TIMELESS Recap: “The World’s Columbian Exposition”

By Ruby Campos

You Can Always Count on Harry Houdini

What Happened Last Time? In the midseason finale, Flynn kidnapped Lucy and whisked her away in the motherboard ship after she stopped him from killing Rittenhouse’s son (remember he managed to kill Rittenhouse but wished to cut all ties). Rufus and Wyatt, who get there just in time to see the time machine dematerialize, were left helpless.

When the episode begins, Wyatt and Rufus rush back to the present frantically informing the others of what happened and demanding Jiya find Flynn’s current location. After some confusion as to where Flynn decided to land, they’re certain he took Lucy to the Chicago World’s Fair circa 1893.

While they wait for the lifeboat to recharge, Rufus tells Mason that they killed a few of the Rittenhouse guys, including its founder. Mason is distraught by this news and pleads for Rufus to run away with his family and start his life over. Yet again, Rufus refuses to back down despite being terrified of what may be to come; he wants to save Lucy, not walk away.

As they get dressed for the late 1800s, Wyatt decides their best bet is to find Teddy Roosevelt, who will be present at the fair, because Flynn tends to go for the big names in history.

However, after reprimanding her for preventing him from getting rid of Rittenhouse at the source, Flynn lets Lucy in on his plan. Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and JP Morgan are all scheduled to be in the area and all happen to members of Rittenhouse, so of course Flynn plans on killing the three of them. The only problem? Thomas Edison is super paranoid and getting past all of the safeguards and locks on his office is near impossible, even for someone with 21^st century equipment.

It also turns out that Flynn figured Wyatt and Rufus would follow him to the fair to get rescue Lucy and he also correctly guessed that they would mistakenly look for Roosevelt. The guys recognize one of Flynn’s men in the crowd outside and end up at the World’s Fair Hotel, AKA The Murder Castle (yikes).

Only after informing her that her friends are most likely at the Murder Castle (run by notorious real life serial killer H.H. Holmes) does Lucy agree to assist Flynn in breaking into Edison’s office so he can plant a bomb in the room where he will meet with Ford and Morgan.

Surprisingly, the two end up at the show of an up and coming magician, Harry Houdini. Lucy who is enthralled by his act volunteers to assist him for the final part of the show and manages to trick him into assisting in Flynn’s plan.

Meanwhile at Murder Castle, Wyatt and Rufus split up to find Flynn and Lucy. The hotel quickly lives up to its ominous title after Wyatt assists an architect named Sophia into her room and they are gassed. When they wake up they find themselves in an airtight, soundproof room with Rufus and a man named George who were similarly gassed.

Flynn takes Houdini to the room where he needs to plant the bomb, and instead of attempting to pick the dozens of locks keeping it safe, the magician decides to climb in through a vent in the ceiling and lets Flynn inside. However, they are caught at the scene of the crime and Houdini does one of his tricks and handcuffs Flynn to the furniture, saving everyone’s lives.

Harry returns to Lucy, who was to wait outside while they broke in, and she convinces him to help her find Wyatt and Rufus who are at the Murder Castle. The happen to walk through the right hall at the right time and hear Wyatt’s yells for help (he managed to wedge a hole through a deteriorating brick, thanks to Sophia). Houdini and Lucy find the opening and rescue the four inhabitants of the trap room.

However, they aren’t completely safe. Wyatt forces the caretaker to take him to H.H. Holmes’ office but Lucy, who sees his portrait on the wall, realizes a second too slow that George is H.H. Holmes and he takes her to the basement before she has a chance to warn the others.

Lucy is trapped in a dark enclosed space and manages to control her fear by pretending to be a psychic. She attempts to talk her way out of being killed by promising Holmes that she could make him rich. The guys come in just in time and Wyatt kills Holmes when Lucy reveals that in the future he will lie when he confesses to the murders he committed and the locations of the bodies.

After saying their goodbyes to Sophia and Houdini, the trio, reunited once more, return to the present day. Rufus speaks to Rittenhouse over his assigned recording device and says that he will only continue to do his job as long as his family remains unharmed, otherwise they’re going to have to find someone else who can pilot a time machine (spoiler: there isn’t anyone else who can). He also decides that he is no longer going to tape their trips through time and tells Mason that he needs to pick a side.

The episode ends as Wyatt gets a call from Flynn, who as promised in the previous episode, gives him the name of his wife’s killer. However, he gives him a friendly reminder that you can’t travel to a time and place where you already exist so Wyatt can’t just go and kill the guy before his wife is murdered. Flynn suggests that maybe he should kill the man’s innocent parents in order to get his wife back, putting him in an eerily similar situation in the last episode when the trio stopped him from killing Rittenhouse’s only son.

Catch Timeless at 10/9c Monday nights on NBC.