… I want to know what Flynn knows of Future Lucy!
Priya: I think with Flynn it all goes back to his family. Because of the double cross, he was denied a chance to get his own family back and sadly one can argue leaving Emma alone and unchecked helped get the Mothership into Rittenhouse hands, so if they can find a way to fix that wrong, he will help. I think they will find a way to make things work with the Time Team because getting rid of Rittenhouse has become very personal to Lucy even more so than before and everyone on the team to some level has been (or I’m hoping will be) impacted by them. I can see Lucy being a bridge (it just needs to stay a fully platonic one) and while Wyatt and Flynn have never gotten along in the past, they have a lot more in common than either would care to admit. I loved their scenes in 1×06 and I would love to see more interactions. Rufus and Agent Christopher I think are going to have the hardest time with this, for good reasons.
The key thing is that I want the original OT3 dynamic to stay intact. While his presence is going to be disruptive, this is not necessarily a bad thing, I would like to think the core dynamics between the team will hold. I would love for him to be an asset to the team in the same way Jiya and Agent Christopher are, but as we saw in eps 1×13 and 1×14, things go horribly wrong when the core OT3 don’t travel together, so I hope there won’t be too many trips like that this season (beyond the two we’ve seen in promos). Alongside all that, Flynn had months with Lucy’s journal for months, a journal he received from a future her. One thing about Flynn is so far he has been honest. Time travel is a slippery slope and the mere fact that he had the journal that Lucy would eventually write in indicates that time travel has already happened before the sequence of events in s1 and now in s2. There is a great deal of information Flynn is potentially sitting on, not just regarding Rittenhouse, and I hope we get to learn more.
Okay, but what in the world is happening to Jiya? Speculate a bit. Also, how are your Riya feels?
Lizzie: Jiya is …eh, seeing visions of the future? Which, I guess, might be bad for her but really, really good for the team, at some point in the season? Especially if her visions help save one of our own? Because, writing wise, what’s the point of giving her these visions if they’re not gonna have an impact?
NO POINT. THERE’S NO POINT.
As for my Riya feels, I’ve got a sense some rocky times are coming for these two, because Jiya’s keeping secrets, and even when she tells Rufus – which, this being Timeless, she will, I don’t foresee that he’ll be all like yay, potentially dangerous visions! So, yes, angst. For everyone. Isn’t that just amazing? </sarcasm>
Alyssa: Anything that has to do with the brain is never good, right? And this is definitely something going on with her mind. But then again, this is time travel. Who knows. But she’s definitely seeing the future. Getting a vision of Rufus hurting himself and then having it come to pass, that’s terrifying. Whatever is happening to her, it’s shaking her to her core. She’s trying to get a handle on it — trying to convince herself that whatever is happening is all in her mind. But that doesn’t appear to be the case. She’s getting visions of the future, that’s for certain. And maybe this is just my Angel fangirl coming out, but I can’t help but think of what happened to Cordelia and begin freaking out about these visions Jiya is having. When the Time Team went back in the finale with four people, this happened. But it happened to Jiya. Why? Why her? Is there something bigger at stake here? Something that she was susceptible to? This is going to be a season-long (maybe longer) arc that I am dying for answers. Also my Riya fans are just all over the place. There are no words for how much I love these two. Jiya isn’t just terrified about what’s happening to her but what she sees is happening to Rufus, as well. There’s this inner struggle of her deciding whether or not to come clean to Rufus about what she’s seeing and what’s happening to her. This is something that’s certainly going to challenge Rufus and Jiya’s relationship. But if they’re as strong as we know they are, they’ll overcome this together.
Erin: I’m confused and though I would love to care about this plot line, I don’t just yet, because I don’t understand it and I need more information. But Lord, please don’t let this show turn to the supernatural. I don’t wanna tap out.
Lyra: Ok, let me tell you what’s happening with Jiya. You ready? Home girl is seeing visions of Rufus in the future and will eventually take things into her own hands when she gets a vision of him dying or getting realllly hurt. Rightt now there’s nothing they can do to fix her. Timeless has all dem rules. So unless they pull a method out of thin air, break one of their rules (again), or partner up with Rittenhouse, Jiya is on the fast train to being a noble AF person and dying. THERE! I SAID IT! *runs away*
Charles : Jiya seeing in the future is going to be paid off big time very soon for not just her but her relationship with Rufus. I like Jiya a lot but that trip on the Mothership has affected her in ways that I don’t even think she’s fully realized yet. My fear is it will be too late when that time comes for anyone to help her.
Lariel: This week we got it confirmed that Jiya was seeing visions of the future. I think we can count on her seeing a vision of Rufus dying, and an episode out of preventing that future (because of course they will).
Kayla: I think Jiya is seeing the future – and more importantly Rufus’ future. I can see how this could affect her relationship with Rufus and my feels are full on. I do hope that Jiya comes clean about these visions though. Hopefully to Rufus. It definitely has something to do with her ride in the lifeboat, but why? I need answers!
Bex: My Riya feels are a mess. I am not okay. Jiya is breaking my heart. Right now I just want to get her back in that lifeboat to see if another journey might correct her condition. Or the mothership, if that’s the solution. I just need her to be okay.
Funmbi: Jiya sees the future… past… some combination of the two? In this episode, her vision is expressly about Rufus, which could make things complicated for the Riya relationship. Of course Jiya would want to help and protect Rufus with what she knows. I mean, those two are great partners! But how will Rufus react? As an aside, those repeated seizures CANNOT be good for Jiya’s brain. I’m highly concerned.
As an aside, can we talk about how Agent Christopher has Connor Mason escorted out of an international conference like a damn criminal. That’s they type of stuff that would drive a man to the enemy… Js.
Priya: Riya is one of the best ships and I need her to immediately tell Rufus or tell someone what’s going on. As the headaches and fainting spells indicate, whatever happened to her at the end of s1 is still lingering. At first glance it looks like she’s seeing things in both past and future tense (GG Bridge still under construction and then Rufus with a burn on his arm), but the fact that this is all causing her physical pain is what’s troublesome. This is compounded by the fact that she is keeping the extent of this to herself, which is going to cause problems later on. We already know Lyatt is going to have a serious bump in the road soon, so very selfishly I need Riya to stay strongly afloat. Regarding what’s happening to her, it feels like she is slightly out of phase with time, if that makes any sense. The Mothership can clearly carry more than 4 people, so I’m not sure if it’s the time travel aspect or if something about Jiya’s physiology that has made her susceptible to what’s happening to her (which may be a little too scifi). I hope we get more answers soon!
Agree? Disagree? Have any thoughts to add? Share with us in the comments below!
Timeless airs Sundays at 10/9c on NBC