Timeless Review: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (Season 1 Episode 2)

As far as follow ups to Pilots go, Timeless fails to meet the bar with “The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln.”

Which may not be a good sign, given that the bar wasn’t set exponentially high, despite how fun the “Pilot” was.

The complaints and concerns that many fans expressed after the premier episode seem to have bled in to this week’s episode, and we are sort of left with even more questions than answers — and not necessarily in a good way.

First of all, why is it that Lucy, Wyatt, and Rufus all seem to have some sort of immunity to the changes in history?

While everyone else’s perception of events shifts whenever history is altered, the core three seem to always be able to remember history as it was.

Lucy, especially, should have a skewed perception of history because, whatever she studied and read and learned during her schooling would be completely different after the events have been altered. Her mind should have stored different information — it should remember learning that an unknown gunman shot Lincoln, not John Wilkes Booth, for example.

And when she came back from the past in the pilot and found that she no longer had a sister, wouldn’t she have already realized that her sister was gone based solely on the fact that she no longer had any memory of her existing in the first place…?

Why doesn’t her perception of reality change?

Furthermore, wouldn’t she remember her now-fiance? If this timeline is what is true, and what everyone else knows and remembers to be true, wouldn’t her memories shift, as well, to accommodate these new truths?

We’re only two episodes in, so, there’s still time to rectify this inconsistency — perhaps with some sort of twist or explanation.

Maybe this has something to do with why these three, specifically, were chosen for the job…?

In terms of things this episode got right, I appreciate the introduction of personal agendas. Rufus wants to keep Lincoln alive because he believes it will affect the lives of black Americans for the better — we, as well as the characters, learn that protecting and preserving history is not as easy as it sounds.

Lucy now has a personal quest to bring her sister back. One can only assume that this will come up later on in the season, seeing as she will likely need to go back to a point in time where she can have her parents meet in order to bring her sister back in to existence.

Which, obviously, is not what she is meant for nor is it what the machine is meant for, so, that is bound to cause conflict.

All in all, there were a few small, character developmental victories this week, but these developments seem to reveal potential plot holes.

Only time will tell if these gaps are intentional.

What did you think of “The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln”? Let me know in the comments below!

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Timeless airs Mondays 10/9c on NBC.