Timeless’ second season is just as impressive and addictive as the first, delivering on a truly unique show

To put it simply, NBC’s Timeless is fantastic. It’s unlike any other time travel show on television, and the Clockblocker fandom has only grown in response. Timeless is smart, witty, and showcases important issues in history as they relate to our present-day lives.

With the cliffhanger in season one, it was hard to imagine a worse villain than Flynn (Goran Višnjić)–but Timeless proved us wrong as Rittenhouse planted multiple agents in time, waiting to strike critical moments in history. Rittenhouse’s ideal present-day looks more like tyranny with fewer rights for women and minorities. The Time Team races against the clock all season to prevent drastic changes to history. Timeless also manages to further the characters’ storylines in the midst of time travel as we find out more from all the members of the Time Team.

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Once Flynn was captured, Rittenhouse attacked Mason Industries by planting bombs and the team narrowly escaped in the Lifeboat. This season focuses on the team recovering from Rittenhouse’s attack and stopping their plans for history. Timeless introduces a greater evil with Rittenhouse, which causes unlikely alliances to form. After Flynn and the Time Team were at odds in season one, the team turns to Flynn for his knowledge on Rittenhouse and their plans for history. We found out so many unanswered questions from season one–how Flynn acquired Lucy’s journal and Rittenhouse’s plans for history.

The second season packs a lot of storyline into its ten episodes. After being canceled, briefly, the second season lived up to the hype. The second season ended on an even larger cliffhanger that opens up the possibilities for time travel and would allow the Time Team to change points in their own timeline. The season finale upped the stakes again with Rittenhouse jeopardizing the outcome of the Civil War and a sleeper agent steals the Lifeboat with Jiya inside! Jiya escapes but gets lost in time, specifically 1880’s San Francisco. The Time Team goes to rescue her, but they lose one of their own in the fight– Rufus. The cliffhanger breaks the one rule of time travel that they couldn’t travel back to their own timeline, which means that they must find out a way around that rule in the future. Their first stop is to save Rufus in 1888, and the possibilities are endless after that!

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Timeless isn’t just a time travel show. The heart and soul of it lies within the characters of the Time Team.

The first season was all about the Time Team learning to work together and trust each other, especially in situations of life or death. In the second season, the trust between Lucy (Abigail Spencer), Wyatt (Matt Lanter), and Rufus (Malcolm Barrett) is already established. Lucy was taken into Rittenhouse’s custody after they sabotaged Mason Industries. Wyatt and Rufus, along with Denise (Sakina Jaffrey), Connor (Paterson Joseph), and Jiya (Claudia Doumit) stop at nothing to get Lucy back.

Throughout the course of season two, everyone in Mason Industries is indoctrinated into time travel making them official members of the Time Team–if they weren’t already. And nothing forces everyone on the team to get along like being trapped in an underground bunker together! Even Flynn becomes a part of the Time Team–first, due to necessity of his Rittenhouse knowledge, and later due to his commitment to keeping the team safe. The chemistry between all the main characters is undeniable and the audience cannot get enough. The Time Team is brought together by dire circumstances of Rittenhouse’s attack, but their commitment to one another to stop Rittenhouse is what brings them closer in season two. They truly become a family and will do anything for each other, even risking their lives to save their own.

Connor: Now it seems as though I spend half my life worrying that the people I love will be horribly maimed. It’s like walking around with your heart on the outside.

Denise: There’s a word for that.

Connor: Panic? Terror?

Denise: Family.

Every member of the Time Team brings something unique to the table, and that’s why they work so well together. Lucy, Wyatt, and Rufus are the historian, soldier, and pilot, respectively. But they’re so much more than that. The trust they’ve built with each other allows them to work seamlessly with a glance to convey a thought. In season two, we see so much more of Connor, Jiya, Denise, and Flynn. Connor plays a pivotal role in the first mission where they added a fourth seat to the Lifeboat due to his knowledge of Robert Johnson and how he influenced the start of rock and roll. It was shocking and heartwarming to see that he never traveled to the past and his reactions to trying to keep a low profile on their mission.

Jiya is also a pilot, but the mishap she had with time travel in season one gives her premonitions of the future–in the past. Jiya works on focusing on her visions and what they might mean for the team and Rufus. She learns to control her visions to see them more clearly and challenges what she thought was set in stone. Denise is the glue that brought together everyone in the Time Team. When her past is threatened by Rittenhouse in 1981 Washington D.C., the rest of the team realizes the catastrophic consequences if they kill her in the past. Flynn provides information on Rittenhouse from Lucy’s (future) journal. His dedication to the team redeems him in the second season. If you thought there would be no path for redemption for Flynn based on his season one behavior, you wouldn’t be alone! The audience can see the passion behind the actors’ performances and that shines through to make the characters even more relatable. The evolution of the Time Team was wonderfully crafted to showcase them grow as individuals and as a team. Now they’re a tight-knit family that will do anything to protect their own, including going back in time to their own timeline!

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Timeless’ secret weapon? Showcasing diversity in the form of fun, educational history lessons.

If you’ve ever taken a look at American history, it’s predominantly the history of white men. The Timeless writers acknowledge that American history is so much more than that–and they deliver on diversity. The main cast is a diverse group of men and women, while the guest stars represent the stories, struggles, and accomplishments of minorities throughout history. Timeless gives a large platform to present lesser known historical figures so that their stories can be told. America is a diverse population, and if Timeless can provide a more inclusive show, we’re here for it! Because if someone out there can relate, that’s truly inspiring.

Not only does Timeless deliver on diversity, they highlight the individuals that made progress for equal rights and were ahead of their time. Abby Franklin challenged society’s definition of how women should act. Just because women didn’t fit into certain expectations didn’t make them a witch! Harriet Tubman was crucial to the success of the Underground Railroad as well as gathering freed slaves to fight against the South in the Civil War. Wendell Scott was the first African-American in NASCAR’s highest level of competition but fought through prejudice in his profession. Alice Paul spent her life fighting for equal rights of women and her speech inspired the movement for women’s suffrage. What would happen if the past changed and those accomplishments were erased from history?

Lucy: If you think that Alice can be reduced to one day and one speech, then you really have no idea what all of  this is about, do you? … You think that Alice wanted to be beaten by police, sent to prison, force fed? She would have spent the next fifty years living the same hell over and over again so women like you could ride on her coattails. Every day that you get to do your job, another woman out there is making sacrifices so that you can keep doing it.

Timeless also makes history fun and is often recommended by history teachers! It’s not just a time travel show–it’s also thought provoking, inspiring, and heartwarming. Timeless gives us insight into the past which has a direct correlation to the struggles that are still relevant today. Women still don’t have equal pay and minorities can still be at a disadvantage. And to think what would happen if events occurred differently–what would our present look like? Luckily, the Time Team is there to prevent major changes to history, even though Rittenhouse doesn’t make it easy. Timeless shows us the progress that has been made throughout history and that gives us hope.

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The unique and exceptional storytelling in Timeless brings forth a plot that is genius, shocking, and everything in between.

The writers made the most of their ten-episode season and packed each episode with strategic advances to the plot. For starters, Timeless advanced the storylines for all members of the main cast. We didn’t know much about Connor, Denise, and Jiya in the first season. But that all changed in the second season. We saw Connor struggle with their secret life in the bunker as he lost his company to other shareholders. Even when Connor couldn’t see the hope, the rest of the Time Team and the audience did. The work he’s doing with the Time Team is important, even if no one outside the team knows about it. History could change in an instant and only the time travelers in the past would be aware of the prior timeline.

We saw a little bit of Denise’s family in season one, but we found out so much more this season. We saw how she struggled with her mother setting up arranged marriages and not accepting her and her sexuality. In fact, her mother never met Denise’s children due to their differences. We got a whole new outlook on Denise and how her father’s death inspired her to become a police officer. Fortunately, the Time Team’s interactions with her in 1981 improved upon her relationship with her mother. Jiya struggled with her visions throughout the second season, finally getting advice from another pilot on how to master them. Whether her visions are only one possible future, or if they show an inevitability is still yet to be explored. She was able to save Rufus only for him to die moments later. So is it destined to happen? Jiya is also a badass in her own right. She was captured by Rittenhouse and drugged, yet she still managed to take out one of Rittenhouse’s goons and escape! She might not have stuck the landing, but it’s a pretty impressive escape.

The background stories for these characters only has the audience wanting more. The first season laid the groundwork for time travel how the team can work together to stop a threat to history. But the second season brings that and so much more to the table. In their ever changing world of time travel, the characters are the center of the show. Their perseverance and heart really resonate with the audience on their mission to stay on the right side of history. Timeless goes bigger and better with the plot twists, character development, and keeping the audience guessing. That’s why the show is so addictive and the audience is wanting more after those ten episodes.

Future Wyatt: Well, what are you waiting on?

Future Lucy: You guys want to get Rufus back, or what?

Not only did Timeless deliver on character storylines, they also made bold plot twists throughout the season which made the audience fall in love with the show even more. The show perfectly places plot twists that continue to hook the audience, yet aren’t so frequent that they feel rushed. Rittenhouse proves to be a strategic villain by planting sleeper agents in time, awaiting further instructions. They could cause history to change in an instant, and the Time Team wouldn’t even know! Wyatt fanboyed over a NASCAR legend, which turned out to be a Rittenhouse spy!

Early in the season, Rittenhouse went back to 1980 San Diego, causing Wyatt’s wife Jessica (Tonya Glanz) to remain alive in the new timeline. It was probably intentional that Rittenhouse went back in time when the team was on another mission, so they would be aware that Rittenhouse interfered–which would likely cause a rift between Lucy and Wyatt. Rittenhouse’s interference had to be the same episode that Lucy and Wyatt got together, effectively putting a stop to their new relationship and the audience experienced heartbreak right alongside them. Another motive is that the team would be without a soldier, so that Carol (Susanna Thompson) could make another attempt at convincing Lucy to join Rittenhouse. That didn’t go as planned because the team had Flynn. We all suspected that Jessica was Rittenhouse due to the mysterious circumstances, but we weren’t sure until the season finale.

Throughout the first two seasons, Timeless has been working under a certain set of time travel rules–namely that you cannot go back to a time where you previously existed. That rule prevented Flynn and Connor from traveling to 1981 because they were children at the time. However, Timeless dropped a major change to that rule when a future Wyatt and Lucy emerged from an upgraded Lifeboat in the season finale. Timeless also hinted at the ability to travel to your own timeline when we discovered that Flynn was given Lucy’s journal by a future version of her. This plot twist proves that there is so much more of the story to be told. When all hope is lost after their mission to 1888, future Wyatt and Lucy inspire hope that they can go back and change Rufus’ fate. That opens the door to so many possibilities, and we cannot wait to see what’s next for the Time Team!

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Final Verdict: Timeless perfectly balances drama, intrigue, and mystery–all while taking us on an entertaining history lesson with each episode, proving that Timeless is in a class all on its own

If this season was any indication of what’s to come for Timeless, it should be an easy decision to renew for a third season. From the lovable characters, to shocking plot twists and the importance of diversity, Timeless truly has it all. The writers, cast, and crew put their heart and soul into the show. The chemistry between the characters, whether the relationship is romantic or platonic, makes the show that much more addictive. Just when all hope is lost for the Time Team in the heartbreaking loss of Rufus, Timeless challenges you to rethink the rules of time travel and give us a beacon of hope that they can save Rufus.

While it would be a no-brainer for the Clockblockers to renew Timeless, NBC has yet to announce a season three renewal. But they also haven’t canceled the series either. So watch Timeless on your DVR, NBC’s website, or Hulu, and tell all your friends about this truly unique show. The cliffhanger opens the door for so many possibilities. Is anything in the past set in stone when they can now travel back to their own timeline? We’re hoping their first stop is to save Rufus, but the possibilities are endless. They could stop Rittenhouse before they gain a large following. And if they’re going back to save people that they’ve lost, what’s to stop them from going back to save Lucy’s sister, or Flynn’s family? After all, Rittenhouse killed Flynn’s family and framed him for their murders, while they prevented the Time Team from bringing back Lucy’s sister.

Timeless presented a remarkable second season, even if it left us heartbroken at times! The writing, acting, directing, and production sets were truly outstanding. Timeless has everything you could want in a time travel show and so much more–an addictive premise, lighthearted moments even in the face of adversity, and a Time Team that proves that family isn’t just blood, it’s who you choose to spend your time with.  The Clockblockers are a dedicated fandom that proves just how special Timeless is. We bet you can’t name another show that comes close, can you?