Timeless Review: Chinatown S02E10

Timeless sadly comes to the end of season two, with episode ten: Chinatown. (BEWARE: SPOILERS LIE AHEAD!)

Surprisingly, this episode: ‘Chinatown’, or as it has been referred to in some promo material, ‘A History of San Fran’, is very much a cliff-hanger, which considering it has yet to be renewed (as I write this) may be regretted.  Don’t get me wrong, I really hope it does get renewed, as it is a consistently high performer in terms of quality, but given the way networks seem to be cancelling excellent shows this year, I worry that the dedicated fan base won’t get a decent conclusion.

The way this episode is constructed as essentially a part of a longer piece.  I stated in my review of the last episode that it felt like a two part, but having now seen this episode, it is clearly more like the season bridging two-parters we’d get with Star Trek: TNG, with episode nine teeing up the story, and then episode ten being a straight two-parter with whatever comes next, creating a sort of two-and-a-half part, or possible three part show.

This instalment is quite frenetic, and continues directly on from the last episode, where Jessica (Tonya Glanz) has predictably turned out to be a Rittenhouse agent, and kidnapped Jiya (Claudia Doumit), along with the lifeboat.  While this is undoubtedly a strong strategic move, crippling the team, Carol (Susanna Thompson) clearly has other motives, as it means she could sideline Emma (Annie Wersching) if necessary.

Unfortunately for Rittenhouse, their ineptness continues and they somewhat implausibly leave Jiya and the Lifeboat, massively valuable assets remember, ludicrously under guarded and Jiya escapes in the Lifeboat; not however, without Emma damaging it, so Jiya ends up in San Francisco of 1888.  Using the book ‘A History of San Francisco’, which is obviously where the potential title came from, Jiya manages to communicate with Rufus (Malcolm Barratt) by placing some Klingon text in a photo of herself.  The text includes coordinates to where the Lifeboat is, as well as an instruction not to go back to 1888, which obviously they ignore.

In the ensuing trip to 1888, there is quite a lot of action packed into a short space of time, including some references to past themes.  There is for instance, a discussion between Carol and Lucy (Abigail Spencer) about not being able to dodge death, and Jiya and Malcolm revisit their ongoing debate on whether self-determination is possible.  Jiya’s main concern is that Rufus is going to die there, as this is the location her visions told her about.  A lot of this is interesting, as they argue about the choice between trying to avoid it at all costs, or going straight towards it to defeat it head-on.  This is also a different Jiya than Rufus has known up until now, as she has spent 3 years trapped in the past, so has learned a great deal, both about surviving, and about herself.

This episode gives us a lot of great scenes involving Jiya, and it has been a long time coming.  She is one of the best characters, who has been underused.  I would happily watch a season of ‘The Adventures of Jiya and Rufus’!  Claudia Doumit and Malcolm Barrett are great in this episode, as they always are, but we get a real rollercoaster of emotional responses displayed here.  Similarly, the love triangle, between Lucy, Wyatt (Matt Lanter) and Jessica, which is almost a square now that it looks like Flynn (Goran Visnjic) is going to declare his love to Lucy, gets played very well, with all acting suitably wounded.  As an added bonus, we also get Rufus calling Wyatt out on the childish/selfish Lucy and Jessica playground nonsense, which has essentially put Jiya in jeopardy.

On the opposite side, away from sentimentality, Emma becomes even more of the villain, as she coldly bumps off Carol and Nicholas (Michael Rady), showing their hubris in its full light.  As soon as Carol verbally put Emma in her place after kidnapping Jiya, you knew it wasn’t going to end well.  Going forward, this will probably be quite effective, as Carol and Nicholas probably weren’t ruthless enough to be truly villainous, despite the acts they had committed so far.  The unknown quantity in the new set up will be Jessica, as we don’t truly know her anymore.  As it is revealed she was brought up by Rittenhouse, she has been thoroughly indoctrinated, but does seem to have some heart.

In the denouement of the episode, and possibly the whole show, we think we’re going to get a very downbeat ending, which may have been a better choice, compared to what we get, which is ‘resistance fighter’ looking future versions of Lucy and Wyatt turning up in another Lifeboat.  Having said that, if they had put what happens at the start of a new season, I would not have been impressed, and it would have seemed a lot like a cheap/lazy cliff-hanger solution straight out of a black and white serial.

The downbeat ending, where the team return knowing that Rufus is dead, is harsh, but dramatically interesting, however much I would like Rufus to be alive.  If I do have a quibble with this section though, it’s that there is a solution they don’t even mention.  They state they can’t go back to save Rufus, as you can’t go back to a time you’ve already been to, and Connor can’t go as he doesn’t know how to pilot the Lifeboat.  Nobody mentions Stanley Fisher, who despite being catatonic for some time, was quite lucid with Jiya in just the last episode!  If she can get through to him, they could use him as pilot, at least to get back there with Agent Christopher (Sakina Jaffrey) and Connor, and Rufus could pilot the return journey.  This is nitpicking though.

What this episode does do, is change things up for a potential third season.  There would be a new villain, with a darker streak, and a set of new rules around time travel, as clearly Lucy and Wyatt have no problems visiting their younger selves!  Hopefully the campaign to save Timeless from the scrap heap of history is successful, and we get to enjoy at least another season.  If we do, let’s make it more than 10 episodes, and let’s explore Jiya’s visions properly!