Review of 'Timeless' 2.4

A very thoughtful, altogether excellent episode 2.4 of Timeless last night, in which:

Rufus tells Jiya not to tell him her visions of the future because his knowledge of them, and the impossibility of his then not acting upon them, causes them to come true—even though they're bad, and he's doing everything he can in the past to make sure they don't come true. This provides a nice set piece of a time-travel classic gambit: someone goes back in the past to prevent some tragedy from happening and that very trip to the past is the thing that causes that tragedy. It's a "can't escape fate" kind of time loop, and it's ironic and irresistible and (yeah) I've used it myself in some of my time-travel stories. It's therefore fun to see Rufus try to opt out of it. Just as it will be fun to see, sooner or later, that such opting out or avoidance of the paradox will be impossible, too.

We learn that Rittenhouse saved Jennifer, presumably to emotionally disable Wyatt so he can't be an effective time-travel warrior. (I guess I should add "presumably" to Rittenhouse saved Jennifer, because I'm not sure if we got 100 percent confirmation of that—we didn't see it with our own eyes, we only heard it from Denise, and I guess that's 99 percent not 100 percent confirmation.) But Jennifer's reappearance does change lots of things—splitting Wyatt and Lucy, and giving Flynn a chance to be a hero and maybe even at some point something more than a team-mate to Lucy. Should be interesting.

I liked the Salem story too last night, and the saving of Ben Franklin's young mother. Timeless has been choosing some unusual historical gambits this season—ones you don't usually see in time-travel stories—and that makes the show more appealing.

Next week, though, young JFK will be in the story. He of course figured in the Stephen King novel, in my Loose Ends Saga, too, and who knows how many other time travel stories. I'm looking forward to seeing what Timeless does with this.