Timeless: The Hindenburg

I’ll be honest—I tuned into this show because back during the summer, it was announced that Sean Maguire would be a guest star on one of the episodes. When I checked out the premise, though, I realized that it appealed to my inner history nerd and my Whovian side. After watching it, I’m definitely hooked even beyond Sean’s appearance.

Let’s take a look at the first episode, hmm?

We open the day the Hindenburg lands in New Jersey. As a crowd watches and the people aboard eagerly await landing, we see the ground workers pulling the ropes to bring the dirigible to ground. A soldier approaches a woman with a camera, asking her if she’s ever seen anything so big. She makes a quip about men being impressed with size before turning back to the Hindenburg.

A worker in the Hindenburg touches something that sparks, igniting the hydrogen in the dirigible. It goes up in flames as people try to escape and fall out. As it comes down, the woman with the camera tries to outrun it but ends up caught in the inferno as we hear those famous words—“Oh the humanity!”

We cut to a university at night. Abigail Spencer, whom my longtime readers (do I even have any?) will remember as Blah-Blah from “How I Met Your Mother,” is teaching a class and talking about LBJ’s dick. I’m not even kidding. She ends the class when she sees David Sutcliffe come in and gets a bad feeling.

Outside, they are arguing as he says he had to cancel her tenure meeting. She asks why and he starts to mention something about the board thinking…but then she cuts him off so we don’t know why the board doesn’t want to consider her for tenure. Abigail—whose character name is Lucy—points out that her mother built up that department, it’s her legacy and Lucy’s destiny so David Sutcliffe could give her tenure but doesn’t want to. She then storms off.

At a giant warehouse, people continue to work the night shift as two men watch it from a van. Inside, an older gentleman tells a man named Rufus that it’s his turn to pick the tacos for taco night. He suggests Rufus take Jiya, one of their coworkers Rufus has been making eyes at, with him. Rufus grows nervous but agrees.

Then the two men storm the facility and start shooting. They demand everyone get down as they climb into the giant metallic CBS logo sitting in the middle of the warehouse (I seriously think CBS might have missed a big opportunity here). Before anyone can stop them, the CBS logo starts spinning before it disappears with a giant whoosh of air as everyone watches, shocked.


Lucy returns home, calling for her sister Allison. She drops off a Snickers bar on the nightstand next to the bed with her sick mother in it. Allison sits next to her, saying everything is fine for now. Lucy offers her a drink.

Allison is outraged that they won’t give her tenure. She tells Lucy to go to another university, one that will appreciate her. But Lucy reminds her that it’s their mother’s legacy and she can’t imagine working anywhere else. Allison tells her she needs to think about her future, not about their mother.
Knocking disturbs their sisterly time. Lucy opens it to find a DHS agent on her doorstep. He tells her she needs to come with him and that it’s urgent.

She sits in a waiting room with a man who is half asleep. Lucy is nervous and tries to figure out what they are there but he seems like he could careless. He keeps calling her “ma’am” and she grows annoyed, snapping that they are the same age. It doesn’t seem to matter to him.

Another DHS agent, Denise Christopher, greets them and ushers them into the warehouse. She shows them footage of the robbery, explaining the man is Garcia Flynn. He had killed his family the year before and was convicted. But he escaped prison and had come here. The man with Lucy—Wyatt Logan—wonders why wanted the giant eye…until he sees it disappear. He wants to know where it went.

A man comes out and pretty much says the question isn’t “Where” but “When.” Wyatt recognizes him as Connor Mason and reveals one of his friends has a car Mason designed. Agent Christopher reveals that Mason created a time machine and didn’t tell the government about it. Mason doesn’t really trust them but she points out that he still called them when the machine went missing.

Mason explains that they have a smaller version of the eye that they call a lifeboat. It can track when the mothership went—May 7, 1937. Lucy realizes that’s the day the Hindenburg went down and Agent Christopher explains that’s why she’s there. She’s a leading expert in history and anthropology, so she’ll be able to adapt to the different times and figure out what Flynn might be changing. Wyatt is ex-military so he’ll be the brawn as they use the lifeboat to go stop Flynn. Mason also asks Rufus to go with them since he knows how to work the ship. And he has another mission for Malcolm as well.

Lucy comes down in an outfit that would pass in the 1930s, though she points out a lot of errors with it—such as the material used in the shirt and the fact she’s wearing a bra with an underwire. Agent Christopher says they didn’t have a lot of time to be completely historically accurate. Everyone gets in the eye and prepares to be hurled through time. Rufus is nervous and Lucy realizes Wyatt is drunk. He points out he didn’t expect he’d be doing anything tonight but she isn’t assured.

Outside, everyone prepares to send the little eye hurling through time. They look a bit nervous but it takes off, disappearing with their best wishes for the team’s return.

When the eye lands, everyone looks sick—Wyatt most of all. Lucy ventures out first, climbing out in the middle of a forest. Wyatt and Rufus follow, wondering if they ended up in the right place. Lucy looks up amazed, assuring them that they are. The camera pans up to reveal the Hindenburg flying overhead.

The three walk along a road and Wyatt asks why they didn’t use the time machine to go back five minutes before the robbery to stop Flynn then? Rufus answers that they learned no one can go back to any time where they existed or bad things happen. They learned it because the person they sent back…only part of him came back.

Anyway, they have the address of bar Flynn might go to in Jersey City. They have some place to start. Lucy waves down a passing bus to help them get there quicker.

They get off the bus in Jersey City and Rufus sarcastically comments that the back of the bus was great. He looks around and Jersey City is very…white. I know people called the show out for this and I have to agree, though I do know my grandfather’s family was living in Jersey City at the time and they were Irish-Americans living on a block with other Irish-Americans. But still…

Lucy buys a paper as she recalls what’s supposed to happen to the Hindenburg. It comes in on time but can’t land because of the storm that is directly over them. So it just flies around, building up static electricity. When it can land, the ground crew drags the mooring lines through puddles and serves to ground the Hindenburg. This sparks the friction built up and the dirigible goes up in flames. So what does Flynn want to do? Lucy doesn’t know—maybe he wants to make sure everyone dies this time for some reason or something like that.

They locate the bar Flynn went to and head inside. It’s loud, everyone’s drinking and smoking. Wyatt makes a comment about Jersey while Rufus realizes everyone is staring at him. Lucy suggests he wait outside though he isn’t too sure it’s much safer out there. And as he stands next to the door, he gets looks that prove he might be right.

Wyatt shows the bartender a picture of Flynn and asks if he was there. He says no and asks why the guy is wearing pajamas. Wyatt pushes and the bartender snaps. Lucy thanks him while Wyatt mutters about Jersey again. It seems the bar might be a dead end.

Or not. Lucy catches sight of the woman from the cold open playing on the pinball machine. She says it’s Kate Drummond, who she says is a well-known reporter with a column in the Hearst papers. She covered several wars and Wyatt is intrigued, deciding to go up to her.

Kate pegs him as a soldier when he opens about the wars she covered. They then flirt a little before he asks about Flynn. She asks why he’s wearing pajamas before telling Wyatt and Lucy he was in there a few hours ago. Kate explains the ground crew recruited some workers to help with the Hindenburg. She says she’s scheduled to cover the landing and then ride it back to Europe to attend the coronation of George VII. Which she is not looking forward to. Wyatt mutters she won’t have to worry about that. Kate is confused and Lucy excuses them. Concerned, Wyatt and Lucy hurry to get Rufus.

They find him unscathed and they head to the airfield. Wyatt seems taken with Kate Drummond and is angry when Lucy reveals she’s one of the Hindenburg victims. He asks how she could just stand there and not go in to warn Kate, but she then repeats something that has to be required for time travel shows: You can’t change the past or it’ll have consequences in the present. So she can’t tell Kate she’ll die. It’s a done deal. Wyatt still isn’t happy about that.

At the airfield, Lucy spots a general and asks him to help them locate Flynn. She says she is Nurse Jackie, Wyatt is Dr. Dre and that they are from General Hospital. Playing on the fact everyone thought Flynn was wearing pajamas, she lies that he’s a patient who might have the Spanish flu and could infect everyone. They need to find him STAT. The general accepts her story and agrees to help. As he goes off to alert his men, they agree to split up as the Hindenburg is moments away from landing…and exploding.

Rufus walks amongst the ground crew and notices something odd—they aren’t dragging the lines through the wet grass, mud and puddles. In fact, they are taking pains to wrap the ropes up to prevent them from reaching the ground.

Wyatt tracks down Kate and wants to pull her away from the Hindenburg. She refuses to go, insisting she has a job to do. He warns her that the dirigible is going to blow up and he tackles her as…

Nothing happens.

The Hindenburg lands and people get off. Kate shakes Wyatt off and thinks he’s bonkers. Meanwhile, Lucy spots something happening in the hangar. She goes to investigate and is nearly taken out by one of Flynn’s accomplices. Wyatt comes to her rescue, shooting the man with the gun he brought. Lucy yells at him for bringing a weapon from the future and he’s like “I think the phrase you’re looking for is ‘Thank you.’”

She then tries to figure out why Flynn didn’t want the Hindenburg to blow up and worries about the ramifications it might have in the future. Rufus discovers a radio and hopes to use it to track down Flynn if he can rewire it. As he does that, Wyatt and Lucy talk for a bit. He admits he was fascinated by Kate because she reminds him of his wife.

Rufus then says that it’s not a radio but rather a detonator. They realize Flynn is planning to blow up the Hindenburg. Lucy rattles a list of who’s who in American society and says they are all going to be on the Hindenburg as it returns to Europe. She says that they are going to be influential in a lot of today’s institutions. Before they can try to find Flynn and/or the bomb, police surround them and arrest them as Flynn watches from the distance.

In jail, an officer tries to figure out Wyatt’s gun. Wyatt says he could easily pick the lock if they had a bobby pin. Which they don’t. So Lucy asks him about his wife. He reveals she died and it was his fault. He didn’t change something and it cost her her life. Lucy and he have a moment.

Three adorable children sing “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf” around a piano as people settle into the Hindenburg for the return trip home. Kate wanders around and almost bumps into Flynn in the hall. She recognizes him and grows suspicious.

Wyatt figures out a way to break out. He remembers Lucy is wearing a bra with an underwire. They can use that to pick the lock. But they need Rufus to create a diversion. I’m hoping they figured it was just his job because Wyatt was going to pick the lock while Lucy needed to pull the underwire out of her bra and that they didn’t stop to think about the serious ramifications of what they asked Rufus to do.

Rufus asks for water and the officer turns him down, calling him “boy.” So Rufus points out that he’s not a boy and then he really lets the police officer have it, revealing bits about the future to him. When he calls the officer a “boy,” things get serious. He leaves and Lucy takes off her bra, pulling out the underwire. Wyatt then tries to pick the lock while Rufus begs him to hurry up, aware that the officer is getting reinforcements for a beat down. It looks close to happening when Wyatt breaks out and they take out the police officers. Leaving them unconscious and locked up, the trio heads out to stop the Hindenburg.

They sneak aboard the Hindenburg and encounter Kate. She is less than thrilled to see Wyatt but when they explain Flynn put a bomb onboard the Hindenburg. Kate reveals she saw Flynn head toward the kitchens and leads them to it. Once they get in there, they find the bomb easily enough. Wyatt says he might be able to deactivate it but he’s never done it before. Lucy and Rufus leave him with Kate while they go to get the Nazis to land the Hindenburg.

Lucy and Rufus use a knife to force the ship to be landed, claiming to be from a group called Black Cross dedicated to fighting the Nazis. They say they have a bomb on board, which does more to get cooperation than the knife, it should be noted.

Wyatt and Kate talk for a bit while he tries to deactivate the bomb. It doesn’t appear to be going well, meaning they were going to have to get it off the Hindenburg. Someone stumbles upon them and pulls a gun. Kate warns him not to shoot but as she reaches for the gun, it goes off and ignites the hydrogen instead. Once again, the Hindenburg goes up and they have to get people off the dirigible.

Lucy ends up running into Flynn, who knows a lot about her. The way he’s speaking, it sounds like he’s actually from the future. He says there’s a lot she doesn’t know and gives her a journal she will write. Flynn tells her to ask the agents why they chose her and to ask them about Rittenhouse. Lucy is confused.

As Wyatt comes up to them, Flynn takes Lucy hostage and holds a gun on her. He says he won’t take the shot with Lucy in the way but Wyatt does so, skimming Flynn who also takes a shot. He lets go of Lucy and runs off as they realize that Flynn shot Kate, who had followed Wyatt. She collapses and they try to save her but she dies in Wyatt’s arms.

With Flynn thwarted but once again gone with the mothership, they climb back into the eye and head back to the present. To the people there, the changes to what happened to the Hindenburg are always what happened. Lucy wonders about the ramifications this will have but Agent Christopher is like “Small potatoes. Let’s move on and stop Flynn.” Clearly, she’s never heard of chaos theory/butterfly theory.

Dismissed…for now…Rufus finds the courage to ask Jiya out for dinner. Wyatt and Lucy leave together and she tells him that there was probably nothing they could’ve done to save Kate. It was clear that she was meant to die with the Hindenburg and that maybe some things are written in stone. The best way I can think to explain this is for my Whovians to remember the idea of “Fixed points” in Doctor Who. Wyatt seems somewhat comforted and they part ways.

Lucy returns home and calls out for Allison. She receives no response and then receives a shock when she enters the kitchen. Her mother is standing there, healthy and strong. She asks about Allison and then asks if Lucy brought her a Snickers bar. Lucy is confused and continued to ask where Allison is. Her mother is more concerned about Lucy’s missing engagement ring.

Not really registering that, Lucy starts yelling for her sister. She goes into the living room and finds a picture that’s just her and her mother. Holding it up, she asks where Allison is and her mother says she doesn’t know who this Allison person is.

Chaos theory rears its head. By changing the events of the Hindenburg, Lucy’s sister has been erased!
As Lucy tries to process this and her mother fears she’s lost her mind, Lucy gets a call. Flynn’s taken the mothership out again so the team needs to regroup immediately. Lucy asks where he’s gone before amending it to “When?” right before the credits.

That was an exciting and jam-packed premiere! It set up the premise well enough and it’s clear a lot of attention to detail has been dedicated to the show. Right now, it’s clear that Lucy’s the main character as we know the most about her but I’m sure we’ll come to learn even more about Rufus and Wyatt as the show progresses.

It’ll be interesting to see how they change history and affect the future as well. Will Allison be the only one who goes missing? Will Wyatt come home one day and find his wife alive? Hmm…

Next time: Abraham Lincoln goes to the theater.