Timeless - The Murder of Jesse James - Review

Timeless “The Murder of Jesse James” was written by Jim Barnes and was directed by John F Showalter. Kudos to Showalter who had to contend with horses in the western setting and a whole lot of outdoor shooting in the midst of some rather unusual and heavy snow in the Vancouver area. I’m a sucker for Westerns – it’s the horses – so I really enjoyed this Western episode. Even better, of course – and joining in Rufus’ (Malcolm Barrett) delight – was discovering that the inspiration for the Lone Ranger was black, US Marshall Bass Reeves (Colman Domingo). Not surprisingly, the show also outdid itself once again in casting Domingo and adding Annie Wersching to the cast as Emma Whitmore, who we will, no doubt, see more of.

This episode actually had a fair bit of action in the present. As the episode begins, Wyatt (Matt Lanter) follows up on Flynn’s (Goran Visnjic) information and goes to visit Wes Gillman (Michael Adamthwaite) in prison. Gillman surprises Wyatt by knowing who he is. He admits to killing Jessica and says there are things he’d change if he could, but he can’t. Wyatt approaches the mission with renewed vigor – he’s eager to enlist Rufus to help him steal the time machine to go back and save Jessica.

Meanwhile, Lucy (Abigail Spencer) has a disturbing dream about Amy (Bailey Noble), who accuses Lucy of having forgotten about her. The fact that Lucy forgot Amy’s birthday. Denise (Sakina Jaffrey) notices that Lucy isn’t ok before the mission – but she’s the only one. It throws Lucy off her game enough that Wyatt has to tell her to get her head back in the game.

Connor (Paterson Joseph) tells Jiya (Claudia Doumit) that he’s going to train her to be the next lifeboat pilot –she’s the perfect candidate to keep Rufus in line. Connor tells Rufus that his benefactors plan to replace him in 6 months. Connor tells Rufus that he took his advice – he picked a side. Unfortunately, he picked Rittenhouse.

I liked how this episode split the action between past and present with Jiya’s training leading her to Emma in the present and the team to Emma in the past. Jiya’s training is going well – she’s got take off down but can’t seem to stick the landing. She asks to see videos of the other pilots’ training sessions in the simulator, and Connor lies and says they were lost. Connor underestimates just how smart Jiya is – Rufus was attracted to her and she’s the best candidate for pilot – it’s a stupid mistake on his part.

Jiya gets the footage and discovers Emma’s training. She also sees the footage of Connor losing Emma. Connor discovers she has the footage and Rufus is back in time to see Connor threatening Jiya that if she deceives him again, she will have something to be scared about. There’s no doubt in my mind that Jiya will be choosing a side soon enough and it won’t be Rittenhouse.

Flynn arrives on April 3, 1882 just in time to save Jesse James (Daniel Lissing) from being killed by Robert Ford (Lincoln McGowan) and Charles Ford (Alex Rose) as James dusted a painting. And of course, they did get the history right – the brothers did shoot him in the back. Flynn enlists James’ help to track a person down with a treasure map that he has – garnering James’ interest with money, of course. It was a bit of a plot hole as to why he had to have James help him, but we’ll wave our hands at that one a bit. Lissing does a good job of portraying James as the psychopath he was.

When the team arrives, Wyatt is eager to go after Flynn and James but wants to get a local guide because it’s worked for him every other time he’s had to go into hostile territory. The try to enlist Bass because of his reputation, but he says at first that he’s too busy. Lucy knows that he knows Indian territory and they finally convince him. Wyatt is eager to kill James, but Bass insists they do it his way or not at all – they bring ‘em in alive. Bass is also reluctant to bring a woman into danger, but Lucy insists – and he agrees as long as she wears more appropriate clothing.

They are joined by Grant Johnson (Zahn McClarnon) – who is also historically accurate! I love McClarnon so was very happy to see him guest star. Johnson and Bass did work together. I loved it when Johnson thinks Wyatt is calling him a fool in Spanish when he calls him Tonto! It’s really just another little historical wake up call too. Why call the Lone Ranger’s Indian friend that? Everyone also noticed that Bass also rode a “silver” horse, right? Historically, Bass always rode a large white stallion.

It was also a nice touch to have even Rufus fall for the historical nonsense when Grant teases him that they’ll find Flynn and James by “spirits” – and then tells him of course not, they’ll interview witnesses because they are lawmen!

Later when they come upon the dead Native Americans, Grant insists they have to bury them before continuing. Once again, Rufus offers to help with the burial “ritual.” Grant explains that he’s not a full Indian, and in fact, historically Grant was the son of a Black Chickasaw and a Black Creek. Grant tells Rufus that the only home he’s every really known has been with Bass.

I really liked that this episode looked at the toll that the missions have been taking on both our team and Flynn. James tells Flynn that he used to be like him. He’d killed in the war because he had to but he ended up on the wrong side of the war and after it ended he just kept on killing because deep down that’s what he is – a killer. Flynn insists that that isn’t what he really is.

Wyatt insists that he’s going to kill James, and Rufus is disturbed by the casualness that they talk about killing. Bass tells Rufus that he’s no hero, but that he does see the men he’s killed every time he closes his eyes. Rufus asks Bass if it bothers Bass that he was in bondage – Bass was a slave – and that now he’s fighting for their law. Bass tells Rufus that the law isn’t perfect, but it’s all they’ve got.

Wyatt tells Rufus and Lucy about going to see Gillman. Rufus tells them that he still thinks about the man he shot in Houston. He insists that killing shouldn’t be an everyday thing – it should be harder than that. Lucy insists that she won’t back Wyatt up. Who’s to say what’s right or wrong? She doesn’t want to do the job anymore – she just wants her sister back.

Flynn gets to Emma first – and we immediately know she’s from the future because of the electronics all over her cabin. Flynn wins her trust by telling her that he’s not with either Connor or Rittenhouse. Emma is clearly terrified and tells him that he has no idea what they have planned. He tells her that she can either try to hide in “Frontierland” or help him. The reference to Frontierland is particularly funny. First off it refers to the Disneyland western attraction, but more pointedly it was also the title of the Supernatural episode in which the Winchester brothers travel into the past to visit the old west – something Dean was even more thrilled about than Wyatt.

Flynn tells James that Bass is leading the posse and gives him money too. James wants Flynn’s special rifle too. Flynn relents and gives it to him – James final words to him are to look him up when Flynn drifts more to the evil end of the spectrum like James.

The team finds the cabin, and Rufus knows about Emma but thinks she’s supposed to be dead. James shoots up the cabin. Wyatt manages to get out and get the drop on James, shooting him in the arm, but Grant is shot and killed. In real life, Grant actually lived until 1929. Bass holds guns on both Wyatt and James – Bass was ambidextrous – so this is also historically accurate! Bass insists that Wyatt holster his gun, and James insisted that he was unarmed, that he was injured, and that he surrendered. It’s Lucy who comes up and shoots him in the back! Did she snap? Did she want history not to be changed any more than it already had been?

Lucy tries to give the reward money to Bass to give to Grant’s family, but he refuses. Back in the present we see Lucy at home alone, crying over the historical pictures of James’ body with her in them. Rufus tries to get Bass to talk to reporters so that people will know his story, but Bass insists that he’s not doing his job for them. Rufus can’t convince him of his historical importance.

Back in the present, Denise can’t figure out why Flynn needs another pilot. It’s unclear whether she wonders why Connor suddenly wants a second one too.

In the final scene, Wyatt confesses to Rufus that he loved westerns as a kid – naturally he saw himself in the Gary Cooper, good guy role. They never crossed the line, they had a code. In another very interesting parallel to the conversation between Flynn and James, Wyatt confesses that his childhood romantic ideal was shattered by going to war. He learned that no one was that good – but then he met Bass and realized that he had been wrong. Bass was that good.

Wyatt asks Rufus to help him steal the time machine to save Jessica. Rufus tells him that he won’t help him kill. Wyatt tells him that he’s just trying to stop a bad man – but he’ll try to find another way if Rufus will just help him to save his wife.

This was a beautifully shot episode – I loved how Showalter captures so many terrific snowy shots! The writing was also excellent as the characters really start to question their own actions and what the mission is doing to them and how it is changing them – and how they are trying to resist that change, that slide toward the dark side. Flynn isn’t helped by being thrown together with James, while Wyatt benefits from the influence of Bass. What did you think of the episode? Why did Flynn go back for Emma? Do you think Jiya will figure out about Rittenhouse? Will she go to Rufus and will he tell her? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!