That he was only half-awake at the time.

You know when you have one of those unsettling dreams that leave you rattled all day? You're already awake, you can logically analise it and poke holes in the dream's logic (or lack thereof), you can reassure yourself with proof, tangible things and you're still jittery. Even if you're not thinking about it, because your subconscious mind is still unsettled, it doesn't matter that your conscious mind already put it to rest, the unease is still lurking.

Garcia Flynn was deeply asleep, even with his military and professional background, he was feeling secure in bed with his wife, deep enough asleep he didn't register the cough / sound that led Lorena into their daughter's room. He was likely sinking back into sleep after Lorena's words when he's suddenly jolted by the sound of his wife and daughter's murders.

And then there he is. Wearing only his pajamas and his wedding ring, probably barefoot, maybe a gun in hand, fighting the intruders enough to barely make it out alive. Panic, grief, adrenaline, helplesness, instinct... the things fueling him against the remnants of sleep in his fight for survival despite the futility in terms of getting to his family.

Even having managed to fight his way out he still wouldn't have been able to go and stay with his wife and child for a while, whether they had already passed or not. He didn't get to cradle their bodies one last time, to hold their hands... He didn't get to tell Iris that despite the fact that he wasn't able to protect her as he had promised her, he was there and she didn't need to be afraid because everything would be over soon and he'd be there with her through it. That he was sorry and that he loved them.

He had to flee because they wanted him dead too and he had to have been injured fighting off the team sent by Rittenhouse. A team that would have been well awake and wearing protective gear. All of this when a few minutes before he was in bed blissfully asleep.

Very lost request continued. What would that understanding mean for E1.16 for instance? Would Wyatt  have welcomed Flynn as a friend in E2.03? Would Wyatt have asked for advice regarding Jess? Stayed with Lucy? Figured out he loved Flynn as well? You get the point. Hugs, Mia.

Hello Mia darling. My apologies it’s taken so long to respond. It’s been a rough time.

Frankly, if Wyatt listened to Flynn in 1x06 that would’ve changed the entire show. Flynn would have started working with the team sooner. I doubt Lyatt would’ve ever been a thing because Wyatt didn’t start having romantic feelings for Lucy until 1x09 and despite those was still obsessed with getting Jess back through 1x13. I think Flynn would have helped Wyatt let go of Jess and move on, but I also think that Wyatt’s affections would have transferred from Jess to Flynn as a result, rather than from Jess to Lucy.*

*I’m ignoring the fact that the writers never would’ve done this because they are cowards who wouldn’t have let Wyatt be bi.

1x16 never would’ve happened. Or, so to speak, it would’ve happened very differently. By that point, ten episodes later, the Time Team would’ve been working WITH Flynn for I’d say about a couple of episodes at the very least. Denise might have still arrested him with the destruction of Rittenhouse but the entire team, not just Lucy, would’ve been up in arms about it.

2x03, again, wouldn’t have happened. Lucy and Wyatt wouldn’t have kissed or slept together because by that point Garcy would’ve been as good as dating, Lyatt wouldn’t have been a thing, and Wyatt would be pining for Flynn.

Honestly it would mean a hefty rewrite of the majority of season one and a complete rewrite of season two. It would mean Jess as a plot device in season two wouldn’t have happened, because Wyatt would let her divorce him when she served in papers in 2x04, because he would’ve been listening to Flynn’s advice telling him to let her go. It would mean the love triangle bullshit wasn’t a thing. It would mean Flynn was a member of the team and an ally for about half of the first season and fully trusted and accepted by season two.

It’s kind of sad, in a way, to think about how easily it could’ve all been changed. If Wyatt had just listened to Flynn’s ultimately altruistic advice and had acknowledged and accepted Flynn’s attempt to reach out. I think it would’ve made, in many ways, for a stronger two seasons and a more interesting dynamic between all of the main characters. It would’ve have given us a lot more time to develop Garcy and build them together in a delicious slow burn. And we would’ve had fantastic subtext with Wyatt and Flynn.

But alas, we didn’t get that.

Hey Timeless fans! Let me know what you think of my discussion of Lucy Preston’s evolution over the course of Timeless’ two seasons! We ignore the movie because of course we do!

The Lincoln Quandary

 What if Lincoln was never meant to die? What if he lived, but through time travel shenanigans he ended up dying during one of the timelines? But the Time Team wasn’t able to save him in the next timeline, or the one after. Then, eventually, everyone’s memories get overwritten. Now we all believe that the fixed point in history is Lincoln has to die…

 If we’re dealing with a closed loop, then this question is asked and answered. It happened that way and it will always happen that way.

 But Timeless is a Causal Loop and therefore literally anything goes. The whole point of this kind of loop is to go back and make changes and try to make things better (or worse, it’s a matter of perspective). The only issue is that once you close the loop, you will have the memories of the previous timeline.

 This is the end of the loop… so what about the beginning and the middle?

We can reasonably infer that since pre-pilot Lucy goes back and gives Flynn the journal, what we see in the series is not Timeline Zero (i.e. the first timeline before the first person goes back in time, ever). We also know that Anthony and Emma tested the Lifeboat and Mothership and went back on several occasions. Timeline Zero would be the timeline Anthony first tested the Lifeboat as Rufus mentioned in Stranded.

 Now, since Lucy goes back and starts her Causal Loop in 2014, any trips Anthony and/or Emma made after this point become a part of Lucy’s Causal Loop. And each time Lucy restarted her Loop, Anthony would create even more new timelines. This is because each time he and Emma went back, they changed something, it may be insignificant, but it’s still a change and it counts as a new timeline.

 Below is an illustration of how this happens. It does assume that Lucy goes back with the journal first, instead of Flynn stealing the Mothership first, but the idea is still the same regardless.

You can, technically, create a loop inside of a loop, and that may or may not be the case here. We don’t know enough of all of Anthony and Emma’s missions to know for sure. If Emma actually went to 1872 after Lucy arrived in 2014, then it could be its own Causal Loop inside of Lucy’s Causal Loop.

But as we’ve watched Lucy, and what she’s gone through, and how she’s tackled everything that’s been thrown at her, especially the situation with Wyatt, it would have felt unnatural for her to tell Wyatt she loves him tonight. Because with everything else she’s gone through, after having both her sister, her mother and now her best friend ripped from her, I think they’re now at completely different places as characters.

THIS is why she bonded with Flynn. They level with each other. He respects her, respects her space, and as of this finale episode, he’s seen her at her absolute most vicious and furious and he gets her. He understands her, he understands what it’s like to get to that place of rage and anger, the place of wanting to destroy the people who took everything from you. That’s who he’s been for such a long time that he knows to just hold Lucy and let her feel whatever she’s feeling. Underneath all his snark is someone who’s felt almost the exact same pain that Lucy is going through.

Lucy has grown beyond needing help, she’s proving herself more and more capable, she’s grown into her anger and fury, she’s learning to accept the pain that’s started to shape who she is. At the end of the day, Wyatt (with all his hurt with Jessica) is still not even on the same planet as Lucy. As much as he loves her, Flynn understands her at a different level. And not only that, Flynn is so respectful of Lucy and what she wants that he can barely even vocalize his feelings for her. He sees her with Wyatt and he gives them space.

Aka 2 x 11 & 12 “The Miracle of Christmas Parts 1 & 2”

Well, this was one of the stupidest things I have ever seen on TV. Not that I expected anything good, but this superseded my worst expectations.

"I'm so sorry for coming to your room in the middle of the night, and getting stupidly drunk, and making you sleep in that uncomfortable chair, and keeping you up all night talking, and... Oh, gosh, you felt like you had to make me coffee? I'm so sorry!"

And you can just SEE Flynn thinking, "You trusted me enough to come to me in the middle of the night. You're adorable when you're drunk. You felt comfortable enough around me to sleep in my bed. (Plus I bet it smells like you now.) You chose to talk to me all night, instead of drowning your sorrows alone. I made you coffee because I wanted to see you smile. Because nothing makes me happier. Lucy, trust me, I don't mind at all."

But he can't say any of that.

She isn't ready to hear it.

So he just gently teases her, continues to reach out to her, and lets her leave when she's ready.

But he can't quite stop himself from making one quiet but firm promise:

Woooooooooowww hoo yep do I have a lot of Thoughts.

(Disclaimer: Probably don’t read this if you’re a diehard Wyatt/and/or Wyatt and Lucy fan. Because I don’t hate him – I’m still invested in him and I love the idea of him and Jessica and what’s possible for that to go and him fixing his screwups. But we also have a full season of canon text to analyze and well. I’m gonna analyze it. And honestly he…. has a long way to go.)

First, as I said in the other ask, we’re all well aware how much Flynn fucked it up with Lucy in season 1. Repeatedly and face-palmingly and over and over, to the point that him getting a 1 in the Garbage Date Manifesto instead of a zero (or a negative eleventy billion) was an improvement. But here’s the thing: Flynn and Lucy were enemies. Or at least they were sorta-not-quite-enemies but still fighting each other despite his soft spot for her. The point is, they were nowhere near a relationship of any sort, and if they’d actually had Garcy be any more than a connection/understanding/gentle gaze here and there, we’d probably have judged them. Because that’s not a relationship we’d think Lucy should get into, and indeed, she doesn’t. She stops being scared of Flynn in 1x02. She calls him on his bullshit from then on out, repeatedly, and even when there’s the obvious thought that this scary murder machine could hurt or kill her if she does. She straight up challenges him to kill her for not helping him in 1x11 because she knows he won’t. When she sees him again in 1x14 post-all this, her reaction is to… order him to order his minion to let go of her (AND HE DOES). There is no filter or fear in her reactions to Flynn. She calls him straight out, and he apparently loves it when she does. (And again: THEY’RE STILL ON OPPOSITE SIDES. They’re not in any sort of relationship.) She has the strength and confidence to tell him exactly how she feels at any given time, which is usually that he’s being an ass. Which is also generally correct.

When Flynn comes to the bunker in s2 (after holding a grudge against Lucy for all of five seconds), that’s post-1x16 and “what if God led you to me” and things start changing for them. Flynn walks into the bunker in 2x03 literally seconds before Wyatt runs out of it to see Jessica. THEY PHYSICALLY CHANGE PLACES IN LUCY’S LIFE. And that’s… exactly what proceeds to happen?

Starting in 2x04, Wyatt chooses Jessica, doubles down on that choice, and while perhaps not wanting to, starts to and then continues hurting Lucy, mostly emotionally but in 2x10, physically as well. He is possessive of her while also having brought his wife back to the team’s shared home, having loud sex with her, and apparently thinking he’s entitled to a special relationship with both her and Lucy. (Rufus calls him directly out for forgetting about everyone else in the bunker in 2x10, which praise. Yep.) He slut-shames Lucy (twice!) for thinking she might have slept with Flynn in 2x07, and keeps barbing at her for it at every opportunity (”you and Flynn, huh” in 2x09, even after throwing a fit getting Denise to keep Jessica safe back at home/heard they have a baby on the way.) He generally acts insecure and throws his weight around (”stay away from her” in the 2x07 scene with Flynn) in a way that is… pretty unattractive. Sure, he has a few nice lines in there/tells her that she’s Lucy Preston and that’s pretty good, but he’s just so unpleasant in 2x07, and… still doesn’t get around to apologizing for it. By the time he’s begged Jessica to come back with him in 2x10 and told her they’re family and promised to fight for her, he finally gets home and then… tells Lucy that he loves her? Which he frames as doing what Rufus wanted, but yet again, he’s boomeranging back to her/immediately trying to cling to her after having lost Jessica, and keeping her in his back pocket as his second choice, yet again. And that is… mmmmmm.

Meanwhile, the narrative is insisting to us that Lucy and Wyatt love each other (or at least other characters keep SAYING it, almost as if we wouldn’t be able to tell otherwise) and we’re supposed to be rooting for reconciliation. This is totally different from when Flynn and Lucy are adversaries in s1; there was no expectation that the behaviour would necessarily be any different. They were treating each other as people on opposite sides of the fight (and aside from throwing her onto a couch in 1x02, which – obviously, bad, but not the LEAST of what he would have done to Wyatt in that situation – Flynn has never hurt her EVEN WHEN THEY WERE OUTRIGHT ENEMIES.) Instead, the implicit message of the narrative is that Wyatt’s bad behaviour is all right or understandable or whatever else because “he loves her!” Apparently. Wyatt even has the excuse of being in a relationship (or at least a brief one) with Lucy, we’re supposed to buy that this the man we want her back with, and…

While this is going on, Lucy is biting her tongue. She’s swallowing back her feelings. She’s sacrificing her emotional availability for Wyatt’s needs, over and over, while he notably does not return the favor. Even when she and Flynn were ENEMIES, she was fearless in telling him what she thinks – she can’t even do that with Wyatt when they’re LOVERS? (Or ex-lovers.) Their entire relationship becomes Wyatt doing what he wants or needs or thinks he should, and Lucy silently swallowing her pain and letting him do it, and this being framed as a noble sacrifice on her part. (Which it is, but… very one-sided since he doesn’t return the favor.) She walks on eggshells around him and only in 2x07 gets to tell him what she really thinks about the situation (and he still doesn’t seem to get it). There’s just… not a lot of equal ground there, and it becomes painful and frustrating to watch as a Lucy stan. We can’t understand why, even for the sake of a deep connection, she’s giving him SO MANY CHANCES. She cares for him a lot and they need each other; I’m not disputing that. But after 2x03, he pretty much vanishes from her life as an equal and reciprocal emotional support, and that place is taken – often in very obvious ways – by Flynn.

Because starting with 2x04 and the first mission they go on, Flynn is all in on his new role/relation to Lucy. She asks if she can trust him in 2x04, he nods, and that’s it. He doesn’t look back. He fucks up a dude when she gives him a look, he goes crazy getting a gun to save her (and the others, but lbr it’s mostly about her). Comforts her and tells her she’s nothing like her mom in the Lifeboat scene/does her seatbelt. Then when they arrive into the Wyatt/Jessica situation of awkwardness, Flynn takes Lucy’s arm and physically shields her from Wyatt (while glaring at him) and gets her out of it. Again. They were technically still enemies, or at least very wary allies, in 2x03, but she told him they needed him more and bam. That’s it now. Off he goes.

In 2x05, after Lucy’s frazzling day with Wyatt and Jessica, Flynn goes over after his own bad day and supports her. In 2x06, obviously, it’s beautiful and we’re all dead and he’s both tender and protective of her and owns up to his failures in the past and gives her THE CHOICE ABOUT A FUTURE RELATIONSHIP. He knows he’s fucked up badly and she would be justified in like “nope I don’t want anything else.” But she takes a chance (even after how Wyatt has hurt her) and opens up to him and he does the same. They get back and they’re incredibly happy and then Wyatt turns up, trying the “you keep Flynn on a leash?” line trying to once more get sympathy and commiseration from Lucy. But she rebukes him (gently but plainly) and defends Flynn. And of course goes to his room that night because that’s just how safe she feels with him now???

In 2x07 she’s incredibly comfortable with him, and he’s been gazing at her with heart eyes, and then defending her right to make her choices to Wyatt. AND ALL THIS TIME, FLYNN HAS BEEN EXPECTING NOTHING FROM HER. He has never once acted like he has any claim over her or that she owes him anything for the attention and care and support he’s been giving her. Never. Once. Doesn’t reciprocate the jealous boyfriend act on Wyatt. Keeps the focus on Lucy and her choices. Doesn’t make it about his feelings for Wyatt; he hates the dude, but he constantly keeps stepping away to let Lucy talk to him if that’s what she wants. (While Wyatt can’t stop bitching about Flynn and judging Lucy for her choice to get close to him.) Flynn never ONCE lets his feelings for Wyatt get in the way of that possibly being what Lucy wants. (As he says in 2x10, he… probably still does want to kill Wyatt in some way, even if he’s full of hot air and wouldn’t do it.) He is so careful of her feelings and her choices that he can’t tell her she’s beautiful in 2x08, when she asks him about the journal (and see all my metas about how she went to him from a place of HOPE and not anger). He doesn’t get around to telling her that he loves her in 2x10 and would probably have avoided it even if Wyatt didn’t interrupt them. He sees them together at the end of 2x10 and assumes Lucy’s taking Wyatt back and you can see his heart break, but he doesn’t get in the way. Again. Never once acting like she has any expectation to treat him in a certain way or let him in, and is just determined to give her everything he possibly can to make sure she doesn’t regret it.

As I’ve said many times, I’ve dragged Flynn over the coals A LOT. But the instant he was in any kind of relationship with Lucy (however loosely defined), almost… all the garbage went away. He was loving, gentle, attentive, supportive, careful, respectful, tender, protective, and sacrificial around her, and never once said or acted like she owed him anything for it, because he knows he has a long way to go and is fully willing to put in the work. While Wyatt, who we’re told over and over is in a relationship with/loves/cares for/whatever with Lucy, is the one acting like a giant bag of dicks, entitled, selfish, jealous, and immature. (Lucy tries to reach out to him in 2x09, he lashes out at her again, and then tries to help her get on the horse as she’s about to ride off with Flynn. Her “No, Wyatt, I’ve got it” becomes a little pointed in that situation, one thinks.)

And of course. I don’t even need to talk about 2x10. (Though I probably will.) Flynn was the person that Lucy talked to about her mother’s death and her disbelief that Carol’s biggest regret was not raising her Rittenhouse from the start. Flynn was the person to see Dark Lucy and to literally pull her out of it and hold her through the worst moment of her life. Wyatt was available to take that moment, but he didn’t. If they wanted Wyatt to be the one to do it, they would have set up the story in a way that enabled it, but nope. When Lucy finally, comprehensively breaks down after all the shit she has been through and the people she has lost this season, she breaks down in Flynn’s arms. He is the one to comfort her without words (also Goran can fight me in an alley for the “unspoken” thing, because LITERALLY!) Then we focus on Flynn’s face back at the bunker, watching Wyatt and Lucy talk, as much as the scene itself, and see his pain. That is… a weird thing to include if it was just about W/L.

I started the season being 100% certain that for better or worse, Wyatt/Lucy would be endgame. I’m now like…90% certain, maybe less, because it sounds like they’re at least open to the possibility of discussing that her relationship with Flynn turns romantic (JFC, Shawn Ryan gave “romantic” and “deeper than romantic” as options!!!! Abigail said Lucy HAS FEELINGS for Flynn and doesn’t trust Wyatt!!!) If this was any other show, I would be 101% certain that Lucy and Flynn were endgame, because this entire season has been one big anti-parallel between him and Wyatt, and almost entirely to Flynn’s benefit/redemption. And I love him to bits, but I can tell you, I wasn’t expecting that.