Asthe title of this episode of Timeless suggests, “The Alamo” visits the famous battle of the Alamo in 1836. But there’s more to the episode than Davy Crockett. There’s the threat of a team member’s replacement, Lucy confronting her mother about her father’s identity and the alteration of history (a staple in every Timeless episode).
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The Mission
After a quick glimpse of the past, we see Lucy, Wyatt and Rufus dealing with their own personal troubles. Rufus confronts Mason about his confrontation with the men from Rittenhouse. Wyatt joins a meeting with Agent Christopher and another government official who decide that Wyatt’s just not getting the job done and will have to be replaced. And Lucy pleads with her mother to let her know who her father is. Ultimately, though, all three characters’ efforts are fruitless, and they refocus their attention to the matter at hand: Flynn, who has time-traveled to the Alamo.
Soon, we see Flynn speaking with General Santa Anna in 1836. He tells him that he’s come to offer his assistance on behalf of Queen Isabella and offers him a bag full of gold bars. Santa Anna seems skeptical that Flynn could help him but accepts the valuable metal and his offer.
Arriving at the Alamo, Lucy, Rufus and Wyatt encounter the army’s leader, Colonel Bowie, and the legendary Davy Crockett, who’s telling his men a story about wrestling a bear. While Lucy and Rufus are in awe at Crockett, Wyatt has no time for distractions. He’s on a mission: to kill Flynn.
Bad News
Flynn, meanwhile, has made his way to Lt. Col. Barret Travis, the man who penned the famous letter “Victory or Death.” Travis has been warned of Flynn, though, and is prepared. He draws his gun on him and shoots, but the weapon doesn’t fire. Flynn reveals that he stole the bullets from his gun. Then Flynn shoots Barret dead, killing him four days before he was supposed to die. After finding his body, the team realizes that Travis never finished writing his letter, which, historically, led to the founding of Texas.
But the bad news isn’t over yet. Santa Anna has pushed his troops to head toward the Americans and has raised a red flag, a sign that women and children are not to be spared — something that never happened in the Alamo’s history. Under Wyatt’s lead, the team decides to figure out a new way to restore history. Wyatt orders Lucy to finish writing Travis’ letter and Rufus to find a new way for the women and children to escape while he speaks to Bowie.
Flynn approaches Santa Anna, trying to get him to lower the red flag. He encourages him to let the women and children go, but Santa Anna refuses. And, what’s more, he tells Flynn that if he tries to interfere in his plans, he’ll have him killed.
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An Escape Plan
After chatting with Crockett, Rufus realizes that there’s an aqueduct that they can use to escape. The only problem is that it’s blocked by stone. While trying to break apart the stone, he speaks with Crockett about fear, referencing his earlier story about how he managed to stay calm while wrestling a bear. Crockett confesses that he never wrestled a bear. Instead, the bear came at him, he got scared and shot wildly, hitting the bear by chance. He tells his men that he wrestled a bear, he says, because sometimes men need a leader who can do just that.
Wyatt develops a plan with Bowie that will buy them enough time to get the women and children out safely. Wyatt, who has been having hallucinations of his fellow soldiers from war, confesses that he believes he left his former platoon to die. He tells Bowie that they had to get an important piece of intel out, and after they flipped a coin, they decided Wyatt should escape. Even though he earned a medal for his service, he feels like he abandoned his men.
After struggling to work past her writer’s block, Lucy finally writes the letter, signing it, “From the men and women of the Alamo.” Rufus, on the other hand, figures out a way to get through the aqueduct. He asks Wyatt about a bundle of grenades he brought with him, and after Wyatt gives them up, Rufus drops them in a hole, successfully creating an exit.
Santa Anna’s army starts to infiltrate the area and the battle begins. Lucy goes to retrieve Wyatt so they can escape, but he doesn’t want to leave the other men behind. Lucy grabs him and tells him that she and Rufus need him. She’s able to convince him, and they race toward the exit with Wyatt carrying an injured young man with him.
As everyone gets into the tunnel to escape, Lucy and Wyatt learn that the young man’s name is John Smith, the person who was supposed to deliver Travis’ letter and the future first mayor of San Antonio. They hand him Lucy’s letter and tell him that he must deliver it safely. Before Wyatt leaves, Bowie hands him his knife.
Return to the Present
Back to the present, Christopher and the government official gather that Flynn is still alive and decide that Wyatt must be replaced. Lucy argues that they can’t replace him. She tells them that she trusts him, and she and Rufus explain that they won’t continue the missions without him. Since Rufus is the only man who can pilot the time machine, Wyatt is allowed to remain on the team.
At home, Lucy approaches her mother. Realizing that they’re not going to fight, her mother decides to tell Lucy about her father. She tells her that she met him when she was a junior in college; he was a professor. She got pregnant but didn’t want to marry him. After refusing his help, she eventually stopped hearing from him. Her mother then hands Lucy a piece of paper with her father’s name on it, but unfortunately, we see neither the name nor Lucy’s reaction to reading it.
What did you think of “The Alamo”? Do you think Wyatt will ever be able to complete his mission to take down Flynn? Do you think Lucy’s father is someone we’ve already met or a new character? Let us know in the comments section below.
Timeless season 1 airs Monday nights at 10/9c on NBC. Want more news? Like our Facebook page.
(Image courtesy of NBC)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
