Timeless Series Finale: A Fitting Ending That Will Leave Fans Happy

The little show that keeps on going had it's series finale last week. "Timeless" has been canceled twice by NBC. First was after season 1. Vocal fans got them a season 2 (but the show was again canceled). Luckily we got a two hour Christmas special to wrap up all the story lines.

In season 2 our threesome (Lucy, Rufus and Wyatt) traveled to a number of locales:

France during WWI- We meet Nicholas Keynes (who turns out to be Lucy's great grandfather).
NASCAR in Darlington, South Carolina in the 1950s
Hollywood in the 1940s
The Salem Witch Trials in the 1600s
Rittenhouse's attempts to assassinate JFK
1930s Texas and blues music
New York in the early 1900s and women's right to vote
Washington in 1981 and the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan. The team stops Agent Christopher from being murdered.
The Confederacy during the Civil War. Wyatt's wife Jessica kidnaps Jiya.
Jiya escapes but becomes trapped ifor three years n Chinatown, San Francisco in the 1880s. She sends a message (in Klingon) to the future crew. Too funny. Emma kills Carol and Nicholas. Emma is in cahoots with Jessica now. Just as Jiya had seen in her visions, Rufus is murdered (by Jessica).

In the series two hour finale "The Miracle Of Christmas", a future Lucy and Wyatt arrive from 2023. They tell present day Lucy and Wyatt that if they want to save Rufus, they must use the clues from Lucy's journal. They take the old lifeboat and leave our team with the new one (upgraded with autopilot ya know). We also learn that Jessica was never pregnant. She was just manipulating Wyatt.

So off they go-- first to the Gold Rush of 1848 and then to the Korean War in the 1950s. They eventually figure out that in order to save Rufus, they must remove Jessica from the time line. Flynn secretly takes the machine and kills Jessica on the night in 2012 she was intended to die.

After a few harrowing experiences the crew (including Rufus) is saved by Agent Christopher who uses Rittenhouse's time machine. She has Emma in tow. Emma tries to tell Lucy that she can save Amy. While Lucy wishes that were true, she says the cost is too great. Who knows what else that will change in history. Just then Korea soldiers attack and shoot Emma dead. It's about time. Our team disbands but keeps the lifeboat (in case of emergencies).

In 2023, Lucy and Wyatt are married and have two children (named Flynn and Amy). Shes teaching history at a university and just got tenure. Rufus and Jiya are also together and running their own very successful company. Jiya is the "face" of the company and people ask for her autograph. The team joins together one more time. They travel back to Brazil in 2014 (remember Flynn was stuck in 2012 after killing Jessica). Lucy gives Flynn her journal (which started this who ordeal). She also tells him that regrettably he will never be able to save his family-- but he is truly a hero. Even Flynn gets a redemptive arch.

And in the final scene we see a young girl drawing up plans for her own time machine. Uh oh, here we go again.

Grade: 4 1/2 Monsters (out of 5). A fitting finale. There was no "swinging for the fences" here. "Timeless" delivers two typical "mission of the week" episodes but also manages to reward fans for their dedication. A few open questions were answered (Lucy's journal, Wyatt and Lucy's relationship, etc). Our gang hopefully lived happily ever after. That is until the next time they're needed to save the world. I must confess that "12 Monkeys" is my favorite time travel show-- followed by "Travelers". "Timeless" still provided some great time traveling history lessons though and had a compelling cast.