"The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln" is the second episode from Season 1 of Timeless. It premiered on October 10, 2016.
Plot[]
Synopsis[]
Lucy Preston, Wyatt Logan and Rufus Carlin track Garcia Flynn to the night of Abraham Lincoln's assassination, where he has joined up with John Wilkes Booth; the team debates whether they should alter history.
Summary[]
The episode opens on the evening of April 14th, 1865. John Wilkes Booth is sitting in a bar listening to Lincoln's bodyguard talking about how Lincoln doesn't want protection tonight. Booth walks out of the bar into Ford's Theater next door. Inside the theater, Abraham Lincoln, his wife, General Henry Rathbone, and Clara Harris are watching the play Our American Cousin. When actor Harry Hawk is alone on stage, Booth enters the president's box and shoots Lincoln from behind. After a struggle with Rathbone, Booth jumps down to the stage and shouts his famous line: "Sic semper tyrannis! The South shall be free!" before running offstage.
The Mission[]
Flynn's Agenda[]
- Provide John Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators with semi-automatic weapons to assassinate not only Abraham Lincoln, but also Vice President Andrew Johnson, Secretary of State William H. Seward, and General Ulysses S. Grant on the same night.
- Remember that Booth's original plan was to effectively decapitate the leaders of the Union, not just Lincoln.
Changes to the Timeline[]
- Lincoln's assassin is Flynn, who is not identified by the press. However, the assassination is still traced to Booth, who is still hunted down and killed in the corrected timeline.
- Because Lucy, a.k.a. Juliet Shakesman, saves Grant from Flynn, a high school in Grant's hometown of Point Pleasant, Ohio, is named after her.
Guest Cast[]
- Chad Rook as Karl
- Susanna Thompson as Carolyn Preston
- Kelly Blatz as John Wilkes Booth
- Neal Bledsoe as Robert Todd Lincoln
- Mike Wade as Nicholas Biddle
- Michael Krebs as Abraham Lincoln
- Terry Lewis as Ulysses S. Grant
- Lucia Frangione as Mary Todd Lincoln
- Peter Hall as William H. Seward
- Daniel di Tomasso as Noah
Historical Events and Figures[]
Figures[]
- Abraham Lincoln
- Andrew Johnson
- William H. Seward
- Fanny Seward
- Ulysses S. Grant
- Mary Todd Lincoln
- Robert Todd Lincoln
- Harry Hawk
- Henry Rathbone
- Clara Harris
- John Frederick Parker
- John Wilkes Booth
- Lewis Powell
- George Atzerodt
Episode Notes[]
- Nicholas Biddle is a fictional character named after a black servant involved in the Baltimore riot of 1861.
Trivia[]
- When Lucy mentions that John Wilkes Booth is second to his elder brother Edwin in fame, Rufus compares John to Donnie Wahlberg, who is not as famous as his younger brother Mark Wahlberg.
- Rufus references the 1989 film Glory when he uses the alias "Denzel Washington".
- The uniforms Wyatt and Rufus wear are inaccurate. Their forage caps have a bugle, indicating they are infantry, however their fatigue coats have red chevrons, which indicate they are artillery gunners. While artillery soldiers were issued fatigue coats for fatigue duty, US Army Uniform Regulations of 1861 stated that chevrons were only necessary on the uniform coat (which according to the regulations was a distinct garment from the fatigue coat) so it was unlikely that their fatigue coats would have chevrons on them.
Music[]
- "Mad World"