Timeless – Pilot

By: Jessica Wolff

After showing the Hindenburg crash and explosion of 1937, the show cuts to present day. As Lucy Preston (Abigail Spencer) finishes teaching her history class, the dean informs her that she has been denied tenure. Lucy goes to visit her sick mother and talks to her sister, Amy (Bailey Noble). After telling her that she wanted tenure to honor their mother’s legacy, Amy says for her to make her own future. In a warehouse, Rufus Carlin (Malcolm Barrett) works at his job, but his workplace is disturbed as Garcia Flynn (Goran Visnjic) and his men open fire. They climb into the time machine and it disappears into thin air before anyone can stop them.

Lucy answers the door to find Agent Kundo (Hiro Kanagawa) from Homeland Security. Without answering her questions, he brings her to the warehouse and to a small room. Inside sits Wyatt Logan (Matt Lanter) and neither of them knows why they’ve been brought here. Agent Denise Christopher (Sakina Jaffery) comes in and introduces herself. She briefs them on Flynn and inventor Connor Mason (Paterson Joseph) explains time travel to them. Both Lucy and Wyatt are in disbelief about everything and they both think that this is a practical joke. Mason informs them that they will be using a back-up time machine to follow Flynn and prevent him from changing history.

Storming out, Lucy insists that even if she did believe them that she’s out of her depth. Christopher tells her that they need her history expertise for the mission and convinces her that a lover of history should want to save it. Mason tells Rufus that he has to go with them, but Rufus is hesitant because there is no part of history that will be safe for him as a black man. As Lucy gets dressed, she complains about the historical inaccuracy of her costume. Lucy, Wyatt and Rufus climb into the time machine and introductions are made as they strap in. Rufus pilots the machine and they successfully travel to 1937. They step out and Lucy and Wyatt are shocked that time travel is a reality.

As they walk along the road, Rufus explains to Lucy and Wyatt that they can’t time travel to anywhere they have already been. They take a bus into town and Rufus comments on having to sit on the back of the bus. Lucy explains the conditions that caused the Hindenburg to crash and question what Flynn wants to change about the landing. They go inside and Lucy asks Rufus to step outside after many of the patrons stare at them. Wyatt shows Flynn’s picture to the bartender, but he is of no help. Lucy spots journalist Kate Drummond (Shantel VanSanten) and rushes over to talk to her. Wyatt is surprised at how much she reminds him of someone he knows. He flirts with her a little bit and Lucy shows her Flynn’s picture. She tells them that she saw Flynn two hours ago and was picked up as ground crew for the Hindenburg.

Wyatt talks excitedly about Kate, but Lucy informs him that she is fated to be killed in the Hindenburg crash. He is shocked that Lucy didn’t inform her of her death, but Lucy insists that they can’t change history. They rush to the Hindenburg landing and find a police officer. Showing him Flynn’s picture, they tell him that he is dangerous. When the officer asks who they are, Lucy tells him that Wyatt is Dr. Dre, that she is Nurse Jackie and that they are from General Hospital. She tells him that Flynn is an escaped patient from the hospital. As the Hindenburg starts to land, Wyatt sees Kate and runs to pull her away from the landing spot. Lucy spots Flynn and takes off after him. Kate resists Wyatt’s attempts to get her to move, but the Hindenburg lands safely to his surprise. Lucy follows Flynn into a warehouse and is attacked by two of his men. Wyatt fights them off and shoots one of the men with a modern gun. Lucy is horrorstruck as she realizes that history has been changed.

The three discuss what to do next. Wyatt doesn’t understand why saving people’s lives is a bad thing, but Lucy emphasizes the importance of preserving history. Wyatt pulls walkie-talkie off the dead man, and Rufus uses it to track Flynn’s location. Lucy criticizes Wyatt for bringing a modern gun into the past and is worried that the advanced technology will fall into the hands of the Nazis. Rufus informs them the walkie-talkie has been tampered with and Wyatt figures out that it has been transformed into a detonator. Lucy reads Kate’s column and realizes that many important men are traveling on the Hindenburg’s return trip. She figures out that Flynn wants to bomb the Hindenburg on the return trip instead. Before they can do anything, the police come and arrest them.

The three of them are thrown into jail and Wyatt admits to Lucy that Kate reminds him of his dead wife. He comes up with a plan to escape and asks Rufus to distract the guard while he uses the wire from Lucy’s bra to pick the lock on the cell door. Rufus talks to the guard and he responds by calling him a boy. He tells him that he is not a boy and that he hopes that history is not on his side for his racist views. The officer returns with another officer and they open Rufus’ cell to beat him, but Wyatt opens the cell just in time and starts beating on the officer. Rufus uses the distraction to grab the other officer’s nightstick and knock him out, before they escape.

As they look for the bomb, they run into Kate who is angry at his attack earlier. Wyatt insists that he was trying to save her and tells her about the bomb. She agrees to help them and they search the Hindenburg kitchen for the bomb. As soon as Wyatt finds the bomb, the Hindenburg takes off. Wyatt tries to defuse the bomb and tells Lucy and Rufus to get the pilot to land the Hindenburg. They grab knives and hold the pilots hostage, telling them that they are anarchists and demanding that they land immediately. Flynn looks on as the people rush to the Hindenburg’s landing.

Kate asks Wyatt what is going on and he tells her that he is Buck Rogers and that the bomb came from outer space. A man attacks him and Wyatt fights him. Kate tries to help, but is thrown to the ground. As the man beats Wyatt, Kate grabs a frying pan and knocks him out. Wyatt disables the bomb, but the man shoots a bullet into the engine, which causes the Hindenburg to explode. Several people jump off the fiery ships as it crashes. Flynn pulls a gun on Lucy and she is surprised that he knows her name. He knows a lot about her due to a journal that she has not yet written. He tells her that she is meant to be more than a teacher and tells her to ask the agents why she was really chosen for this mission and what Rittenhouse is. Wyatt points a gun at Flynn and he grabs Lucy. They shoot at each other and Flynn’s bullet hits Kate instead. Wyatt rushes to her and holds her in his arms as she dies.

They arrive back in the present safe and sound. They look at the newspaper which shows the revised story of the Hindenburg and they tell Christopher and Mason about what happened. Lucy tells Christopher that she spoke to Flynn who asks about what he told her. Lucy mentions Rittenhouse, but Christopher says that she has no idea what Flynn is talking about. Wyatt wants to go back and do it over again, but Rufus reminds him they can’t go back to the same time again. Lucy shares her theory that Flynn is trying to kill American history before it is written. Christopher and Mason tell them that they will need to continue their trips through time to stop Flynn as long as he has the time machine. Mason asks Rufus to hand over a recording of Lucy and Wyatt, but admits that he’s uncomfortable with recording them.

Lucy talks to Wyatt on the way out and tells him that he can’t go back and prevent his wife’s death. Rufus asks out his coworker Jiya (Claudia Doumit) and Wyatt looks at a picture of him and his wife in a bar. Lucy comes home to find her mother healthy and that her sister no longer exists. Her mother doesn’t understand why Lucy is freaking out. Before she can explain, Lucy gets a call to go on another mission.