Timeless Season 2: Episode 2 – The Darlington 500

When we last left our time team, we’ve just discovered that per Rittenhouse’s manifesto, the bad guys are planted as sleeper agents all through time. If that isn’t bad enough, the guy Nicolas Keynes, that Lucy’s mom, Carol and baddie, Emma brought back from WWI is the author of the manifesto.

Unknown to Lucy, Nicolas is her great-grandfather. (Wow, that family tree is full of badness.)

Darlington, South Carolina September 4, 1955

We see an average house with a guy who’s plotting out his race strategy as he preps for the Darlington 500. His wife lovingly encourages him, tells him that he’ll be great and they dance.

Fade to Emma who’s staring at a picture of said man and his wife, upset that the guy is married and his wife is pregnant. She pulls out a gun and tells the guy at the wheel to drive faster.

Back at Time Travel Central, Rufus and Jiya are working on the Llifeboat when she has a vision of Rufus’ arm being burned. When she comes back to center, Rufus asks her if she’s okay and she says she “totally fine.” But internally, we know she’s upset.

Lucy’s reading over the Rittenhouse manifesto as Wyatt approaches. He asks her what Rittenhouse did to her those weeks they had her in their grip, but Lucy says it’s “nothing to talk about.” He tells her Jiya, who’s sharing a room with Lucy, told him Lucy stares at the ceiling all night and she’s worried about Lucy.

Lucy said she appreciates the concerns, but she’s fine.

The Mothership lands where nothing is going on and no historical importance occurs at the time they are there. Stumped, Lucy suggests they ask Flynn for help since he knew far more about Rittenhouse’s plans. Agent Christopher, Wyatt, and Rufus are against the idea, but Lucy tells them if they have a better idea to spill it.

Next, we’re visiting Flynn. He suggests Lucy ask her mother why they are in South Carolina, 1955, but Lucy throws it right back at him, stating she wants to take down Rittenhouse. Snarling, Flynn says if she’s truly willing to do that, she has to be willing to kill her hero, her mother. Knowing how much Lucy idolizes her mom, Flynn says he doesn’t have a lot of confidence in her determination to take Rittenhouse out.

Lucy counters, stating he can help or he can sit there and never know who or why his wife and daughter died.

Flynn confesses there had been an agent at an address in Darlington, South Carolina. He gives them the address, but states that the next help offered won’t come free.

Before the Time Team jumps, Agent Christopher tells them Ryan Millerson lives at the address they’ll visit. Wyatt gets excited, stating that Millerson was one of the best NASCAR racers in the sport.

Off they go to 1955, South Carolina.

In present day, Carol talks to her great-grandfather, telling him they followed his instructions to the T, planting sleeper agents in certain decades. He doesn’t talk to her as he paints. She sees he’s printed hundreds of pages from Wikipedia. When she offers the digital tablet instead of printing everything, he refuses and asks her to look at his painting.

Carol immediately realizes it’s her mother, as a toddler. He stares at the painting longingly, stating in his mind, she’s always a baby.

Nicolas then asks where the other items are on his wish list. Carol tells him they have been difficult to find, but he says he wants what he’s used to. As she leaves with a list he wrote, he asks for more pickled eggs. Carol leaves, obviously annoyed.

We’re back to 1955 and the Time Team is talking to Mrs. Millerson. She explains her husband is racing in the Darlington 500 that day and if they get to the track, they can see the other reporters that had been there earlier. When described, Wyatt, Lucy, and Rufus know immediately it’s Emma and her thug.

Meanwhile, at the racetrack, a lot of racing hot cars are like eye candy to Wyatt. He’s rattling off what each car is and their engines. Rufus and Lucy are shocked, realizing Wyatt is a “Stone Cold Nerd”, but he laughs it off.

A couple of jerk guys purposely bump into Rufus and Lucy sighs, “1955 in the South.”

“Not a prime time for black folks,” Rufus answers as a white guy comes flying out of a garage and out walks racing legend, Wendell Scott.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hUCawn4fjs?rel=0

The guy’s dad confronts Wendell on beating up his kid, but we find out that the dad sent the kid in to screw up Wendell’s engine since Scott beat the guy half a dozen times so far.

Immediately, Wyatt knows who Wendell is and enters the garage, stating he’s a police officer before the men gang up on Scott. Wyatt tells the men to leave. The jerk guys leave.

Wyatt and Wendell begin talking cars and running booze. Scott shows them the secret compartment in his trunk, which is presently, full of bottles of moonshine.

They ask him if he can introduce them to Ryan Millerson and he says he can. When Wendell steps away, Lucy and Rufus joke about Wyatt running booze and he said he used to when he was about 15.

The Time Team is now talking to Ryan who says he has no enemies that he knows of. Rufus looks in his car and sees a trigger in the glove compartment. When they pop the hood, they find several sticks of dynamite in the engine, but to our heroes’ surprises, Ryan has a gun on them. He’s the sleeper.

Ugh, now Emma’s arrived and the Team is cornered, but Wendell causes a distraction and our heroes escape. Wendell takes them to his garage. While Wendell works on his car, Rufus, Wyatt, and Lucy try to figure out why Rittenhouse would pick Millerson as their agent. Wyatt tells them Millerson “came out of nowhere”, winning national titles starting in 1959. Rufus suggests Rittenhouse dropped him this time period to do something major.

Wyatt remembers the Darlington 500 runs that day. Lucy tells them if Rittenhouse cripples the car industry because of the explosion at this race, they could go in and take over Detroit.

Back in the present, Agent Christopher and Connor Mason argue about Connor’s upcoming gig being part of tech panel at a conference. Agent Christopher says Connor’s involvement in this panel will undermine what they are trying to do. She tells him to cancel because it will endanger the team and their objectives.

We’re now in Millerson’s garage where Emma questions Ryan about his dedication to the cause. He scoffs saying his wife means nothing to him and the baby was an accident (Nice guy), but he suggests maybe they should pick another race. Emma mocks him, saying that way he could spend more time with his wife and child. Emma’s thug tells them the bomb is ready. She double checks that Ryan is ready for his suicide mission, but we can see, he’s having doubts.

At Wendell’s, the Team tells him they need to get back to the racetrack, that Millerson has a bomb in his car. Wendell doesn’t believe them. Says if he helps them, that’ll only give people more of a reason to not allow him to race.

Rufus tries to help fix Wendell’s car, but ends up getting burned. Wyatt pockets a part to Wendell’s engine before Wendell hands Lucy a first aid kit for Rufus and kicks them out.

Despite Agent Christopher’s warning, Connor is at the expo and sees a colleague who mocks Connor’s financial situation. Connor retorts with saying it’s a temporary setback and he has to prepare because he’s speaking first.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBWaCmR0Jcw?rel=0

Wyatt returns and tosses a fixed fuel filter and offers to help Wendell fix his car. The men talk, Wyatt explains his father would drive his own car until something broke and expected Wyatt to fix it so they could get home. While Wyatt worked, his father would drink, smoke, and laugh at him. When Wyatt was 15, he stole his dad’s car and ran away. Wendell laughs, saying his father had a gambling problem. When Wyatt turns around, he sees Lucy and Rufus and realizes they’d heard his story about his father.

Wendell’s car starts and he offers to take them back to the track. Rufus rides up front as Lucy and Wyatt are in the trunk so they can sneak back in. When they arrive at the track, the guards tell Wendell to open the trunk. When he does, Lucy and Wyatt are hidden behind the panel. It’s a cozy place and once again, we get an almost kiss. (AHHHHH!)

Ryan’s wife arrives to give him a hug and kiss for luck. Emma smugly watches and when the wife walks out, Ryan begs Emma to take his wife away from the racetrack. Emma says, “I thought she was just part of your cover” and adds if he doesn’t carry out his mission, she’ll kill his wife. (You know, I appreciate a good villain so I appreciate Emma.)

Wyatt and Wendell formulate a plan as Lucy and Rufus follow.

A crowd of reporters gathers in Ryan’s garage. He speaks to them, predicting his victory by at least three laps when sees Wyatt as does the thug. Thug and Wyatt fight and thug pulls a gun, it goes off scaring the reporters. Ryan jumps in the car, ready to ride it out in the track, but Wyatt kills him. Rufus tries to defuse the bomb, but Emma arrives and begins shooting. Lucy and Rufus jump in as Wyatt grabs the wheel. Off they go, being chased by the police.

We see Wyatt’s concern morph to excitement as he’s in his element. Through a series of very fancy driving, Wyatt gets them safely tucked away in Wendell’s garage.

They all tell him thank you. He happily boasts about becoming the best racer in the field, but Rufus asks him if Wendell honestly thinks they’ll give the award to a black man.

Wendell laughs, saying he knows they won’t. That he knows there are a lot of odds against him, but he’s going to race and work to be the best anyway.

Wyatt shakes his hand, replying, “Give ‘em hell, Wendell.” (Which is what his fans would yell in the stands.)

Back at Time Travel central, Jiya sees Rufus rebandaging his burned arm. She doesn’t tell him what’s going on.

At the tech conference, Connor is escorted out of the building before the doors open and he’s able to present. The agents state he’s being charged with aiding and abetting an enemy of the state and conspiracy to commit fraud. Agent Christopher stands by, watching it unfold and they escort him out of the building.

Back at Time Team Central, Agent Christopher tells Connor if he does anything to endanger the team again, she’ll put him in prison with no chance of freedom.

We’re now at Creepy Headquarters with Emma and Carol. Nicolas has shown his true form. On the wall is a HUGE map of what they will do and what they will accomplish to reach Perfection Everlasting of the Human Race.

Emma blisses out with complete amazement as Carol has that “What have I gotten myself into” look on her face.