History Recap / TimelessS2E8TheDayReaganWasShot

* RagnarokProofing: Apparently, the flash drive Lucy leaves behind in 1981 still works after 37 years and none of the information has degraded, even though no modern flash drive can possibly last more than 10 years, even if unused (flash drives degrade even more with use).

* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: Presumably, one of the reasons Rittenhouse has chosen to kill Christopher that day is to make it look like John Hinckley, Jr., shot her.

Lucy, Wyatt, Jiya, and Rufus travel to Washington, D.C., on March 30, 1981, on [[TitleDrop the day Reagan was shot]]. However, they are mistaken that Reagan is the target. A young D.C. cop named Denise Christopher is.

* ComingOutStory: At Lucy and Jiya's urging, Denise comes out to her mother and breaks off her ArrangedMarriage. Her mother slaps her for that. However, by 2018, her mother has come around and accepted her daughter for who she is. This never happened originally, resulting in Denise distancing her from her mother and keeping her family a secret from her.

* MeaningfulRename: Dhriti Sirivastava became Denise Christopher partly to honor Officer Christopher, the female cop, who comforted her after her father's murder and inspired her to become a cop, and partly to avoid having to try to spell her name out to everyone.

** Flynn reveals that Lucy from around 2023 showed up two weeks after his family's murder and handed him her diary. While Lucy claims that it's impossible, as one cannot travel to within one's own lifetime (the reason neither Flynn nor Mason went to 1981 with them), Flynn assumes that Rufus and Jiya will find a way.

* GenreSavvy: Present!Christopher realizes her past self is the target as soon as she's told the date and time the Mothership is at. Unfortunately, the Lifeboat team has already left by that point.

Lucy, Wyatt, Jiya, and Rufus travel to Washington, D.C., on March 30, 1981, on [[TitleDrop the day Reagan was shot]]. However, they are mistaken that Reagan is the target. A young D.C. cop named Denise Christopher is. While Lucy and Jiya follow Denise to the hospital, Rufus and Wyatt apprehend the Rittenhouse sleeper agent named Owen. Owen admits that he had no choice, that his family was bailed out by Rittenhouse, who then recruited him and his brother. While his brother became a true believer, Owen did not, but he agreed to become a sleeper in order to keep his family safe. Wyatt and Rufus are able to stop Owen's brother, but Owen hangs himself in order to avoid retribution against his loved ones. Meanwhile, Denise is pressured by her mother to accept an ArrangedMarriage. Given her recent brush with death, Denise accepts, something that threatens the existence of her future family. Lucy and Jiya are forced to admit where and when they came from. Lucy shows Denise the flash drive her future self has given her and photos of her wife and children. Denise breaks off the engagement and comes out to her mother, something she never did originally. In the present, Denise thanks the team for everything they have done for her all those years ago. As a bonus, her mother is now a loving part of the family, whereas the two barely spoke in the original timeline.

* ArrangedMarriage: As is typical in Indian culture, Denise's mother insists that her daughter agree to marry a man, whom she has chosen for her. In the original timeline, Denise managed to successfully avoid agreeing to it, but after her brush with death, she decides that maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

* ExactWords: Although taking place - as per the title - on the day Reagan was shot, the Rittenhouse plot has nothing to do with it.

* ForcedIntoEvil: Owen didn't want to become a Rittenhouse sleeper agent, but he wasn't really given a choice. After saving his family from financial ruin, Rittenhouse recruited him and his brother and demanded obedience. While Owen's brother bought into their philosophy, Owen remained skeptical, although keeping his opinions to himself. The only reason he agreed to become a sleeper agent is because Rittenhouse threatened to kill his wife and kids back in 2018. He not only gives up his brother to Wyatt and Rufus but also hangs himself in order to keep his family safe.

* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: Presumably, one of the reasons the Rittenhouse has chosen to kill Christopher that day is to make it look like John Hinckley, Jr., shot her.

** Agent Denise Christopher's birth name is Dhriti Sirivastava. She changed it partly to keep people from having to try to spell her Indian name and partly in honor of the female cop, who comforted her on the day her father was murdered.
** Flynn reveals that Lucy from 2023 showed up two weeks after his family's murder and handed him her diary. While Lucy claims that it's impossible, as one cannot travel to within one's own lifetime (the reason neither Flynn nor Mason went to 1981 with them), Flynn assumes that Rufus and Jiya will find a way.

** Wyatt finds out that Jessica is pregnant and that her brother, who was supposed to die at the age of three, is still alive and is good friends with Wyatt thanks to a miraculous treatment for his leukemia.

* StalkerWithACrush: John Hinckley, Jr., who tries to kill Ronald Reagan in order to impress Creator/JodieFoster. Thanks to Wyatt's interference, Hinckley isn't captured immediately but, instead, gets the chance to try again, although he's eventually apprehended by the Secret Service.

* GengeSavvy: Present!Christopher realizes her past self is the target as soon as she's told the date and time the Mothership is at. Unfortunately, the Lifeboat team has already left by that point.

* MeaningfulRename: Dhriti Sirivastava became Denise Christopher partly to honor Officer Christopher, the female cop, who comforted her after her father's murder and inspired her to became a cop, and partly to avoid having to try to spell her name out to everyone.

* ScrewDestiny: Jiya and Rufus agree to find a way to keep Jiya's vision of his death from coming true.

* MeaningfulRename: Dhriti Sirivastava became Denise Christopher partly to honor Officer Christopher, the female cop, who comforted her after her father's murder, and partly to avoid having to try to spell her name out to everyone.

* RetGone: Rittenhouse wants to kill Christopher in 1981 in order to keep her from assembling the team and hiding them in the secret bunker. Ironically, had Lucy and Jiya not intervened, the sleeper's failure would still have resulted in Denise having a completely different life, such as becoming a housewife instead of a Homeland Security agent. When Christopher realizes this in the present, she tells Mason and Flynn the possible consequences. Flynn, however, points out that, in that case, he wouldn't have been caught and jailed.