Timeless Season 2: Episode 4 – “Salem Witch Hunt”

Whew! Last we left the time team, Wyatt had been hit in the face with a big fat twist from the past. His (formerly) dead wife is alive! Not only alive, but didn’t look all that excited to see him.

But first, we open on September 22, 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts where a woman is lead to the gallows, professing she’s innocent. Despite her pleas, she’s hanged as a witch.

We’re now in present day, Wyatt completely flabbergasted that Jessica’s alive. But she’s at work and totally uninterested in talking to him. When he asks her to have dinner, she scoffs, “You haven’t replied to my texts for two months and now you want to have dinner?”

It’s obvious Wyatt’s trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. But he can’t because he doesn’t even have all the pieces. She agrees to talk to him after her shift.

We’re now at Rittenhouse Central with Nicholas pumping away on the exercise bike as Carol walks in and asks how his research is going. Nicholas voices a bit of concern about Garcia, Flynn, and Lucy. She’s been a thorn in the side of Rittenhouse for quite awhile. Emma gives him a nod and I’m thinking Nicholas and Emma have not only established their own hierarchy, but are possibly lovers. Carol stresses that Lucy is Nicholas’ great-granddaughter, but he demands something has to be done. Carol insists she can handle her own daughter.

Meanwhile, at the Time Travel Bunker, Jiya confesses to Rufus that her seizures are more like premonitions. When Rufus jokes about it, she explains she’d seen him in colonial clothes with a gun aimed at a man with a scar on his cheek. Then Rufus is covered in blood. He attempts to comfort her, but neither of them are totally convinced they shouldn’t be concerned.

The Mothership has jumped to Salem, Massachusetts, 1692. Agent Christopher tells Lucy to get Wyatt back to the bunker. When she finally gets hold of him, he tells her Jessica’s alive. Heartbreakingly, she tells him to stay with Jessica and this is “a good thing.” When he asks if the Mothership jumped, Lucy lies and says everything is fine.

Lucy tells the group about Jessica being alive and they all properly freak out. Rufus discovers the Mothership jumped to San Diego, 1980 while they were in 1941. The general worry is Rittenhouse changed history to bring Jessica back, but why?

Agent Christopher interrupts that their immediate concern should be Salem. Lucy and Rufus decide to go, but Flynn interrupts, stating it would be dangerous to go without a solider. Lucy agrees, especially since Flynn had so much knowledge of the timeline. Additionally, Lucy explains they would be safer to travel with Flynn because a woman and a black man would have little say or rights.

Before they leave, Agent Christopher instructs Flynn that Lucy is in charge, but Rufus does not like this plan at all. He makes it clear that he doesn’t trust Flynn and Flynn seems okay with that, even jokes with them.

Once they’ve arrived in Salem, Rufus is unnerved about the creepiness of the woods and when a woman approaches, he yells, “No, don’t go near the demonic entity.”

The outspoken woman, insists the trials are murder and chides them for coming to watch the hangings. Lucy comforts her, explaining they were sent by reverend from the Old South Church in Boston. The woman apologizes since her friends have been few as of late.

Back in the present, Wyatt attempts to understand where he and Jessica’s relationship actually is. She presents him with divorce papers. “We have to face we aren’t the couple we wanted to be.” Try as he might, Wyatt can’t figure out what he’s done until Jessica gives him a laundry list of frustrations—his drinking, promises to change and never changing. She’s done and can’t put her life on hold anymore. He begs her for another chance, but she won’t relent.

Lucy, Rufus, and Flynn enter the tavern where John Hawthorne, the head guy, proclaims nine women have been accused of witchcraft. Lucy perks up as there were only eight in her version of history.

As Hawthorne drones on about how these women were all guilty of witchcraft, Abby Franklin, the woman who they met in the woods, shouts for a new trial on the grounds that there is no such thing as witches and being eccentric isn’t a crime. Instead of listening to reason, the crowd yells for the women to be condemned and Abby’s name is the ninth name on the list.

Lucy tells Flynn and Rufus that Abby Franklin can’t die because she’s Benjamin Franklin’s mother. If she dies, he won’t be born. Rufus asks why it would matter if Benjamin Franklin wasn’t born. Lucy explains that Franklin encouraged people to stand up to those in charge. All his writings and works would be lost and it would be a “step towards tyranny.”

Flynn’s frustrated that he can’t find a weapon of any kind.

Rufus sees the guy with the scar on his face and tells Lucy and Flynn about what Jiya saw. Flynn replies, “If she’s fantasizing about Puritans, you’ve got bigger problems, man.”

Ba-da-ching.

Now Flynn seems to think Jiya may be on to something and confronts Scarguy, insisting he tell them about Abby Franklin. Scarguy tells them he’s one of the judges, Samuel Sewell, and the accusations were made by someone close to the accused. Samuel’s daughter walks in and Flynn lets Samuel go, only to threaten him if he tells anyone. Now that they don’t believe Samuel to be a sleeper agent, they are back to square one in figuring out who is.

Lucy remembers that Ben Franklin’s aunt was one of the most outspoken about accusing women of witchcraft in Salem. They head out to find her house.

Wyatt begs Jessica to reconsider as he tries to explain what’s going on without explaining too much. One thing she does make clear is that she’s always been proud of his military service, but she can’t deal with the secrets, half truths, and him not being there even when he is there.

She tells him she can’t be married to him, even though she loves him, but Wyatt frantically insists he’s going to tell her everything. All she has to do is come with him.

Uh-oh. He can’t really be considering taking her to the bunker, right?

Lucy, Flynn, and Rufus head to Bathsheba Franklin’s house, but upon arrival, Rufus decides to head back to town and see if there’s a way of getting Abby out of prison. Lucy and Flynn ask to meet Rufus back at the tavern.

When Lucy and Flynn meet Joseph, Bathsheba’s husband, he offers them venison and when Flynn asks him if he’s a hunter, the husband said he hasn’t touched a gun in years. “I’m a God-fearing man.”

We can see it on Flynn’s face. He’s thinking, Um, yeah, so how did you get the deer meat, dude?

Bathsheba arrives and gets pious about how the town might be better off with the women being hanged, ridding them all of such dark arts. Lucy confronts Bathsheba about her lies, her false accusations. When she doesn’t confess and when Joseph steps in, Lucy gives Flynn a blank check on how to get the info. All he does is shove Joseph and grabs him by the throat before Bathsheba confesses she’d accused other women, but not her own sister.

At the Tavern Flynn, Rufus, and Lucy talk about how to get Abby out of jail. Flynn storms off, hoping to find a musket.

Rufus sees Samuel, the scarred man, and immediately worries about Jiya’s premonitions. Lucy tries to offer words of comfort, but she can’t completely rule anything out. Flynn walks around the tavern in search of a weapon, but the tavern owner tells him to get him and his friends out. Flynn doesn’t appreciate the hospitality and immediately starts a brawl.

Lucy and Rufus have several men behind them with guns and a woman yells that Lucy is a witch.

Holy cow! The accuser is Lucy’s mom, Carol. So who’s a witch, exactly?

Well, great. Wyatt has brought Jessica to the bunker and they are immediately greated with a “Are you kidding me?” by Agent Christopher.

She tells Wyatt that Rittenhouse went back to San Diego, 1980 and changed something to bring Jessica back. Wyatt replies, “Then she might be in danger.”

Agent Christopher responds, “She might be the danger.”

Wyatt won’t go there. He can’t believe that Jessica would be Rittenhouse (I’m still on the fence about this one. I think she doesn’t know she’s a piece of the puzzle they are going to use against Wyatt) and insists she stays in the bunker because “I’ve buried my wife once, I won’t do it again.”

Jessica hears this and heads for the door, but Connor arrives. This stops her in her tracks as she is awed that Wyatt knows Connor.

In Salem, Lucy is thrown in the cell with the accused. She’s comforted by Abby who explains that dying wasn’t the bigger concern, but dying in shame is. Lucy encourages the women, telling them they shouldn’t be ashamed of who they are. Strong women and women who are different are often seen as troublemakers and make people uncomfortable. “I am glad to be in your company,” she tells them and it’s a powerful moment.

Outside the cell, Rufus and another (white) man sit, chained. The man looks at Rufus with distain and moves away. Rufus replies, “You know black and white necks break the same.”

The man looks at Rufus like he’d never thought of it that way.

Carol arrives to check on Lucy (Yeah, thanks, Mom), explaining that there is no sleeper agent. That this is her last chance to convince Nicholas of Lucy’s promise. Carol begs Lucy to return with her and Lucy replies, “I’d rather be hanged.”

Before Carol leaves, she gives Lucy a small knife and tells her to meet in the woods.

Flynn is back at Bathsheba and Joseph’s house, looking for a rifle. Joseph insists Flynn leaves and there is no gun. When Joseph hits Flynn (big mistake) and Flynn responds in kind, Bathsheba arrives with a gun. Flynn couldn’t be happier. Flynn tosses Joseph like a rag doll and he lands on Bathsheba. She drops the weapon and Flynn greedily snatches it up.

The women are lead to the gallows, the first woman is Abby Franklin. Lucy saws at her ropes. With her head in the noose, Abby is resigned to dying, but gunshots are fired and Lucy and Rufus know Flynn is there. Chaos ensues, but the women are freed as Flynn makes quick work of a few of the men in the crowd. One slashes at Lucy with a knife, slicing her left arm.

Hawthorne is shot and Rufus helps the rest of the prisoners, including the rude white man, to get away from the insanity.

Samuel cuts off Rufus and one of the women, as they run through the woods. Rufus tells the woman to continue on, she does. Samuel, angered by the jailbreak, points a gun at Rufus, who points a musket back. Frustrated, Rufus begs Samuel to go home to his daughter. To walk away.

After a few tense moments, Samuel lowers his gun and backs away, only to be run over by a couple of horses pulling a cart.

Well crap, that premonition came true, just not the way we all expected. With his hands covered in blood, Rufus is visibly shaken.

Back in the Time Machine, Lucy can’t buckle her seatbelt because of her wounded arm and Flynn helps her. Back off Flynn, that’s Wyatt’s job!

In Time Travel Central, Jessica stands by with Wyatt, Jiya, Connor, and Agent Christopher. She’s absolutely not convinced any of this is real…until the time machine arrives. When Lucy exits the lifeboat, she makes eye contact with Wyatt, who’s now obviously conflicted, especially when he sees her arm and Flynn helping her.

Jiya and Rufus argue about whether the man’s death happened because she saw it or because they tried to avoid it. Rufus tells her maybe she shouldn’t tell him what’s in her visions. Jiya’s devastated because who else is she going to tell?

We’re now in Rittenhouse Central where Nicholas has taken Carol off the Lucy Assignment. Emma pops up all ready to take over where Carol’s been lacking. “Now Lucy is our problem,” Nicholas explains and gives a look over to Emma.

Yeah, I’m pretty sure Emma’s all in on this and has great aspirations to be queen bee of this entire thing. (Watch your back Nicholas.)

Wyatt confesses to Jessica how consumed by grief he’s been since her death, but she argues that she’s still alive. He tells her about the night she died, but she’s not totally convinced of his perception of things. He begs her to believe him that he’s changed and to give him one last chance.