TIMELESS “The Watergate Tape” Recap

By Ruby Campos

Now What?

Before the trio takes their trip back to the Watergate Scandal in 1972, Rufus gets another visit from the nameless Rittenhouse representative who decides to give him a ride to work. He gives Rufus another warning about the necessity of him continuing to tape his trips with Lucy and Wyatt, while also threatening his family’s life again. He also tells Rufus that it is most likely that Flynn will try to steal the Watergate tape before the infamous 18 minutes were erased from it. The main goal is to stop Flynn from hearing the tape, he also stresses that no one can hear those missing 18 minutes, not even the trio.

Landing in D.C. in their 70s garb, the trio immediately get themselves into trouble when Wyatt tries to break up a fight. Flynn turns up in the crowd and manages to capture the trio with surprising ease and takes them to the room they stayed in when Lincoln was shot.

Their mission seems to be cut short at a record-breaking time because Flynn already has the Watergate tape. He plays it for them and on it, President Nixon talks about the dangers of Rittenhouse, proving to them (or at least Wyatt and Lucy) that Rittenhouse does in fact exist. He delivers another blow to the team by showing them Lucy’s journal from the future, the one she never told the guys about. This also reveals that she has been having short but secret conversations with Flynn throughout the entire time they have been time traveling together, and while she never did so willingly, she still hid these events from Wyatt and Rufus and it upsets them.

They don’t get much time to talk about group trust and sharing because Flynn has a task for them. He gives Rufus and Lucy 5 hours to find the document related to Watergate mentioned in the tape and bring it back to him. Wyatt remains under Flynn’s watch as collateral while Rufus and Lucy venture out into D.C.

Lucy’s first idea is to contact Mark Felt AKA Deep Throat, the guy who reports information about the scandal to The Washington Post. She manages to get him on the phone and successfully secures a meeting with him. Meanwhile, Rufus makes his first report to Rittenhouse (a new requirement of his spy status now). He tells them they’re looking for the Watergate document and Rittenhouse instructs him to destroy it whenever they do find it.

Later, the two meet up with Deep Throat but he doesn’t provide them with as much information as they had been hoping for. However, he does tell them about a symbol that looked like a fist with horns. While Lucy is clueless to its meaning, Rufus takes the lead of their mission.

Meanwhile, back at Flynn’s headquarters, he opens up to Wyatt, telling him the reason why he has been so set on terminating Rittenhouse. It turns out that he discovered Rittenhouse had been bankrolling Mason’s research and when Rittenhouse found out that he knew this, they killed his wife and daughter. His goal is to get rid of Rittenhouse at its beginning and hope that it results in his family being alive in the new present. However, it is incredibly difficult for him to target them for certain because Rittenhouse seems to be involved in so much of America.

With 3 hours left, Rufus explains that the fist with horns is the symbol of the Black Liberation Army. They go to their headquarters to find information on the doc (Rufus advises Lucy to wait outside, which is a funny little reversal from previous episodes). After stumbling a bit with trying to fit in at headquarters, Rufus manages to talk his way into seeing the doc.

Surprise, it turns out that the doc is actually the Doc, an actual person. She’s given the nickname Doc because she has a PhD in History. She tells Rufus and Lucy that Rittenhouse is after her because she used to be a part of the association. Actually,  she was born into Rittenhouse and she’s on the run.

Rufus gives another report to Rittenhouse and is still ordered to destroy the Doc even after he tells them she’s a person. He refuses to kill someone and Rittenhouse decides they’ll kill her themselves just if Rufus directs them to her.

Things become more intense at this point, Rufus throws his recording device under some running water and tells Lucy that he has been forced to act as a spy. If he doesn’t hand the Doc over to Rittenhouse his family could die, Lucy argues that if they don’t bring her to Flynn, Wyatt would be the one to die.

While Wyatt makes a failed attempt to escape, Rufus and Lucy decide to tell Rittenhouse and Flynn that they have the Doc. If they turn up at the same place and turn on each other, it should give them a little more time to save Wyatt.

Their plan works and the trio gets away intact while Flynn’s team and Rittenhouse battle it out. They make sure the Doc leaves safely before going back to the present and Rufus reports that Flynn interfered with their plan and the Doc got away.

Wyatt takes this moment of safety to lecture the two about how they need to trust each other and he can’t do that if they don’t tell each other everything important, this includes spying on them and chatting with Flynn. He concludes that Rufus should tell Lucy and himself anything he finds out about Rittenhouse and act as a double spy.

In the present Flynn is seen visiting his wife and daughter’s graves as Wyatt looks at a wall of newspaper clippings covering his wife’s death.

Lucy finally gathers up the courage to knock on her biological father’s door (if you recall, her mother gave her the name, Benjamin Cahill, at the end of the previous episode). His son answers the door and calls for him to greet his visitor and the man who appears is none other than the face of Rittenhouse. Lucy’s gets too nervous and leaves before she gets the chance to introduce herself and immediately after, Benjamin makes a call, most likely someone else from Rittenhouse, telling them of her visit.

Oh.

Catch Timeless at 10/9c on Mondays on NBC.