Timeless - 'Last Ride of Bonnie & Clyde'

"So, eight episodes before they felt we had to kiss."

Timeless gets a little bit Alias this week, as the Rittenhouse conspiracy threatens to transform a simple mission to protect the timeline into a trans-temporal scavenger hunt.

As the Lifeboat heads back to 1934, where Flynn is searching for a key tied into the Rittenhouse organisation; a key that hangs around the neck of infamous outlaw Bonnie Parker. Caught up in one of the Barrow gang's robberies, Lucy and Wyatt pretend to be another pair of outlaw lovers, forcing the will-they-won't-they to the fore as they await an opportunity to steal the key, which Clyde explains he stole from Henry Ford while trying to ascertain if the letter he had sent him, praising the Ford as the only automobile worth stealing, was really kept in pride of place.

Ultimately Flynn, posing as a bounty hunter, gets the key, and Bonnie and Clyde meet their fate just a few miles and a few hours from where they ought. The crew return home and Rufus reads Agent Christopher in on Rittenhouse for fear that she will otherwise get caught poking around and be 'Rittenhoused'. Flynn unlocks a clockwork device and retrieves a scroll, and the whole Rittenhouse thing is starting to look hella Da Vinci Code (or, as I say, Alias.) I start to wonder if the whole thing wasn't founded on time travel in some way.

The weakness of this episode is the history. The goal of the week is to get the key, not to change or protect history, so little thought is given to timelines as our heroes shoot at 1930s coppers, and Bonnie and Clyde are portrayed in the most romanticised manner imaginable, just a couple silly in love who occasionally shoot people. This is disappointing, especially considering the show's willingness to address the impact of Rufus' race in historical settings. This week, while the white folks are all Sam and Dianeing, he helps a little girl use the segregated water fountain and falls foul of Flynn's machinations, thankfully being able to prove that he isn't this 'Rufus Carlin', but as his driver's license shows, Wesley Snipes. The historical standard of forgery was also charming, as the Feds dismiss claims that the driving license might be fake. "It's got a stamp on it; you can't fake that."

So, I guess what I'm saying is more Rufus, less romance all around.