Bishop (episode)/Plot

Plot - based on Showcase recap - a work in progress

MacLaren has to fulfill his duties and risk his life without knowing why. It’s not until moments before the mission is complete that he discovers the purpose behind every extremely dangerous thing he just did.

Said mission begins with a happy married couple taking a morning jog in an empty park. When the husband stops to answer a phone call we learn that he is somehow involved in the development of an oil pipeline that would surely assist in destroying the future environment. He is confident that the project will be approved and the drilling will go forward as planned. When he hangs up the phone he quips to his wife that jogging is going to kill him. But she quickly corrects her hubby. Jogging is not going to kill him. SHE’S going to kill him. Yup. His significant other is a traveler who has the goal of pushing her husband off a ledge so that he can fall to his death. She achieves her goal and then throws in some screaming and crying for realistic effect.

Meanwhile, Marcy is metaphorically pushing David off a ledge as she continues to cause trouble in his life. Although she did manage to sort of get his job back for him there are other problems. For example, David reveals that he has feelings for her and although he is attempting to convince himself that their relationship is platonic he can’t do it anymore. He asks that she find a new place to live and she promises to be gone by that evening. Across town, Carly’s ex-partner and current cop Jeff wishes that he could literally push MacLaren off a ledge. He does not like how much time the agent has been spending with Carly so he goes to the FBI offices to do a bit of threatening. Jeff wants MacLaren to stay away from Carly and although MacLaren denies that he’s involved with her at all he does mention that he spoke to her a while back strictly for work purposes and that he saw the bruises on her arms. The traveler dishes out his own brand of threats and makes it clear that he knows Jeff is violent but he better not be with MacLaren.

As Jeff continues to live in the past in hopes of getting his family back, Carly is attempting to move on. She is interviewing for a job (like child services advised her to do) at a landscaping company and she’s all smiles when she gets the gig. Trevor isn’t all smiles when his temperamental father tells him that because he missed another test he has decided to send him to a military boarding school which would mess with Trevor’s traveler responsibilities. Speaking of traveler responsibilities, when MacLaren heads to this car as he’s leaving the office he sees a package sitting on the driver’s seat. Inside the brown envelope is a shiny black box resembling some kind of hard drive. He tries to determine what it is but there’s no visible way to open it.

There is however a note included telling him to keep the package on his body at all times. He takes the object to the hideout where Philip is chilling as per usual in hopes that his computer-savvy traveler will be able to determine what this black box is and why he has it and how it functions. Unfortunately, Philip doesn’t have any answers. Also he is going through withdrawal again so his brain also isn’t up to snuff. MacLaren approves Philip taking a hit if he needs it but Philip doesn’t want to. He’s trying to get clean and has been going to support groups with his friend/former lawyer Ray. He is able to determine that the box is a combination of digital and mechanical. But there is no interface or remote signal and the case is lined which makes it basically impossible for him to confirm what hardware is inside. So, like a good little traveler MacLaren just has to blindly/bravely follow the plans of his almighty god, the director.

And he has to do this while his wife Kat suspects him of cheating on her (which isn’t not true). Her suspicions grow even further when Jeff, Carly’s ex, pays her a visit at her home to chat about a “personal” matter. David wants to chat with Marcy as well even though she’s already living and sleeping somewhere else. She’s decided to make the traveler hideout her new home and David already misses her badly. He calls just to say that if she needs help packing up her stuff later that he can be there if she’s okay with that and of course she is. Sounds like social worker David is maybe second guessing his decision to kick the love of his life out of his house.

MacLaren doesn’t have an opportunity to second guess letting a traveler he’s never met into his car because as soon as he arrives at a red light, his doors unlock on their own and the wife, who killed her husband after a morning jog, hops into the backseat. She is traveler 3112 and she is there to brief him on his mission. She hands him a photo of his target, Congressman Bishop, who will be seated next to him in first class on a flight that MacLaren is apparently taking TODAY. He’s shocked to hear this for a few reasons. One being that it’s a tad last minute. The second being that he’s never been in an aircraft before. And the third being that he doesn’t have any luggage with him. But traveler 3112 says that as long as he has the black box that’s all he needs. His credentials will get it through airport security and it will open at the appropriate time.

Carly is shocked too when she shows up to her new place of work and her boss informs her that he will no longer be hiring her. When she demands to know why he explains that they did a background check and he knows that she was charged with assaulting a police officer. The same police officer who chatted with MacLaren’s wife Kat which resulted in Kat calling MacLaren in a rage. She’s even more angry when MacLaren tells her that he can’t talk later because he’s gotta get on a flight to Washington at 1:30 pm. Trevor’s dad’s anger has quelled a bit since the conversation about military school. He has a more rational talk with Trevor while the teenager is gardening in the front yard. He apologizes for how toxic their relationship becomes, which includes him striking Trevor and he wants to work on them getting close again.

Jeff is working on him and Carly getting close again too. When she heads to the police station to confront him about these alleged charges, she asks him what he wants from her and what he wants is… her. Awwwww. That would sound so romantic if it wasn’t coming from an abusive ex-boyfriend. Carly is not having a good day and neither is Philip whose withdrawal side effects have gotten worse. When MacLaren calls him he’s lying in a ball of his own sweat on his bed. The lead traveler needs Philip to receive mission instructions for him since he will be on the plane and until he hits 20,000 feet his futuristic communication device won’t even work which makes MaLaren highly nervous. Philip tries to reassure him that flying is the safest way to travel but as soon as the traveler boards the aircraft his nervousness triples. He sits in his first class seat with the package in his hands and says hello to Congressman Bishop when he sits beside him. The Congressman takes a call and reveals that he was just at a funeral for the husband who was killed by his wife/traveler 3112. Turns out that the husband was also employed by the US government. Bishop ends the call with confirming that the pipeline will still be going forward.

Carly attempts to call MacLaren but because his phone is on flight mode she gets his voicemail. She leaves him a message asking for his help since Jeff is trying to sabotage her identity. The traveler is kind of distracted right now though. He has to make small talk with Bishop before completing a mission he still doesn’t understand. During the small talk MacLaren tells Bishop that he works for the FBI and Bishop asks MacLaren if he is handling the death of his recently deceased pal. Maclaren affirms that his division has indeed been assigned to the case as the plane prepares for lift off. When Carly has a few more job interviews she needs a babysitter and since Jeff is so intent on being a part of her family again she asks him for help. She hands off her infant in hopes that maybe this peace offering will get Jeff off her back so she can get a job.

Marcy is on the hunt as well but not for a job. For an apartment. She’s gotta put her stuff somewhere, especially since David wants to give her more kitchen appliances than she needs. When she goes to pack up her stuff he confesses that this is harder than he thought it would be. He feels like he’s dying and then Marcy confesses that she is actually dying. Her seizures are just symptoms of a bigger problem and the surgeries she’s been performing on herself have only been buying time. She also confesses that she has feelings for David too and they share in a passionate kiss. Awww. Now THAT is romantic. Carly’s missing her romantic beau because she’s in desperate need of his assistance right now. She’s gotta get those charges removed and his FBI connections could make that happen permanently. Philip tells her that MacLaren will touch base when his flight lands. So, Carly looks into what time he will be arriving and in the process informs Philip that MacLaren’s flight number is 329 which is headed to Washington.

This launches Philip into panic mode because according to history that plane is going to crash and burn. Philip summons Marcy and Trevor to join them in Mission: Save MacLaren from Crashing and Burning. The FBI agent, unaware that his death is near, calmly stands to let Bishop go to the bathroom and in the process notices a familiar face in another passenger seat. His wife Kat sneakily bought a ticket for this flight as well in hopes of spying on him and possibly catching him in the act of adultery. She tells him about Jeff’s visit and then apologizes for being so silly and paranoid. They can’t finish their convo though because the flight attendant demands that MacLaren return to this seat. He can’t be walking around ‘cause there’s turbulence. Bishop isn’t too worried about the bumpy ride but MacLaren definitely is, especially when his communication device turns on and Trevor notifies him that all 141 passengers on flight 329 die.

And since his wife Kat is now on the flight as well that includes her. When smoke begins to fill the plane because of a fire, MacLaren assumes that it is his mission to prevent the crashing and burning. But when the black box opens up he realizes that his mission is only to save himself and one other passenger and that passenger is not his wife Kat. It’s Congressman Bishop and he will be doing the saving using the contents of the black box which is a two person stasis field. What is a two person stasis field? Well, it’s a sphere of energy that would protect two persons from surrounding dangers, like say a plane crashing and burning. MacLaren wants to know if it’s possible to fit three people inside the stasis so he can include his wife Kat. Awww. Talk about ROMANCE! Unfortunately though Trevor declares that it is impossible. Philip now knows why MacLaren was kept in the dark on the mission. The director knew he’d try to save everyone.

But, MacLaren doesn’t want to save everyone. He just wants to save his wife. And his crew of travelers are in a car driving to the crash site so they can save HIM and Bishop because once they leave the stasis they will need resuscitation. Doctor Marcy is prepared to do that but she doesn’t know if they should be getting involved. They weren’t given this mission. It was strictly for MacLaren and they keep improvising which the future does not like. So, the future will 100% not like MacLaren improvising a whole bunch and giving his spot in the two person energy stasis field to his wife Kat. Yup. He sits Kat down beside Bishop in the front of the plane and explains to both of them how the device in the black box works exactly. It’s simple. All Kat has to do is press the button when it lights up red and hold on tight as the energy sphere surrounds them.

But, what is MacLaren going to do? Is he going to jump out of the plane in a parachute? Is he going to create another stasis field somehow? Or is he going to straight up sacrifice his life to save his lady? None of the above. He is going to squat in the tail of the plane which according to Philip is the only part of the aircraft that doesn’t crash and burn. That doesn’t mean he will survive the fatal landing but it does give him more of a chance of survival then if he went back to his seat which the flight attendant repeatedly asks him to do. MacLaren says his farewells to his wife, tells her calmly that she’s going to be okay and kisses her sweetly, maybe for the last time.

The travelers stand at the crash site and watch as the plane does exactly what it was supposed to do: crashes and burns. They also watch as the stasis energy field sphere rolls away from the debris and disappears revealing the passengers inside the sphere to be Bishop and Kat. Carly now goes into panic mode when she realizes that the love of HER life was in the tail of the plane when it exploded. Marcy resuscitates Bishop and Kat as Carly goes running to where MacLaren might be. Trevor holds her back as an unconscious, maybe dead MacLaren is carried away by paramedics. Then moments after Marcy successfully gets Kat and Bishop’s hearts beating again Bishop grabs his head and shrieks out in pain. We know what this means, don’t we folks? His brain is being replaced with the consciousness of a traveler. Ah! It’s all coming together! He had to be saved so that a traveler could swoop in and make that oil pipeline go bye bye forever.