BWW Recap: It's Showtime with Honest Abe on TIMELESS

Last week's premiere of TIMELESS started off the season with a bang. (Ha, see what I did there? Because the Hindenburg blew up?!) This week's journey takes us to Ford's Theater, April 14, 1865. If that date sounds familiar to you, it should: it's the date President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated while enjoying a performance of Our American Cousin. Although Flynn's motives for wanting to go back and alter these specific events in history is still unclear, last week's premiere showed us that every change Flynn makes, big or small, can dramatically impact the course of history.

While everybody else is celebrating the success (and by "success," I mean "they made it back alive") of the Hindenburg time travel mission, Lucy is a bit preoccupied. It's hard to blame her: before she left, her mother was sick and her sister was her best friend. Now, her mother is well, but her sister has never existed. Agent Christopher is skeptical: she and her team have dossiers on Lucy's family, and nowhere do they mention a sister. As proof that her sister did once exist, Lucy shows everyone her necklace, which has a photo of her sister in it. Mason is blown away - she took an object across time from a timeline that no longer exists. That should be impossible.

Lucy is incredibly frustrated, and rightfully so - the team cares much more about the mission than they do about her life that's now drastically changed. Jiya, Rufus's partner in the lab, is sympathetic, and offers to do a little digging into Lucy's family history to see how the Hindenburg crash altered her timeline. Meanwhile, Rufus chats with Mason about these mysterious recordings. Mason explains that they're incredibly important to Rittenhouse (there's that name again), but Rufus's instincts kick in and warning flags go up all over the place. For now, though, there's not much he can do besides listen to his boss.

But enough of that - it's time to take off into the past again. This time, Lucy, Wyatt, and Rufus go back to April 14, 1865. Washington, D.C. is erupting in the best way possible - the entire town celebrates the end of the Civil War. It's not long, though, before we're reminded why we're here: Flynn offers to help John Wilkes Booth assassinate President Abraham Lincoln.

If there's anything we've learned in this episode, it's that Rufus is hilarious. He concludes that John Wilkes Booth assassinating Lincoln would be similar to Donnie Wahlberg assassinating the president, and decides to adopt Denzel Washington as his alias. Things take a serious turn, though, when Rufus - sorry, Denzel - stops to chat with an African American soldier and learns that his family has gone missing at the hands of a slave owner. Progress is being made in America, but there's still a long, long way to go.

While Rufus bonds with the soldiers, Lucy sneaks into the theater and runs into who else but Robert Todd Lincoln (Abraham's son). After a bit of flirtatious conversation, Lucy learns that Vice President Johnson and General Grant are also set to be in attendance at the play. Robert invites Lucy to the show, and she agrees to go.

Lucy quickly fills update the team: Lincoln's death was part of a conspiracy to take out the four most powerful men in the government, including Johnson and Grant. However, Lincoln's conspirators never followed through, but now that Flynn has given them automatic weapons, who knows what the outcome will be. Rufus wants to take the bold course of action and straight up shoot Booth and his men now, but Lucy isn't convinced. This might alter the course of history too much. The trio doesn't have too much time for discussion, though, because Flynn and his men use their new automatic weapons to shoot at Lucy, Wyatt, and Rufus.

Fortunately the gang escapes the gunfire relatively unscathed. Wyatt was grazed by a bullet, but will be fine, so the trio decides to move forward with their plan. Shortly after, Lucy runs into Flynn as he's leaving the train station (the little sneak was there to make sure Grant would attend the play). Flynn mentions that Rittenhouse is the group responsible for killing his family, which is why he's trying so desperately to alter history. But who is Rittenhouse!?

We'll likely have to wait a few more episodes to discover that answer. For now, the group's main focus is on preventing the assassination of Grant and Johnson, while ensuring that history itself is not changed. (Yes, this means that, in a weird way, they're responsible for making sure Abraham Lincoln dies at the theater that night.) Wyatt gets to thinking, though, and joins Rufus's "let's just kill Booth now" team. Why are bad things "meant" to happen to certain people (like his wife and Abraham Lincoln), but now to Flynn? Why should Flynn be allowed to get away with all of this?

Lucy is on the side of defending history, but for a minute, it seems she may change her mind. Meeting one of the greatest Presidents of the United States can have that effect on people. As she sits in the President's box next to Robert, Rufus is tasked with ensuring Johnson's safety. While spying on the man who is planning on murdering Johnson, the soldier that Rufus met earlier shows up. Rufus tries to explain that he's attempting to save Johnson's life, but the soldiers don't believe him - that is, until, they see the assassination attempt go down themselves. Rufus saves Johnson's life, and the soldiers help capture the would-be assassin.

Back in the theater, Lucy's methods of protecting Grant are a bit more unconventional: she spills water on him to make sure he's not in the box when Booth kills Lincoln. She's caught off guard, however, when Flynn charges in instead of Booth and shoots Lincoln - this is not how history is supposed to happen.

In the end, everything nets out: Grant and Johnson survive, but Lincoln cannot recover from his gunshot wounds and dies in the theater. (Here's where I'd normally stop and talk about how much I love the idea of Lucy and Robert Todd Lincoln as a couple, but I'm not going to do that this time around since it is an impossible relationship from the start.) Lucy discovers that she has a bit of trouble remaining objective about certain situations (y'know, like Abraham Lincoln's assassination) when she's actually experiencing history.

The team arrives back in the present day, and Agent Christopher is satisfied with the outcome of the mission. Lucy, on the other hand, isn't content with "good enough" in terms of stopping Flynn. As far as she's concerned, any minor change in history can dramatically alter another person's timeline, and this is something that she's not okay with. Picking up on this, Jiya reveals, through a nice little genealogy lesson, why Lucy's sister no longer exists. Lucy's parents, although married in the other timeline, never marry in this one. There's only one way for this to be possible: Lucy's father is not her biological father in either timeline. Lucy learns that her father (in either timeline) is not actually her father.

Bam. Bombshell.

While all that is happening, Rufus catches up with Mason and hands him back the recording device. He's not spying on Lucy and Wyatt anymore. They trust him, and he doesn't want to betray their trust. My guess is that Rittenhouse (whoever they are) won't be too thrilled by this.

We still have many questions that need answering (like who is this man that Lucy is engaged to?!), but we're only two episodes in, so we've still got some time. The balance between lighthearted tongue-in-cheek comedy and historical drama is still very delicate, but it is still being tread with skill at this point. Let's hope that next week's journey to the underground atomic bomb in Las Vegas keeps this momentum going.

Would you have saved President Lincoln if you could go back in time to 1865, or would you follow in Lucy's footsteps and let fate decide the events that unfold? Let us know in the comments below or tell me on Twitter @CourtHenley! Then join us here next week as we recap the next episode of TIMELESS.

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