Timeless 1x04 Review: "Party at Castle Varlar" (Let's Be Spies)

"Party at Castle Varlar"

Original Airdate: October 24, 2016

I think that out of all of the time-travel shows on television right now, Timeless is the most impressive. It is consistently funny, dramatic, while also providing just enough clues to the overarching mystery that the audience isn't driven mad with waiting or wanting. The biggest surprise, however, is how emotional the series is. And I think that, honestly, is what is driving the show for me. I'm all for time-travel shenanigans. I watch Doctor Who and Legends of Tomorrow, after all. But if I don't care about the characters, all the period clothes and historical references are for naught. Timeless isn't just asking us to care about the characters, though — they're asking us to peek into the nooks and crannies of their souls and stare, however uncomfortable, at their vulnerabilities. I'm so impressed that we are four episodes into the series and we're already learning about who these characters are and what motivates them. This week, "Party at Castle Varlar" allowed us the chance to have some spy-centric fun (Sean Maguire gets to play the beloved hero Robin Hood in Once Upon A Time and the iconic Ian Fleming, author of James Bond novels in Timeless), while we also get real and powerful glimpses into Lucy and Wyatt's personalities, and Rufus makes a decision about spying for Connor Mason that almost costs him everything.

"I AGREE WITH HIM... BUT I TRUST YOU."

One of my concerns going into Timeless was that Wyatt would become an archetype — the broody soldier who suffers loss and doesn't do well with authority. And while there are certainly shades of that character in the first few episodes, "Party at Castle Varlar" is where Wyatt really gets the chance to shine. He and Lucy have had an interesting dynamic over the past few episodes, as his mission varies fundamentally from hers — she is concerned with saving history; he is concerned with taking out his target. It's a civilian's mentality versus a soldier's mentality, and while it's understandable to an extent, Wyatt's obsession with taking down Flynn no matter the cost has led him to become more dangerous and reckless than Lucy or Rufus can handle.

So while this episode begins with a similar mentality (Wyatt taking out Nazi soldiers and his insistence that by not changing history, Werner von Braun doesn't ever get punished for his crimes), it's refreshing that Wyatt changes his perspective just a bit and actually allows Lucy to see the humanity behind his rigid mission-myopic recklessness. See, Wyatt isn't just a soldier. But he is one, no less, and Lucy isn't. Lucy never wanted this job. It's easy for Wyatt to deal with the pressures of it, but for Lucy, it's overwhelming. She's thrust into a world in which there are no certainties and guarantees and while that is commonplace for Wyatt, it's foreign terrain for Lucy.

So it's understandable that she begins to have a breakdown in the episode.

And I'm really glad that Timeless chose to handle the moment of her breakdown in the way they did. When Lucy's hands start to shake as she prepares to infiltrate a Nazi party with Ian Fleming, she tries to hide and calm herself down. She doesn't want anyone to see how scared she actually is — how unnerving this entire experience has been to her. So when Wyatt approaches her and gives her space to talk, it's incredible to watch her slowly let down her guard and let him into an extremely vulnerable moment. Lucy confesses that she almost died once, and it was so terrifying that it left her with the desire to only put herself in situations she could control. She doesn't want this uncertainty — she doesn't WANT to be a soldier. All she ever wanted to do was relive history through teaching. Nothing more.

   

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Wyatt, patient and understanding, listens to her and then allows Lucy into his own past, where he confesses the reason he became a soldier in the first place and how his family is his inspiration to keep going. It's a really powerful, emotional scene that is completely and utterly sold by Abigail Spencer and Matt Lanter. I don't doubt for a moment the honesty and vulnerability of Wyatt and Lucy in this scene. They've already been through life and death situations together, and will undoubtedly face so many more. It is important, when going into battle, to know the person beside you. And I think that this forges a deeper connection between the two. They understand one another now, and can better appreciate each other's motivations. So when Wyatt has the choice later on in the episode to let Ian Fleming kill Werner von Braun, he decides to trust Lucy. That's such an important moment. Because that means Wyatt is surrendering his leadership to her. Respect doesn't mean always agreeing with the other person — it means trusting them, even when their idea is different from yours.

I think that Timeless might be tentatively setting up a Wyatt/Lucy romance, and while I was on the fence before this episode, "Party at Castle Varlar" sealed it for me. These two characters have magnetic chemistry (evident even in little moments where Wyatt does something like buckle Lucy's seatbelt for her), and a solid foundation for trust. Both have scars and both are trying to navigate a world that is terrifying and unknown; but both have each other's backs. Wyatt is always there, protecting and watching out for Lucy (and getting a little jealous too, not gonna lie), and Lucy is the first one to affirm Wyatt when he's right. To top it all off, Abigail Spencer and Matt Lanter acted their faces off in this week's episode, and have proven that we need to care about each of their characters -- and we need to care about Wyatt and Lucy's relationship, whatever that may end up being.

RUFUS CAN'T CATCH A BREAK

This week's episode, thankfully, was another solid story for Rufus. As much as I love him being the comedic relief (and he got a few good lines in there throughout the episode), I think that I'm enjoying learning about his more emotional side, too. What was really cool about this episode was that Rufus got the opportunity to connect with the historical figure, Ian Fleming. As we know that Rufus is spying on Lucy and Wyatt for Connor, it was really poignant to have him discuss what it means to be a spy with Fleming. Rufus is beginning to feel guilty for lying, even though his comrades have no idea that he's betraying them. But Fleming provides Rufus with an interesting perspective — Fleming doesn't see his life as a spy as lying, so much as playing a part. That, coupled with the very good conversation that Werner von Braun and Rufus have at the end of the episode (which essentially boils down to "the ends justify the means") lead him to a decision: he cannot spy on Lucy and Wyatt anymore. 

... Except, it's never that simple, is it? Connor — it turns out — was trying to protect Rufus from Rittenhouse (made evident because at the end of the episode, Rufus is literally stopped on his drive home by an intimidating old guy who vaguely threatens Rufus' family unless he continues spying for Connor). And now it looks like Rufus has no choice but to continue to spy, or else his family is in danger.

Ugh, the poor guy can't catch a break, can he?

WHAT IS RITTENHOUSE?

I also appreciated the fact that "Party at Castle Varlar" chose to not put the primary focus on catching Flynn, mostly because that kind of show (ahem, season one of Legends of Tomorrow), gets really old really fast. There are only so many ways that a bad guy can evade the heroes. Thankfully, this week was a bit of a twist -- the good guys got to evade the bad guys for a change. In addition to that little twist, it was also nice for the emphasis of the episode to fall more heavily toward emotion and character development rather than plot. The one weakness I can see in Timeless thus far is the constant circling back of "Flynn has a plan, but it's just vague enough that we don't know what it is, but we all should care" sub-plot. Flynn, to be honest, is the weakest part of the show and I hope that I become more invested in him as the series goes on.

But finally, the one question everyone wants answered: WHAT IS RITTENHOUSE?!

Timey-wimey notes:

• Yup, you read this all correctly: I write Timeless reviews now! I can't promise they will all be as quick of a turnaround as this one, but I'll do my best.
• I loved that Timeless showed us exactly how the characters get their period clothes.
• "I'm not German, you idiot."
• Of course Lucy would get hit on by a historical figure. First Robert Todd Lincoln, and now Ian Fleming! I did very much adore how that irked Wyatt just enough to be hilarious and also telling.
• Speaking of Wyatt, who else loved how much he fanboyed over James Bond? I sure did.
• "Dude. James Bond just hit on Lucy."
• "I hate to put a damper on all the fangirling..."

What did you all think of this episode? Are you aboard the Wyatt/Lucy ship yet? What lengths will Rufus have to go to in order to protect his loved ones? Sound off in the comments below!

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Timeless May Be One of the Strongest Time-Travel Shows Yet

I started watching Doctor Who years ago, and fell in love with it. There is something so fascinating about time-travel, and all of its rules and regulations that makes the hit British sc-fi series so appealing. We get to see the future and different planets more than we get to see The Doctor and his companions travel to the past. And the truth is that over the years, television has replaced one fad with another. This year, that fad seems to be shows about time-travel. Shows about traveling through time aren't really new (as I noted above, Doctor Who has been around for over 50 years and has covered this subject), but they seem to be all the rage this season, replacing the now-tired zombie show fad. When you can flip through the major cable networks and see shows like Time After Time, Legends of Tomorrow, Frequency, and Making History, it might seem difficult and overwhelming to choose a time-travel show that checks all of the important boxes (mystery, rules to messing with time, consequences for breaking aforementioned rules, character development, etc.), but while I was initially skeptical of NBC's newest addition to the time-travel genre, Timeless, I found myself completely compelled by the pilot.

Perhaps my apathy regarding the show came from the over-promotion of it at Comic-Con this past year, where you couldn't walk ten feet without seeing a shuttle bus or billboard for the series. And because the show's debut conflicted with Conviction (a pilot I had screened for ABC and wanted to live-tweet), I brushed the show aside. Fast-forward a few days to me waiting out a hurricane with nothing but my laptop and new pilots to keep me company. And while Timeless isn't revolutionary, necessarily (it provides the same kind of drama you would expect from an NBC series), it is a perfect encapsulation of what a time-travel genre show should be about, hitting all of the right notes and giving viewers a refreshing twist on an already-tired genre.

The show is about a woman named Lucy (Rectify and Suits' Abigail Spencer), a history professor whose mother (played by Arrow's Susanna Thompson) built the department she works in from the ground up and is widely known and respected. Unfortunately, Lucy's mother is dying and there's nothing she can do to prevent that from happening. So it surprises Lucy when she gets a call from the government, requesting her presence at a lab where — apparently — a time machine has just been stolen. After the initial shock and denial wears off, Lucy, together with a soldier named Wyatt (Matt Lanter) and a coder named Rufus (Malcolm Barrett) take off for the 1930s in order to stop the terrorist who stole the machine from enacting his plot.

On the surface, this might seem like a pretty normalized concept for a time-travel show: a criminal does bad stuff and a team has to chase him through time to stop him from doing more bad stuff. I mean, it's essentially Legends of Tomorrow without the superhero costumes. But what I appreciate about Timeless is that it knows in order to be great, it needs to be about more than just time-travel shenanigans. So Timeless establishes hard and fast rules: you cannot go back to a time in which you already have existed. So the team presumably can't travel back to the 1980s or 1990s, because they've already been born. Rufus explains this early on to Wyatt and Lucy — you can't risk crossing paths with your former self in any way; it'll disrupt time and space itself. What's more, you can't travel back to a time you've already been to. At the end of the episode, Wyatt wants to go back and redo what went wrong in the 1930s, but Rufus points out that they can't — they've already been to the 1937. They can't encounter themselves again. I love this rule, because it means that the show can't bend or break logic in order to tell its story. Shows about time-travel that have rules to them are so vitally important.

Furthermore, I love that Timeless tackles the ramifications of dealing with time-travel. We saw this in the Frequency pilot already — saving one life means that you disrupt time in some way. Saving more people than was originally canon on the Hindenburg means that at the end of the episode, Lucy is left without a sister, but with a healthy mother. (And apparently she has a fiance, too.) There are consequences to altering time even a little bit, and I'm excited to see what this means for the team moving forward since they obviously can't go back and fix what they messed up in 1937. If they mess things up in other time periods, how will we see the ripple effects when they return to the future/present? (Time travel, as Community once said, is "really hard to write about.")

Apart from time-travel shenanigans, rules, and consequences, the most important thing that Timeless does is establish relationships and tension in the pilot. Rufus, it's revealed, is secretly spying on Lucy and Wyatt for Connor Mason — the man whose lab invented the time machine that was stolen. We don't know why Mason wants Rufus to record them, but I imagine it's for nothing noble and honorable. Meanwhile, we learn more about Wyatt's backstory in the pilot, and the way that it's set up is intriguing without being exceptionally vague. We even get to see hints of a bond and relationship forming already between Wyatt and Lucy (hello, chemistry). But what's most important of all is the relationship between the time-traveling trio. We're going to see them bounce throughout time together, and already these are three people who consider themselves unlikely heroes — out-of-place and chosen for a mission they didn't necessarily want. I think that the pilot set up a great series where these people will have to learn how to become heroes, living through history without rewriting it. (The different perspectives on how to treat history, I'm sure, will come up as a point of discussion for the trio in the future as well the methods to deal with the bad guys they encounter.)

The final piece of the successful puzzle for Timeless is providing a vague-yet-convincing overarching mystery. Our villain, Garcia (Goran Višnjić), is traveling through time to wreak havoc, but we don't quite know why yet. When Lucy confronts him, he reveals something to her — a journal filled with things apparently written by her. The only issue? She hasn't actually written them yet. Whew, time-travel, right? What is very interesting is that already Garcia has planted seeds of doubt in Lucy's brain and tells her to ask the government about a specific word and why they chose her, of all people, for this mission. Lucy doesn't receive any answers from the government, which makes her — and us, too — suspect that there might be more to this whole time-travel espionage business than meets the eye. I'm excited to see how this particular plot unravels throughout the season, because it has a lot of potential for intrigue and good character development.

Timeless is already off to an incredible start. There is enough humor within the drama to make the show relatable and interesting, enough character development and cast chemistry to make these relationships plausible, and enough mystery to make the show interesting and long-lasting. I'm hopeful that as the characters travel through time, we will learn more about them, more about our mysterious villain, and more about history itself.

Pilot Grade: A

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