The King of the Delta Blues

**"The King of the Delta Blues"** is the sixth episode from Season 2 of *Timeless*. It premiered on April 22, 2018.

## Plot

### Summary

In 1936 Texas, the King of Delta Blues, Robert Johnson, is recording a series of albums with Don Law that will change the world. Flynn was busted out of jail by the Time Team and a fourth seat was added to the Lifeboat. Wyatt is kept behind for an intel-gathering mission to stop Rittenhouse, so Lucy, Rufus, Flynn and the fanboy Connor Mason depart to 1936 Texas to save Robert Johnson.

### The Mission

* The Lifeboat team travels to November 23, 1936 to prevent Rittenhouse from murdering blues musician Robert Johnson.

#### Rittenhouse's Agenda

* Rittenhouse sends sleeper agents to 1936 Texas to murder blues musician Robert Johnson to prevent the birth of rock and roll music and eventually the counterculture of the 1960s, the civil rights movement, the fall of Nixon, and the end of the Vietnam War.

#### Changes to the Timeline

* Music producer Don Law is killed by a Rittenhouse sleeper agent. As a result, Johnson's sessions are recorded by Mason, who is credited as "Lando Calrissian".

## Guest Cast

* Annie Wersching as Emma Whitmore
* Michael Rady as Nicholas Keynes
* Susanna Thompson as Carolyn Preston
* Kamahl Naiqui as Robert Johnson
* Gavin Stenhouse as Don Law

## Historical Events and Figures

* The Mississippi River Delta runs to the west of the Mississippi River from just south of Memphis, Tennessee to Vicksburg, Mississippi. It is an area of fertile soil and extreme poverty, and was once the home of great plantations before the Civil War. After the Civil War, migrant farmers came to the delta, with the land largely farmed by black farmers. In the 1930s, increasingly mechanized farming lead to a migration of black and white farmers to the cities in the north, although the area did have a short agricultural boom during WWII. Today, farming is largely done by large corporate entities which absorbed the small family farms.
* **Delta blues** is the name for the original form of blues music which originated along the Mississippi River delta in Mississippi. It grew out of the poverty of black residents of the Mississippi River delta, and features lyrics describing their way of life. Instruments used were largely the guitar, and harmonica, but it was the slide guitar that gave Delta Blues its distinctive sound. Delta blues was first recorded in the 1920s, although it may have existed for some time before that. Early artists included Robert Johnson, Son Hill, Charley Patton and Big Joe Williams. Although some early recordings were made in the south, many of these artists traveled north to record, influencing other regional variations of the blues, notably the Chicago blues.
* Although blues recordings in the 1920s and 30s were dominated by women such as Bessie Smith, few recorded Delta blues. However, contemporary female artists including Bonnie Raitt are heavily influence by the Delta blues style, as were the 1960s British "skiffle" bands, one of which evolved into the Beatles.

### Figures

* Robert Johnson
* Don Law
* Muddy Waters
* Son House
* Bessie Smith
* Carrie Thompson

## Episode Notes

### Trivia

* After Flynn kills the Rittenhouse sleeper agent sent to kill Johnson, Lucy introduces herself as "Taylor Swift" and Flynn as "Agent Timberlake". Taylor Swift and Justin Timberlake are pop music artists that rose to fame in the early 2000s.
* Mason's false name in 1936 is "Lando Calrissian", after the *Star Wars* franchise character portrayed by Billy Dee Williams.

### Music

* "Cross Road Blues" by Kamahl Naiqui
* "Stop Breakin' Down Blues" by Kamahl Naiqui