Tuesday, 31 January 2017

Timeless Review: “Karma Chameleon”

Rufus and Wyatt’s Excellent Adventure
(This review contains spoilers!)

          I might be wrong about this, but I’ve heard that Timeless only has a couple of episodes left before the end of the season. It’s a shame, because things are really starting to pick up for our crew.

          For the first time, Lucy didn’t jump back to the past this week. Instead, Wyatt and Rufus took the time machine for a joyride back to 1983, trying to stop the parents of the man who murdered Wyatt’s wife from ever meeting. Things, uh, don’t go according to plan.

          While we sadly didn’t get to see much of the 1980’s atmosphere (most of the past scenes take place in a single bar), the costumes and environment captured the feeling of that time period well. I just wish we had seen more of it.

          This episode was also one of the funniest we’ve seen out of Timeless in a while, cracking several jokes about the 80’s along the way and how crazy Wyatt’s whole scheme was. I really wish Timeless was allowed to be funnier every once in a while, because the cast, especially Rufus, really have comedic chops on them. Plus, with how dire and grim the show can become at times when the main trio is grappling with what they’re doing, it would be nice to have a bit more levity inserted in there.

          Unfortunately, the main plot this week doesn’t really seem to be sure whether it wants to be played for laughs or taken seriously. Most of the first half of the episode is full of jokes and not taken very seriously, but the second half things take a bit of a loony turn for the more serious, as guns are drawn and people start dying. It’s a bit of a startling turn, and it doesn’t really work since up to this point we’ve been conditioned to think that this storyline isn’t to be taken seriously. I really wish that the showrunners had chosen one or the other, because the subplot about Wyatt’s wife has been a very interesting one to explore and it didn’t deserve this confused storyline. Thankfully this isn’t going to be the end of that plot, but I’ll get back to that later.

          Lucy was given something to do this week as well, teaming up with Agent Christopher (who is currently competing with Rufus for the title of Best Character) to find that scientist guy and hear about his master plan to fix all this. It turns out Rittenhouse is planning on using the time machine to rebuild history in their image, and Flynn is the only thing standing in their way. The scientist figured blowing up both time machines would be a good way to slow them down, as it’d take a few years to build a new one.

          Needless to say, things go wrong for our heroes towards the end of the episode. Wyatt manages to successfully break up the mother and father before they conceived the murderer, but accidentally killed the father in the process. Even worse, his wife is still not back, and he’s been arrested for his time machine joy ride. The scientist’s plan has also gone awry, as Flynn learned of his intention of destroying the time machine and killed him. Honestly, he hasn’t been in enough episodes for me to really count him as a major loss. If he’d been more involved in the overall storyline I might’ve felt more for his death, but he just kind of popped in now and again until the showrunners decided they didn’t need him anymore.

          But the most interesting part of the episode came at the very end. After learning from Agent Christopher that her biological father is the Rittenhouse guy talking with Mason, she confronted him at his home once and for all. We didn’t see much of what happened, except that he informed her that as his descendant she is Rittenhouse’s legacy, and he wants her on the winning side of history. It’s a small but significant scene, and one that is sure to grow into something huge later on.

          Karma Chameleon is, at best, a fun episode that does a good job of setting things up for later. No, it’s not as good as the other episodes we’ve had since Timeless returned from winter break, but it’s still an episode that I still think is worth watching just to see the beginning of what’s coming next. If the writers had blended the humour with the serious moments better this episode might’ve suffered less, but it’s still an enjoyable watch with some great character moments.

FINAL SCORE
6/10

Okay

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