Nearly three episodes into the premiere season, Timeless still promises a lot of history jumping, all in the name of keeping the timeline from changing. After all, no one can predict the ripple effects that one small alteration can make in the great scheme of things. But what if history’s already been rewritten? What if the history that Lucy, the time traveling historian, holds close is actually the result of a previous time traveling mission? What if the history that viewers know, the one that everyone was taught in school, is fundamentally wrong?
While Lucy, Rufus and Wyatt believe they are protecting the country from potentially devastating alterations, they may actually be working for a larger agency that wants to maintain an already changed timeline. Therefore, Garcia Flynn isn’t the “bad guy” in this situation. He’s actually trying to return the timeline to what it once was.
Flynn’s Past
Not much has been shared about Flynn. In the pilot episode, Agent Denise Christopher informed Lucy that he is an ex-NSA agent who murdered his family. But since then, Flynn’s revealed that he never killed his family; Rittenhouse did. Lucy seemed to trust Christopher, as she is a current government agent, but she was never given any actual evidence to prove Flynn’s guilt. Since both parties admit that Flynn’s family is no longer alive, viewers can assume that either they were killed or maybe that they have disappeared entirely like Lucy’s sister, Amy. And if that’s the case, Flynn’s motivations for rewriting history, or correcting it, are clear: he wants to bring his family back.
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Flynn’s Familiarity with Mason Industries
Flynn was an NSA agent but the specifics of his role are not clear. To that end, it’s possible that he worked with a government agency in an effort to protect the country by securing beneficial outcomes to all of history’s major events. And since Mason Industries seems to be the only company to have successfully produced a time machine, it’s likely that he worked with them. After all, he knew where to find a time machine in the first place, information even most NSA agents wouldn’t be privy to. He also knew how to bypass security and who was in charge, and he wasted no time staring at the time machine with awe.
Lucy’s Journal
How could Flynn have Lucy’s journal in his possession? From what Timeless has shown, she hasn’t written even a page of the book so far, but it is in her handwriting. Lucy has confirmed this, even if she doesn’t understand its existence. Flynn’s told her that she will write it, so her book must be from the future, but maybe not the future that we know. Flynn seems to be using her book to travel back in time to specific dates, possibly so he can return history to its prior state. Since it’s an object that doesn’t exist in the current time, or rather, shouldn’t, it’s similar to Lucy’s necklace, the locket with her sister’s picture in it. It hardly seems to be a coincidence that both characters have souvenirs from different time streams, which, it’s important to point out, seems to be of special interest to Mason in “The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln” as he ponders Lucy’s locket.
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Our Shared Reality with Timeless
Timeless creators Eric Kripke and Shawn Ryan may be relying on viewers’ knowledge of U.S. history to project the idea that Lucy, Rufus, and Wyatt live in the same world as the audience with just one small but significant difference: time travel is possible. But because viewers are reminded of historical facts they know to be true, Timeless writers may be setting the series up to truly shock. Later this season, it could be revealed that the history viewers share with Timeless may be the result of the government, or any large agency, selfishly manipulating time. What fans know to be true may actually be a timeline sprung from the changes a mysterious group made without their permission, and everything that does exist perhaps shouldn’t. By having their own history tied so closely into that of the show, it would make viewers question, “What if we’re in the wrong timeline?”
Do you think Flynn is the villain of the series? Or do you think he’s the hero? Share your Timeless theories below in the comments.
Timeless season 1 airs Monday nights at 10/9c on NBC. Want more news? Like our Facebook page.
(Image courtesy of NBC)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
