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Friday, December 21, 2018

Travelers 03x03 Protocol 3

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Travelers season 3 is here! I've been waiting for this one with bated breath ever since that crazy cliffhanger in season 2. Finally we get some answers- maybe?- about what happens now that the Travelers have been outed. Or- have they? I guess we need to watch and find out! So without further ado, here are my thoughts on episode 3 of season 3. This post will be a little spoilery- just a heads up. 

Mac wakes up a bit disoriented to start this one off, and given that we've seen the effects of memory inhibitors already this season, it's not hard to figure out why. Did his own team wipe his memory? Sure seems like it, which he's convinced of after he has officer Boyd (remember her?) draw some blood. Sure enough she finds traces of memory inhibitor stuff. So, what next? 

Well Mac proceeds to backtrack his steps from the day before, starting with his vehicle tracking through the FBI database (that's handy). But ooh the team knows he's on to them, and they're tracking him. It's all very exciting. Seriously though you know something big is going down, given the title of the episode. Gray areas, tough ethical questions- this show's bread and butter, for sure. It all seems to revolve around Aleksander, a young Romanian boy who I think is the one they rescued? He's been shuttled from foster home to foster home apparently, and now Phil has received a mission- one that doesn't bode well for Aleksander? 

Problem is Phil is strung out and unable to go, so Mac takes it on himself to do the mission. This is another one of those backwards scrolling episodes, where we see the outcome at the beginning and then see previous events play out in flashback. This show has its own way of doing this and I think it works really well. Anyway Phil has guilt because he saved the kid originally, but as team Historian he also is privy to info the rest of the team is not- and he knows that Aleksander grows up to do horrible things. So- are they going to kill a kid, to prevent future atrocities? That's the question apparently.  

This also makes me wonder- how much would you trust an AI like the Director if you received a mission like this? That's the question for Mac as he spends time with the kid, comes to his defense when others write him off, and generally has to wrestle with his own conscience. It's fascinating to see Mac (and the team) struggle to reconcile their whole reason for being here with the ethical dilemmas their mission sometimes requires. 

The other thing going on here is Phil. He has a vision of a, shall we say, alternate resolution of the situation, or perhaps what originally happened or might have happened- we of course don't know, but I think we're heading towards a situation where we're asked to assess whether the Director is legit. I mean we're already there, I think, but they seem to be really seeding this. The resolution though is not what I was expecting, and left me with serious questions about Mac- and not for the first time. 


Short Takes

Carly is surveilling the foster home her child was placed in.

Phil goes to substance abuse counseling and Marcy goes with him- and gets into it with another attendee!

Is this area beautiful? Wherever they filmed this episode, it's breathtaking. 

The timeline constantly changes, we're told, and the Director will make changes based on new information. We knew this, naturally, but we're starting to see more missions get changed/ aborted while in progress?  

Phil wonders why they didn't get a mission to change the kid, rather than eliminate him. Good question!

"We're not who we were," says Carly to Mac. 

Dr. Teslia runs a diagnostic on Ilsa and realizes her capabilities have grown immensely. It senses his concern and assures him all is well."Because there's nothing to be afraid of." Riiight. 

6 comments:

  1. I still need to start this series. It sounds amazing! :)

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  2. I definitely want to start this series! Hopefully over the long Christmas weekend I can catch up on some shows I've been meaning to watch😁

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  3. Skimming! You've made me really curious about this series, so I don't want to spoil anything for myself.

    Lindsi @ Do You Dog-ear? 💬

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  4. I'll be honest, I started reading and then realized that I didn't want to get spoiled because I do intend to watch this... eventually. So I hope you loved season 3 as much as I've been seeing most people love it on twitter :)

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  5. Oy so yeah Mac should have been ashamed of himself and I am glad that he at least could manage that much regret. I went into more detail earlier, but I wanted to read your thoughts- I am so SICK of Mac's "holier than thou" attitude. Everyone else is like "we're not killing kids... right?" and he's like "oh no, we're definitely killing kids! Because... Director!" And now I guess we have ALIE too? Goodie. I swear that freaking Philip is going to end up dead because of his brain, the drugs, or a combination and I will be MAD because I love him. He and Trevor are my faves. I mean aside from David obviously hahah.

    Agreed about the filming location- incidentally, is it the same one with the Skydiving episode? Because I think it is!

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