Travelers - 17 Minutes/Traveler 0027/Update/21C - Quadruple Review

Hello friends! With the holiday season inevitably comes the holiday work hours, which has of course let to the holiday fall-behind-on-tv-and-everything-else-you-love times. Tonight is our much-anticipated two-hour finale (which, of course, I will be missing) so I figured I should try to get out this review of the last four episodes before I have to review six episodes. I may or may not be writing this on my work breaks (spoiler, I totally am) so this review will be a bit more rushed than usual, but I promise to return to my longer, too in-depth review for the finale.

17 Minutes

This was a fairly traumatic episode. We had to watch our favorite travelers die a few times, and even though you knew they would make it out it in the end, it was less than pleasant to have to see them gunned down more than once. This episode was instrumental in showing that the Faction is still very much a threat, despite the fact that The Director is back in charge. One important conversation garnered from this episode was Marcy getting more of the truth out of Grant about her reset. She admitted to not feeling whole, and having no idea how to fill the empty space inside of her. Grant then told her the story about when he almost died from the plane crash, and how his consciousness was transported into the memories of the real Grant that weren't erased even in death: the memories of how much he loved Kat. Later, the team's murder was finally prevented by two other travelers, and our team was able to complete their mineral retrieval mission.

Traveler 0027
This episode did a lot to reveal more about how the future handles things. The episode followed a trial for Grace who is facing the consequences of many of her actions. From causing a four hour delay in the Traveler program while waiting for Grace's new TELL, to the secret reset of the The Director through Marcy, The Director has told this council to begin this trial and decide her guilt. After she is found guilty, however, Grace learns from The Director (communicating through terminally ill people who are seconds from death) that the whole trial was merely a way for The Director to discover who the true traitor was. The actual traitor attempts to lead Marcy to his team's OPS under the guise of being able to repair her memory, but Marcy sees right through the plan and her team is waiting with guns upon her arrival to this new OPS center. The members of The Faction who were already in the building have already been disposed of by the director at this point. Also at this base is The Faction's Quantum Drive that our team has been searching for, especially since it was previously discovered to be at rave that Blair was attending for her birthday, during which she narrowly escaped being taken over by a traveler since she was in the bathroom.

Other new developments this episode: Grant and Kat have officially sold their house, Phillip discovers that the stock predictions and race outcomes he's memorized are no longer correct, and Marcy has been spending more time with David to see if she can remember some more parts of herself. These are fairly large developments that were perfectly included in an episode that already had some pretty hefty revelations with Grace's trial.

Update

This episode gives us an answer to something I've wondered about for a while: how can travelers be sure that the lotteries, races, and stocks they've memorized stay the same despite their constant interference in the past? The answer is: Update meetings. Every now and then, historians gather for a mass update where their brains download the entire future based on the current reference point, though are require to share none of their new information with anyone, especially their team members. While Phillip deals with the mental stress of knowing the new, awful things he's learned, including that one of the people at his AA meeting has just been diagnosed with cancer and is ignoring the diagnosis out of fear, he give Marcy and Carly some lottery numbers to play so they can win some minor jackpots that Phillip can use to place bets. There is a slight hiccup, however, as David decides to copy Marcy's numbers down and ends up winning half of her jackpot. David getting money isn't necessarily a huge issue regarding timeline disruption, but him giving away all of his money to improve the lives of many of his clients could certainly lead to unwanted ramifications in the future.

Trevor has a pretty heavy episode as he comes to the realization that Real Trevor and his friend, Kyle, have been sexually taken advantage of by their football coach. After learning from Phillip that the coach will eventually be put away on 16 counts of sexual assault, along with the distribution of child pornography, Trevor is determined to bring the man to justice with help of Grace who is trying to be a legitimate guidance counselor. Kyle is eventually taken over by a traveler when he was meant to die in a drunk driving accident, so Trevor confronts the man alone. The coach refuses to confess and says he'll destroy Trevor. Trevor then has Phillip send all of the coaches files to his contacts and to the authorities, effectively putting the man in jail ahead of when he should have been.

Grant was dealing with some heavy stuff as well. Katherine was rushed to the hospital and was eventually injected by Rick, a traveler who Grant previously put in jail. Kat ends up surviving, but the baby is lost. Rick later reveals that The Director sent him to save Kat because she was going to die giving birth to a stillborn, and would therefore have died because of Grant's actions. Grant still isn't too happy about the whole scenario, though.

21C
This episode may be one of the best of the series. While Grant and the team are tasked with helping Rick protect a little girl, Marcy spends the episode in an ice bath killing herself so she can recover her deepest memories, and boy do we learn a lot. Turns out the real Marcy actually used to be a real nurse at a hospital run by our first traveler, Vincent. She agreed to be a part of an experiment, however, and she, like every other patient who took part in the experiment, developed a mental disability. She then became a psychiatric patient for a while before being left alone in an alley. Lucky for Marcy, David came along and saved her. They bonded and Marcy even called him her boyfriend at one point, but David said that just wasn't possible because it wouldn't be professionally appropriate. Her last recovered memory is of the original traveler version of Marcy talking to David on the bus, cementing her feelings for David. As she is moments away from dying for good, Carly and David show up to rescue her. As David and Marcy take a walk the next day, Marcy kisses him, and then finds a drawing on the sidewalk she recognizes from her memories as a patient at the hospital.

Mission Review
Watching all four of these episodes back-to-back was a lot to handle. The season definitely kicked into high gear with these episodes, and there were so many things happening. I thought "17 Minutes" was intense, but then the rest of the episodes showed me that those events were actually nothing compared to what was in store. Part of me wishes I'd waited until the finale airs so I wouldn't have to wait to find out what happens next. How have you guys been doing it for a week?! My last break is wrapping up now, so I'll have to leave you here for now.

What was your favorite revelation so far? How do you think Kat and Grant's relationship will be moving forward? Did you jump with joy when David and Marcy finally kissed again? Sound off in the comments below!