Agent Christopher orders Wyatt to eliminate Rufus's coworker Anthony, whom Flynn abducted when he stole the time machine. In 1962 Las Vegas, when atomic tests are common near the city, Flynn uses intimate photographs to blackmail John F. Kennedy's mistress, Judith Campbell, into helping him steal a plutonium core, as her relationship with a general enables her to access a secure nuclear facility. Rufus discovers that Anthony is Flynn's willing collaborator; they are working to destroy Rittenhouse.
Anthony seemingly relinquishes the core to Rufus, and Rufus prevents Wyatt from killing his former colleague. The team discovers the core is a decoy while Flynn successfully escapes with the real device. Wyatt arranges for a telegram to be delivered to his wife in fifty years, attempting to save her life in 2012. Upon their return to the present, Wyatt learns that his wife is still dead and he covers up Rufus' protection of Anthony; Lucy tells her fiancé, Noah, that she needs to move to her mother's to clear her head. In the Nevada desert, Flynn and Anthony dig up the plutonium core, which they had buried rather than risk transporting it through time.
- Artistic License – History: According to Lucy, the Department of Energy conducted atomic tests near Las Vegas in the early 60's. That agency was created in 1977. Its existence in 1962 rather than its predecessor the Atomic Energy Commission may be due to a historical change brought about by a previous mission, or that she was using modern terminology to refer to the old version.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Flynn gains a battery capable of powering his time ship for centuries.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: Because Rufus is black, he notes that people seem to ignore him when he goes into places, or acts as a conman, specifically because of the rampant racism and values at the time.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: Judith Campbell is the target of Flynn rather than the President himself.
- Downer Ending: Judith will die of cancer after a period of public disgrace despite bonding with the team.
- Exact Eavesdropping: Wyatt attempts to send a telegram to his wife in the future, and he turns around to find Lucy right behind him.
- Femme Fatale: Subverted with Judith who is just extremely attractive to powerful men.
- For Want Of A Nail: You'd think stealing a nuclear weapon would have more repercussions than it did.
- Nice Girl: Judith Campbell is this as well as Smarter Than You Look.
- Not Brainwashed: Anthony turns out to be working willingly with Flynn.
- The Mistress: Judith Campbell, mistress to both JFK and Sam Giancana, the top mob boss in Vegas. Judith would actually serve as the go-between for them. She's also with the general in charge of the atomic testing and apparently many more men of power and influence.
- Truth in Television: The US Atomic Energy Commission regularly tested atomic bombs at the Nevada Test Site in Nye County — 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas — during the 50s and early 60s. The US Department of Energy (which did not exist in 1962) assumed the responsibility for underground nuclear testing in the 1970s. The explosions from the atmospheric tests were visible from downtown and became a tourist attraction.
- Viva Las Vegas!: The setting of the mission during the city's heyday.
