TIMELESS — “Space Race” Episode 107 — Pictured: (l-r) Nadine Ellis as Katherine Johnson, Malcolm Barrett as Rufus Carlin — (Photo by: Sergei Bachlakov/NBC)

Name of the Episode: “Space Race”

July 20, 1969: man lands on the moon. Something that stops Americans to stay near the radio or television to watch history. In the present, Anthony and Flynn visit a NASA worker, Wayne Ellis to discuss his part in the Apollo 11 mission. Once they get the information they need, the mother ship is taken into Wayne’s backyard in 1969. Flynn shoots Wayne so they can use his badge to enter into NASA. At headquarters, the group gets their new identities; Rufus is a janitor, Lucy will be a secretary and Wyatt will be a part of the FBI. Flynn’s men call over a plumber only to kill him for his uniform so Flynn can go into an engineering building next to NASA. Flynn has his own mission to find Maria Tompkins; she is a part of the company who helped build the lunar module. Rufus is in awe of all his heroes sitting in mission control.

Anthony uses Wayne Ellis’ badge to gain access into a secured room to swap out communication systems. Once he placed an empty cartridge, mission control loses its connection to Apollo 11 before they have landing confirmation. Without confirmation on either end, the astronauts could die without oxygen within a matter of hours. Anthony reassures Flynn that Rufus will not be able to fix the computer damage. Rufus grows extremely frustrated, but realizes someone who can help them. Catherine Johnson is an African American woman who is a genius but works in the basement alone. Flynn finds Maria at the park and chats her up. She insists she’s only a secretary, but Flynn sees her sketches and knows she will be an aerospace engineer one day. Lucy and Rufus convince Catherine to get them into the computer mainframe to deactivate the virus.

While Flynn takes Maria and her son for ice cream, they hear from the president, Apollo 11 may not come home. Flynn connects with Maria about their loss of spouses; but it seems that her son, Gabriel, may actually be Flynn when he was 6 years old. Across the street, Wyatt is watching Flynn’s movements, but an officer blows his cover and Flynn sneaks away. At mission control, Rufus and Catherine keep working on restoring the computers. They are successful in deleting the virus, but Anthony and his gunman burst in. Anthony tries to reason with Rufus about why he’s interfering, but it does not help. Rufus shoots and kills the gunman and no longer associates with the friendship he and Anthony once had. Anthony slipped away, but Catherine ensures the communication is restored.

Wyatt goes to visit Maria, and they are able to see the moon landing. Maria goes to grab Gabriel, and sees Flynn injecting something into the child. Flynn was actually saving Gabriel from a deadly allergy reaction. He admits any memory he had of Maria, she was sad, and he didn’t want her to lose her son if he could help it. Wyatt is unable to subdue Flynn and they are forced to go back to headquarters. They are given Flynn’s full-unblocked file to read. Maria is Flynn’s mother, however Gabriel is his half brother. Gabriel was supposed to die of a bee sting before Flynn was born two years later. He saved his brother from death, without hesitation and it did not affect the future timeline.

Lucy is still reassured they will find a way to bring back her sister. In the history books, Rufus sees Catherine was honored as a hero for her efforts in Apollo 11. Rufus admits to feeling normal after shooting a man earlier in the day. After all these missions, he’s grown into someone very different from where he started. On next week’s episode, Bonnie and Clyde are the focus of the mission; while they try to save history, what will happen between Wyatt and Lucy? Stay tuned for another after take and see if history can be saved.