Courtesy of Netflix
Netflix’s original series Travelers is a combination of millennial-style Quantum Leap coupled with Criminal Minds level action. With season three debuting on the streaming behemoth in December 2018, the team of MacLaren and company face multiple challenges in trying to save the future from the 21st century’s negligence.
In episodes 1 and 2 (“Ilsa” and “Yates”), the stakes are higher than ever for The Director’s instructions to be carried out. With multiple protocols being blown up after season two’s finale, the travelers and their attached folks (MacLaren’s wife Cat, Carly’s ex Jeff and Marcy’s boyfriend David) end up at a safehouse, completely not safe. It’s awkward: Cat, David and Jeff are given a semi-memory wipe but blurs of the travelers’ confessions bleed through. Cat is skeptical, Jeff is belligerent and David…David is loving and somewhat gullible to anything Marcy says. Per usual.
Courtesy of Netflix
Things continue to spiral in the opener. Cat’s paranoia regarding Grant’s true identity continues to grow as he can’t obtain memories buried into the real Agent MacLaren’s subconscious. The tension grows to the point where she moves out and Traveler 3468 is left wondering if there is anything to salvage of the prior Grant MacLaren’s personal life.
The other travelers are faring better and worse than 3468. Carly (Traveler 3465) is blindsided when her host’s baby Jeffrey is taken away into the state’s custody and full visitation granted to his alcoholic and abusive father, Jeff. Trevor (Traveler 0115) moves out of his parents’ home and in with Philip (Traveler 3356). While historian Philip traditionally would not provide the historical record for any of his fellow Travelers, he finds that he is seeing not history but possible future happenings. It’s a stunning development. Marcy (Traveler 3569) is still in a loving relationship with David. Her response to the “kidnapping” is to smother him from afar.
Nothing is working for anyone apparently.
Courtesy of Netflix
We’ve all seen how each Traveler team is given their directives: through the unknowing mouths of children. Imagine the viewer’s surprise when The Director manifests its consciousness into an AI system named Ilsa. Game. Changer.
You can binge all three seasons of Travelers on Netflix.
