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 2 of season 3. This post will be a little spoilery- just a heads up.
Fake news! That's the focus of this episode, and nicely interwoven with the morally gray questions facing the Traveler team at this point. We met agent Yates last episode and this time we learn that she's MacLaren's new partner. Oh joy. And the FBI is now a governing body over the Traveler program- hence Yates oversees Mac's team. She expects to be briefed on everything, but he invokes Protocol 2 and says sorry, no. Their partnership, needless to say, is off to a great start. To top it off, they're assigned to protect a purveyor of fake news after he's threatened by a hacktivist group for spreading his lies- resulting in the death of the wife of a candidate for office.
We also see early on that damage control is still going on with the Traveler program being outed- the fake news guy Rockwell's assistant mentions that the videos the Travelers recorded are disappearing from servers, even government servers. Hmm. Who's doing that? Meanwhile Kat is still suspicious of Mac- she has another vision or daydream of him about to harm her- where is that coming from? She tells David later when they meet in a coffee shop that she has a blank spot in her memory, and that she thinks this happened once before. You know, I like that they're meeting like this- sort of a kidnap victims' support group? Kat and David might play off each other well. Jeff is supposed to show up too but asshole that he is, he can't make time.
Speaking of Jeff- he really blows it. Carly loses custody of her kid when he manages to convince the court that he would be the better parent, but then he gets drunk and is arrested for driving under the influence- with the kid in the back seat. Nice one. Back to Protective Services for the little one. Seriously, I get that Carly is having mothering feelings for the kid, but how effective is she being with the child? I mean the mission takes all her time. Anyway, sticking with Jeff for a second, I don't know if it's the drinking that offsets the memory inhibitor or what, but he clearly remembers more than the rest of them- and he tells Mac as much at the end of the episode, threatening to talk to Kat.
Yates and Mac have a nice conversation about Travelers taking over hosts- she is trying to understand how it works, and questions the morality of it- taking over someone's life and body at the moment of their death. She resents the Director using her mother that way, when it took over her body as she was dying to deliver a message to Yates. Can't blame her. Mac of course defends the program and justifies it by the good they are accomplishing, but she's clearly making him think and question. I think Mac is a bit too comfortable with the sacrifices that are required, and things are going to reach a boil sooner or later because Kat is not happy.
The other thing this episode does well is keep the viewer guessing as to what's going on- the way the mission flows such that by the end you are finding out what's really going on just as Yates is. Mac lets her twist a bit too, keeping her unawares of what is really happening- especially as it is again a gray area. Do the ends justify the means? Sosa, the candidate whose wife died, is supposed to kill Rockwell but the Travelers stop him- and then Rockwell is overwritten by a new Traveler, sent back to assume his life. He immediately makes changes to his news show, which Mac sees as a good thing, and it is, but Yates questions their right to make those decisions, and she has a good point.
I've long thought that this show needs to take a hard look at what the Director does- and frankly if the Director is even legit- and I hope this is leading in that direction.
Stray Thoughts
David is working out! Pilates, push ups, you name it- and Grace is amused at this. Seriously David isn't missing a beat this season with the humor, thankfully.
No Wakefield this time. Boo.
We also don't see Perrow yet- the new host body for nefarious Vincent. Hmm.
David has a new blend of coffee- Jurassic Dark- but it doesn't work out.
Yates asked Mac how long he's been married, and their conversation about how well could he really know Kat was spot on. Mac seems way too comfortable just pretending to be the guy Kat married.
