History Headscratchers / Timeless

* In the pilot, why did Wyatt and the rest take the ridiculously easy way out -- not by trying to disarm the bomb, but by breaking a window and throwing said bomb out onto the empty and soggy airfield? The Hindenburg would have easily gotten far enough, and high enough, away in the ensuing five minutes that the bomb would pose no threat to it, and the empty airfield would gain a small smoking crater. Given that there was a window ''in the damn kitchen'', the only possible explanation is that Time made the entire team grab the IdiotBall ''hard''.

** Did anyone from the base actually try to search for the core? No one from the Army, the AEC, or the FBI tried to search along the roads into and out of the base, looking (for example) for skidmarks on the road, spent bullet casings, wrecked cars, or freshly-dug ground? Even if they wanted to keep the investigation quiet, ''recovering the plutonium is still a major priority'' as it is both a radiation and a severe chemical hazard. The Manhattan Project recommended ''immediate amputation'' of the affected limb for anyone contaminated with plutonium; this isn't the stuff you just shrug your shoulders and say 'oh well!' about.

* How is Lucy going to return to her job? The more trips they take the more history changes. She's going to become less and less updated on history unless she's constantly studying what's changed, because we've been shown that the simple changes they make have big consequences. (Loss of Lucy's sister, a new Bond movie, the Alamo being even ''more'' of a massacre.) Now take that back to the originating events - how much does Von Braun change the effects of WWII now that he's with the Allies earlier? What happened when terrorists crashed the Hindenberg? Was it a reaction like 9/11? She spent an ''entire'' career becoming a premier historian and professor and she is literally unraveling history. All these things spiral out and connect to history (like, for instance, small things like JFK's mistress being hooked up with the mob, that most people literally had no idea about) and those connections are Lucy's sole purpose and the more she works with these people, the more she's destroying her own livelihood. Also, her usefulness to the team is likewise constantly eroding. Realistically, how is going to "keep up" with all of the ramifications of what they are doing because they go far and wider that most people realize, ''especially'' in history and politics?

* Some Rittenhouse sleeper agents' only job is to kill someone. (E.g. Robert Johnson's girlfriend, John F. Kennedy's English teacher.) Wouldn't it be much easier, and less time-consuming (especially for the agent), to just send an assassin in period clothing?

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* At the end of JFK's episode, the college girl felt utterly convinced he was JFK. What was the proof? If they saw the time machine or someone teleported into his room, she might believe in something supernatural but wouldn't it be more logical to her that he had some Napoleon complex?


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* How is Lucy going to return to her job? The more trips they take the more history changes. She's going to become less and less updated on history unless she's constantly studying what's changed, because we've been shown that the simple changes they make have big consequences. (Loss of Lucy's sister, a new Bond movie, the Alamo being even ''more'' of a massacre.) Now take that back to the originating events - how much does Von Braun change the effects of WWII now that he's with the Allies earlier? What happened when terrorists crashed the Hindenberg? Was it a reaction like 9/11? She spent an ''entire'' career becoming a premier historian and professor and she is literally unraveling history. All these things spiral out and connect to history (like, for instance, small things like JFK's mistress being hooked up with the mob, that most people literally had no idea about) and those connections are Lucy's sole purpose and the more she works with these people, the more she's destroying her own livelihood. Realistically, how going to adjust to ''keeping up'' with all of the ramifications of what they are doing because they go far and wider that most people realize, ''especially'' in history and politics?

** So far the team has been successful in keeping most of the events that were altered "close enough" to what really happened to keep the butterfly effect to a minimum as far as later events being affected are concerned. For example, the nation's reaction to the Lincoln assassination is presumably no different in the altered timeline than it was in ours, because in the altered timeline Booth didn't kill Lincoln but still was charged as the one behind the plot. i.e., in both versions Lincoln dies at the same time and place, and in both versions Booth and his fellow conspirators are held responsible for it. The biggest change so far is probably the Hindenberg disaster, but even then terrorist bombings by anarchist groups were not uncommon in the news at that time. The altered version might actually be less newsworthy, since fewer people died. The biggest historical problem there is the continued existence of the people who died in the original timeline, which we've seen some of the results of.

* In the 1970s, Flynn, Wyatt and Rufus stumble upon someone who could be critical to finding out how deep Rittenhouse's hooks are sunk into the governmental apparatus in the USA. Yet they don't make any effort to get any names - even just the upper echelons, if nothing else.

** But the team didn't remove Deep Throat from the timeline- Lucy and Rufus explicitly told him to keep talking to Woodward and Bernstein. Unless Felt was too spooked by Lucy and Rufus's knowledge of his identity to continue to provide information to the press, but that isn't stated.
** The above headscratcher was about [[spoiler:the doc]] that the team locate and spirit to safety. That person has Rittenhouse's entire hierarchy memorized (current as of the 1970s, but with human life expectancies in the USA many of them would still be alive in 2016), yet Lucy, Wyatt and Rufus did not get from that person any concrete info. Unfortunately this appears to have been motivated for plot convenience, because the team knowing the names of the high echelons of Rittenhouse [[spoiler:would immediately make her realize who her father truly is.]]

* Isn't it weird that Flynn never questions the diary? He has been following it since beginning but not a single one of his plans succeeded. If Future!Lucy (or whoever wrote it) wanted him to achieve his goal, the diary would contain some sort of warning how to counter the teams actions. It's blatantly obvious the author of the diary needs everyone to carry on for some reason and Flynn doesn't seem to care he might have been getting sabotaged all along. But the fact that anything in the diary may be made up is obviously lost on everyone involved.

* There appears to be minor ripple proofing of those back at HQ, as no-one is ever surprised to see a time machine missing/arrive back in the present, but generally they have the "new" history in their memories. When Wyatt and Rufus get back from 1983 and trying to save Wyatt's wife, why doesn't Lucy get "reset" to the new history? After missing a time travel mission, she should have been rippled away to a Lucy who never had a sister. Right?

** I had the idea that they were highly inbred, to explain how Lucy looks like her great-grandmother, either that, or a MyOwnGrampa situation, with a distance of one more generation than usual. ... I guess, if you use eugenics, they bred out the negative traits that popped up... But, we haven't seen any siblings in Rittenhouse, so the membership increase by reproduction idea might not work? ... Perhaps some people just married in, and they also have spies everywhere to find sympathetics to recruit??

* Why Lucy, an high level historian, didn't know the existence of the real David Rittenhouse? Nobody of the team simply tried to Google the name "Rittenhouse"?

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* There are many problems with Flynn's plans to "wipe Rittenhouse from history" by altering American history, but the biggest one is not even addressed on the show. Flynn believes that once he wipes Rittenhouse from history, his family will be alive when he gets back. But given the massive butterfly effect that would result from any of his missions to the past, if successfully affected, hasn't it occurred to him that he might just inadvertently wipe out his family from history rather than saving them! Consider the fact that the alterations to the fate of the Hindenburg resulted in Lucy's sister getting ''wiped from history'' - and those alterations were relatively minor compared to most of the changes Flynn wants to enact. Hasn't it occurred to Flynn that this is a very real and probable risk? And why hasn't it occurred to Lucy to tell him about her own experience with her sister in a bid to dissuade Flynn from enacting his plan? It would actually make for a more compelling logical argument than the moral ones she's been throwing his way.

** Jesse may have been a ruthless killer but he was of at least average intelligence. If he had watched Flynn using the M4 he probably could have worked it out for himself.

* John F. Kennedy is the only historical figure who's seen detailed information about the future. Even assuming he never tells anyone else what he saw, having foreknowledge of the fates of his siblings and children, and of his own legacy, is bound to change his decisions between 1934 and 1963. We already know that he [[spoiler: took Rufus seriously and avoided Dallas on November 22, 1963--only to be shot in Austin on the same day]]. What other actions did he take as a result of his exposure to the future? How was his life in general, and his presidency in particular, changed as a result? Did he avoid the Japanese destroyer that sunk PT-109 when he was in command, ensuring that two sailors survive the war (or at least that particular engagement)? Did he avoid his numerous extramarital affairs (or at least be more discreet about them) to keep his legacy from being tainted? Was he more ambitious during his presidency and avoid some of the mistakes he made? Even if Kennedy tells no one else, having this knowledge will influence his decision-making for better and for worse.

* Women's suffrage activist Alice Paul is killed by a Rittenhouse operative while in police custody to prevent her from giving a major speech. While the impact of that speech is debatable (momentum in favor of granting women the right to vote had already been building for the past year[[note]]The changing demographics of the US in the early 1900s had a very big role in granting women the vote. Nativist sentiment in particular in the heavily-populated Eastern states would drive support for women's voting rights. White upper-class women (who by 1910's thinking could be told how to vote by their husbands and fathers) were needed to counter the growing influence of immigrants. Meanwhile in the thinly-populated Western states granting women the right to vote was a matter of simple logistics and a need to attract settlement. This is why Wyoming--then and now the least-populous state--was the first to grant women the vote in statewide elections.[[/note]]) this is entirely the wrong strategy for Rittenhouse to pursue. Killing Paul, who had already endured a brutal prison sentence for the cause, only serves to make her an InspirationalMartyr for the women's rights movement--arguably making her even ''more'' effective than in the original timeline. In the original timeline Alice Paul would live to be 92 years old and continue to be influential in the women's rights movement, and the larger civil rights movement, until her death in 1977. Rittenhouse's strategy may have diminished her direct impact in these areas but she's still going to have an impact nonetheless. It would have made more sense to eliminate Paul the same way they tried to eliminate JFK--by targeting her as a child or young adult. Given the number of ways children could die early in the 1880's it wouldn't have been hard to do either.

** It's a ClosedTimeLoop. The killer was Flynn all along; he just didn't realize it until that moment. Flynn died shortly afterward because he had crossed his own timeline. His remains either weren't recovered or weren't associated with the crime (the dead Rittenhouse agent being a more likely candidate for Jessica's killer). But in killing Jessica he saved Rufus and effectively destroyed Rittenhouse for good, so in Flynn's own mind RedemptionEqualsDeath and he's able to rejoin his own family in whatever afterlife he believes in.

* Why would Rittenhouse choose an occupation as inherently dangerous as professional auto racing for a deep-cover operative who has to embed himself into an organization for years to become effective? This isn't a sedentary job like being an English teacher at a posh prep school or a movie producer, or one where the operative can blend in with the crowd like the women's suffrage movement. Millerson has to become prominent in order to become effective, which means risking his life every time he enters the starting grid. Modern racing on the NASCAR circuit is extremely dangerous--consider what happened to Dale Earnhardt. Racing in the 1940's and 1950's would be even more dangerous. Millerson could have easily been killed or crippled for life while establishing cover and the whole operation would have been ruined. It's possible that a modern NASCAR driver was a Rittenhouse member who was recruited (or blackmailed) for the job, doing a KillAndReplace on the historical Millerson, but Millerson's family would have noticed at some point. It would have been better to embed himself into (for example) Henry Ford III's entourage where he would have had access ''and'' not have to risk his life--if anything his Rittenhouse credentials might have made the job easier considering Millerson's mission was to purge the organization.

** Mark Felt was already taking a ''huge'' risk by talking to Woodward and Bernstein. Alienating not only Nixon but also Nixon's [[BiggerBad even more powerful enemies]] would have been fatal. And removing Deep Throat from the timeline also removes not only Watergate but an entire generation of activist media--making it easier for Rittenhouse to do whatever it is they're doing without interference.

** It's a ClosedTimeLoop. The killer was Flynn all along; he just didn't realize it until that moment. Flynn died shortly afterward because he had crossed his own timeline. His remains either weren't recovered or weren't associated with the crime (the dead Rittenhouse agent being a more likely candidate for Jessica's killer). But in killing Jessica he saved Rufus and effectively destroyed Rittenhouse for good, so in Flynn's own mind DeathEqualsRedemption and he's able to rejoin his own family in whatever afterlife he believes in.

** It's a ClosedTimeLoop. The killer was Flynn all along; he just didn't realize it until that moment. Flynn died shortly afterward because he had crossed his own timeline. His remains either weren't recovered or weren't associated with the crime (the dead Rittenhouse agent being a more likely candidate for Jessica's killer).

* Why would Rittenhouse choose an occupation as inherently dangerous as professional auto racing for a deep-cover operative who has to embed himself into an organization for years to become effective? This isn't a sedentary job like being an English teacher at a posh prep school or a movie producer, or one where the operative can blend in with the crowd like the women's suffrage movement. Millerson has to become prominent in order to become effective, which means risking his life every time he enters the starting grid. Modern racing on the NASCAR circuit is extremely dangerous--consider what happened to Dale Earnhardt Jr. Racing in the 1940's and 1950's would be even more dangerous. Millerson could have easily been killed or crippled for life while establishing cover and the whole operation would have been ruined. It's possible that a modern NASCAR driver was a Rittenhouse member who was recruited (or blackmailed) for the job, doing a KillAndReplace on the historical Millerson, but Millerson's family would have noticed at some point. It would have been better to embed himself into (for example) Henry Ford III's entourage where he would have had access ''and'' not have to risk his life--if anything his Rittenhouse credentials might have made the job easier considering Millerson's mission was to purge the organization.