Tag: brad wright

Travelers Season 2 Episode 12: 001 Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 7 Comments

Trav212SimonVincentDevice

This episode ends another season of Travelers, and mirrors season 1 episode 5, Room 101, with the team’s friends and loved ones being held hostage and abused this time. The companions receive more humane physical treatment from Vincent/001 than the travelers did, but he’s out to destroy their relationships and peace of mind. That way he can make a quick escape while the travelers are distracted with the crisis he’s created. We’ll have to wait for season 3 to find out if 001/Vincent’s plan allows him to get away with hiding in plain sight, and if the companions can forgive the travelers for lying to them.

The cold open consists of a videotape recorded by MacLaren at ops in which he confesses to being a traveler:

“Seven months ago my consciousness was sent from the distant future into the body of Special Agent Grant MacLaren, moments before he would historically have died in the line of duty. Since then I have assumed his life, his work, his marriage, pretending to be a man very different than myself. In truth, I am traveler 3468, one of thousands of travelers around the world who have come from a time when life is all but wiped out, to save humanity. To change the path. I know how that must sound, especially to you, Kat, but it’s true.”

Continue reading “Travelers Season 2 Episode 12: 001 Recap” →

Travelers Season 2 Episode 11: Simon Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 2 Comments

 

Trav211Simon&Gang

This episode we delve further into Simon’s back story and his research with Vincent. We also find out a little more about what Vincent is up to in the present. The travelers search for Vincent with Simon’s help, and things come to a head in their personal lives. MacLaren brings Dr Perrow in on a plan to capture Vincent.

We start the episode at the 2012 gala where original MacLaren and Kat met Vincent, which Vincent mentioned to traveler MacLaren when Mac questioned Vincent. It’s a silent auction, and Kat tells Grant that there’s no way football tickets are worth that much. But it’s for the children!! He runs into Vincent as he steps away to get them another drink.

Vincent stops to chat with Kat, assuming she means that she endowed a research chair when she says that she donated a chair to the auction. Still socially awkward after 11 years in the 21st. Kat explains that she means a literal chair, which doesn’t have any bids yet, so they take a walk over to look at it.

As they approach, Vincent is mesmerized by the series of Simon’s drawings displayed next to Kat’s lovely chair. She informs him that the drawings were done by a patient at the hospital. Visibly moved by the sight of his lost home and people, Vincent buys all of them.

Continue reading “Travelers Season 2 Episode 11: Simon Recap” →

Travelers Season 2 Episode 10: 21C Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 4 Comments

Trav110OrderlyMarcy&Vincent

In this episode, Marcy takes drastic steps to bring back the memories she lost in the reset, and the show does a drastic retcon of her origin story. While Marcy is taking her ice bath through memory lane, the rest of the team is charged with helping to protect future POTUS 53, currently a sweet little girl under attack by the Faction. When you’re an evil death cult, it’s never to early to assassinate a president.

Marcy begins her ice bath ritual with a quasi suicide note for David, because this show loves to torture him. Not that I mind all that much, since David’s happiness is frequently based on guilting people into doing what he wants. He’s one of those guys whose excessive sensitivity makes every situation about him, and Marcy’s need to recover her past is, of course, actually about his needs instead of hers.

Continue reading “Travelers Season 2 Episode 10: 21C Recap” →

Travelers Season 2 Episode 9: Update Recap

~ Metacrone

Trav209PhillipatUpdate

The travelers move on from the machinations of the Faction in this episode, once again settling into the business of long term life in the 21st century, with all of its risks and rewards. Phillip is given his first historical update, restoring his function as the team’s historian. Trevor and MacLaren face personal tragedies. Marcy and Carly help Phillip rebuild the team’s investments.

Phillip picks up his swag bag as he enters a mostly empty movie theatre and finds the seat labeled with his traveler number. A young woman sitting a couple of seats away asks him if it’s his first time, to which he replies, yes. She tells him it’s her second, and points out a man who’s there for the third time. The man’s face is filled with dread. Being a historian is not for the faint of heart, but we already knew that.

Continue reading “Travelers Season 2 Episode 9: Update Recap” →

Travelers Season 2 Episode 8: Traveler 0027 Recap

~ Metacrone

Trav208GraceTrevMac

This episode is a big one for the season and the series, with the trial and vindication of Grace/0027, the rushed discovery of the real traitor programmer, the dismantling of the quantum frame (for real this time, it appears), and our first peek at the face of God the Director, through the almost forgotten super secret two-way communication that Ellis made possible.

It’s a lot to pack into one episode, so let’s get started.

The episode begins with the Faction on vacation in the country, taking full advantage of the opportunities now available to them in the 21st century. The team is observing the rebels and their lakeside cabin hideout, while Phillip uses some fancy new software to establish TELLs for the two guards who are easily visible. As they’re overwritten to become travelers, a third rebel comes around the corner, ready to shoot, so that one has to be killed instead of overwritten. MacLaren sends the two new travelers into the cabin, where they force the three rebels who are eating lunch to surrender. Why fight when it would make you spill your delicious 21st century soup?

Continue reading “Travelers Season 2 Episode 8: Traveler 0027 Recap” →

Travelers Season 2 Episode 7: 17 Minutes Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 8 Comments

Trav207TrevPhilMarcy

In 17 Minutes, we try something a little different from the intensity of last few episodes. So much so, in fact, that Brad Wright, credited writer on the episode, forgot to include most of the plot. It’s a classic repeating time loop episode, this time combined with the goal of preventing the massacre of the team at the hands of the Faction.

As we begin, Katherine receives a giant, gorgeous bouquet of roses from her mother. It turns out it’s her and Grant’s 10 year wedding anniversary, and he hasn’t acknowledged it yet, even though it’s already 7:00 AM!! She sends him a pointed text to remind him that he’s a lousy husband and that she was bussed in from the 1950s.

Meanwhile. the team gathers for a road trip to a lake in the mountains where a meteorite is about to crash that’s crucial to the science of time travel. While they prep, we get some more misogynist dialogue about the “girl’s” training in “21st Century Female Behavior” letting Mac know that Kat is right, he’s a failure as a husband. It must be 8:00 AM by now and he hasn’t even sent flowers, never mind bought her diamond jewelry.

Continue reading “Travelers Season 2 Episode 7: 17 Minutes Recap” →

Travelers Season 1 Analysis and Speculation

~ Metacrone ~ 5 Comments

travelerscharphotos

Whew! What a wild ride this season turned out to be! I love it when you get to the end of a season of television, then have to go back and question everything you thought you knew about the previous episodes. They gave us a lot to think about over the hiatus. When Travelers returns, it’ll seem like a different show, now that the Faction’s role has been revealed. All of these changes open up so many new plot lines to contemplate, so many directions the show could take its mythology and characters.

The goals of everyone, as far as we’ve seen, continue to be saving the world, environmentalism, and respect for the sanctity of life. (In a global way, at least. It’s accepted that individuals of a certain class are disposable in order to further the greater good.) They all want a future living somewhere that’s green. It’s the method of achieving that future that’s at stake. At the very least, there will be a power struggle in the future to see whose Grand Plan will be implemented from here on out. There had to be competing philosophies before the director’s decision-making parameters were programmed. The faction or factions are revisiting those alternate philosophies, to see if changing the program’s if>then protocols will achieve better results. We could be in for experimentation and a rapidly changing future, a reign of terror as the faction tries to secure its hold on the director, or civil war as future society fights it out to decide who will be in charge of the director’s decision-making process, or if the director will be making the decisions at all. Another option is for a faction to steer the changes by human reasoning alone.

Continue reading “Travelers Season 1 Analysis and Speculation” →

Travelers Season 1 Episode 12: Grace Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 13 Comments

travelersep12barn

Wow, these last couple of episodes have been an intense information dump, while still being filled with plot and character development. So much to sort through. Travelers is suddenly doing my job for me, with the characters throwing out every question and variation on the conspiracy they can think of. I’ll do some analysis here, but to keep it from getting too long, I’ll save the bulk of it for my Season 1 Analysis and Speculation post.

Ellis’ hack allows travel back to the future. That’s why it was so important to get him out and do it off the books. But Grace screwed it up with her reboot. She opened a two-way door between the future and the past, then left the director open to the rebel faction. If the rebels didn’t already have access to the traveler technology, they do now. Travelers will be able to jump back to the future now, and travelers and messages won’t necessarily be sent to further the director’s Grand Plan. This could potentially change the character of the show completely next season.

The episode opens a few minutes after Marcy ends, with David and Marcy having a cup of tea. David, as hung up on the mundane details of life as ever, is fussing about his broken teapot. Marcy dropped it when the forced personality reboot started. I suppose it’s symbolic of the warm, comforting Marcy he lost, though he doesn’t know it yet. Marcy doesn’t remember the tea. David hopes she’ll recover some of her memories. According to the mythology we’ve been given so far, she shouldn’t, but McLaren did still have a few of original McLaren’s memories, ones expressing strong love. Marcy is working with a damaged brain and an experimental procedure. Anything is possible. If McLaren’s example holds true, her love for David is what she’s most likely to remember.

Continue reading “Travelers Season 1 Episode 12: Grace Recap” →

Travelers Season 1 Episode 11: Marcy Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 7 Comments

TravelersM&MatFarm.jpg

OH MY GOD. ALL OF MY DREAMS HAVE COME TRUE. MY CONSPIRACY THEORIES AREN’T JUST PARANOID DELUSIONS. THERE IS A RIVAL FACTION TRYING TO TOPPLE THE DIRECTOR. 014 AND 027 SAID SO AND THEY HAVE SUPER LOW NUMBERS AND ARE SUPER IMPORTANT SO IT MUST BE TRUE.

But they killed Grace, and Trevor hates them, so what does that mean? But Trevor might be the inside man, so maybe he was stopping the transition into Grace not just because he cared about her (please don’t take that away from me, show), but because he was trying to stop 027 from escaping from the rival faction in the future. Or, maybe 027 and 014 are the rival faction. My head is starting to hurt. Conspiracy theories are complicated. Also, I might still be a little paranoid.

Hold on to your hats, fellow travelers, we got a lot to unpack in this episode.

We start with Marcy and David in bed, Trevor checking the stitches from his organ donor surgery, and the travelers’ wet dream, a farmer working his farm. The farmer gets into trouble using his giant drilling tractor (?) and promptly becomes a traveler. Farming machinery is more dangerous than people realize. The traveler is elated to be outdoors surrounded by plants and animals.

Continue reading “Travelers Season 1 Episode 11: Marcy Recap” →

Travelers Season 1 Episode 10: Kathryn Recap

~ Metacrone

travelerscoveralls

The team has loaded Kathryn into the van after last episode’s plane crash and is getting her, and themselves, out of Dodge. They can’t be linked to the crash site in any of the news reports. As they speed away, Philip and Trevor restrain Kathryn while Marcy sedates her. Marcy calls McLaren’s cell phone. One of the EMTs answers it and tells them to deal with the Kathryn situation, then go to headquarters. The team takes Kathryn home, gives her a memory inhibitor, and puts her to bed. She’ll forget most of the last day. Philip and Trevor pour out several bottles of wine to make it look like Kathryn and McLaren got blackout drunk the night before to explain her headache and memory loss. They head off to headquarters.

There’s a medical team at headquarters, with a complete medical suite set up in the garage. The head doctor introduces himself as D13. D for doctor, or, Derek. They are an elite team that usually works on heads of state, but also treats whoever else the director sends them to, world-wide. Told you McLaren was one of the director’s favorites. 😉 Mclaren’s injuries are so extensive that even Future Medicine™ might not be able to save him. He’ll need an organ transplant, so someone will have to volunteer to be the donor who grows the new organ. Medical nanites will do most of the other work. Trevor ends up being the donor to grow the organ. It’s an extremely painful process. McLaren also needs multiple surgeries.

Continue reading “Travelers Season 1 Episode 10: Kathryn Recap” →