Timeless Review: The Kennedy Curse S02E05

Five episodes into this second season of Timeless, with The Kennedy Curse, we’re seeing a loosening of the reins in terms of ‘time travel policy’, which is all for the better. (SPOILERS LIE AHEAD!)

Quite often in time travel dramas, there is a strict of rule of behaviour that everyone gets drummed in to them pretty early in a show’s history.  This was the same with Timeless in the first season, and there was attention paid to not upsetting the existing timeline if at all possible; obviously this went out the window based on Rittenhouse’s activities, and Lucy (Abigail Spencer) loses her sister, as well as becoming engaged, but within their group they try to be as minimally disruptive as possible.  Those reins are now being loosened, as they test the boundaries of cause and effect in the timeline; partly this has been forced upon them, by events out of their control, but they are less dogmatic about it now.

This episode represents a clear shift in attitude, and manifests this in action, as Rufus (Malcolm Barrett) and Wyatt (Matt Lanter) end up bringing a young JFK (Grant Logan) back to the present to protect him.  As is always the way, this ends up going a little wrong and JFK witnesses a lot of the modern world, which would also break a bunch of received wisdom around time travel.  Strangely, in this section of the plot, JFK doesn’t state any wish to remain in the present, and explicitly aims to return to his own time; this is very convenient for the plot, as otherwise the team would have had to convince him to return, knowing he is going to be shot.  This may have actually been a more interesting direction to take, and could have brought a lot of tension into the drama, giving extra scope to explore themes of sacrifice and duty; it was a missed opportunity in that regard.

This episode also continues the idea of the team rotating and different people going on the missions; primarily, this has happened due to plot elements, e.g. Wyatt sorting out his marriage, and in this episode, Lucy being unconscious with a fever, but it is likely to happen for strategic reasons too in the future.  This will open up more story ideas and variations, which can only help the ongoing overarching plotline.  Interestingly, they leave Flynn (Goran Visnjic) back in time and have to go back to fetch him, which is probably the first time we’ve seen that.  As ever though, for me, there is not enough of the Jiya (Claudia Doumit) storyline, and it’s about time Jiya gets back in the lifeboat, or we at least have a bigger examination of what is happening with her!

What we do get in this episode is a further look at the Wyatt, Lucy, and Jessica (Tonya Glanz) love triangle.  Despite trying to keep it strictly business, Lucy and Wyatt are definitely a little awkward around each other and it’s not long before Jessica figures out that things have been a little different in their timeline, compared to hers.  This is all handled quite well though and we don’t get any characters slinking off in a strop and jeopardising the mission, which would have been lazy writing; instead, we actually get something better, which is some acknowledgment of the difficulty of the situation, and some personal sacrifice, including reminding everyone of the things that Wyatt has previously done to try to bring Jessica back; we know all these as viewers, but Jessica would be completely unaware of any of it, so it’s adding some depth to her story.

In other plot developments, we see a tactic which is slightly jarring, but only in the sense that we haven’t seen it up until now, as you’d imagine it would be used extensively.  Carol (Susanna Thompson) decides to try and protect Lucy by getting Agent Christopher (Sakina Jaffrey) to pull her out of missions, as Emma (Annie Wersching) and Nicholas (Michael Rady) have taken the job of dealing with Lucy out of Carol’s hands.  Carol’s plan is to threaten Agent Christopher’s family, which does seem like Villain 101, and it’s surprising that this isn’t happening every week; it is easy to allow this little contrivance though, as everything else seems to be working so well in the show!

This episode is a looser, freer, more confident affair than before, and demonstrates the show going in a good direction, expanding the options.  There are still a few things to address, such as the rehabilitation of Connor Mason (Paterson Joseph), but generally, the choices in the writing room are definitely the right ones, and it is going from strength to strength.  Just give us more information around Jiya’s ‘visions’ and get her more in the field, and we’ll be even more on track.