Timeless Review: Mrs Sherlock Holmes S02E07

This week, Timeless goes back to intercede in the Suffragette movement, with some surprising twists, in episode seven: Mrs Sherlock Holmes. (BEWARE: SPOILERS LIE AHEAD!)

Primarily, the plot this week revolves around preventing the death of the suffragette movement in 1919, but alongside the main story, is a number of connecting threads that have been cleverly woven together.  In a very well written episode, there is a central theme of self-determination and this features in each of the subplots, seamlessly fitting into the overall story.

In the main section of the show, Emma (Annie Wersching) travels back with another operative, who will do all the dirty work, as Nicholas (Michael Rady) wants to keep her safe; this action gives us the first explicit indication of a nascent relationship between the two.  The mission is to prevent famous suffragist Alice Paul (Erica Dasher) from giving the speech that changes the mind of Woodrow Wilson (Bryan Scott Johnson) regarding women’s suffrage.  The Rittenhouse sleeper agent in this case, frames Alice for the murder of Senator Wadsworth (Tom Virtue), taking her out of the picture and in theory, changing history.

What Rittenhouse didn’t factor in is that Emma would be against this plan, and would double cross them for this single mission.  Quite believably, Emma has her reasons for not wanting this one to succeed, and brings some nice reality and depth to the characterisation.  It would have been very easy to have the villain of the piece just blindly follow orders, but this adds an authenticity to the plot, and gives us more layers to examine.  Interestingly, the scene between Rufus (Malcolm Barrett), Flynn (Goran Visnjic), and Emma, has some nice references to the past and gives us an insight into their shared histories.

Alongside this, Lucy (Abigail Spencer) has her own struggles coming to terms with the recent emotional turmoil, and she gets to put Wyatt (Matt Lanter) in his place.  There are a couple of moments in this episode where Wyatt is being exceptionally wrong-headed about things, and it isn’t just Lucy that tells him to stand down.  This all fits in nicely with the main storyline, as it highlights that despite progress, there are still negative traits in modern society which need addressing.

Lucy is brilliantly strong in this episode and is an inspiring character that brings the best out in others around her.  The interactions with Mrs Humiston (Sarah Sokolovic) are especially great in highlighting the way society has forced women to accept certain situations, and that story development works very, very well.

This episode is also where we finally get a bit more discussion about Jiya’s (Claudia Doumit) visions, and Rufus tries to figure out how they impact his life.  There is some great interplay between Flynn and Rufus as he decides to become something of a risk taker, due to believing he won’t die, and there is the beginnings of a connection.  While the idea of knowing when you are going to die and that changing your approach to life isn’t a new one, it is explored in a way which is consistent with the show, and in a manner that suits the characters.  It is his own perception of whether he has self-determination, or if ‘fate’ has determined for him that plagues him, and like the others, Rufus has to figure out a way forward.  Sadly, there isn’t enough of Jiya, as she is still back in the present, but hopefully soon we will get a proper amount of time on her character.

This was a very good episode, where all the elements have come together to form a nicely interwoven series of plots and themes, and moves everything forward in a very believable way, while also adding new depth.  They even have time to introduce a potential spanner in the works for future episodes, through Connor’s (Paterson Joseph) investigation of the Rittenhouse computers, which should prove interesting.  The quality continues, but like a broken record, I still want to know more of Jiya’s storyline!