Timeless Review: The General S02E09

With the last two episodes showing back to back, we’re fast approaching the end of season two, in Timeless, episode nine: The General. (BEWARE: SPOILERS LIE AHEAD!)

As I write this, Timeless has still not been renewed, although there are apparently negotiations underway.  After last year’s cancellation and reprieve, the show could do with a smoother transition between seasons.  The jury is still out though on what will happen, as its high quality doesn’t always come into the decision, as much as rating numbers; this is true every year, but with some high profile shows getting the chop, this seems more significant this year.  To try to get a big push at the end of the season, the showrunners have come up with this ploy of back to back episodes; let’s hope it works.

This episode, which is effectively the first part of a two-parter, centres on Harriet Tubman (Christine Horn), as she fights for the Union in the civil war.  Rittenhouse has sent a sleeper, Colonel Reyerson (Kevin Sizemore) back to fight for the confederates, with the aim of changing the tide of the war.  As we catch up with him, Emma (Annie Wersching) turns up with a cheeseburger and a copy of a ‘Military History of the Civil War’, with which he can attack the Union troops. (using the knowledge in the book, not the cheeseburger!).

At first he is very successful, Tubman loses a lot of troops, and the Union withdraws from the area.  After this is where the team turn up, present themselves as Union spies, and set out to help Tubman get back on track, while also finding and killing the sleeper.

Throughout this, the theme of civil war is played out both in the past reality, and within the team, as the suspicion of Jessica (Tonya Glanz) is revealed.  This is also done very well within the individual relationships, as well as the wider scope of the team.  There is conflict between Wyatt (Matt Lanter) and Lucy (Abigail Spencer) for instance, on many levels, with both of them having their moments of sullenness, although in both cases it is probably unjustified, and they’re not really on firm ground when it comes to feeling aggrieved.

As a soldier, and a member of this top secret team, that has been in significant jeopardy for a while, Wyatt seems very easily blindsided by his emotions, which costs them all in the end.  To a degree this is understandable, given the pain of losing Jessica and then getting her back, but in their situation it is surprising that he acts as he does.  From a plot point of view, it is a bit clunky that a major plot twist, if you can call it that, as everyone saw it coming, can only really happen because Wyatt fails to tell anyone about the Jessica’s brother; this is a classic trope to employ.

While I found that aspect of the episode a little annoying, the actors did do a great job with it, and there is a spirited effort to make it work.  This division does at least give them a chance to have some interesting character discussions, some of which we wouldn’t normally see. This is either due to the mundaneness of it in comparison to time travelling, or due to the more serious manner, as seen with Wyatt and Rufus, who normally joke with each other about these things.

One very interesting part of this plot, and linking to Jiya’s (Claudia Doumit) visions, is that Harriet Tubman saw them arriving to help her in a dream, which at first is dismissed by Rufus (Malcolm Barrett) as coincidence, wishful thinking, or religious hokum, but ultimately opens up a new mysterious element, as she mentions the lifeboat.  What this ultimately means about the nature of the visions we don’t yet know, but it is an intriguing new titbit of information.

Continuing on the vision theme, after their own little bit of conflict, Jiya convinces Connor (Paterson Joseph) to let her see Stanley Fisher (Terry Maratos), a previous mothership pilot who is now in a mental institution.  Stanley spends most of his time in a catatonic state, experiencing visions, and Jiya is convinced that he can shed some light on her own situation.  This has been a long time coming, and should really have happened in the first couple of episodes of this season, not at the end; I could imagine this working in this episode if the season was 22 episodes long, but as it’s only 10, this happens way too late.

Jiya learns a lot of interesting things from Stanley about the nature of the visions, while Connor stands on incredulous, and dismisses all her questions.  This just doesn’t ring true to me, as Connor is a scientist, who is being presented with some more information, which can be tested, or at the very least logged.  This makes me think that Connor is either an idiot, or is secretly already experimenting on Stanley, and wants to throw Jiya off the track.  We may never find out.

While I do have my reservations about a few things in this episode, it is still a very fine piece of TV drama, and much better than a lot of shows out there that somehow survive.  As I have said before, when criticising an aspect of Timeless, it shows the quality, when I can nitpick and still enjoy the show immensely.  This episode pretty much upsets the applecart across the board, and as the first of effectively a two-parter, we shall see very shortly whether any of the many questions it raises, get answers.