Jiya escapes Rittenhouse, but the Lifeboat is damaged, resulting in Jiya failing to reappear in the present. Eventually, the team manages to locate a photo of Jiya in a history book in San Francisco's Chinatown in the 1880s. The photo contains a secret message for Rufus, specifying the GPS coordinates of the Lifeboat and a warning to stay away from her.
The team locates the Lifeboat in the woods outside San Francisco, overgrown with vegetation. Despite over a century of rust, Rufus and Connor manage to get it working again. With Rittenhouse already after Jiya, Wyatt, Lucy, Flynn, and Rufus jump after her, to the date the photo was taken. They manage to find the photo studio and get into a shoot-out with Rittenhouse. Tired of being treated as merely an assistant to "royalty," Emma shoots Carol and Keynes, telling Jessica that they'll be in charge now. Jessica's dying words to Lucy are that she regrets not having indoctrinated Lucy earlier.
They find Jiya, who has been working at the local saloon for three years. Jiya is angry at Rufus for disregarding her warning, as her vision tells her that this is how Rufus will die. Emma, Jessica, and several Mooks arrive and start a shoot-out. Jiya manages to avert the vision and save Rufus from being stabbed. But as soon as they come outside, Emma shoots and kill him. Lucy chases after her, shoots and wounds her, and engages in fisticuffs with her, but fails to prevent her from running off. Flynn saves Lucy, while Emma escapes. Wyatt is unable to shoot his wife, who admits that she's indeed carrying his child.
The team returns, mourning Rufus. Then another, upgraded version of the Lifeboat appears next to theirs. Older Wyatt and Lucy step out and tell the others that they're planning on going back and saving Rufus.
Tropes
- Character Death: Rufus is shot by Emma and bleeds out, although the Cliffhanger implies there may yet be a way to save him.
- Chekhov's Hobby: Jiya being a Trekkie (originally mentioned in "Stranded") allows her to Write Back to the Future in a way that will be seen as gibberish by anyone not looking for the message. In this case, she writes out the GPS coordinates of the Lifeboat, as well as a warning to stay away, in Klingon, knowing that Rufus would be able to translate it.
- Cliffhanger: The season ends with Future!Wyatt and Future!Lucy stepping out of Future!Lifeboat and declaring their intention to go back and save Rufus.
- Dragon Ascendant: Emma has had enough of being treated as a nobody just because she doesn't come from a Rittenhouse family, so she unceremoniously executes Carol and Keynes and takes over. When Jessica points out that she might get killed upon return, Emma explains that she's the only pilot Rittenhouse has.
- Future Badass:
- Future!Lucy certainly looks the part, no longer just an academic. Wyatt was already a badass, but now he also features a beard.
- To a small extent, this applies to Jiya too, who has managed to settle into a kind of life in the 1880s and works in a saloon. When a guy tries to pull a knife on her, she nearly breaks his arm in a matter of seconds.
- Never the Selves Shall Meet: Connor wants to go back to save Rufus, only to be reminded of this trope. This is then averted when another Lifeboat shows up with older versions of Wyatt and Lucy. Apparently, certain modifications do allow for this trope to be avoided.
- Ragnarök Proofing: Somehow, the Lifeboat requires only minimal efforts by Rufus and Connor to get working again after being stuck in the wilderness for 130 years and having some circuits damaged by gunfire.
- The Slow Path: Jiya spends three years in the 1880s before the team is able to rescue her. Also, the Lifeboat is hidden for 130 years until the team recovers it in 2018.
- Thicker Than Water: Carol takes Keynes to his daughter's grave in order to convince him to keep Rittenhouse leadership in the family, once again kicking Emma to the curb. Emma finally has enough and kills both of them with plans to take over.
- Trekkie: Apparently, despite being a die-hard Star Wars fan, Rufus has picked up enough Star Trek to be able to translate Jiya's message from Klingon without even looking it up.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Everyone is pissed at Wyatt for not telling them about Jessica's brother.
- Write Back to the Future: After Jiya gets thrown off-course and ends up in the 1880s, she goes to a photo studio in Chinatown and has her picture taken. When the team finds the photo in one of Lucy's history books, they note that one sign doesn't look to be in Chinese. Rufus recognizes it as Klingon, translating it into a set of GPS coordinates and the words "Don't come".
- You Can't Fight Fate:
- Subverted and then played straight. It seems that, while the exact circumstances might change, the outcome is still the same. Rufus isn't stabbed in the saloon by a Rittenhouse Mook, but he's shot a few minutes later just outside the saloon by Emma.
- Carol also expresses this view when dying, realizing that, in the original timeline, she was dying of cancer, and it was arrogant of her to think that she could cheat death.
