Timeless season 2 episode 2 review: Darlington and the new Rittenhouse

Timeless season 2 episode 2

If Timeless season 2 episode 1 served as the introduction to the new reality of the show, the second episode on Sunday night threw a stick of dynamite into the proceedings. This was an important, dramatic episode that set the table for what the Time Team was really up against with Rittenhouse.

For really the first time to date, we’ve gotten a chance to see what the Rittenhouse command post is; it isn’t pretty, given that this is a place where Nicholas Keynes now has unified control seemingly as well as a plan to pluck agents into history and reshape it in order to suit his own design. He’s already well on his way judging from what we saw during the 1950’s in Darlington. Lucy, Wyatt, and Rufus went back in time there in order to identify and stop a sleeper agent who was, much to NASCAR super-fan Wyatt’s own chagrin, a prominent member of the racing community in that time.

If you are thinking in terms of the mission’s structure alone, this episode was almost exactly what you would have expected. The Time Team masked their identities and ended up working alongside someone well-known from that era. Within this episode, that said someone was known other than Wendell Scott. He was the first black driver in the NASCAR world and as they learned over the episode, he competed for the glory more so than for the acclaim. He realized that he was never going to get a whole lot of the attention or admiration he deserved but in the end, he didn’t really care since that was not actually why he was racing. He did it more for himself, the honor, and the glory. That was enough to ultimately make him happy.

Along the way, there was also a nice little moment where Lucy and Wyatt almost kissed while stuck in the trunk of Scott’s car together hoping to avoid detection. How many times are these two going to almost kiss this season? Consider that one of the interesting runners as the show goes along.

While Lucy, Wyatt, and Rufus were successful with what they were trying to do in the past (in stopping an explosive), in the present not too much has changed. Keynes is still cultivating his plot and, to go along with that, you’ve also got the other members of Time Team all struggling with their own issues. Agent Christopher is having to act out against Connor Mason to ensure he doesn’t take some of his expertise public; meanwhile, at the same time Garcia Flynn remains behind bars and is really one of the best sources of information that the team has. Add to this the continued struggles of Jiya with her visions and the whole team remains in disarray.

CarterMatt Verdict

Odds are, you watch Timeless for the action and the spirit of adventure. With that, “The Darlington 500” doesn’t disappoint. This show remains a great adventure romp with strong characters and funny moments. Other than Christopher having Mason arrested (at least temporarily), we wouldn’t say that anything within this episode put our jaw on the ground.

With that, we’ll end this review with this: Will Lucy eventually get her mother Carol to join her side? The closing seconds make us wonder…

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