Timeless Recap: Stranded

This week on Timeless,  we mercifully don't waste any more time in the present. Which is good because that's been working against the show from the beginning. In fact, the entire episode is a welcome departure from the formulaic storytelling we've been getting from the start. The action begins immediately with our Timeless trio in 1754, running through the forest pursued by French soldiers. For three days they've been searching for Garcia Flynn in the midst of the French and Indian War. 

When they're finally captured, as they seem to be allowing to happen quite frequently, Rufus complains about the mission and Wyatt responds by taking Rufus to task for his secret recordings. Apparently Wyatt's not going to get over that any time soon. To prove it, he breaks them free just so he can throw Rufus' recorder in a pond. Oh, and he also kills two soldiers with his usual disregard for history. 

As they approach the Lifeboat, they see some of Flynn's cronies rigging it with C4. They try to stop them but they're too late. Flynn' men get away but not before blowing up a small panel on the time machine. 

As Rufus assesses the damage, he's pretty hopeless about their prospects. He says they need a new capacitor, and when Wyatt asks if he means a flux capacitor, Rufus just fixes him with a dead stare and says: "No. Those don't exist."

Turns out there's no RadioShack in 1754 so the team either needs to wait two centuries for the equipment they need or Rufus has to learn blacksmithing. And neither one are likely to happen. That's when Rufus remembers "the protocol."

Cut the present, where Mason mentions this mysterious protocol to Gia as the only way to get them home. 

Here's what the protocol entails: burying a message in the past for the team to find in the present. In a plastic tube. That's the best idea the billionaire genius who invented time travel can think up. And he totally didn't steal that from Back to the Future. 

Suddenly, they are captured by Shoshone Indians in the forest who think they're British. And it's not exactly like they can say they're Americans since America doesn't exist yet. 

As they wait for the Indian chieftess, Rufus talks about wanting a chocodile again to break the tension and the team dissolves into emotional apologies all around. 

Nanalima, the chieftess, wants to kill Lucy and Wyatt but let Rufus walk free. Rufus says that he would rather die with them and in a move that makes no sense whatsoever she decides to let them all go. 

Rufus then does apparently learn blacksmithing and fixes the panel that he needs. Lucy and Wyatt infiltrate Fort Duquesne for one reason or another and have to escape a doctor that wants to bloodlet Wyatt.  

In the present, Gia and Mason discuss Rufus after finding the letter he buried. Gia shares that she wishes she could date him. She talks about their shared love of nerd culture, and that's when she deciphers the letter: it said "Millenium" and "Death" and she figures out it's a Star Wars reference. He means for them to pull them back to the present like the Death Star did the Millenium Falcon. 

As the French soldiers find them again, they jump inside the time machine and Rufus pilots them away. Gia and Mason pull them into the present, and they land in the middle of the office.  

So all is safe and sound again. Except Agent Christopher wants wants to open investigation into Mason after overhearing him talk to Rittenhouse. 

Gia and Rufus discover their feelings and she kissed him in the lab.  

Finally, when all three of the team head to the bar to debrief, Lucy talks about everything having a meaning from some higher power. She is not sure if the diary Flynn has is real but believes in fate.  

Wyatt tells Lucy she can rewrite her history through her choices. While we're all pondering that, the show ends.