Timeless Review: The Red Scare (Season 1 Episode 16)

Some doors (and time streams) are closed, while new ones open on Timeless Season 1 Episode 16 “The Red Scare.”

Thankfully, last week’s Rufus cliffhanger is resolved swiftly: Lucy calls in her oft-forgotten (both by the audience, and certainly by Lucy herself) “fiancé” to stitch Rufus up.

I really can’t blame Fiancé Whose Name I’ve Forgotten Due to His Lack of Screentime — Noah, his name is Noah — for how he reacts after being put in what has to be the world’s most confusing situation.

How do you calmly treat a bullet wound of a man you’ve never met, who hangs out with a woman who doesn’t remember you, and is walking around dressed like Jackie O? Poor Noah. We hardly knew ye. Have a drink on us.

On the Rittenhouse side of things, Lucy finally makes good on her diary’s promise to help Flynn out in destroying the organization. My question is this: if Flynn has met future Lucy and knows everything about their adventures together, how did he not know when she’d help him, or when he’d be arrested?

Presumably the journal changed with each adjustment to the past, which means that Flynn probably should have seen the whole thing coming. For a master of time crime, he’s not much of a psychic, is he?

But back to Rittenhouse: I truly love the addition of Lucy’s grandfather into the mix.

The show explored how hard it was to be a closeted gay man in the 50’s, while also sending an uplifting message via Wyatt and Lucy: there is nothing wrong with being gay. Your sexuality doesn’t have to be a source of shame, or something that has to be repressed. It’s a strong message said in a time that is more uncomfortably close to our own than we’d like to admit.

Timeless plays a lot with tried and true time travel tropes in this episode, most notably the notion of “the long way ‘round.” While Lucy and Wyatt can leave Ethan in one time and pop back up in 2017 within minutes, Ethan must wait all those years to see Lucy again.

And with a pep talk from her in his youth, he follows through on a promise: he gathers enough information on Rittenhouse to bury their organization forever.

Or so our team thinks.

I genuinely did not see either twist in this episode coming. First, the shock of Jiya’s sudden ability to mentally time travel (is she the new Desmond Hume, circa LOST?). Then, Lucy’s mother reveals Lucy to be a child of two Rittenhouse parents.

What?!

Timeless, you can’t leave us here! Wyatt and Lucy might be working towards some kind of romantic relationship, Mason might not be the worst, and Jiya might be moving through time!

It’s one hell of a season finale, but it would be a shame if it acted as a series finale. Timeless is only just getting started. If only we could take the Lifeboat into the future and find out if it gets renewed.

What did you think of this episode of Timeless? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Timeless airs Mondays at 10/9c on CBS.

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