Lucy Preston

## Relevant Pages

“

> Now, did you decide to take that drink, or was it pre-written, some kind of history that says you were meant to take that drink? You made the choice, Lucy. And that's what history is. Right? It's choices. Some small, stupid, some monumental. But we make them. So if you're not happy with the history that Flynn has predicted for you, then rewrite it.
>
>
>

”

**Lucy Preston**, also called Miss Preston, and nicknamed Ma'am by Wyatt Logan,  briefly known as Juliet Shakesman, Nurse Jackie, and Agent Cosner, is one of the main characters of NBC's TV series, *Timeless*, portrayed by starring cast memerb Abigail Spencer. Along with Rufus Carlin, one of the men responsible for creating the time machine, and Wyatt Logan, an ex-army soldier, Lucy goes back in time to stop Rittenhouse from destroying America's history.

## Background

Carolyn Preston has an affair with a man named Benjamin Cahill and becomes pregnant with their daughter, Lucy. However. Most of her life, Lucy has believed that her father was Henry Wallace. She has a younger sister named Amy Preston, born in 1990. *("Pilot", "The Red Scare", "The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln")*

Sometime in the future, Lucy will write about her time travels in a journal. She eventually gives it to Garcia Flynn, who uses it to travel through time. *("Pilot", "The Red Scare")*

In the alternate universe of 2016A, Lucy's mother and stepfather never met, thus resulting in her sister, Amy, from being erased from existence, something she blames Flynn for. *("Pilot", "The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln")*

## Season 1

Lucy works as a history professor in her mother's department. However, she is unsure if she wants to follow in Carol's footsteps.

One day, Lucy is giving a lecture about President Lyndon B. Johnson. However, after the lesson, Lucy learns from the chair of her mother's department that the committee is cancelling yet another tenure meeting. She angrily tells the chairman that she has been "busting her ass off" for tenure and storms off. Lucy goes home, where she finds Amy looking over their mother, Carol, who is diagnosed with lung cancer. The two sisters take a break from watching over their mom and have a drink, where Lucy reveals to her younger sister what happened at work today. Amy insists to Lucy that she should go somewhere where she is wanted and insists that her sister can make her own future, rather than following in their mother's footsteps. Later that evening, Agent Kondo from homeland security shows up and escorts Lucy to Mason Industries, where she meets Wyatt Logan and Agent Denise Christopher, who expresses her condolences to Lucy about her ailing mother. Christopher reveals to Lucy and Wyatt that they have summoned them to go after terrorist named Garcia Flynn in a time machine, the Lifeboat. Lucy nearly declines, but Christopher tells Lucy that they need her to be on the team. Lucy goes to comply with Agent Christopher's request and dresses into 1930s garb. Going into the time machine, Lucy and Wyatt meet Rufus, who is their third teammate and their pilot. Entering the day the Hindenburg crashed, they enter a New Jersey town's local tavern, where Lucy and Wyatt ask a bartender if he'd seen a man named Garcia Flynn, but the Bartender shoves them off. They learn from Kate that Flynn was there earlier and went to help with the landing of the Hindenburg. The team head to where the Hindenburg will land, where Lucy spots Flynn and follows one of his followers. However, the follower corners Lucy and attacks her, but she is saved by Wyatt and Rufus. Lucy looks out the door, and much to her horror, Flynn saved the Hindenburg when it lands.  The trio are found by a group of Police officers, who immediately arrest the Lifeboat team. Through her conversation with Wyatt, Lucy learns that he is widowed since the murder of his wife, Jessica, and says that Kate reminds him of his late wife. They later escape when Wyatt uses her underwire bra as a lock pick and sneak onboard to the Hindenburg, where they find a bomb planted by one of Flynn's men. Lucy and Rufus go to the cockpit and pose as the Anarchist Black Cross, claiming they have a bomb on this plane and orders the pilots to land to await further demands. However, the Hindenburg sets itself on fire after one of Flynn's men accidentally fires a bullet after Kate saved Wyatt. During the skirmish, Lucy is confronted by Garcia Flynn. Terrified, Lucy tells him that he is a sociopath who murdered his own family, Flynn tells her that it all depends on her point of view. Knowing she never met him before, Lucy asks him how he knows her name. Flynn reveals that he knows a lot about her and shows her a diary that she is going to write in the future. He tells her to ask them why she was  chosen for the mission and who Rittenhouse is. Wyatt goes to save Lucy, who Flynn holds hostage and goes to fire at Wyatt. However, Kate stands in between Wyatt and takes the bullet, killing her instantly. The team returns to 2016, to find the timeline relatively unchanged. However, Lucy comes home, but sees her mother alive and well, she is engaged to a man, and her sister is erased from existence. *("Pilot")*

At the very same moment, Lucy receives a call from Agent Christopher, who informs her that Flynn has taken the Mothership again. Urgently, Lucy asks where, or rather when, he is at. She rushes out of the house, but Carol stops her and asks
who was on the phone and who Amy is. Lucy lies and says Amy is a friend at work
and that she needs her help. Carol tells Lucy not to forget about tomorrow night, but Lucy, not knowing what her mother is talking about, promises she won't before leaving for Mason Industries. *("Pilot", "The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln")*

Returning to the company, Lucy learns she is the only one whose life has changed and reveals that her sister is erased from history and urges her superiors to retrieve her sister back; but they must stop Flynn first by going back to April 14, 1865, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. One of the workers at Mason Industries, Jiya, who is helping Lucy with her costume, promises to help her figure out what happened to Amy. Lucy, still upset at losing her sister, enters the lifeboat. Wyatt notices her sadness, and consoles her about losing her sister. The team successfully make it to the day the Civil War ended. The next day, Lucy, Rufus and Wyatt go their separate ways to find either Flynn or John Wilkes Booth. Searching Ford's theater, Lucy manages to find Booth's mailbox and meets Robert Todd Lincoln. Starstrucked, Lucy introduces herself as Juliet Shakesman and strikes up a conversation with Robert. Before he leaves, Lucy has a brief encounter with John Wilkes Booth. She later goes to reunite with her teammates, all three of them discuss saving Lincoln rather than letting Booth kill him. However, Lucy says that they cannot in fear of it changing more than they want. However, Rufus tries to convince her that maybe preventing Lincoln's death will be for the greater good. The trio later finds Flynn and Booth, but end up fleeing after Flynn spots them and begins shooting at the trio of friends. The trio go to stay in the hotel, the National. Lucy, knowing where Grant will be, goes to make sure he boards his train, but finds the train has broken down, and meets Robert there again, and invites her to the play. Realizing she can save Grant, agrees to attend. As she is leaving the train station, Flynn confronts Lucy, who blames him for her sister's disappearance; however, Flynn tells her that this is war and lost his entire family to Rittenhouse. He reveals to her that she will one day help him, and claims it is not a threat, but the future and tells Lucy to not get in his way again before he leaves her. Lucy goes shopping with the money she has and buys a blue dress for the play tonight. Lucy makes sure that Rufus and Wyatt are going to save the Secretary of State and the Vice President. Before she leaves, Rufus tells Lucy to make sure who she wants to save. Attending *Our American Cousin*, Lucy meets Robert's father, Abraham Lincoln, upset knowing he is about to die. She begins growing nervous and gets Grant out of the balcony by spilling water on Ulysses and his wife, Julia, getting one problem out of the way. However, Lucy remains nervous throughout the entire play; instead of Booth entering, Lucy is shocked to find that Flynn enters the door instead. She cries out to warn President Lincoln, but is too late. However, Lucy does save Grant and takes out her gun, but unsuccessfully, Flynn manages to escape.  Later that night, Lincoln passes away from the bullet wound. Robert thanks Lucy for saving Grant at least before leaving to grieve. The trio returns back to 2016, where Lucy learns that there is a high school named after her alias in Ohio. Later, Jiya reveals to Lucy that her father Henry Wallace instead married the granddaughter of Irene Doehner, a girl who was supposed to die in the Hindenburg disaster. in that moment, Lucy realizes that while Carol is her mother, Henry isn't her biological father and never was and that her mother has been lying to her her entire life.*("The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln")*

Lucy appears at her own engagement party, and asks her mother about her father, but Carol rebuffs her and tells her to go freshen up. Lucy is then approached by her fiance, Noah, who kisses her while Lucy gives a meek hello. *("The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln", "Atomic City")*

After getting a call from Agent Christopher, Lucy replies she'll be there as soon as she can. However, she enters an argument with her mother about her father's identity. not While getting in the Lifeboat, she and Rufus are shocked to learn from Wyatt that their trip to the Alamo will be his last mission ever after being fired before. During this mission, Lucy is forced to write the "Victory or Death" letter after it's original author is murdered by Garcia Flynn. During the final battle, Lucy tells Wyatt that she can't go in without him. Lucy and the others are forced to run with the women and children. The team return to the present day, learning that all the women and children had escaped, but all the men had died. As Wyatt prepares to leave, however, Lucy stands up and says they can't replace Wyatt because she trusts him. Rufus follows her, with both of them threatening to quit if Wyatt's replaced. They manage to get Christopher's boss to let Wyatt stay, as she and Rufus trust no one but Wyatt. Lucy returns home to her mother, who asks if they are going to keep on fighting. However, Lucy, sadden by the turn of events, reconciles with Carol, and says that she doesn't. Knowing her daughter deserves the truth, Carol reveals to Lucy how she met her father and reveals her father's name, Benjamin Cahill on a piece of paper. *("The Alamo", "The Watergate Tape")*

Lucy goes to wait by her father's doorstep in her car but finds herself unable to do so. She goes to Mason Industries after receiving a call from Denise. The team goes back to the day after the Watergate scandal, but they are kidnapped by Flynn on their way to the White House. Assuming he wants them to retrieve the missing tape, Lucy proclaims they will not get it for them. However, Flynn reveals he already stole it and has the Lifeboat team listen to it. Throughout the missing minutes, the Lifeboat team learn that Nixon is scared of Rittenhouse and is after something called the "doc." Lucy tells Flynn that she does not know what "doc" Nixon is talking about. He says that he believes her, as he could not find an entry about the doc anywhere in her journal. To Lucy's greatest fear, Flynn reveals this is a journal that she will write in the future. He releases Lucy and Rufus and gives them five hours to find the document or he will kill Wyatt.

Rufus furiously yells at Lucy for not telling them about the journal or her relationship with Flynn. However, Lucy states that the secret scared the hell out of her and insists they just focus on saving Wyatt. They blackmail "Deep Throat" and learn from him about the logo with a fist with horns drawn when investigating the Watergate scandal.  Rufus and Lucy gain the help of BLA member Gregory Hayes, who shows them to "the doc." Both are shocked to see that "the doc" is not a document, but a woman. Lucy learns from the Doc that she is a member of Rittenhouse and is wanted for her information. She accidentally overhears Rufus on the phone with an anonymous person,  and learns that he has been spying on them on their journeys because a man threatened him and his family. They develop a plan to trick both Flynn and Rittenhouse to turn on each other while they get the doc out of there and rescue Wyatt from Flynn's men. As they are leaving, the doc reveals to Lucy that she left because she didn't want her son to be caught up into Rittenhouse and hopes to see them again.

yatt no longer trusts Lucy and Rufus after the secrets and lies. The trio return to present day, their friendship broken. Lucy finds no record of the Doc, and assumes she is out with her family. Watching Wyatt leave, Rufus asks Lucy if they are going to be alright, but instead of answering, Lucy walks away. She gets the courage to go up to her father's doorstep, and unexpectedly meets her half-brother. When Lucy faces her father, instead of telling him who she is, Lucy lies and say that she was supposed to deliver something to a friend, but must have got the wrong address.

Lucy stands between Flynn and John Rittenhouse before the former of the two can kill John. When John disappears, Flynn in his anger, kidnaps Lucy and takes her onto the Mothership before Rufus and Wyatt have the chance to rescue their friend. *("The Capture of Benedict Arnold")*

## Season 2

Around five years later, Lucy goes back in time and approaches Garcia Flynn in a bar. She approaches him, claiming that she knows everything about him and reveals twhat happneed with Rittenhouse and how they killed his family. She hands him the diary and then leaves. (The Day Reagan Was Shot)

## Appearance

Lucy is a young woman apparently in her late twenties-early thirties. She has short, curly brown hair and green eyes.

## Trivia

### Character Notes

#### Etymology

* The name, Lucy, is derived from the English name, Lucia, used in the Middle Ages, which is derived from the name Lucius , which is derived from the Latin element, lux, meaning "light."
* Lucy's last name, Preston comes from the character, Bill S. Preston, Esquire from the *Bill & Ted* franchise.

#### Character Notes

* During the events of season one, she is thirty three and thirty four. In season two, she is 35.
* Lucy knows how to speak French. *("Stranded")*
* She possessed a diary that has everything written in the future. *("Pilot")*

### Cultural References

* Lucy took the name Juliet Shakesman while visiting the day Abraham Lincoln was assasinated while looking at a poster of William Shakespeare, and took her first name from Juliet Capulet, the heroine of Romeo and Juliet.

### Costume Notes

* The white and gold dress that Lucy wears in "Hollywoodland" resemble the ones that Katharine Hepburn wears in *The Philadelphia Story*.

## Relationships

### Wyatt Logan

They eventually began developing romantic feelings for each other.

In the future, Wyatt and Lucy are married and have a two daughters Flynn and Amy, named after the late Garcia Flynn and Lucy's erased sister.

### Noah

Noah was engaged to Lucy after the timeline change caused by Lucy and her friends' mission to the Hindenberg crisis. However, she broke off their relationship in "The Red Scare."

### Robert Lincoln

(Date)
Lucy met Robert Lincoln. She went on a brief date with him to the play, *Our American Cousin.*. He invited her out of kindness. Robert later thanked Lucy for saving General Grant. He never saw her again.

### Harry Houdini

Harry Houdini expressed interest in Lucy and attempted to ask her out by coming with him and travelling the world. However, Lucy tells him that she is not the one for him and tells him to look out for his future wife.

### Family

**Notes**

* Dotted lines give off relationships

* Solid lines are blood parent child relationships.

* † denotes the deceased.

* ^ denotes the character was erased from time

* Benjamin Cahill and Carol Preston have never been married.

### Allies

* Lifeboat Team - Teammates
	+ Rufus Carlin - Best friend
	+ Wyatt Logan - Best friend turned Love Interest
	+ Jiya - Close friend
	+ Denise Christopher
	+ Connor Mason
	+ Garcia Flynn - Former enemy turned teammate

### Enemies

* Rittenhouse
	+ Carolyn Preston - Mother turned enemy
	+ Emma Whitmore - Rival and attempted killer

## Notes and references

1. ↑ "Pilot"
2. ↑ Used the alias in "The Assasination of Abraham Lincoln"
3. ↑ Wyatt says Lucy has brown eyes in "The World's Columbian Exposition"
4. ↑ "The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln"
5. ↑ Behind the Name. GIVEN NAME Lucy. Retrieved on May 26, 2018.
Behind the Name. GIVEN NAME Lucia. Retrieved on May 26, 2018.
Behind the Name. GIVEN NAME Lucius. Retrieved on May 26, 2018.