TIMELESS “Party at Castle Varlar” Recap

By Ruby Campos

Figure Out What it is You’re Fighting For

This week, Timeless takes us to Nazi Germany in 1944. After determining Flynn (who still has the atom bomb, by the way) has landed in Northwest Germany on December 9^th, the trio prepares to gear up for their next journey. We get a glimpse into more of Mason Industries and see that they have a whole dock dedicated to different eras of clothing, filed by the year, amusing but also strange as Lucy points out the extent of the collection.

The three land in the past, and out of necessity, Wyatt shoots a German soldier who happens to witness the time machine materializing, telling the other two that there is no way the soldier was alone. After some stealthy maneuvering, they split up. Lucy and Wyatt will go inside of the bar where they’ve been directed to ask the bartender for the Remy Martin 23, and Rufus will stay behind to hot-wire a car in case they need to make a quick getaway.

Rufus ends up having much more success than his partners. Upon entering the bar the two receive stares from all around the room. While Wyatt is adept at speaking German (as well as three other languages), the bartender denies their request for Remy Martin 23, instead he orders whiskey and they take a seat.

After a few moments of silence, a man angrily forces Lucy and Wyatt to leave the bar. The man quickly reveals that he can speak English and complains how the two obviously, Americans stuck out like two sore thumbs in that bar, ruining his need to gather intel. Oh, he also casually introduces himself as Ian Fleming, as in the author of James Bond. That’s right, James Bond was a spy during World War II.

After a bit of excitement and not well masked fangirling on the trio’s part, they tell Fleming about Flynn and his stolen atom bomb. They fear what he will do with the bomb in Germany in World War II. Fleming brings them up to speed by telling them about the rocket launching demonstration scheduled to take place later. They theorize that Flynn may be planning to intensify the rocket launch with his stolen bomb.

The trio, plus Fleming, pay their visit to the rocket and Rufus concludes that the atom bomb is not attached to the rocket in any way. Just as they begin to outwardly question Flynn’s true intentions again, our antagonist appears for a private showing of the rocket. Wyatt aims to shoot at Flynn, but reluctantly backs down after Lucy frantically pleads to him not to because he was standing too closely to Von Braun to risk it. Von Braun, who is responsible for the rocket’s existence, will later move to the allies’ side and will make the moon landing possible among many other things.

Everyone gets into another argument about how far they should go when it comes to getting Flynn and it comes to an end when Fleming agrees with Lucy’s judgement. If it is part of their mission, then they must ensure von Braun lives.

In the downtime/preparation time before going to the rocket launch party at the Castle Varlar, Wyatt makes Lucy sit down and talk about what’s been bothering her. She has been noticeably quiet thus far, and was literally shaking at the bar. After some persuasion, Lucy finally admits that not being able to have control of a situation scares her and she compares it to an incident in college when her car slid off the road and into a river, almost drowning her. The whole concept of going back in time frightens her and she doesn’t know how much longer she will be able to keep doing this. Wyatt tells her that in order to get past this feeling she may need to figure out what it is that she wants to fight for and it will make things a lot easier in the long run.

Lucy accompanies Fleming to the launch party while Rufus and Wyatt attend to the rocket. Their attempt to stop Flynn comes to a halt when Lucy literally bumps into Flynn. Once again, he cryptically warns her that he is the one doing the right thing. He also lets slip that he doesn’t have plans to kill von Braun, in fact he was going to hand von Braun over to the Russians, which would be catastrophic for the future of the world.

Just as things to get super intense, and it looks like Lucy and Fleming are about to face their deaths, instead of dismantling the rocket, Rufus sets it off causing complete panic at the castle. In the commotion, the trio, along with Fleming and von Braun, are barricaded in a room. They narrowly escape when Lucy remembers the secret passageway in the fireplace of the castle.

Before heading back to the present, the trio is awaiting the allies to make sure von Braun leaves with the right people. Rufus has an unsettling conversation with von Braun when he asks if he feels guilty for creating things like the rocket that kill so many people. Rufus wants to know what goes through his mind because he took part in creating the time machine and he can’t get over the destruction that it continues to cause people. Von Braun is unsettlingly nonchalant about what his projects are used for because apparently, that part is not his problem. He also tells Rufus that if he was so worried about the destruction his creation is causing, he wouldn’t have built it in the first place.

When they make their way back to the present, it seems that their trip was mostly successful minus not getting Flynn, they’re even part of a new/old James Bond story.

Before the episode comes to a close, Rufus attempts to resign from the spy aspect of his job again. Mason understands how difficult it is for Rufus but he also has Rittenhouse to deal with so he doesn’t have much choice. The hour ends with Rufus getting a creepy visit from a man most definitely associated with Rittenhouse who not so subtly threatens that his family isn’t safe if he doesn’t play his part.

Notes

The question of what each person is fighting for seemed to come up a lot in this episode. Wyatt is doing this for his grandfather to make him proud and Lucy states at the end of the episode that she is fighting for her sister. By the conclusion of the episode Rufus’ fight becomes more complicated than it already was, he must grapple with staying true to who he is despite having to act as a spy for Mason and Rittenhouse, and consequently must ensure the safety of his loved ones.

Watch Timeless Mondays on NBC at 10/9c