TIMELESS “Stranded” Recap

By Ruby Campos

Quick, We Need a Capacitor and its 1754

This week’s installment of Timeless starts a little differently from previous episodes. Rather than watching the trio go to Mason Industries and climb into the time machine, our first glimpse is of our protagonists running from the French in 1754.

They are quickly captured by Lieutenant Louis Coulon but Wyatt manages to get himself and the others free after he insults one of the soldiers.

They come across the time machine in time to see Flynn’s men damage it enough to the point where they cannot use it. Flynn also leaves with the mothership just before Wyatt, Lucy, and Rufus are able to hop on, leaving them stranded in 1754.

All hope seems to be lost until Rufus suggests that he might be able to fix the lifeboat to the point where they can take one trip, but he needs the supplies to hopefully make a successful capacitor. However, they need to take a trip back towards the French fort in order to get any of the supplies needed to create a capacitor. And even if he does mend the machine enough to make it fly, they still won’t be able to control where it ends up landing.

Before they trek back towards imminent danger, Rufus remembers Mason’s protocol. He writes a message in a bottle that needs to be buried a few feet in front of the ship. (Pretty primitive for a guy who created a time machine?)

After narrowly avoiding the French, the trio ends up getting captured again, this time by the Shawnee tribe. When they are left alone, tied up and contemplating hteir probable demise at the hands of their captors, the three finally seem to have a genuine moment where they share some of their more personal thoughts. Rufus lightens the mood by starting out by talking about chocodiles (chocolate covered Twinkies) but gets more serious when he expresses his feelings for Jiya. Lucy reveals that she always pictured herself reading to her children in the future. She also apologizes to Wyatt for concluding that his wife’s death was meant to be. He relieves Lucy of her guilt and tells her he understands where she’s coming from and that she didn’t mean it the way he took it.

Their bonding moment comes to an end when the chief, Nohelema comes into the tent and orders Lucy and Wyatt’s deaths, letting Rufus, a man she assesses as a reluctant slave go free. However when Rufus pleads to the chief for their lives she relents, agreeing to spare them on the condition they not cause further trouble.

Back in the present, Agent Christopher and Mason dig up Rufus’ message, but a majority of his writing has worn away over the centuries. The only words that they are able to retrieve at the lab are ‘death’ and ‘millennium’ and Mason notes that it doesn’t sound good.

Back in the past, Wyatt uses the clothing of a dead French solider to help the trio sneak into the French camp so they can finally get the needed supplies. The disguise works just long enough for Rufus to scrounge up the supplies and make the capacitor. However, their cover is blown and Rufus, Lucy, and Wyatt are chased over the fort wall and towards the damaged time machine.

Meanwhile in the present, Mason and Jiya seem to be at a loss as to what they could do. After sharing some fond memories of Rufus, Jiya suddenly comes to the realization they can save their colleagues by catching it in mid jump, (the words, ‘death’ and ‘millennium’ reference a similar situation in Star Wars between the Death Star and the Millennium Falcon).

The trio scramble into the time machine, with the French right on their heels. Rufus manages to get the ship going before soldiers’ shots do any more serious harm and they literally make a crash-landing back to the present in Mason’s lab.

Everyone finally gets a moment to catch their breath, now that they are safely back in the present. Jiya and Rufus share a long-awaited kiss. Christopher requests a surveillance operation on Connor Mason as she has some suspicions about what he is keeping from her.

The episode closes with the trio sharing some drinks and relaxation. Lucy starts to stress about the journal she thinks she is destined to write and the partnership she seems to strike with Flynn in the future.  Wyatt tries to give her a sense of hope by giving telling her that she shouldn’t depend so much on fate and destiny. He concludes that if she doesn’t want to write that journal, then she can make the decision not to, on her own. It’s her choice, not destiny’s.

Timeless continues on NBC, Mondays at 10/9c.