Travelers 03x10 Protocol Omega

 

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 10 of season 3. This post will be a little spoilery- just a heads up. 

What is Protocol Omega? Has the Director abandoned this timeline? In the aftermath of David's death everyone is in shock, and Boyd questions what they do now. Mac says the mission can go on- find and stop Traveler 001- but Boyd's skeptical. And Marcy is done- she's furious (understandably) that no help came from the Director to save David. Jeff reveals that so far nothing the Director has done has made a difference in the future, although he still believes the future can be saved. So... the stage is set. 

The season finale seems like it really came fast. Remember what a big part of season two Traveler 001 was? He hardly appears in this season, although we do see a lot of the Faction- and whether 001 and the Faction are working together is beyond me at this point. This is a very tense episode and for me there was an almost tangible feeling of dread hanging over it- I just knew something bad was coming. We start though with a team adrift and rudderless with the Director having gone silent. 

The heart of this episode was the confrontation between Marcy and Jeff. He's been suspicious to me ever since his overwriting, but I guess he was on the up and up initially- but now it's revealed that Traveler 001 has taken over his body, and when he is "rescued" by Mac and Carly he's just angling for a chance to get at Marcy. They pull a lot of threads from previous episodes and seasons into this one, not least of which is the "reset" that Marcy underwent. 001 wants the backdoor code into the Director that he feels is locked away in Marcy's head- his plan being to disable the Director so that the Faction can prevail. 

Marcy fights like a boss but in the end is taken by 001 when his men arrive, and it's up to to the team to rescue her. Preferably before 001 uses Marcy and Grace (he's got her as well) to hack the Director. Problem is the other world powers, not happy with nuclear explosions on their soil, are ready for war, and everything gets dicey when Russia and China actually launch strikes. Things are falling apart. 

This episode is a killer. Seriously- Marcy?? She shoots herself to prevent 001 from succeeding, and when news of the incoming missiles hits Carly bails, saying she needs to see her son. That kind of pissed me off- while I understand her wanting to see her child, Marcy needs her- and don't they always say the mission comes first? Also Carly's not really his mom- Carly is a Traveler who just happens to have taken over the body of his mother. I mean of course she's developed feelings, but I wasn't entirely convinced that she would just drop Trevor off on the roadside and abandon the team? 

Anyway things get bad when the team finds Marcy and realizes 001 has gone into Ilsa- uploaded his consciousness- and from there has infiltrated the Internet and apparently all networks. The only solution- go back in time to before 001 ever arrived. Philip is seeing only one timeline now, so it all comes down to this. Success or failure. Mac of course is the one to go back, and here we have another callback to an earlier moment in the season- the moment where Mac met Kat for the first time. Mac now knows he's ending the real Grant MacLaren's life seventeen years before he otherwise would die- but hopes maybe he can save other lives in the process. I feel bad for Kat in all this.  

Mac makes it back and sends an email that he knows the Director will see- that the program fails and not to send 001. Will it work? We then see Marcy and David meet for the first time. And then we end with these ominous words. 

Ver 1 FAIL
Ver 2 BEGIN

Short Takes

 Has the Director abandoned millions of timelines? 

Grace told 001 how to hack the Director, not thinking the Director would actually let it happen. She's crushed when she realizes what she's done- but she also realizes that there's enough computing power in Ilsa now to send someone back- before 001 arrived. 

This season was pretty great, although it did not go the way I expected. I was expecting everyone's life to be wrecked by the revelations in the season two finale, but really it was only Kat that in the end was affected enough to more or less end her relationship with Mac. Jeff was going that way too before he was overwritten though, I suppose. The whole memory inhibit technology though seemed to steal some of that thunder? 

I was again surprised how little of 001 we saw throughout the season, although I didn't mind as he's not my favorite part of the show. I did enjoy seeing more of the Faction and I think Dawn has a lot of potential as a villain. 

I love that they're exploring what a post Protocol Omega life would be like- the team are free to live out their lives as they choose now, the Director will no longer be interfering with the timeline- of course they choose to continue fighting, but several of the team are mulling what they would do, and whether they would make the same decisions.