The Alamo

**"The Alamo"** is the fifth episode from Season 1 of *Timeless*. It premiered on October 31, 2016.

## Plot

### Synopsis

After one member is fired from the team, Flynn returns to a pivotal event in the war over Texas -- the Battle of the Alamo. The team members find themselves stranded inside the famous fort, surrounded by Mexican soldiers, knowing that everyone inside is fated to die. Now, with no hope of rescue and facing insurmountable odds, the trio of heroes learns the meaning of trust and sacrifice from people prepared to die for those around them.

### Summary

Things start to go bad for Wyatt, as a superior officer stops by to remind him his job is to kill Flynn as soon as possible. Needless to say, Wyatt hasn’t been doing a very good job so the military decides to bring in someone else to see if they’ll have better luck. Wyatt is disappointed, of course, but before he can reluctantly step away, Flynn takes out the Mothership again. With no time to train the new guy, Wyatt gets to take one last trip into the past.

And it’s a date he knows a little something about: 1836, just a few days before the Battle of the Alamo. “I’m from Texas,” Wyatt explains. “We all know that one.”

Rufus, Lucy, and Wyatt meet many of the colorful figures from the Alamo, including Jim Bowie (of Bowie knife fame) and Davy Crockett (the bear-killing, coonskin-cap-wearing King of the Wild Frontier), but of all the heroes who died at the Alamo, Colonel William Travis was one of the most influential. As General Santa Anna laid siege to the Alamo, Travis penned a letter describing the battle and promising to “never surrender or retreat,” signing it, “Victory or death.” It was Travis’ famed letter that rallied the Texan army and encouraged the young nation to fight back against Santa Anna, leading to his eventual defeat and Texas’ future statehood.

Except thanks to Flynn, Travis ends up dead several days early, so he never gets a chance to write more than a few words of that famous letter. As a result, no one will remember the Alamo at all.

While Lucy freaks out about Travis’ letter and Rufus just chills with Davy Crockett, listening to his crazy bear stories, Wyatt is left to deal with his own past. Since he’s started traveling through time, he’s faced Nazis and assassins, but the Alamo reminds him a little too much of his military service and what it was like to be in the battlefield. Before long, he’s having full-on traumatic flashbacks, and he soon opens up about the time he and his men were caught in crossfire and he was the only one to survive. “I left them there to die, and they gave me a medal for it,” he says bitterly.

But Wyatt doesn’t have much time to reflect, as Flynn has prodded Santa Anna into attacking several days early. As his full force descends upon the Alamo — playing music to unnerve them — Santa Anna’s men wave a red flag, promising to take no prisoners and accept no surrenders, including women and children. Even Flynn is a little freaked out by Santa Anna’s brutality, but this is the guy who literally *shot Lincoln in the head* and tried to blow up the Hindenburg (with plenty of women and children aboard). Even if he’s just trying to protect Lucy, whom we know he has a mysterious soft spot for, it seems a little out of character to suddenly start worrying about the women and children.

Before long, our trio find themselves in the middle of one of American history’s bloodiest battles. Lucy’s busy trying to replicate Travis’ letter, Rufus is trying to find a way out, and Wyatt is right there on the battlefield. Soon, however, Rufus conveniently remembers that hey, Wyatt brought some grenades on this mission (but not on any others), which sure would come in handy with creating an escape tunnel. It’s not exactly the Alamo basement, but close enough.

Lucy’s written her letter and Rufus has created a way out, but when Lucy comes to get Wyatt so they can escape, he refuses to go. He’s still racked with guilt after his own experiences, and he decides that if this is going to be his last time-travel mission, he may as well go down fighting. Lucy begs and pleads with him — he’ll die, it’s fruitless, he shouldn’t feel guilty — but the only thing that gets through to him is that she and Rufus need him. They can’t do this without him. The look in her eyes is enough to convince him to come back to the future.

Wyatt’s survivor’s guilt (both with his wife and his fellow soldiers) gives some real perspective into who he is, and it’s such a nice moment to watch Rufus and Lucy stand up for him and refuse to do their job without him.

### The Mission

#### Flynn's Agenda

* Bribe Mexican President Santa Anna into attacking the Alamo Mission three days ahead of its original date.
* Kill William B. Travis, thus preventing him from writing his "Victory or Death" open letter.

#### Changes to the Timeline

* Despite the death of Travis, thus forcing Lucy to write a different version of the open letter, the outcome of the Battle of the Alamo is unchanged.

## Guest Cast

* Susanna Thompson as Carolyn Preston
* Victor Zinck Jr. as Dave Baumgardner
* Chris Browning as James Bowie
* Jeff Kober as Davy Crockett
* David Chisum as William B. Travis
* Sean Michael Kyer as John William Smith
* Alex Fernandez as Antonio López de Santa Anna
* Hector Hugo as Patrick Ramsey

## Historical Events and Figures

### Figures

* James Bowie
* Davy Crockett
* William B. Travis
* John William Smith
* Antonio López de Santa Anna