'Timeless' Retro Recap: 'Atomic City'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

​Okay, so, I really need to start this particular Retro Recap of Timeless with an apology to all the Clockblockers out there, simply because, I’ve been slacking. I’ve been doing a poor job of recapping the first season of this magnificent show and that’s bad on me simply because, this is truly a time for celebration. After all, the fans worked their magic once again, and saved this show from the cancellation void since we are finally getting a two-hour movie to wrap this magnificent story up. So, I won’t make any excuses here today as why I’ve been slacking, just know, I’m sorry, and it’s time to get back to celebrating this amazing show by digging back into every single moment of season one, starting with the next chapter in the Time Team’s story, ‘Atomic City’.
 
Now if anything, the third episode of this show, signaled quite the paradigm shift for the series. Because in reality, the first two episodes, were a touch on the dark side and that’s okay. After all, Flynn and Rittenhouse got right to work in doing some incredibly rotten things with the timeline and being thrust into the role of a time traveler cannot be an easy task for our Time Trio, but this particular tale, well it had a different feel to it. In fact, it was just downright fun, and it was cool to travel back to this particular timeframe of Las Vegas history, wherein the city was more of a nuclear attraction than a tourist town and I have to admit, I had a smile plastered to my face watching this story as the team finally started to loosen up around one another and have a little fun with their adventures, something I saw in spades during season two.
 
As an added bonus, I couldn’t help but notice that this episode served as the genesis for something that made me fall in love with the show in the first place, character development. Because the Time Team’s struggle with their newfound roles, was front and center in this tale, especially when it comes to Wyatt, who truly felt as though it was unfair to save only the greater good and not his beloved wife, and it was stunning and heartbreaking to watch him do everything he could think of to try and change the future in order to keep Jessica alive, to no avail of course, and I also loved how the team didn’t shun him for his pain or make him feel bad about it. They supported him, they did their best to lift him up and I would venture to say this was also the budding beginning of the grand romance between Lucy and Wyatt that we’re still kinda waiting for, unfortunately.
 
Yet, while all of that was important and mesmerizing, the other big element that I loved in this story, was the fact that it handled our trip into the past differently in both design and storytelling style. While the first two episodes more or less set the stage for where we were headed and what particular moment the Time Team was going to try and prevent from changing, this episode left us completely in the dark and let the story grow organically and that made for a fascinating tale that focused heavily on John F. Kennedy’s mistress, Judith Campbell, and her desperate desire to keep her machinations in the shadows and that added a new layer to this show, almost a noir-ish feel to the whole thing and all of these changes made this tale supremely enjoyable.
 
However, perhaps the true crown jewel of this story, is the sheer fact that in essence, the bad guys win in this one because that’s just so rare to find in storytelling period. But Flynn and his gang really did get the better of Mason Industries since they were able to get their hands on a plutonium core after all and well, when all is said and done, it feels good to be watching this show once again and I am definitely invigorated and ready to power through season one. Because this show really does deserve to be talked about more so the uninitiated, as I was once was, can discover its wonder and also because, it’s time to complete this journey on a personal level so that I am one hundred percent informed on what happened in the first two seasons, before that all important series finale hits the airwaves. Until next time.      

---