What I’m Watching: Timeless (Series Finale)

Timeless: Season 2, Episodes 11 and 12 “The Miracle of Christmas, Parts I and II”

We’re back for the final round of this gleeful show, one that was saved not once but twice from cancellation and still, in my mind, didn’t really deserve it. There are at least twenty-five other shows that I could name which I would have liked to see renewed after their initial cancellation even once, and I don’t think that this show has merited its second and third chances. The way that season two ended was intriguing, with a new concept that involved traveling back to come face-to-face with their former selves, and I’d like to think that a complete third season might have delved into that even more rather than just the opening minutes of this two-hour finale. I’ve never bought the time travel theories that drive this show, especially since only Lucy and then Flynn were getting headaches, while Future Wyatt seemed fine, and it was awfully dramatic that Future Lucy told them to “start on page” before getting too distressed to even utter a number. That Flynn was able to go back and just erase Jessica from the timeline again to the point that Emma was still calling out her name, prompting Rufus to spontaneously return to rescue them, didn’t make much sense even if it did provide a great moment of triumph for the team. Why they would possibly bring Emma back to North Korea is also a mystery, and of course she’d get killed and end up dead in another time. The notion that it was all leading up to Lucy telling Flynn, the most reformed and rehabilitated character on this show, that he would be a hero if he did everything that we’ve seen on this show was only moderately satisfying. I’m not sure what to make of the closing moments, but this show doesn’t seem to realize that this is really it, with no more reversals of cancellation decisions coming. I would have been more interested in Emma bringing Amy back, and other alternate reality notions this show never really pursued. It was still fun, but not nearly as good as the fanbase that rallied around it would indicate.

Series finale: B-
Series grade: B-
Season MVP: Goran Visnjic as Flynn
Season grade: B-
Series MVP: Abigail Spencer as Lucy
Best Season: Season 1
Best Episode: Pilot