'Timeless' Recap: 'The Darlington 500'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

The best part about discovering a quality new television show, is the sheer excitement that comes with delving into this magnificent new world. After all, you meet new characters to get to know, there’s new villains to despise and a world of endless possibilities to explore and really, that’s where I’m at when it comes to NBC’s Timeless right now. Because I have so much to learn when it comes to this series and oddly enough, the next episode of season two, ‘The Darlington 500’ taught me a valuable lesson about this series in that, I should expect the unexpected.
 
Because I’ll be perfectly honest, at first glance, this episode seemed like a fairly by the numbers affair, wherein our Time Traveling Trio were headed to 1955 to save a racer named Ryan Millerson from the evil clutches of Rittenhouse. Which means I expected to meet a confused gentleman from that era, one who was trying to understand why on earth strange people were trying to harm him and his family and well…none that happened in the slightest. Instead, Millerson ended up being the Rittenhouse agent for this particular era and well, that twist was a stroke of genius.
 
Because by having their target for salvation turn out to be the bad guy, the whole story suddenly took on new life and instead of instantly saving the day, it was our heroes that ended up needing a helping hand and the man responsible for that was a driver named Wendell Scott. Who in essence, wanted no part of their shenanigans, outside of doing them a solid, and it took another good deed to convince him to help and well, normally in shows such as this, our heroes appeal to that person’s sense of morality or just reveal they’re from the future to get what they want. So, to see good deeds be used as the plot device to solve their problem was refreshing to say the least.
 
However, while this episode was filled to the brim with plenty of unexpected twists and fun moments, there is an evil villain waiting in the wings to unveil his master plan and we honestly need to discuss the final moments of this episode wherein Nicholas Keynes revealed said plan. Because what he had to offer up was downright terrifying and it raised the stakes for this season to a whole new level, since Keynes is in essence ready to use Time Travel to rid the human race of its ‘impurities’ in order to make it perfect and well, that’s a chilling statement, and the implications that come with that, has me rooting for our Trio to stop him as quickly as possible…
 
When all is said and done however, I am absolutely ecstatic when it comes to how refreshing this series is. Nothing about it is conventional and that’s just downright wonderful. Because it means I’ll never be able to guess what’s coming and that’s a rarity in this day and age, and more importantly, I’m thoroughly enjoying how infallible our main characters are turning out to be. They really are wonderful people through and through who are just trying to make the world (and time) a better place and well, television definitely needs more of that right now and I cannot wait to enjoy the next chapter in this wonderful saga. Until next time. 

---