Washington DC: March 30, 1981
John Hinckley Jr. writes a letter to Jodie Foster saying that he has to do something to make her sure that she understands he's doing everything for his sake. He then goes to the Hilton Hotel and shoos Ronald Reagan.
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Denise and her wife Michelle are getting their kids ready for school when her mother calls. She refuses to take it and says that she to get to work, and leaves.
At the bunker, Jiya finds Rufus working on the Lifeboat. She offers to help but he says that he's done. Jiya realizes that he's trying to push her away, and says that her father did the same thing when he realized that he was dying. Rufus goes to the kitchen, and Lucy and Wyatt ask why he's been sulking. He explains that Jiya saw him dying in one of her future visions. Wyatt assures him that they won't let it happen but Rufus doesn't believe them. The sensors pick up the Mothership going to Washington DC in 1981. They can't raise Denise on the phone, and Flynn and Connor can't go because they were alive at the time. Jiya offers to go, and Rufus agrees, saying that they'll need another pilot when he's dead.
When the team arrives in 1981, they steal clothes and Lucy tells them when Hinckley goes after Reagan. He tried to kill Reagan to impress Jodie Foster, and they figure Rittenhouse wants to make sure Reagan dies.
Denise arrive at the bunker and Connor tells them the team is in 1981. She says that saving Reagan isn't why they're there.
The team arrives at the hotel and Wyatt spots Hinckley. Reagan and his security team come out, and Wyatt sees the sleeper agent, Owen Madoff, posing as a Secret Service agent preparing to shoot an officer. Wyatt knocks the officer down so that she's just grazed, and Reagan gets into his limo and drive away. They call for an ambulance for the officer, and realize that it's a young Denise. Wyatt claims that he's with special forces, and she says that she owes him one as they take her to the hospital. Lucy confirms that Hinckley escaped, which wasn't what happened originally, and Wyatt says that Denise was the target.
Flynn wonders why Carol would go to 1981 to kill Denise when she had the chance three weeks ago. Connor figures that if Denise dies in 1981, their entire operation would disappear as well. When they wonder about Denise's children, she tells them to trust the team and leaves.
The team goes to the hospital to look for Owen, and Lucy figures that they need to do something about Hinckley. Wyatt spots Owen and tells Lucy to go with Denise and tell her about Hinckley. Rufus insists on staying with Wyatt to find Owen. Lucy and Jiya talk to Denise and says that they're not at liberty to say who they're working for. Denise's mother Ananya comes in, having heard of the shooting, and asks how her daughter is. Denise says that she didn't call Ananya because she didn't want her to worry. Ananya complains that Denise was wounded and wouldn't have been if she became a doctor. She tells Denise that it's time for her to settle down and get married, just as Denise's boyfriend Sunil Devah arrives with his parents.
Wyatt and Rufus follow Owen and overhear him asking for Denise's room. They get into the elevator with him and they go for their guns. An old lady in the elevator asks about Reagan and gets off on the next floor, and the three men fight. They manage to subdue Owen, and he says that he'll tell them everything.
Lucy and Jiya wait outside of Denise's room, and after a few minutes the Devahs step outside.
Wyatt and Rufus take Owen to the basement and tie him up, and he explains that they dropped him off in 1969. Rittenhouse activated him that morning, and Owen says that he didn't have a choice in accepting the assignment.
Denise and Sunil come out and tells their parents that they're engaged. Lucy informs Jiya that she knows that Denise didn't marry a man in her future, but Rittenhouse has altered Denise's future. Lucy asks to talk to Denise alone for one minute, and she agrees. The two agents explain about Hinckley and give Denise his location, and claim that Jodie Foster hired them. They ask Denise to come with them, saying that she has an opportunity to capture the man who shot Reagan.
As Denise and the agents go to the hotel and Denise steps aside to call her superior, Jiya suggests to Lucy that they tell Denise the truth. Lucy warns that it could make things worse. When Denise joins them, Lucy asks about her engagement. They suggests that Sunil isn't her type, and Lucy finally says that Denise is gay. Denise assumes that Lucy is hitting on her, and Lucy claims that she and Jiya are involved. The officer admits that she experimented in college but she's an adult, and says that coming out isn't an option for her. Jiya says that her parents had expectations and her mother moved back to Lebanon when her husband died, and Jiya had to decide things on her own. Denise insists that it's already been decided and the engagement party is that night.
The trio search Hinckley's hotel room and find the letter he wrote to Foster. Hinckley isn't there, and Denise finds blood on the floor. She figures that Hinckley wanted to know if Reagan survived, and there's only one way into the emergency room... by creating an emergency.
Hinckley is in the hospital ER, having his injured arm tended to. He hears the Secret service agents receive word that getting an alert to look for wounded man, and one comes over toward him.
Owen tells Wyatt and Rufus that his father was caught embezzling, His family lost everything and his father killed himself, and Rittenhouse bailed them out. His mother and brother bought into the Rittenhouse ideology, and Carol promises to take care of them if Owen became a sleeper. Wyatt asks why Rittenhouse brought his wife back, and Owen says that he doesn't know about that despite Wyatt beating him. When Wyatt starts to choke him, Owen says that Rittenhouse will kill his wife and two children in 2018 if he doesn't do whatever they say.
As the police secure the hotel, Lucy and Jiya ask Denise not to tell her superiors about their involvement. they then ask Denise if she's going to continue being a cop after she gets married. Denise describes how a robber shot her father, and an off-duty cop saw the robber and arrested him. They sent a female cop to watch over her, and she said that she wanted to stop the bad guys. However, Denise also promised Ananya that she wouldn't lose Denise like she lost her husband. Denise is called away, and Lucy tells Jiya that they have to stop the marriage and have to get something from the Lifeboat.
Flynn asks Denise why she's taking things so calmly while doing paperwork, and she asks him how someone prepares for disappearing from reality. He tells her that three years ago he was putting his daughter to bed and she asked to stay up, but he told her to go to sleep. The next morning she was dead, and Flynn would do anything to have a few more minutes with her. Flynn tells Denise that she can go back home and look at her wife and children while she still can.
Rufus wonders what they're going to do with Owen, and suggests that they take Owen with them. Owen says that he'd be better off dead, and promises not to do anything if they leave them there. He offers them information on his brother Zac, who has Denise's address and is going to kill her. Owen figures that if Zac lives then he'll tell Rittenhouse and they'll have his family killed. Wyatt tells him that they'll try and save Denise and then worry about what they're going to do.
Zac gets into his car with a gun and drives to Denise's address.
The engagement party is going on at Denise's house. Denise answers the door and finds Lucy and Jiya there. They talk to her privately and explain that they're time travelers, and show her a computer from 2018. Lucy says that they didn't tell her before because they were trying to protect her, and describes Denise's future with Homeland Security. They show her photos of her and her family in 2018, and she's astonished that two women can get married in the future. Denise wonders why they're telling her, and Lucy says that in 2017 Denise invited her to her house and asked her to show her younger self the photos if Denise disappeared from Denise..
Zac pulls up outside the house and checks his gun.
Denise returns home to be with her family. Olivia hugs her and Denise kisses Michelle. and has pizza with her family.
Denise talks to Ananya, and Lucy tells Jiya that they couldn't tell Denise everything about her future. Jiya wonders what her visions are for, and wonders if she's supposed to walk away from Rufus. Lucy suggests that she's having the visions to save Rufus, and says that she's learned that history isn't unchangeable.
Zac spots Denise through the window and prepares to shoot. Ananya and Denise move out onto the porch where Ananya slaps Denise and walks away, and Zac gets out on the street to get a clear shot. Wyatt and Rufus arrive and run him down. when they go back to the hospital, they discover that Owen has hung himself. Wyatt figures that Owen thought Rittenhouse would find him no matter what, and Rufus says that Owen was a victim as well.
Lucy and Jiya find Denise, who wonders what she's supposed to do. They tell her to take the job offer from the FBI, and Lucy gives her the flash drive so that she remembers why she's doing it. They hug and then the two travelers leave.
The Lifeboat returns to the bunker and find Flynn waiting. Denise steps out to greet them, and they realize that they succeeded. She says that she's waited 37 years to thank Wyatt for saving her life twice, and tells Lucy and Jiya that they saved her family. She asks Lucy to hold onto the flash drive with the photos, and says that she's taking off early for family night. Denise tells them that Ananya came around eventually, and she loves Denise's kids. Knowing what was waiting for her gave her hope to get through the rough patches.
Later, Rufus tells Jiya what happened. He says that it could have been Owen and still is, and he could end up alone, dead in the past. Jiya tells him that he's not alone because he has her and the team, and Rufus says that he wants to spend whatever time he has with Jiya. Jiya says that they have to try and stop it, and the only visions she wants is of the two of them growing old together. Rufus kisses her and says that he's in love with her.
Lucy asks Flynn how he got the journal from her. He tells her that two weeks after his family was killed, he was in hiding. The future Lucy found him in a bar in San Paulo and told him everything. She said that there was a way to stop Rittenhouse and gave Flynn the journal. Lucy doesn't believe it, pointing out that they can't travel into their own timeline. Flynn says that Rufus and Jiya must figure it out in the future, and tells Lucy that they'll have to wait and see what happens.
Wyatt finds Jessica looking at photos of her family. There's a photo of her brother Kevin, and Wyatt doesn't remember Kevin from his timeline because he died as leukemia as a kid. Jessica remembers that Kevin received an expensive stem-cell treatment, and finally tells Wyatt that she's pregnant.
Written by Gadfly on May 7, 2018