Travelers, Season One, Episode Eleven: Marcy

Marcy is the penultimate episode of the first season and what a set up it is.  I found myself at the edge of my seat as the episode unfolded.  Earlier in the season, we were informed that not all Travelers are happy following the orders of the Director and that some even feel abandoned by him/her. Essentially, one can only trust the people inside one's cell and that may not necessarily be true because as we saw in the last episode, orders are sometimes given privately to an individual rather than a team. 

It all begins with David and Marcy in bed together.  It's about damn time actually. Because nothing can ever go right for these two, Marcy's nose starts to bleed and she has a seizure.  A worried David takes her to the hospital. This of course is going to be a problem because Marcy's MRI are going to show abnormalities that simply don't make sense. Marcy gets a hold of MacLaren, aware that if she stays in the hospital, the doctors will be running tests on her until the day she dies. Apparently, the technology that allowed Marcy to take over the host's body damaged the brain and the treatment Marcy was using no longer works. 

The call comes for MacLaren at a good time because despite the fact that he tried to make it up to Kat by making her a coffee, Kat's still fuming.  MacLaren leaves to see about helping Marcy and perhaps to take his mind off of the confusing feelings he now has for Kat. 

We get the arrival of a new Traveler when a farmer's legs get caught in his equipment.  The Traveler enters his host's body and frees himself quickly. Like all of the other Travelers before him, he marvels at the air and environment of the past. 

Grace pops into her car only to find Trevor hiding in the back seat.  Trevor quickly injects Grace with something that renders her unconscious. It turns out that the name Trevor recognised on the list of deaths was Grace. When Grace awakens, she finds that her wrists and her legs have been bound and that Trevor has driven her into the woods. I've always found Trevor to be fascinating but even I was absolutely creeped out when he explained to Grace that he kidnapped her to save her life. Trevor chose to take Grace to the woods so that she couldn't be traced by the Director. As Trevor talks to Grace about how she was supposed to die and the fact that he's from the future and following orders of the mysterious Director, it's clear that Grace is trying desperately not to panic. 

Carly is having the same bad luck as the rest of her team.  Carly left her baby with Jeff in order to deal with the plane crash and that is enough for the social worker to decide that Carly isn't actually in need of help.  Carly is told that she effectively abandoned her son and now the social worker is team Jeff. Carly decides to confront Jeff directly and heads to the police station. Jeff grabs Carly's arm and pulls her into an ally. When Carly notices the CCTV camera, she attempts to goad Jeff into hitting her by calling him a horrible father and saying that he didn't fulfill her sexually. Carly's plan almost works because Jeff punches a wall in frustration but before he totally loses his cool, Jeff notices the camera and backs off, and orders Carly not to show up at the station again. 

MacLaren gets a message that he's to greet a new arrival - Traveler 014. This is the lowest Traveler number we've seen to date.  Unfortunately, MacLaren is not given an exact location, so he and Philip decide to scope out  possibilities that will will occur that morning. This new Traveler is deemed important because of the low number and MacLaren hopes they are arriving to help Marcy.  Now we know that the lower the number, the more important the Traveler. This is interesting given that Trevors number is a good deal lower that the rest of his team. 

Trevor is still in the woods with Grace and he tells her that he wants her to survive because he knows that she's a good person. As far as Trevor is concerned, the Director can just choose someone else. In an effort to keep Trevor talking, Grace questions why they cannot just go back in time and kill Hitler if they want to save people. It seems that for the tech to work, Travelers need the exact date and time of a death and that information was only available with the advent of the computer. Trevor even reveals that because of time shifts, the Travelers only have one chance to change the past.

Travelers, Season One, Episode Ten: Kathryn

Thanks to MacLaren's sacrifice, Kat survived the plane crash but now the team must deal with her. Kat is rightfully freaked out to be loaded into the back of the Traveler van and restrained.  Kat is frantic to find out what happened to MacLaren and tells the team that her husband is an FBI agent. After a bit of struggle, Marcy is able to sedate Kat, much to Carly's relief.  Carly actually wonders how Maclaren can stand Kat. Wow, the jealousy here is strong. With Kat now sedated, Marcy calls MacLaren's cellphone and it's answered by the Traveler EMT,s who suggest that the team deal with Kat and then return to the base of operations. 

Kat is taken home and placed in bed. Trevor and Philip empty a couple of wine bottles to make it look like Kat and MacLaren tied one on to explain why she won't remember anything when she awakens. Marcy says that this is necessary because the memory inhibitor is going to feel like the worst hangover ever. 

Back at headquarters, the team is greeted by D13 with D standing for Doctor, or in this case Derek. The Director has sent an elite medical team which flies across the globe taking care of heads of state to treat MacLaren. This suggests that whatever faults the team has, the Director must value MacLaren a lot. MacLaren is in rough shape and even with nanites fast at work, he might not survive. Trevor volunteers to grow new organs for MacLaren, which apparently is quite painful. 

While the team of Doctors and Marcy work on MacLaren, Grant gains access to his hosts memories.  He remembers falling in love with Kat and what a good relationship the original Grant had with Kat. He remembers the pain they had when Kat had a miscarriage and their ongoing fertility issues. MacLaren is confused by these memories because he now feels for Kat with his host felt for Kat.  

As planned, Kat wakes the next day and is completely out of sorts. Kat wanders into the kitchen and is stunned to see the empty bottles of wine. Confused about what happened the day before, Kat texts MacLaren and it's Philip who answers since Grant is still in surgery. There are still loose ends which need tying up so Philip heads to the airport to pick up MacLaren's SUV.  Philip quickly draws the attention of security and he is stopped when he tries to exit the parking garage. Philip is forced to incapacitate the guards but that doesn't stop them from contacting the FBI about what they believe to be a stolen vehicle. Forbes becomes concerned about MacLaren when he learns about the vehicle and starts to investigate. Forbes tracks the car and using dashcam video, is able to see that it's Philip who's driving. With police fast on his tail, Philip is forced to abandon the SUV and contact Carly to help him escape. 

Forbes and Kat meet up at MacLaren's SUV and they discuss the changes in MacLaren. Forbes has noticed that MacLaren is suddenly a perfect shot on the range though sucks at squash. Kat brings up the changes in MacLaren's diet and the fact that he does certain things (read: sex) better. Kat is concerned that Grant is missing but Forbes calms her by saying that it isn't unheard of for MacLaren to drop off the radar for awhile. 

Travelers, Season One, Episode Nine: Bishop

The opening of this episode is clearly meant for anyone who has been with someone who has just irritated the piss right out of them. Secretary Hayes is out for a jog with his wife and he stops when he gets a phone call about pushing through a pipeline, though it will cause environmental damage. Hayes is completely smug and ends the call. Hayes complains to his wife that the exercise is going to kill him but what actually kills Hayes, is his wife throwing him off an overpass that he had stopped to lean against.  Mrs. Hayes looks around to make sure no one is looking and then breaks into hysterics.  And that folks is what they call stone cold extra. 

After having a little chat with David's boss, Marcy thinks that everything is okay but it turns out that David is uncomfortable with the game they are playing. There's a lot of unacknowledged sexual tension between Marcy and David and the strain of going through this day after day has become too much.  David asks Marcy if she can get her own place. I guess this means that Marcy lost her subsidized apartment when the government learned that she's no longer disabled. Marcy promises to leave that night and an awkward David tells Marcy that she doesn't have to rush.

Now that Jeff has made trouble for Marcy and Carly, it's MacLaren's turn. Jeff pays a visit to the FBI field office to have a man to man talk with MacLaren. Jeff makes it clear that he's trying to get his family back together and that he knows that MacLaren has been paying visits to Carly.  Jeff even questions how MacLaren's wife would feel if she knew that MacLaren was spending time with a woman half her age.  That's enough for MacLaren to tell Jeff to back up and that he knows that Jeff used to beat Carly.  MacLaren suggests that Carly no longer has any time for a beat cop who thinks it's okay to leave her bruised and bloodied. A frustrated Jeff decides to leave but he's not done messing with the Travelers yet.

MacLaren heads to his car to find a package and a note which says that he is to keep the package with him at all times. Inside the package is some kind of device but having no idea what it is, MacLaren takes it to Philip to be scanned. When Philip doesn't come up with any answers, MacLaren hops in his car to head back to his office only to have another Traveler hop in the back seat of his car. MacLaren is given a solo mission.  MacLaren is to board a plane and save someone's life. MacLaren is concerned by this because he's never been on a plane before. 

In an effort to win the custody battle with Jeff, Carly decides to apply for a job at a landscaping firm. Carly has no experience and she doesn't even have a GED but her enthusiasm is enough to persuade the owner to give her a shot. Unfortunately, when Carly arrives for work the next day, she's told the job is no longer available. Carly asks to be considered for the next opening and is told that there will never be a job there for her there. It turns out that a background check on Carly revealed that she has pending charges for assault an officer. That's right, Jeff decided to charge Carly, even though he had been regularly beating her. Carly tries to explain but her justification falls on deaf ears. 

Missing the make up mid term has some pretty bad consequences for Trevor. His mother is out of town and so it's Gary who informs Trevor that they've decided to send him to military school, so that he can pull up his grades and gain some discipline.  Trevor wants to talk this out and see if they can come up with some kind of compromise but Gary will not budge an inch. I think in this case we are only sympathetic to Trevor because we know that he isn't the same person any longer but when you consider everything his parents have been through, it really isn't any wonder that his parents are at their breaking point. None of this is to say that sending someone to military school against their will is a good idea.

Moving on with operation fuck with the Travelers, Jeff decides to pay a visit MacLaren's home.  Smiling like the Cheshire cat, Jeff tells Kat that MacLaren has been having an affair with Carly. Because Kat already believed that MacLaren was up to no good, she buys Jeff's story hook line and sinker. Kat's next move is to call MacLaren to confront him about Jeff's story but given that he has a plan to catch, MacLaren has no time for explanations.  Kat decides that MacLaren is probably having a rendezvous with his mistress and books a seat on the same flight.

Travelers, Season One, Episode Eight: Donner

This episode begins with a new mission for the team. MacLaren, Philip and Trevor all in different locations and are all engaged in independent video chats with sex workers, who are clearly confused by the fact that none of the men actually seem interested in talking about sex.  Trevor in particular wants to hear about the woman's happiest moments. Yeah, they are waiting for the arrival of a new Traveler cell.  The change happens but before the women can begin making plans to carry out their mission, the feed gets turned off. It turns out that the male Traveler who took over for a man who bombed the office that the sex workers worked out of, didn't stop the explosion.  Well I see we can add Travelers to yet another television show in which sex workers end up dead. Heaven forbid we get a story with a sex worker which doesn't end up tragic. 

MacLaren and Forbes head to the scene to investigate the case and learn that the bomber has left the scene.  If it was a misfire, the bomber should be lying there dead, so something is absolutely going on. MacLaren leaves to hunt down the bomber/Traveler, with Philip's help via the comm, leaving Forbes at the scene.  A fourth worker who was out when the bomb went off shows up at the scene and explains how she was being stalked by a former customer and that he had begun sending her religious based hate mail. 

Trevor gets called into the guidance counselor's office much to his surprise because he actually did well on the midterm. Trevor didn't realise that such a massive improvement in his grades would be deemed suspicious. Grace, the guidance counselor has arranged for Trevor to take the midterm again to prove that he didn't actually cheat. Trevor talks about being tired of being told what to do and wanting to chart his own course in life. This resonates with Grace and she gives him a book to read. At the end of the tutoring session which Trevor absolutely aces, Trevor sits in the hallway outside of Grace's office and reads the book cover to cover.  Trevor gets a call the comm to meet up with the others but he pauses long enough to return the book to Grace and to give her one in exchange. Clearly, there's some real chemistry between Grace and Trevor; however, the fact that he is still a kid to her will absolutely pose problems. 

Carly is getting ready for her hearing with child protective services when Marcy calls.  To Marcy, the simple solution is to just hand the baby over to Jeff because it would make it easier for Carly to go to on missions. At this point however, Carly sees the baby as hers and she's determined that there's no way she's handing him over to Jeff.  When Marcy arrives at the meeting, she's surprised when Philip shows up pretending to be her lawyer and offering support. Things go off the rails when Jeff accuses Marcy of being a prostitute because she pays for all her bills in cash and he's seen MacLaren coming and going. Jeff further charges that every time he tries to see his child, Marcy becomes physically abusive. Because he's a cop he knows how to play the system perfectly and manages to bait Marcy into losing her temper which doesn't look good. 

It turns out that Carly isn't the only person whose life that Jeff is set on messing up. David arrives at work only to be informed by his boss that he's gotten a detailed report from Jeff, explaining that he is living with Marcy and in a romantic relationship. David naturally denies that there's anything going on between him and Mary and argues that Marcy is no longer the woman that Ken knows. David manages to convince Ken to come to dinner so that he can prove just how much Marcy has changed.

The blowout in court forces yet another visit from CPS and this time the social worker has a warrant, so Carly cannot simply throw her out. A frustrated Carly explains that Jeff is not a good man and that because he's an officer that no one will believe her if she calls for help. Carly explains that the only reason that Jeff is doing this is because he wants them to be a couple and she no longer wants to. The social worker notices the bruise on Carly's arm from the injection but clearly thinks it's something Jeff did to her. 

MacLaren has spent the whole morning chasing around Donner, the supposed Traveler misfire.  MacLaren chases Donner to a Chinese restaurant that Donner has entered to treat his injuries. MacLaren introduces himself and says his Traveler number but Donner is acting sketchy.  When Maclaren lowers his weapon, Donner charges and knocks MacLaren out, in the process knocking out his comm.

When MacLaren finally catches up with Donner, he's already been beaten to the punch by Forbes.  Back at headquarters, MacLaren tries again to reach out to Donner, convinced that the man is just nervous because he screwed the pooch on his first mission but Donner claims not to know what MacLaren is talking about and questions what a Traveler is.  MacLaren leaves and tries to contact Marcy but his comm is still down.

Ken has arrived for dinner and he's astounded with the changes in Marcy. Marcy makes it clear that she is no longer in David's care and that they are not in a romantic relationship.  Things get a bit tense when MacLaren shows up looking to get in touch with Marcy because of his comm.  Marcy steps outside to talk to MacLaren, so she's not able to stop David from telling Ken that Marcy works for the FBI.  The link between the FBI and Macy pisses Ken off so he demands to see MacLaren's Id. When Ken confirms that Marcy is an associate of Maclaren's, he demands to know what Marcy actually does.  After the day he has had, MacLaren is in no mood to explain himself to anyone.

Travelers, Season One, Episode Seven: Protocol 5

The fact that all of the Traveler's are still in their host body makes them wonder if they have actually completed their mission or not.  Trevor is absolutely certain that they were successful and suggests a toast with some cheap hooch because that's all he can afford. With no potential new mission in sight, the Travelers decide that for now, they will stay away from each other and live out their hosts lives. That's right, it's time for Protocol 5. Unfortunately, this is a time that they could really use each other because they are all beginning to experience the side effects of taking an injection in the last episode to protect them from the toxic gas.

Marcy lies on the couch awake until David leaves and then decides that performing surgery on herself would be the perfect thing to do.  Marcy begins by removing her comm from her neck. The comm is then turned into a Vagus Nerve Stimulator, and inserted into her chest, in order to control her seizures.  By the time David returns, his bathroom looks like a crime scene because of all of the blood and Marcy looks like the survivor of a vicious attack. David is rightfully freaked the hell out but Marcy sees it as no big deal to perform what she deems to be a minor procedure on herself. Things must be really bad in the future  if Marcy sees self surgery in a less that sterile environment as no big deal. To silence David's objections, Marcy kisses him but this time he's not going to be quiet and makes it clear that her doing that isn't fear. David actually wants to help Marcy and he wants to know about her life. I'm not sure how she does it, but Marcy actually talks David into performing a spinal tap on her. 

MacLaren's issues begin with a bought of insomnia. A lack of sleep isn't conducive to rational thinking and it's about to be compounded by the hallucinogenic in his blood. Forbes and Kat surprise MacLaren with a party to celebrate his 15 years with the FBI. Forbes blows MacLaren's cover when he asks Kat about her health because earlier in the season, in order to go on a mission, MacLaren lied and claimed that he had to take Kat to a doctor.  They could not have picked a less ideal time because MacLaren isn't firing on all cylinders and therefore his behaviour is just odd. Kat is further suspicious when she tries to take a picture with MacLaren's phone and discovers that he's changed the password and she cannot access it. When an agent starts talking about evacuating an emergency shelter, MacLaren hallucinates a group of people with shaved heads who look awfully sickly and then laments that he will never see them again during the speech is forced to give. MacLaren even barely remembers to acknowledge Kat's role in his career. Drunk out of his gourd, Kat drives MacLaren home. Kat accuses MacLaren of cheating on her and in response he claims to have always been deeply in love with her.  MacLaren initiates sex but in his mind, he's having sex with a blonde woman with the ID number 3465 tattooed on her neck. Is this what the real Carly looks like, or is MacLaren hallucinating another woman from his past?  Later, when MacLaren is asleep in bed, Kat texts her mother that she believes he's absolutely cheating on her.

Philip is also having his own issues and at least part of them stem from the fact that he's out of heroine.  After licking the empty bags doesn't bring the relief that he was looking for, Philip decides to leave the warehouse and score. As Philip is walking around stoned right out of his gourd, he runs into Ray. For the most part, Ray's relationship with Philip has been extremely predatory but this time, Ray proves that he just might have a little bit of a soul.  Ray begins by buying Philip a hot dog and some fries which Philip hallucinates is this disgusting gruel like meal which must have passed for food in the future. When Philip balks about eating, Ray lectures him about eating real food because it's a well known fact that heroine addicts are far from the healthiest people on the planet. Project help Philip continues when Ray decides that what Philip needs is a pet to focus on because his life shouldn't always be about drugs.  Philip is taken to a pet store and Ray buys him a pet turtle.  Sure, a dog would have been a better choice but Ray chooses a turtle, so that Philip can be free to fly to Vegas if need be to work on his gambling scheme. 

Ray's final step in the help Philip project is to take him to an NA meeting. Philip, who is hallucinating, thinks that he hears Ray invoke the director when Ray starts to give his testimony. This sets Philip off and he hallucinates what he would say to the group if he could speak freely. Philip says that he's been in the 21st century for five weeks and is exhausted and just wants to get high. Then Philip unleashes his pain, saying that he was trained to remember so many things - dates of people's deaths, results of sporting events etc but for some reason he cannot remember the face that he was born with. That has got to be a trip. When Philip snaps back to himself, with a little bit of encouragement from Ray, Philip is able to admit that he has a drug problem. Clearly, of all the team members, Philip is the one that needs his cell the most and who knows where his isolation would have lead to were it not for Ray's intervention.

Travelers, Season One, Episode Six: Helios 685

My ongoing complaint regarding Travelers is that up until now, the writers have been really vague about why humanity is coming to and end.  We've been told that the air and the water is so recycled that it's metallic, people are crammed into shelters and that resources are extremely limited. Now we know that the genesis of the problem is an asteroid that hits the Eastern seaboard of North America. After the asteroid crashes, wars break out over the scarce resources. 

Apparently, all of the missions that the Travelers have been assigned to date have been a sort of warm up for the big event - diverting the asteroid and in the process, putting the course of humanity on a new path.  For something this big, it's going to require a huge team and so the Travelers take over an elderly rapture cult just before they can drink a glass of poison.  It will also require the presence of Mrs.Bloom, a Traveler who seems to be pretty high up in the chain of command. Mrs.Bloom has dedicated her life to building a machine to knock the asteroid off of its trajectory and she just wants to be the one to turn the key.  Mrs. Bloom arrives in the body of a woman with terminal cancer, who was just about to avail herself of physician assisted suicide. 

The Travelers take a vow that at the peril of their own birth that they will see this mission through to completion.  It seems however that the only one to understand what this vow really means is Trevor. If the asteroid is averted and the wars don't happen, there's a good chance that the Travelers will never have been born. Essentially, to make the world a better place for others, they are risking their own existence because they will have erased their own time line. The harsh reality that success means non existence is enough for Marcy to call David and thank him for his help and warn him not to worry if she gets reassigned.  Carey confronts MacLaren, wondering if he is going to miss his wife and admits that she is worried about what will become of her son. 

Nothing the Travelers ever do seems to go smoothly however.  The bus containing the suicide cult is late, making it difficult for Carly to hold off the Non Traveler emergency people who want to help.  Charged with keeping the antimatter safe, Delaney locked down access using her own biometrics.  This wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, if Gleason hadn't decided to bring her in for questioning based on the testimony of the driver who survived the truck explosion. This means that MacLaren is forced to hunt down Delaney and threaten Gleason because the military has no jurisdiction over Delaney. It's all a brilliant bit of theater and bluster because while MacLaren is arguing with Gleason, Delaney is sneaking into his car.

Before Delaney, Marcy and MacLaren can even get back to the lab, Gleason learns through a report that the lab has been compromised and so he makes his way there with his men.  Now that Delaney is back at the lab, she has to be convinced into releasing the antimatter.  This is no easy task and involves telling her the truth about the Travelers.  Delaney does in the end agree to release the antimatter but by this time, Gleason and his men have arrived.  Carly, along with the Traveler death cult are fighting off the soldiers but they've been ordered only to take non lethal shots which the soldiers quickly pick up on. 

Mrs. Bloom orders the cell to get Delaney away from the blast because it's going to end up killing a lot of people and she decides to wait around to be the one to throw the switch.  The team make their exit, picking up Carly on the way.  Before Mrs.Bloom can flick the switch, Gleason enters and promptly shoots Mrs. Bloom when she won't back away from the key.  The future intervenes and one by one turns Gleason's men in order to ensure the mission's success and Gleason responds by killing them all. When Gleason is the last one left, he realises that he is next to be taken over and so attempts to commit suicide. Gleason pulls the trigger but he blew all of his bullets killing his men and Mrs. Bloom.  The moment Gleason is invaded by a Traveler, he flicks the switch and antimatter explodes, shooting a laser into the sky to deflect the asteroid. 

MacLaren pulls over to the side of the road and orders everyone to shield their eyes moments before the explosion. When the smoke clears, all of the Travelers are still in their host bodies. Did the mission work or not?

The most compelling moment of this episode was watching desperation take over Gleason, as he realised that he would lose control of his body next.  It actually humanised Gleason quite a bit and this was necessary because he was on the verge of becoming a mustache twirling villain. David Lewis absolutely sold this scene and made me a believer in terms of Travelers taking over hosts. 

At this point, I'm even more convinced that Trevor is an old man inside a young man's body. When MacLaren expresses frustration with Mrs.Bloom, Travis tells MacLaren not to take it personally and hints that he's known Bloom for over 100 years. Could it be possible that even with the deprivations that humans are actually living longer in the future? If Trevor has known Bloom for 100 years, how old does that make him?  It makes sense that he seems to chafe under his father's orders.  If Trevor is really that old, from his perspective, his father is the know nothing punk.

I found an interesting contrast between the death cult Travelers and MacLaren's cell. When Travelers first arrive they are all about their mission and the wonders of the 21st century. The death cult travelers were amazed that they saw a bear/dog, whereas; MacLaren's group has moved past that initial stage and are now thinking about the connections they've made by assuming their hosts's life. For Carly, it's her infant son and for Marcy, it's David.  MacLaren may have strong feelings for Carly, but I suspect that at the very least he's developed a grudging respect for Kay.

I suspect that there's going to be some trouble from the Director for MacLaren's cell, given that Bloom suggests that they are famous for all of the wrong reasons in the future. If the mission failed and Bloom died on top of it all, this will absolutely be upsetting to the people in charge.  The question is, what consequence will MacLaren and his cell pay for it?

Travelers, Season One, Episode Five: Room 101

The episode begins with yet another Traveler typical day.  The crew waits for a new cell of Travelers to arrive. This time they are set to arrive in a family because a father drove his  car containing his wife, son and daughter off of the upper level of a parking lot.  Unfortunately, this time the exchange does not go down smoothly and the daughter who was meant to be the teams historian remains unchanged because there's been a misfire.  This throws a wrench into the new teams mission.  Philip hands over some money and tells them what bets to place so that they can have enough cash to start off. Trevor hands over a device so the mission can be started.  MacLaren decides to take the daughter to her grandparents home so that they can figure out what to do next.

Philip, Marcy,  Cary and Trevor travel together and they discuss the fact that they all could have been misfires. Trevor points out that when the original Travelers first came to the past, a full thirty percent of them were misfires. The fact that the Travelers are terrified by the possibility of a misfire suggests that when this happens, the consciousness of the Traveler is lost forever. As they contemplate this, a truck comes out of nowhere and crashes into the vehicle they are traveling in. The first to awaken are Trevor and Carly, and they find themselves strapped into wheelchairs in separate but adjoining cages. Each Traveler has an intravenous drip and a catheter to take care of the bathroom needs. Half of Carly's face is covered in blood from a head injury but given how much any cut on the head bleeds, it's not an indication of a necessarily of serious injury.  Trevor has a bad cut on his cheek. At this point, both Marcy and Philip are still unconscious. 

Blissfully unaware that something has gone terribly wrong with his team, MacLaren arrives at his office only to be confronted by Forbes. It seems that MacLaren was supposed to be in court to testify but he missed the date. MacLaren lies again and claims that Kat wanted him to pick up a chair for his client.  As excuses go, it's absolutely weak tea and not only is Forbes not buying it, he makes it clear that the prosecutor won't either. It really is time for MacLaren to do some in-depth research on his host's life because he is missing so many things and being forced to lie so consistently is going to blow his cover. 

A man enters the lock up and Trevor plays it cool, saying he needs to get out of there because he has a test to study for and doesn't want to be grounded again. The man wheels Philip out of the room without answering Trevor. Marcy regains consciousness. The next person to be taken is Carly and she is wheeled into a large room and placed in front of a television.  The question, "Who have you told?", appears on the screen. Carly stays in character and pretends to be confused by the question.  When it's clear that Carly isn't going to answer, images of Hall, MacLaren and Jeff appear on the screen. Carly is asked if she knows who these men are and the only one she cops to knowing is Jeff, the father of her child.  Carly tries to use the fact that Jeff is a cop to suggest that there will be trouble for abducting her.  The next question to appear is, "When are you from?".  This means that her abductors know that she is a Traveler. Shit. Carly decides to continue to play dumb but then she is shown a video of her son and asked, "What are your protocols?"  Carly freaks the hell out and threatens to kill them if they harm her child. 

Travelers, Season One, Episode Three: Aleksander

From the moment that Philip took over the body of a heroin addict, I worried that his body's addiction would be swept under the rug.  This is something that often happens when addiction is introduced into the storyline. Instead, we've watched as Philip struggled to resist the lure of heroine, only to become sick and even a threat to the teams objective.  

The team of Travelers is off on a mission to meet a new Traveler, who is about to enter a host. Their mission gets cut short when they are approached by a child and told that their mission is to be aborted.  Rather than settling Philip down, this agitates him. Philip wants to go and save the life of the man who is scheduled to die but the others don't agree to participate because they aren't supposed to change things. Philip points out that it would just take a few minutes of their time but MacLaren is quick to shut Philip down. 

For Philip, heroine quickly becomes about more than his body's cravings but about escaping the harsh reality of his existence.  Philip is plagued by survivor guilt to start with.  When Philip inhabited his host, he could have saved his host's best friend who was dying next to him with a simple call to 911 but doing so would have broken protocol.  The Travelers are not allowed to intervene in history which means no killing anyone and no saving anyone. The guilt of leaving a man to die ways so heavily on Philip that he attends the funeral of the dead man and even arranges for Ray to drop off some money to the man's parents.  Ray tries to advise Philip that this isn't going to make the family forget that he failed to save their son but that doesn't stop Philip from doing what he can.

At this point, Marcy is the only one who is aware of Philip's addiction and she watches him carefully. Marcy tells Philip how much heroin he is allowed to take to manage his addiction, making it clear that if he takes more than that she'll know that he wanted to and report him. Marcy reminds Philip that they are supposed to slip into their hosts life and Philp reminds her that his host was a junkie, so there's nothing for him to do.  When Marcy leaves, Philip gets high and starts writing down the names and dates of everyone who is going to die. 

Jeff is busy researching personality changes. He's not over the fact that he's no longer able to intimidate or brutalise Carly.  A fellow officer gives Jeff a copy of the video of Marcy being attacked and then rising to her feet and defeating her attackers.  This gets Jeff to thinking and he decides to do some research.  Jeff heads to see David and informs him that Marcy hasn't been seen at her job or her apartment. As Marcy's social worker, Jeff is curious to know if David knows where she is and if she wants to press charges.  David explains Marcy's behaviour as her going into flight or fight and claims that nothing has really changed about her. Jeff leaves but it's clear that he is still suspicious. Marcy leaves the bedroom where she was hiding and thanks David for lying for her. At this point, David is keenly aware that Marcy staying with him is breaking the rules and so she blithely suggests that they simply don't tell anyone. 

MacLaren is having his own issues with fitting in. It seems that in the future, all humans are vegan, making him disgusted with the idea of eating meat. MacLaren suggests eating vegan to a very surprised Kay, because of course the original MacLaren is absolutely carnivorous. Okay, I'm going to say boo on the not so subtle vegan messaging here. Maclearn's next mix up is when he is informed that he missed a date to play squash with his partner Walt. These are the kinds of things just weren't in the information when the Travelers were researching hosts. MacLaren is stung a third time when he proves himself to be a perfect shot, something which his host clearly wasn't.

Trevor's experience with food is quite different to that of MacLaren.  He sits at the same table of a young girl who is clearly shy and not at all popular.  Clearly, Trevor hasn't prepared himself for highschool politics.  Trevor is all excited about the taste of corn when Renée shows up and shoves the shy girl off the bench, breaking her phone in the process. A shocked Renée looks on as Trevor helps the girl up and picks up her belongings.  This of course means a trip to the principal's office for Trevor and Renée, where they are lectured about the harm of bullying.  Trevor listens to every world and even tells Renée that she is not nice. The principal is shocked when Trevor offers to pay for the broken phone before asking to be excused. A shocked Renée goes chasing after Trevor and even kisses him on the check but he tells her to stop, much to Renée's surprise. Trevor leaves when he gets a text to meet from Philip.

Travelers, Season One, Episode Two: Protocol 6

When we last left the Travelers, FBI Special Agent Grant MacLaren had just been told that he was supposed to die, only to have his body taken over by the leader of a Traveler cell.  This new leader is quick to get down to business, questioning if there is anything he needs to know about his team. This is Marcy's chance to reveal that she was placed inside of neurologically atypical woman, particularly because it could come with some extreme consequences but she merely says that their information on her host wasn't accurate but that she's handling it. Rather than explaining the issue, Macy implants a communicator into MacLaren's neck which Trevor built after school.

Before the team can head out they are confronted by some local cops. It seems that before MacLaren died, he called in for back up. Luckily for the team, the responding cop, Officer Boyd is also a Traveler, which means she doesn't ask too many questions when the Traveler team admits that they have a cop locked up on the roof and that MacLaren took out a shooter. MacLaren is surprised to learn that Boyd is a fellow Traveler and she explains that when plans collide with the past, things tend to get messed up. 

Now that their leader is here and relatively up to date, it's time to get down to their first mission.  Dr. Delaney has created antimatter which is housed in a protective facility. Sensing military applications, Major Gleason is anxious to get it under military control.  When a blackout proves to present a danger to containment, Major Gleason takes the opportunity to take the antimatter from Delaney, though she warns that this isn't a good idea and could result in a deadly explosion. Delaney is particularly against using untested transport units.  Gleason however will not be denied, so the antimatter is loaded up. It turns out that Delaney is right to be concerned and that the antimatter does indeed explode and this is why the Travelers have been tasked with stopping the explosion.

Gleason isn't on the road for long when he is informed that the containment field is indeed failing, just as Delaney warned that it would.  Gleason, being an absolute coward has the driver of the truck containing the antimatter continue driving down the road, while he and the rest of his men drive as far away from the impending explosion as possible. 

As they wait for the truck carrying the antimatter to arrive, MacLaren and Carly have a little chat. They turn off their neck communicators so that the others cannot listen in. We learn that MacLaren and Carly are in a relationship and she doesn't relish the idea that he has to go home to his wife after the mission is over. MacLaren is interested to know what Carly thinks of older men and it seems that Carly is just fine with it.  

When the truck arrives, Carly stands in the middle of the road, forcing it to stop. The driver tries to use the radio to contact Gleason, but of course the Major doesn't answer. While the driver is trying to convince Carly to move, Marcy sneaks up on the driver and injects him with something which causes him to pass out. Trevor heads to the back to grab the antimatter and puts it in a temporary stable containment unit. When the driver awakes, the team is gone and so he continues his journey. The Travelers now have forty hours before handing over the antimatter.  Unfortunately for the driver, in order to stay true to history, the Travelers left behind an explosive device. The Travelers take comfort in fact that only one person died rather than thousands.  A leader of a new cell is set to arrive shortly and Marcy and Philip offer to hand over the antimatter. 

Marcy returns to David's place and at this point, David really wants some answers and honestly, who can blame him? Marcy of course cannot tell David that she is actually from the future and instead claims to be working with the FBI, which leads David to believe that Marcy is actually an agent herself.  Look, I know that the change in Marcy is hard to believe but to suddenly latch onto the idea of Marcy as an agent? Yeah, I'm not sure just how smart David is. To further draw David in, Marcy suggests that she is only telling him this because some time in the future she might really need his help. Marcy is clearly playing on David's emotions because he is absolute besotted with her. 

MacLaren drops off Carly but before she heads inside, the two share a steamy kiss, though I will admit to not being entirely sold on their chemistry. When MacLaren arrives at his digs, rather then getting into bed with his new wife, he passes out on the couch fully clothed.  Trevor sneaks into his home quietly, clearly trying to avoid being grounded.  Finally, Philip heads to the Traveler hide out where he passes out on a mattress.  It's clear that the heroine withdrawal is getting to Philip because he's sweating profusely.  I have a feeling that Philip's addiction is going to be a problem going forward.

Like all of the other Travelers, now that MacLaren has assumed someone else's life, he has to make it work.  In the morning, MacLaren meets his wife Kat for the first time and he immediately messes up by addressing Kat by her full name. MacLaren is also extremely disgusted when Kat hands him a coffee with cow's milk in it. You just know the vegans loved that scene.  Fortunately for MacLaren, Kat assumes that this strange behaviour is because MacLaren is sleep deprived and she orders him to have a nap.  Trevor also has a new body to get used to and is shocked when he wakes to morning wood, only to have to hide it quickly when his mom enters the room. Carly spends her morning working out and eating baby food. Just ewwww.  Philip is still struggling with the DT's and after throwing up, considers taking a hit to take the edge off.  

Travelers, Season One, Episode One: Travelers

Hundreds of years into the future, humanity is almost extinct.  Travelers have been sent back in time to change the past so that humans can thrive again. They track people through their social media accounts and take over the body moments before their deaths. They essentially project their consciousness backward in time. 

We are introduced to a small cell of travelers by seeing them arrive.  Marcy Wharton is a young mentally disabled woman who dies when she trips on a flight of stairs trying to escape men who are threatening her.  Once inside Marcy, the traveler lays the beat down on the men who sought to attack her.  Marcy's case is particularly interesting because of course, the traveler doesn't have intellectual disabilities. This means in one fell swoop, Travelers has erased a potential disabled character. All Travelers have difficulty assimilating because while they know something about the bodies they are inhabiting thanks to social media, there's much they do not know.  Marcy for instance is unable to fool her social worker David, and quickly makes him suspicious by easily reading a newspaper. Marcy's Facebook listed her as a librarian when in fact, Marcy was a janitor at the library.  It's a quick reminder that people don't always tell the truth about their lives on things like Facebook and Instagram. 

Carly Shannon is the only woman of colour on the show. Her body is taken over by a Traveler when she is killed by her abusive drunk ex.  It's worth noting that this is the second female character which has been introduced to us who died violently from male abuse.  Carly finds herself in her new body with a baby and no idea how to care for it. Carly is forced to google who to care for a baby. I must admit that I cheered when Carly quite easily put Walt, her ex and abuser in his place. I did however find myself wondering who Carly found to look after the little boy when she left her home?

Trevor Holden died in a mixed martial arts fight when he was clearly outclassed. Trevor covers for the things he doesn't know by saying that he has a concussion from the fight and that there's a lot he doesn't remember.  His family is certain that he's not quite himself because of how polite he suddenly is. Thus far, Trevor's girlfriend Rene sees his unwillingness to sleep with her as sweet, because he claims that he wants her to help him know himself better.  It seems as though Trevor and Rene are the most popular kids at their high school. Given that Trevor is now a traveler on a mission to save humanity, I doubt he'll have much time for school politics.

Philip died in a drug overdose and of course had his body taken over by a Traveler moments before his death.  Philip quickly finds himself in trouble with the law because he didn't call 911, to help out his friend who died beside him. For much of the episode, Philip spends his time trying to evade the law.  Philip however does get his court appointed attorney Ray, to place some long shot bets for him and he even manages to win the lottery.  Ray is clearly going to be a problem for Philip going forward because Ray wants more tips on who to bet on.