The Timeless Series Finale Gave Fans Exactly What They Wanted

Was there any other way the Timeless series finale could have ended? It was happy endings all around — well, mostly — for the Clockblockers, as Rittenhouse was stopped and everyone we wanted to make out and get together did.

“The Miracle of Christmas Parts I & II” was made possible by the show’s fans, who were loud enough to convince NBC to pull out some cash to wrap the story up after the mind-bending Season 2 finale cliffhanger. In that episode, Rufus (Malcolm Barrett) was killed, and Wyatt (Matt Lanter) and Lucy (Abigail Spencer) from the future dropped in to the Bunker to say what’s up and to spur real-time Lucy and Wyatt to get Rufus back. So if you thought the finale would go any other way than pleasing the fans that made all this possible, then please go frolic with a puppy in a field of daisies to give yourself a badly needed mood check.

Timeless‘ Boss Is Staying ‘Optimistic’ About Getting More Episodes, and Talks About That Lucy Relationship Bombshell

Future Wyatt and Future Lucy, in all their future-y wardrobe, were merely messengers, unfortunately, and we didn’t get to see a Terminator-esque timeline as their looks implied. Wyatt told himself that Jessica was a big fat liar, and she only said she was pregnant to manipulate Wyatt. Jessica sucks. I can’t believe we all once felt for her. But the news of her fibs released us and Wyatt, mostly, from any compassion we may have had for her.

That would be key because Flynn (Goran Višnjić) went on a solo mission to 2012 to kill her in order to set the timeline straight and save Rufus. It would prove to be a suicide mission as the side effects from traveling to a timeline he already existed in was too much, but it worked; Rufus was saved. In fact, Rufus never even realized he died and magically appeared to save the crew in an Old West timeline, time-travel paradoxes be damned. There were lots of “but wait, wouldn’t that change things?” moments, but the finale was much more enjoyable if you just kept your head screwed on tight and didn’t think about it too much. Flynn’s death was a downer, but in the world of Timeless, it came with a big asterisk. A version of him still existed in the timeline, and before our Flynn passed, he was able to see his family (and himself) happy together one last time. That was Flynn’s consolation prize.

With Jessica out of the picture, Rittenhouse was in trouble and Emma (Annie Wersching) was caught unaware of Jessica’s death. That opened the door for Mason (Paterson Joseph) and Christopher (Sakina Jaffrey) to make a deal with Lucy’s dad to lead them to Emma, where they cuffed her and effectively put an end to Rittenhouse. But the true end to Rittenhouse came when Emma offered to bring back Lucy’s sister Amy, and Lucy refused. With that power over her gone, Rittenhouse was essentially no more.

Abigail Spencer, Malcolm Barrett, Matt Lanter; TimelessPhoto: Darren Michaels/Sony/NBC

In 2023, getting there naturally with no time jumps, Rufus and Jiya (Claudia Doumit) were working together on a tech company that was encouraging kids to get into STEM, and Wyatt and Lucy were — SQUEEEEE — together and had a pair of young girls, named Flynn and Amy. A quick reunion at the Bunker later and Lucy, Wyatt and Rufus were off on one more trip: to Brazil in 2014, where Lucy would once again pass along her journal to a distraught Flynn and tell him he was a hero. The loop was once again complete, and the world was saved again. At least in this timeline.

It was the nice, neat bow that the fan-favorite series so badly needed and deserved, after nearly becoming another victim of premature cancellation with an unresolved cliffhanger. But the door was left slightly ajar in the final moments, when one of the students Rufus and Jiya were supporting was sketching out designs for a time machine. Is it time to pool our money together to fly another #SaveTimeless banner over Comic-Con?