Fellow Travelers Season 1 Episode 6 Review: Beyond Measure

Tim reflects on his life in the late ’60s after exiting the military and Hawkins’ efforts to keep him out of prison on Fellow Travelers Season 1 Episode 6, “Beyond Measure.”

Spending a majority of the episode in Tim’s POV, we’re teleported to 1968 Baltimore, where Tim has been able to muster up enough trouble to garner attention from the FBI. After being an active participant, his views on the war changed, and he swiftly joined a group of protesters who went around burning draft cards.

Upon hearing about Tim’s troubles, Hawkins intervenes and actively hides Tim in his secluded country cabin, lying to Lucy about the plumbing being out so she’d avoid the home. During Tim’s time in the military, Hawkins and Lucy settled into their marriage and now have two children: Jackson and Kimberly.

The interactions between Tim and Hawkins are the opposite of what we’re generally accustomed to. Currently in training to become a priest, Tim has taken on a life of celibacy, only breaking it on rare occasions to pleasure himself – never to meet up with another person. Meaning his days of pursuing Hawkins Fuller were over.

We see this newcome stance challenged by Hawkins once, Tim buckling to his advances but staying true to his faith in the technical terms. Instead of having carnal relations with one another, Hawkins suggests the two masturbate with one another, to which Tim agrees, but it’s not the same.

Tim doesn’t allow Hawkins to touch him in the slightest, and when it’s all said and done, he sends Hawkins away, ashamed of what he’d done and spending the remainder of his evening praying his sins away.

On the one hand, the new Tim that has a backbone when it comes to Hawkins is refreshing and something fun to explore. As enjoyable as the weekly episodic sex scenes have been, it’s nice to see the two characters in a different atmosphere — one where there isn’t a consistent power and experience imbalance.

That said, it’s also one of the more heartbreaking scenarios of the episode. Tim’s self-hatred and longing to be “normal” is yet another depiction of the emotional torment queer people during this time frame had to endure just to fit in with the general public.

In order to live a picture-perfect life where they aren’t discriminated against for their sexual preference, queer folks were forced to live in secrecy and maintain fake families to keep up appearances, ultimately leading them to cut out one of the most vital pieces that make them who they are.

In the end, despite Hawkins’ persistence, Tim decides the right decision is to turn himself over rather than turn in the priest in charge to earn a reduced sentence.

Meanwhile, most of the time spent with Hawkins focuses on his newfound family and finding a workaround to being a good dad.

Spending time with Hawkins’s family is inevitable, but I feel like we could have done so without most of the scenes including Jackson. Aside from helping highlight some of the lingering issues between Lucy and Hawkins, the most it does is show the extent to which the two are poor parents.

One of the biggest takeaways from “Beyond Measure” is how terrible Hawkins and Lucy are as parents. I mean, Jackson spends the majority of the episode away from his family, doing as he pleases until all hours of the night.

Upon his arrival home from his impromptu visitation with Tim in the cabin, Lucy merely asks why he’s getting in at the hour he is. In addition, during the house party the two threw, their child spent the entire evening tripping on acid with a stranger (to him), and neither even thought to check his bedroom before falling asleep — horrific parenting.

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

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Fellow Travelers airs Sundays at 9/8c on Showtime.

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