Discussion Post: 2x05 "The Kennedy Curse"

[wendelah1]

This is the discussion post for episode 2x05, "The Kennedy Curse." It is meant for folks who are watching the show on the U.S./Canadian schedule, but you should feel free to join in any time after you've seen the episode. Please try to keep comments spoiler-free of anything that comes after season two, episode five. Thank you!

Air Date: April 15, 2018 in the U.S. and Canada
Written by: Lana Cho
Directed by: Holly Dale

Memorable Quote:
Jiya: Flynn's pinch-hitting. I'm sure he and Wyatt have everything under control.
Lucy: Sure. What could go wrong?

Watch on YouTube

I'll add recaps and reviews as I spot them. Let me know if there is anything I've missed so I can edit it in.
Timeless Season 2 Episode 5 Review: The Kennedy Curse (Den of Geek)
Timeless recap: 'The Kennedy Curse' (Entertainment Weekly)
Timeless Recap: The Dead Kennedys (Vulture)
Timeless Season 2 Episode 5 Review: The Kennedy Curse (TV Fanatic)
‘Timeless’ Review: We’ve Been Doing This A While (TV Source Magazine)
JFK’s Excellent Adventure: “Timeless,” Season 2, Episode 5 Recapped | We learn a lot about the once and future President, and he learns way too much about himself, in a tense twist with the past coming to the present (Smithsonian) Read this for the links to Boston accents.
Timeless 2.5: JFK (Infinite Regress)
‘TIMELESS’ 2×05 REVIEW: I HAVE NO REGRETS (fangirlish)

So, what did you think of Episode 2 of "The Jessica Logan Story"? Just kidding. Kind of. Is bringing Jessica onto the Time Team a good move for the show? How are the writers doing with their balancing act between the saving history arc and the new-and-improved format, with its emphasis on character-driven plot? Finally--is Jessica working with Rittenhouse or isn't she? If she is, why hasn't Rittenhouse stormed the bunker already? They certainly didn't waste time stealing the mothership once they had their girl Emma in place last season.

Comments

[wendelah1]

Wow. That one got to me. Watching Wyatt come back to thank Lucy for talking Jessica into giving him another chance? "I don't have any regrets," he tells her. I doubt Lucy feels the same way. The Fangirl website is doing a playlist for each episode. I'm too old (and fine, I don't care for music without chords) to recognize 99% of their picks but boy, they nailed it with this one: Whitney Houston's cover of Dolly Parton's immortal classic, "I Will Always Love You", from The Bodyguard. (Talk about a guilty pleasure film. That song still gives me chills.) I am always on board for a doomed ship, and I can spot two of them in this one scene. I can't predict how or why (to keep messing with us?) but Wyatt is going to lose Jessica again, probably in the final episode. It would not surprise me if they come back to find that Jessica has disappeared from the timeline. They don't know for certain that it was Rittenhouse that caused her to reappear, let alone how. Maybe Wyatt will come back to discover that she was murdered again, or maybe that she divorced Wyatt seven years ago before they had the fight that led indirectly to her death. It could be anything. That's not going to give him closure, or at least it shouldn't. It should rip his heart out—and ours. Lucy/Wyatt might be endgame or it might not, but it's not happening again this season, that's for sure.

I am not calling it yet, because these writers are...not very good, but I don't think that Jessica is a sleeper agent working for Rittenhouse. I don't think she could pull off that sort of long term deception, for one thing. It seems inconsistent with what we've seen of her character. Whatever. These writers are idiotic enough (desperate enough?) to try anything.

The scene with Jiya and Rufus was intriguing, too. She thinks her visions of the future shows that there's a higher power at work. I don't see any evidence of that, but fine. Everyone is the hero of their own story. Rufus thinks the opposite. His mother prayed for God to help her family and as far as Rufus is concerned, God didn't help them—Rufus did. I'll concede his point but that hardly disproves the existence of God. Anyway, I don't think that God intervenes in the world, not in the way that either Rufus or Jiya means. I love watching intimate discussions like this between two lovers. These are the hard questions, the ones without easy answers. They reminded me a little bit of Mulder and Scully in that scene, too.

I don't know what the writers are trying to do with Carol's character. She thought about giving her daughter up for adoption, but she didn't because she loved her too much? Uh, what? She didn't want to raise Lucy to join Rittenhouse—but then she kidnapped her and tried to coerce her into it? Seriously? She tries to get Agent Christopher to keep her daughter out of harm's way by threatening Christopher's family and beating her up. She doesn't know this Lucy at all because if she did, she would have known that if anything, that would harden Lucy's resolve to stay on the Time Team.

How is it that Rittenhouse can track Christopher and kidnap her but they can't find the bunker with the lifeboat? This is really screwy, even for the Timeless writers.

I thought that young JFK learning his and his family's tragic history and then having him decide to return to the past was pushing it, too. Any normal kid would have run away and never come back. Why did the Kennedy half dollar turn into the Nixon half dollar? Does that mean that Watergate doesn't happen, Nixon isn't impeached, and he completes his second term? I sure hope this one gets explained down the road; otherwise, I'll have to add it to the ever-growing list of dropped plot threads.

I don't know what exactly to make of the final scene, where Flynn sits down next to Lucy, who is watching "It Happens One Night," and hands her a beer. That 1934 film pretty much invented the "screwball romantic comedy." Moreover, in case you missed it, that's the movie that was on the theater marquee they passed by in the episode where Lucy and Wyatt kissed for the first time. Never mind then. I do think that Flynn knew all along what was going to happen between Lucy and Wyatt and Jessica because Lucy wrote about it in her diary. I'll bet that's how he found the three 1934 sleeper agents, too.

All of this has happened before: Lucy's diary is the proof. Think about it.

All of the time travelers are feeling it, but as a trained historian, Lucy must be experiencing cognitive dissonance almost to the point of insanity. She now has multiple sets of memories, dating back to the very first mission, competing with her memories of the original timeline. I don't know that it is possible for her, or anyone else to keep up with so many changes. They can't do anything about them. They can only try to cope the best they can. Even if somehow Lucy does get Amy back, they won't share the same memories. That Amy is gone forever as far as our Lucy is concerned. If it does happen, I'm sure Lucy will rejoice but it's never going to be the same. This is the kind of personal loss could happen to any one of them, given how time travel seems to work in this universe.

[earthspirits]

Burning with curiosity of how, when, and why Lucy gave Flynn her journal.

There's a possibility the writers might go with making Jessica a Rittenhouse plant / sleeper agent, but at this point, it almost seems too obvious. Hoping they'll do something more original with her character.

And yeah - at times, the dissonance must be near overpowering for everyone on the team.

The "It Happened One Night" scene was quite intriguing - fore-shadowing, perhaps, that former adversaries are now getting pretty friendly - with possibly a true romance eventually in store? (as the characters in the classic film started off disliking each other too). Guess we'll have to wait and see what unfolds for Flynn and Lucy with regards to this.