#episodecommentary

Here it goes!

Spoiler alert-- I am writing this after having watched the full season. 

Ok, I didn’t know much about the Hindenburg before this, so I read a short book about it and got a sense of its significance. 

Hey, we meet Lucy, giving what is probably a not-so-traditional history lecture, meant to show us what a great teacher she is, excited about history. Oh yes, Lucy is actually the only one who has another job (since Wyatt is assigned to the mission, and Rufus is well... in Mason Industries). I wonder whether they will come back to the thread that Lucy (whom we are told later has a fearsome reputation in her field) is being passed over for tenure-- a Rittenhouse conspiracy so that she can do something else?

And this episode is the only episode we actually see real Amy, but it was pretty short. But we know she is definitely in Lucy’s corner and she wants Lucy to “make her own future”! 

Ooh, mission control. It does look similar to the NASA mission control with all the computers facing the same view. And later everyone will clap when the lifeboat goes off, just like I saw in Apollo 13! Evil looking people about to attack it.. Ooh Matt Frewer! It’s been a while-- I used to watch him on Psi Factor and oh yes Sherlock Holmes. Oh, Taco Tuesday is a hint that Anthony is good (or at least conflicted) as he’s trying to get Rufus and Jiya out of the building before Flynn arrives. But Flynn must be a little ahead of schedule... 

I find it hard to believe that they didn’t have paperweights before this...  but it did make a good comedic moments for a couple of episodes. 

And Lucy gets the call! Arrives at scary Mason Industries building late at night with perfect makeup. Her uptight manner contrasts with the dude chilling on the seat across, our first look at Wyatt Logan. Yes, introduce us to these characters through Agent Christopher. Abigail Spencer doing a good job of showing Lucy’s awkwardness (running gag that shows the show not taking itself too seriously, which I like. Most memorable when Lucy is trying to rescue Wyatt in S1E6). 

Expository stuff about Garcia Flynn and time travel... we don’t have to get too technical here. Skepticism slowly having to melt to belief.. and isn’t it great that the CPUs of the two machines are connected! Lucky them. Lucy is really smart! Just by seeing the date and place she knows where they have gone... but no one knows why...Lucy runs away from the madness, but we know she’s going to get into the machine.   

“I think someone who loved history would want to save it”... but a historian doesn’t necessarily always want what has happened before to happen again, right? Oh, but it’s the chance to actually see history that makes Lucy change her mind. Later Agent Christopher says... “Don’t be noticed... don’t change anything...” But I never really felt Lucy was so attached to history as it is. But ok, let’s run with it. 

And... Rufus! In a hushed conversation with Connor Mason. I never quite understood why, if he was just a coder and doesn’t like to leave his desk, why he was trained to be a pilot-- which obviously involves travelling in time, and the fact that he is such a good pilot (see how Jiya has so much trouble in training) must mean.. he has traveled through time before? Although since Jiya asks him how it was at the end of the episode, maybe it was his first time? Very remiss of Connor Mason to only have 2 living pilots, having lost at least 2 (the guy who went back to his own time, and Emma) and not be already training another one (though obviously he gets on it later in the season). 

Yay, they get into the time machine and that’s when they get introduced, underscoring what a hurried job this is..  Given Lucy’s history with the car, the fact that she can get into the time machine is amazing... she may be scared, but she is doing things that she’s scared of. That kind of thing I can admire. And contrast that with chill Wyatt. And, off they go. 

I wonder if they can control where they land! What if they landed on some poor cow? Or person? How do they always land in a nice isolated spot where no one can find their machine? Did Connor Mason invent a cloaking device as well?

It disturbs me that Lucy is the first one out of the lifeboat! Surely the soldier should be the first one to scope out the land? Maybe it’s meant to underscore 1) Lucy’s eagerness to experience history 2) Wyatt’s motion sickness. And now they have to come to grips with the fact that they are in the past... and they take a bus. All right, I don’t know about US currency, but given they had so much trouble finding historically inaccurate clothing, wouldn’t they have had trouble finding some historically accurate currency? But they took the bus and bought a paper, so that musn’t be an issue. 

Oh no, no one really seems to care about Rufus’s experience in the back of the bus. And he is left outside the tavern too. Ok, time travel tropes like using the wrong lingo, wearing the wrong clothes (pyjamas!) coming into play. We see Wyatt getting distracted, either he is an unrepentant flirt or he has a sad backstory which compels him to put his mission at risk.

Now Lucy tells the guys that Kate only has a short time left to live, and her stoicism makes Wyatt livid, but this tells us that yes, Lucy really doesn’t want to change history and her mission is to make sure history stays the same. At the landing site is Lucy’s turn to shine! She knows the commander’s name and comes up with a plausible excuse for hunting someone. Wyatt smirks, he is impressed! They go searching and Wyatt tried to rescue Kate, which leads to them losing track of Lucy. I would have preferred maybe one episode showing Wyatt’s soldierly competence first before he gets blown off course.    

Gasp, history has been changed! And Lucy is in trouble but they find her in time to save her... Wyatt kills someone and both Lucy and Rufus are horrified! But Lucy is more horrified that the timeline has been changed (on hindsight, for good reason too, because that made Amy disappear). But Wyatt is happy that 37 people (including Kate) have lived. Rufus gets to use his techy skills while Wyatt and Lucy can argue over bringing a modern gun (which we see Lucy changes her mind about in S1E14) and whether things can be messy. I appreciate the show taking time to talk about such things...

They find that the walkie is a detonator...but why would Flynn need a detonator when the bomb could be timed? Or did he only install the timer when his detonator got taken away by the Time Team? 

The Team is in prison... chance to expound on Wyatt’s sad backstory and his guilt, and his motivation for being open to change history... if this is real, maybe he has a chance to get Jessica back. 

“What the hell kind of a gun is this” and Lucy gives Wyatt her best “I told you so” look. Wyatt stares back, then the lightbulb goes on! He’s finally showing some of his skills, but his plan requires teamwork from the Time Team! Rufus with a distraction, Lucy with the raw material, and Wyatt with the lock-picking and success! A “Well done Rufus” and “It was amazing” later, they are running out to save the outgoing Hindenburg. 

Stroke of luck meeting Kate and finding the bomb really quickly, although not before the airship leaves the ground really calmly. I was in a hot air balloon recently and was impressed by how gentle the whole experience was. Wyatt faces the bomb and Lucy can now see the need to make thing up as they go along because, well, she doesn’t know what’s going to happen now. Although Lucy still looks petrified even when she is pointing a knife at the pilots. 

Back to Wyatt and Kate and some relaxing talk before Flynn’s baddie comes by swinging a chopper. With some teamwork they put him down and Wyatt defuses the bomb. But the Hindenburg still catches fire due to the baddie’s bullet. Thankfully it’s pretty near the ground, so the Time Team has saved the day, although it’s still panic as people run away. 

Flynn confronts Lucy and we finally get a chance to learn more about our complex villain. He shows her her notebook. I thought this line was interesting, “I know who you’re meant to be, Lucy, and it isn’t a teacher.” Did he know she would not be put up for tenure? Wyatt does the sensible thing and leaves Kate to “have a good life” and comes to do his job ie protect Lucy. 

I did think that Flynn’s certainty that he wouldn’t shoot was something he learned from the book (not because he was just trying to mess with Wyatt’s mind). When Wyatt does shoot, it does give Flynn food for thought about how reliable the book is for everything (although it’s probably generally true). Wyatt’s aim proves to be great (Lucy is still alive!), but I feel like given this level of skill we are now supposed to think he has, he should have been able to get to Flynn sometime within the next couple of episodes. But if he did, we wouldn’t have a chance to have the redemptive villain arc, so...

Kate dies, everyone is very sad, especially Wyatt, who tried so hard to save her and yet couldn’t...Foreshadowing much?

They arrive back in the present safely, Lucy has messy hair but her white blouse is still oh so white (this is a Tide ad, isn’t it?) and they run through the “spot the difference” with Mason and Agent Christopher. I shouldn’t think too much about the fact that if they change history, when they come back, they’re the only ones who know it has been changed... so no one else would be sad as it’s the only history they have known anyway...

Lucy is still agitated over how history has been changed, though. Then she mentions she spoke to him (so why are they so angry when they learn she has spoken to him again later?). Lucy tries to confront Agent Christopher about “Rittenhouse” and why she was selected but Agent Christopher claims ignorance. Which begs the question, why was Wyatt selected? Out of all the Delta Force operators, why him? Is this another Rittenhouse machination? 

Lucy’s smarts come to the fore again when she reasons what Flynn’s motivations are.. sounds very doomsday... from the US point of view. 

Oh dear, Rufus is a spy of some sort! When will his secret be revealed?

Now Lucy and Wyatt get some alone time and Lucy tries to hypothesize that maybe some things are meant to be, which Wyatt scoffs at. Oh, sweet moment between Jiya and Rufus. Before we go back to sad Wyatt, sad Flynn, and tired Lucy. 

I’m jealous at the size of Lucy’s house! there is a pillar in the middle of the kitchen. Oh look, Lucy’s mum is Moira Queen! This already gives her a sinister vibe. Susanna Thompson must be on a run of twistedly loving mothers. Amy’s gone, wiped out from the photos... and now Lucy must head straight back!

When do they ever sleep? But I need to! Not sure I’ll get to finish Season 1 before Season 2 starts, but at least I’ve stared.     

Sections I hope to have in each episode:

When Wyatt Smoulders :) :   “You can stop calling me ma’am”. Slow eye opening and smirk. “Help us. Please” Puppy eyes. Why was Flynn there: we don’t have any idea, other than Lucy’s guess that he was trying to destroy America. Why did he choose that as his first stop? And...  How did he get Lucy’s diary from the future even before any time travel machine stealing?

Historical Nuggets: 

1. Kate Drummond did not exist :(  

2. There has been no definitive conclusion on why the airship caught fire. Flynn must know something no one else does, then, if he managed to keep it from catching fire! Although Lucy seems as certain as he does. 

Historical book I read: What Was the Hindenburg

(Please also look up the book at your local bookstore or library.)

Random Musings:

I feel like it would be more entertaining if every time they came back something else weird happened, like Chocodiles were names Chocogators or something, which would be unrelated to the mission (like a new James Bond movie).  Frivolous things. It seems like after the first episode showing a butterfly effect (small change to Hindenburg makes Amy disappear and makes Lucy engaged), they actually come back to really similar futures even though in future episodes they do change history quite a bit.

Hm, they haven’t really talked much about Wyatt’s drinking throughout the season... I wonder if they meant to make it an issue. 

And, what if, they accidentally did something that caused Connor Mason not to be born? How would that work? But I shouldn’t spend too much on time travel paradoxes. Part of the fun of this show is that it doesn’t dwell too much on this and even shows that they’re avoiding it eg really bad things happen if you go back to a time where you already exist! So we can focus on cool history stuff and character development! 

It’s still entertaining!

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