I Got Thoughts is a new style of recap I'll be doing for some shows where I'll post a point-form list of thoughts I have on episodes of television. It's pretty new so I'm still playing around with it a bit.
-Going to Nazi Germany 4 episodes into the series is a bold choice, though not as bold as going to the Lincoln Assassination in episode 2. The show handled it well though (unlike when they did Lincoln) and the result was the strongest episode yet.
-Smart decision to not have Hitler anywhere in this episode. That would've complicated things way too much and a "should we kill Hitler" conversation two weeks after the "should we save Lincoln" conversation would've been repetitive.
-Was very glad that Flynn's plan this episode wasn't to give the Nazis a nuclear bomb, but was instead to give Wernher von Braun to the Russians, which is much more interesting from a story perspective, especially because fellow time travel show Legends of Tomorrow already did a "Nuclear Weapon unleashed earlier in World War II" story a couple weeks ago.
- Incidentally Wernher von Braun is one of my favourite historical figures. Well, favourite is a strong word but he is someone I find very fascinating for reasons the episode pretty much covered. He was a Nazi but only (as far as we know) so he could work on his rocket research and try to get to the moon. His rockets killed thousands of people and he should've been charged with War Crimes, but he wasn't and helped get America to the moon instead. While his line to Rufus at the end of this episode about his "concern being whether the rockets go up, not where they come down" is taken from a Tom Leher song rather than something he actually said, the line is fairly accurate to how he felt and the show did a good job capturing the ethical murkiness of helping von Braun, with our heroes knowing he'll never get punished for what he did.
-Wernher von Braun was ultimately used as a mirror for Rufus, who is dealing with a lot of guilt over his role in the mothership's invention and the spying he now has to do on Wyatt and Lucy, but you could also connect him to Flynn, who doesn't seem to enjoy helping Nazis or shooting Lincoln but claims to be doing it in service of a "greater good". Hopefully we find out what that "greater good" is soon enough though because Flynn is still a very flat character.
-Wyatt on the other hand had his best episode yet and I'm impressed with how quickly he improved. Letting him fanboy over getting to team up with Ian Fleming and know German plus the backstory we got from him about his hero grandfather being the reason he does what he does (and the reason he struggles with saving Nazis or letting Lincoln die) did a lot for his character and letting him actually have a personality.
-Sean Maguire made for a good Ian Fleming and made a good foil for our heroes to bounce off of this week.
-First Robert Lincoln. Now Ian Fleming. Is every historical figure our heroes run into going to fall in love with Lucy?
-Lucy had a good arc this episode as we see her trying to find a way to manage with the crazy situation she's suddenly found herself in. It feels true to life that a civilian historian is not going to be totally OK with suddenly having to deal with actual history and real Nazis who could actually kill her and the conclusion with her becoming more assertive in wanting to put history back so her sister is alive helps solidify her motivation going forward.
Lucy and company's adventure with Ian Fleming inspiring a "new" (well to them) Sean Connery Bond movie would be dumb on any other show, but for Timeless, it's perfect. Lucy probably does sleep with Bond in that version.
-Between the introduction of the wardrobe dock with hundreds of specially-made outfits for every era and region, and the reveal that Anthony had used the stolen nuclear core to make a battery to sustain the Mothership without needing to plug it into power grids for 300 years, Timeless definitely feels like it's settling in for the long haul.
-Still not super interested in whatever this Rittenhouse group is, but the end scene with the representative depowering Rufus' car long enough to threaten him to continue spying on Wyatt and Lucy was pretty intriguing. It'd be nice to get some actual answers sometime soon though.
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