Timeless returned with “The World’s Columbian Exposition” – an episode that featured not one but two figures from history that both intrigue me! So naturally, I really, really liked this episode. The episode was written by Lana Cho and directed by Craig Zisk, whose credits are too long to list – but include
Agent Carter,
Parks and Recreation,
Weeds,
Alias, and
Mad Dogs with Shawn Ryan. Once again, the show does a terrific job at getting the history correct.
The episode begins pretty much right where we left off. The lifeboat returns without Lucy (Abigail Spencer) and both Wyatt (Matt Lanter) and Rufus (Malcolm Barrett) are frantic to get her back. Jiya (Claudia Doumit) is tracking the mothership and it seems to be all over the place – jumping back to New York 1780.
We jump to Lucy, in the present in Flynn’s (Goran Visnijic) hideout. She looks disheveled but not hurt. Flynn has tried to go back in time to find Rittenhouse’s son, but he’s gone underground. In fact, Lucy hasn’t been able to find a trace of him in history. The episode doesn’t actually fill us in if anything at all has changed because of the events of the last episode, which I found a bit annoying. Flynn is now determined to hunt down every member of Rittenhouse and kill them one by one – regardless of what it does to history or the present.
Flynn jumps to May 30, 1893, and the site of the Chicago World’s Fair. He’s planning on killing Thomas Edison (Link Baker), Henry Ford (Chris W Greenfield), and JP Morgan (Marcus Hondro), who are set to meet on May 31 and all of whom are Rittenhouse members. Flynn also threatens Lucy as he muses that maybe they aren’t meant to be a team after all – so that makes her expendable. Lucy, however, has read Flynn’s file. She knows that he used to be a good person. He used to be all about saving people – and here’s another Kripke theme that is moto of the Winchester brothers in Supernatural: “Hunting things, saving people.” Is Rittenhouse just another monster?
The lifeboat is stuck in the present with 4 hours left to recharge. Apparently the mothership charges much faster with the nuclear power Anthony installed. Connor (Paterson Joseph) confront Rufus about the blank recording. Rufus explains that he had to erase it because it recorded them killing Rittenhouse. Connor immediately offers to hide Rufus and his family because he’s convinced that Rittenhouse is now going to kill Rufus and his family. It’s telling that his first reaction is to try to protect Rufus – clearly, Connor is in over his head but may not be all bad at all – just in a bad situation. Rufus, however, tells Connor that he’s not running. At least not before they find and rescue Lucy.
There was so much fun history in this episode! Rufus is in awe of everyone who is at the Fair – he’s on point to try to figure out what Flynn is up to because of course, they don’t have an historian to help them! Rufus lists off Aunt Jemima, and then pauses to muse about why that’s still a “thing” – a racist thing. I loved how Rufus geeked out over Cracker Jack later in the episode as the candy was also introduced at the fair! Wyatt is convinced that Flynn must be there for Roosevelt (James Clayton). They spot Karl (Chad Rook) and follow him, thinking he’ll lead them to Flynn. But both Karl and Roosevelt are bait to lure Wyatt and Rufus to none other than serial killer HH Holmes (Joel Johnstone)!
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| Herman W Mudgett aka HH Holmes |
The information about Holmes is horrifyingly accurate. It’s also fun to note that Kripke is fascinated by Holmes, so much so that he also had an episode about him on
Supernatural – “No Exit.” It’s actually panned as being one of the worst episodes of the show though. However, there are some really interesting parallel shots to Lucy in the wall chambers and Jo being in one in
Supernatural – and yeah. They were totally a thing that Holmes had!
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| Robert Robinson Taylor |
Rufus and Wyatt end up being gassed and locked in a room with Sophia (Katherine Cunningham) and George – who is actually Holmes. Sophia, interestingly enough is an architect who graduated from MIT – as did Rufus. She mistakes him for Robert Robinson Taylor who was the first accredited African-American architect and the first African-American to graduate from MIT in 1888. I love how much actual history this show gives us! Holmes and Houdini (Michael Drayer) are fun, but Taylor is a cultural milestone. I also liked how Rufus explains not being Taylor by saying he’s the other black guy.
Sophia Hayden was the first woman admitted to the architectural program at MIT and did indeed design the Woman’s Building at the World’s Fair in Chicago. Unfortunately, as a woman, she was never able to find work as an architect and ending up teaching mechanical engineering, eventually marrying and becoming active in local women’s societies.
While Rufus and Wyatt try to escape their locked room, Lucy enlists the help of none other than Harry Houdini – and yes, he was historically at the World’s Fair, performing with his brother Dash (Lyova Beckwitt). I always loves seeing the team fan out over their heroes. Lucy volunteers to help with Houdini’s act and then lures him to Flynn who wants him to pick the lock into the Rittenhouse meeting.
Lucy apologizes to Houdini for luring him in and assures him that she really is a fan. She tells Houdini that she’s just trying to save her friends. He tells her that the secret to his escapes is that fear isn’t real – it’s just a reaction that you need to control, and he does it by concentrating on one word: escape. Once again, she can use her knowledge of history to help the team. She tells Houdini that she loved his trick “cut purse” and hopes he’ll show it to her. In reality, she’s setting up Flynn.
Houdini crawls in through the vent to unlock the door from inside. When Edison, Morgan, and Ford show up, Houdini has Flynn’s gun and handcuffs him to the radiator! The others run away, leaving Flynn to kill the police who arrive and escape.
Lucy then enlists Houdini’s help to save Rufus and Wyatt from a serial killer. It’s almost funny when he asks what’s that? Serial killers have actually been around since the Romans, but Holmes is often – erroneously – acknowledged as the first in the US. Houdini’s first suggestion is just to go to the police, but Lucy assures him that they’ll just think that she’s crazy.
Wyatt manages to use Sophia’s pin to make a hole in the wall, and that’s how Lucy and Houdini are able to hear them. I loved that the hidden passage was behind a bookcase that Houdini deemed to obvious – then suggesting that Holmes didn’t have much of an imagination – which unfortunately he did – a horrific one.
Lucy confides her fear of tight spaces to Houdini, but she follows him down the passage after he reminds her that fear isn’t a thing. Houdini picks the lock and Wyatt rushes to hug Lucy, closely followed by Rufus.
Wyatt isn’t done, however. He’s promised Sophia that her father will have closure, and he wants to ensure that all the families of those who have gone missing also get the closure he never got about what happened to his wife. They question Pat Quinlan (John Hensley), but he assures them that he’s just the caretaker – and they discover that George was Holmes all along, but not before Lucy is captured!
Lucy wakes terrified in a wall chamber but uses Houdini’s advice to control her fear and remain calm. Holmes confides that he thinks that he was set up when he was paid by Flynn to trap Wyatt and Rufus. Lucy uses Holmes’ real name – Herman Mudgett – and her historical knowledge to convince him that she’s a psychic. In the end, Wyatt saves her. Holmes tries to bargain for his life by promising to reveal who he killed and where the bodies are. Wyatt kills him when Lucy tells him that Holmes lied for profit about the murders.
Lucy tells Wyatt that she knew he’d save her – my first disappointing moment in the show – please don’t ever make Lucy the damsel in distress! Wyatt does point out that technically, she saved them. Rufus is just glad to have the team back together.
Back in the present, Rufus leaves a message for Rittenhouse on the recorder. He promises to pilot the lifeboat and get Flynn, but he knows that he’s their only pilot and therefore not expendable. He tells them that this will be his last recording! Connor is clearly appalled and terrified. And can’t Connor pilot the lifeboat too? I sure hope not! Connor asks Rufus if he’s sure, and Rufus tells him that he’s picked a side and Connor should do the same.
In the final scene, Flynn calls Wyatt to fulfill his promise to tell Wyatt the identity of Wyatt’s wife’s killer: Wes Gilliam. Currently, Gilliam is serving a prison sentence in San Quentin. But Flynn also taunts him that he’ll have to go further back than any time that Wyatt has existed. He asks Wyatt what he will do – kill Gilliam’s parents? And really, what will Wyatt do? Will he now go off during missions to fulfill his own agenda? Will he tell the team? I’m betting he will at least confide in Lucy and Rufus.
I thought this was a great episode that really gave us an interesting cross-section of history – horror with Holmes, some fun with Houdini, and more serious with Sophia. The storytelling on this show just gets better and better as the history is interwoven beautifully with the on-going drama. Kripke himself tweeted out this week that the show is “on the bubble” for renewal. It’s more important than ever that if you are loving the show the way I am, that you spread the word far and wide – let’s get those ratings up! Right now they aren’t bad, but they need to remain steady and a bump in live viewing certainly wouldn’t hurt!
If you enjoyed the HH Holmes storyline and want to know more, I highly recommend Rick Geary's graphic novel
The Beast of Chicago: An Account of the Life and Crimes of Herman W Mudgett, Known to the World as HH Holmes. It's available on its own or as part of a compendium of Gothic Victorian Murder Tales.
What did you think of the episode? What was your favorite scene? Who was your favorite historical cameo? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
