Monday, 19 March 2018

Timeless Review: “The Darlington 500”


Driving Miss Lucy
(This review contains spoilers!)

          One thing I love about Timeless is how different each week can feel. While last week was high in both stakes and suspense, this episode focused more on genuine character moments as we got development for all three of our leads, while still continuing some of the crazy plot threads from last time. And, big shock, it’s still really, really fun to watch.

          The Mothership has been spotted heading down south in 1955, and the Time Team is in hot pursuit. At first it looks like Rittenhouse is going to kill famous NASCAR driver Ryan Millerson, but surprise! Millerson is one of those sleeper agents they talked about last week.

          Words cannot describe how much I love this as a plot point. There was always a sense of safety when the Time Team met a friendly face in the past back in Season 1, and while there’s still a bit of that here, it’s so cool to have the potential of their new friends turning out to be Rittenhouse. I really hope they find new and cool ways to surprise us with these over the next few episodes.

          They escape with the help of driver Wendell Scott, a real historical figure who is pretty darn awesome. I didn’t know who Wendell Scott was before seeing this episode, but now I’m pretty interested in learning more about him. That’s another thing I love about this show: even with all the action, jokes and crazy Rittenhouse twists it always finds a way to sneak a little history lesson in there too. Edutainment at it’s finest.

          They realize Millerson’s plan is to blow up a booth filled with the automobile industry’s most elite, and this is when things get crazy. Scott smuggles them back into the racetrack, Millerson is killed and Wyatt, who turns out to be a total car nut, steals the armed vehicle and gets into a car chase getting it away from the other racers. It’s hilarious and awesome at the same time.

          The only thing I would really change about this episode is the weird pseudo-subplot they give Mason. For some reason they give up like three minutes of time to him going to give a TED Talk type of presentation and then Agent Christopher pulling him out of it. It doesn’t add anything to the car storyline, and I would’ve much rather spent those three minutes with Jiya, Flynn, or even Wendell Scott. Maybe it’s setting something up for later on down the line, but it seemed pretty pointless from where I’m standing.

          Despite that, this was a fantastic second episode. Despite being much more focused on fun than the first episode’s focus on suspense, it was able to balance the two of them excellently. Wendell Scott was an awesome guest, we got to find out even more about Lucy, Wyatt and Rufus, and it had a pretty insane ending.

          Seriously, why don’t more people watch this show?

FINAL SCORE
9/10

Amazing

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