Stories about time travel Timeless.
The show followed a scientist, historian, and soldier as they are conscripted by the government to stop someone from destroying the United States Of America — throughout history. The trio travels to landmark moments in the country's past as they try to stop a domino effect from changing their present day. IMDb s have cast their votes — which are the best Timeless episodes?
S2.E09: The General (8.6)
The majority of the best-ranked episodes of Timeless actually share an 8.6 out of 10 rating. But though their average ranking might officially be the same, the number of votes are not. They've been ranked from the lowest number of votes to the highest in order to give a more accurate top 10.
"The General" leads off the best with a trip back in time to make sure Harriet Tubman has reinforcements to help her when Rittenhouse interferes. The leader of the Underground Railroad decides to trust Rufus based on a vision she had of him, leaving an open-ended question about just how that's possible when the series comes to an end.
This episode also ends on a serious cliffhanger as Wyatt's trust in Jessica shatters. She kidnaps Jiya to pilot the lifeboat for her as Wyatt realizes that she's been feeding him a pack of lies.
S2.E07: Mrs. Sherlock Holmes (8.6)
When the team heads to New York in 1919, they're placed in the middle of the suffrage movement. Rittenhouse frames Alice Paul, the woman who would convince Woodrow Wilson to consider female voters, for murder. The team has to look for help in the past, employing Grace Humiston, who is the titular Mrs. Sherlock Holmes, for her detective skills.
They also get some surprising help in this episode in the form of Rittenhouse's Emma. Emma doesn't agree with Rittenhouse when it comes to keeping women from voting, and the audience gets a little more of her backstory. She might still be a villain, but she's a villain who understands what it is to be a woman who has no control over her lot in life, and doesn't want that for anyone. If the series had been able to move forward with more seasons, perhaps Emma would have been a more sympathetic character.
The Miracle Of Christmas (8.6)
Not part of the seasons themselves, this two-hour episode acts as the series finale and a holiday special. After NBC canceled the series in its first season, fan interest helped get it revived for a second, but expenses were much higher than audience interest. However, the network did agree to give the show this send-off.
Lucy and Wyatt get a visit from their future selves, who not only leave them with an upgraded time machine, but also some food for thought about how to finally stop Rittenhouse. Of course, their mission doesn't exactly go the way they want it to, and Agent Christopher is forced to make a deal to save her team and bring an end to the organization once and for all.
Their final mission is to take Lucy's journal to Flynn, making sure all of their adventures start in the first place. The series does close with a young girl drafting plans for a time machine, giving the team behind the show an opportunity to revive the property in the future.
S2.E05: The Kennedy Curse (8.6)
Most of the Timeless episodes are about making waves in the past that influence the future; it's rare for a person from the past to actually come to the future. When the team protects a teen John F. Kennedy from being killed by Rittenhouse, the only way to get him away from a sleeper agent is to put him on the lifeboat too. Kennedy escapes the bunker while the lifeboat recharges, learning about his family and the future.
In addition to the Rittenhouse of it all, this episode is also relationship-heavy as Lucy and Wyatt struggle to make peace with their feelings and let each other go. Wyatt recommits to the wife he originally lost, trying to do the right thing, which leads to a lot of complications later in the season.
S2.E03: Hollywoodland (8.6)
This season 2 episode might be the most glamorous of the series as the team travels to 1941 Los Angeles. There, they forces with Hedy Lamarr to stop a Rittenhouse agent while attending a swanky Hollywood party.
It's also the episode in which Lucy and Wyatt finally it how they feel about one another, which makes it very popular. In true Timeless style, however, Jessica Logan, the wife Wyatt lost years earlier is alive at the end of the episode to provide an emotional cliffhanger.
S1.E11: The World's Columbian Exposition (8.6)
Before Garcia Flynn becomes a member of the team, he's a fugitive, trying to stop Rittenhouse on his own. In trying to get through to Lucy, he kidnaps her and takes her with him to the Chicago World's Fair in 1893.
The episode is one of the creepiest of the series as Wyatt and Rufus find themselves at the mercy of the first named serial killer, H.H. Holmes. Lucy, however, is able to get away from Flynn (with the assistance of Harry Houdini) and help.
S1.E10: The Capture Of Benedict Arnold (8.6)
Taking place immediately before the previous entry, the team goes to the day Benedict Arnold would betray George Washington. Flynn becomes an asset to Washington and gets Lucy, Wyatt, and Rufus to help him go after Arnold by revealing to them that Arnold is a member of Rittenhouse. He also promises to give Wyatt the identity of his wife's killer.
Wyatt and Flynn actually work well together despite their differences, and it's a preview of what comes in the second season, even though everything doesn't work out. Flynn ends up taking Lucy with him when she won't let him wipe out the entire Rittenhouse family.
S2.E08: The Day Reagan Was Shot (8.7)
This episode sees Rittenhouse make things personal. Their goal has been to shape history to the way they want the world to be, and they decide the person standing in their way is Agent Denise Christopher, the woman in charge of the lifeboat missions. They send agents to take her out when she's a young police officer in the '80s.
Jiya gets to go along on this mission, which is always a plus, and she and Lucy convince their future team leader to follow the path that leads her to them. They save her life and she comes out to her mother in a truly great episode.
S1.E16: The Red Scare (8.9)
The season 1 finale brings a lot of changes that really help to make the second season better than the first.
Jiya goes to the past with the team for the first time, leading to her having visions of the future. When the team works together with Flynn, he still ends up arrested for his crimes, shocking Lucy since he began cooperating. Lucy confesses everything to her mother after her difficult mission, and the audience is left with the cliffhanger that her mother has been part of Rittenhouse the entire time.
S2.E10: Chinatown (9.3)
This would have been the series finale if the production team hadn't been allowed to make the two-hour special to close out the show. The audience would have been left with a massive cliffhanger.
Jiya has been living in the 1880s after escaping Rittenhouse on her own, and in that time, she's mastered her visions and some great self-defense moves. She doesn't want the team to come looking for her, but they do anyway. Their confrontation with Rittenhouse in 1888 leaves Lucy's mother dead, Emma and Jessica partnered up, and Rufus shot by Emma. It's a devastating blow for the team — until a future version of Lucy and Wyatt show up to help them.