Okay, show of hands, who breathed an audible sigh of relief when we found out how Lucy really spent her evening with Flynn? (Spoiler warning for Timeless 2×07, “Mrs. Sherlock Holmes”. You have been warned.)

So last week I was a little, shall we say, worried but the two main issues seem to be resolving themselves and I’m happy to offer the Timeless writers an apology for not trusting them (I’m still watching y’all just in case). Those issues, for anyone just joining us, were: Lucy taking a drunken trip to Flynn’s room with a clearly broken heart (nothing happened, yay!) and Jessica’s sudden reappearance and what that meant for not just Lucy and Wyatt but the team as a whole.

Who is Jessica really?

Last week I mentioned that Jennifer Heddle from Lucasfilm (and Timeless fan) had a theory that Jessica is Rittenhouse and, boom, there she is in Rittenhouse’s records. Does it mean she’s Rittenhouse? Could they just have been doing research on her? Maybe. But it may also mean that Jessica’s return was not only orchestrated by Rittenhouse but that she herself has become one of them and that means her being part of the Time Team is a problem.

The Jessica thing is going to be interesting to watch as the rest of the season unfolds but her showing up as potentially affiliated with Rittenhouse and that super possessive kiss when Wyatt came back definitely have me leaning toward the idea that she’s not the Jessica Wyatt lost all those years ago. We shall see.

Getting to know Mrs. Sherlock Holmes

Getting back to the subject of the episode itself, “Mrs. Sherlock Holmes” offered a look at one of the key moments in the women’s suffrage movement but also introduced us to Mrs. Grace Humiston (Sarah Sokolovic). The real Grace Humiston wasn’t involved in the fight for women’s voting rights, but she was both a lawyer and Special Assistant United States District Attorney for New York.

In this case, the Timeless writers just put Humiston and Lucy in the same city and wove a new history that falls into line with who Mrs. Sherlock Holmes was and how we remember her today.

Then there’s Emma

Emma’s been a cipher since we met her. What her motives are, why she joined Rittenhouse, where her alliances lie––all of that has been mostly unknown until this episode. But her reasoning behind helping the Time Team in this particular case also gave us a window into both her past and may have given us a look at why she’s working with Rittenhouse. If you’re driven by controlling your own destiny, changing the fate of others for what you consider to be a better cause makes sense in some way.

Emma’s past and her revelation that her father both beat and controlled she and her mother her may also be the key to recruiting her or, at the very least, making her less of an enemy. Emma’s driven by pain, fear, and likely loss. Once you start to see that, she becomes a more interesting villain––one who’s potentially redeemable. Emma’s budding relationship with Nicholas Kynes (Michael Rady) may serve as the leverage that sends her over to the light side, but how, when, or if that happens remains to be seen. Personally, hope it goes on for a while.

Buddy cops Flynn and Rufus

“I promise not to kill you this trip. Feel better?” – Garcia Flynn

“Actually, I do. ‘Cause you’re not going to kill me on this trip.” – Rufus Carlin

Entire franchises have been built on this sort of thing!

Putting these two together is a stroke of genius. Rufus and Flynn have history and there’s no real reason Rufus should trust Flynn, but Malcolm Barrett and Goran Višnjić are both so charismatic and have a range of emotion that makes this pairing work. They have to trust one another at a time when it’s hard to trust anyone because, in the end, they both want the same thing; an end to Rittenhouse. Now all I want to know if “Flynn it up, Flynn” was in the script or if that was Barrett improvising. I’m leaning toward the latter.

Not that Flynn doesn’t still have his dark side, as evidenced by his interaction with Emma, but she can take it. Extra thumbs up for the writers who don’t ascribe to the rule that only women can fight women. Equality means equal in all things, even fight scenes. Plus, Emma’s a badass and Annie Wersching is more than capable of countering Višnjić in his more feral moments.

Lucy and Wyatt clear the air

This is where I tip my hat to the Timeless writers who had me genuinely worried about Lucy and Wyatt and didn’t leave me on tenterhooks for too long. I’m sorry if I overreacted. Not only did you not do what I expected, but you gave me more than I hoped for. No drunken Lucy sleeps with Flynn trope. No Lucy moping over a man she can’t have trope. Nope. You zoomed close but it was a fake out and I love you for that.

Not only did Lucy get to speak her mind about how she feels and express the (very reasonable) anger and pain this whole situation has left her in, but you let her set the ground rules for things in regard to Wyatt and how they’d deal with their relationship going forward.

You also didn’t make Wyatt the bad guy, which is a neat trick in a triangle like this. Sure, part of it is Matt Lanter’s performance, but you put the words in his mouth and, somehow, he said all the right things.

Lucy and Wyatt work because they genuinely care about both the mission and one another. Lucy feels the pain of the removal of people like Alice Paul (Erica Dasher) from history, but Lucy remembers them and, while the people who create history may change, the event is what matters.

Tidbits and randomness

I love Jiya. I’m a little over watching she and Rufus fight about her visions (feels a bit like she’s there to service manpain), but she’s so awesome. More Jiya being awesome on her own, please.

Connor Mason’s redemption tour. I like the path it’s taking. It’s a good path.

That’ll do it for me this week. Next week is a trip to the 70’s and you are not ready for the hair. The hair is something else. It seriously took me back.