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canyonwalkerHawk and I have been slowly watching through episodes of the streaming TV series Timeless that originally aired in 2016-2018. We're not bingeing it; we're watching a couple of episodes a week. Though mostly that's because I've been so busy with work the past several weeks that when I wind down in the evenings I want to do something higher value than watch TV or feel I need to catch up on something else. We've actually watched the first six episodes at this point though my blog, as always is lagging behind— one of those things I'm perpetually trying to catch up on. Here are some thoughts about episode 2, "The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln".
The show is settling into a groove of the "Mission of the week" format. In this format each episode tells, and completes, an individual story. It's not completely episodic, though, like comedies that follow the similar "Funny thing that happens this week" format. There are clear, long running story arcs here about the main characters gradually puzzling out what their opponent is up to, gradually learning what their own sponsors are up to, and revealing bits about themselves.
In "The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln" the story-within-a-story, the mission of the week, has the characters time-porting back to April 14, 1865, the day when President Abraham Lincoln was murdered. Anyone who's taken an American history class knows the one-line summary: President Lincoln was shot while attending a play at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., by John Wilkes Booth, a marginal actor angry over the Confederacy's loss in the Civil War. The episode's plot is a cat-and-mouse game where the protagonists are trying to figure out what the villain is trying to change about history. ...And, to a lesser extent, though this one of the long story arcs, why.
Early in the episode I figured the story is about the villain trying to do one of three things:
Indeed, Flynn, the villain, is all about #3. He's gone back in time with a box of modern handguns to help Booth and his conspirators kill other leaders. Their goal is to kill not just President Lincoln but also the VP, the Secretary of State, and General (and future president) Grant.
This aligns with the main character's talking-to-the-camera theory from the first episode that Flynn is "Trying to kill America in the cradle." I kind of disagree with the premise in this episode, though, that killing other leaders beyond Lincoln would be such a travesty. Andrew Johnson, Lincoln's VP who succeeded him as president after the assassination, opposed civil rights. He weakened and perverted Reconstruction to allow southern states to implement the first Jim Crow laws— which lasted in force for nearly 100 years and still have lasting impacts in institutional and structural racism. BTW, the pro-Union majority in Congress was constantly rejecting Johnson's policies, as much as they could. Johnson was impeached by the House of Representatives and acquitted in the Senate by a margin of just 1 vote. Having someone other than Johnson succeed Lincoln could have advanced the causes of civil rights by decades.
Ultimately the heroes succeed in thwarting a wider plot. History does change a bit, though. Flynn, not Booth, murders Lincoln. When the heroes return to the present, all their colleagues look at them strangely when they ask about the history of the assassination. Nobody knows who Booth was. They all know the (new) history that Lincoln was shot at Ford's theater by a mysterious tall man whom authorities were never able to identify.
It's interesting how this show handles the Time Travel Paradox— how it resolves what happens to characters from/in the present day when the past is changed. I'll write more about this in a separate blog.
The show is settling into a groove of the "Mission of the week" format. In this format each episode tells, and completes, an individual story. It's not completely episodic, though, like comedies that follow the similar "Funny thing that happens this week" format. There are clear, long running story arcs here about the main characters gradually puzzling out what their opponent is up to, gradually learning what their own sponsors are up to, and revealing bits about themselves.
In "The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln" the story-within-a-story, the mission of the week, has the characters time-porting back to April 14, 1865, the day when President Abraham Lincoln was murdered. Anyone who's taken an American history class knows the one-line summary: President Lincoln was shot while attending a play at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., by John Wilkes Booth, a marginal actor angry over the Confederacy's loss in the Civil War. The episode's plot is a cat-and-mouse game where the protagonists are trying to figure out what the villain is trying to change about history. ...And, to a lesser extent, though this one of the long story arcs, why.
Early in the episode I figured the story is about the villain trying to do one of three things:
- Actually stop the assassination from happening, a surprise move that contradicts the heroes' assumptions and what the show has telegraphed so far, but would be an interesting twist revealing a far more complex set of goals on the part of the villain;
- Ensure the assassination happens as we know it, for there's a role-reversal in which the heroes or some third party are actually wrecking history and the "villain" is trying to preserve it; or
- Broaden the assassination by helping Booth and his murky conspirators kill other key government leaders, triggering a major governmental crisis and something akin to a coup.
Indeed, Flynn, the villain, is all about #3. He's gone back in time with a box of modern handguns to help Booth and his conspirators kill other leaders. Their goal is to kill not just President Lincoln but also the VP, the Secretary of State, and General (and future president) Grant.
This aligns with the main character's talking-to-the-camera theory from the first episode that Flynn is "Trying to kill America in the cradle." I kind of disagree with the premise in this episode, though, that killing other leaders beyond Lincoln would be such a travesty. Andrew Johnson, Lincoln's VP who succeeded him as president after the assassination, opposed civil rights. He weakened and perverted Reconstruction to allow southern states to implement the first Jim Crow laws— which lasted in force for nearly 100 years and still have lasting impacts in institutional and structural racism. BTW, the pro-Union majority in Congress was constantly rejecting Johnson's policies, as much as they could. Johnson was impeached by the House of Representatives and acquitted in the Senate by a margin of just 1 vote. Having someone other than Johnson succeed Lincoln could have advanced the causes of civil rights by decades.
Ultimately the heroes succeed in thwarting a wider plot. History does change a bit, though. Flynn, not Booth, murders Lincoln. When the heroes return to the present, all their colleagues look at them strangely when they ask about the history of the assassination. Nobody knows who Booth was. They all know the (new) history that Lincoln was shot at Ford's theater by a mysterious tall man whom authorities were never able to identify.
It's interesting how this show handles the Time Travel Paradox— how it resolves what happens to characters from/in the present day when the past is changed. I'll write more about this in a separate blog.
