List of Timeless characters


Timeless is an American television series created by Eric Kripke and Shawn Ryan. The following is a list of characters from the series.

Main characters

Lucy Preston

Lucy Preston is a history professor trying to follow her mother's footsteps. She suffers from claustrophobia after having nearly drowned in a car accident while she was in college. Aside from history, Lucy is fluent in French. One night, she is recruited by Homeland Security and Mason Industries to the "Lifeboat" team with Wyatt and Rufus as a history advisor to stop Garcia Flynn and recover the "Mothership". Throughout the team's adventures, Lucy personally encounters Flynn, who reveals that he possesses a journal she will write in the future. Following the Hindenburg mission, Lucy is left reeling over her mother no longer dying of cancer, her sister never being born, and being engaged to a man who is a complete stranger. In addition, she finds out that her mother lied about who her biological father is. After several arguments, Carol reveals her biological father is Benjamin Cahill, whom Lucy discovers is part of Rittenhouse. Since Rittenhouse members are all descendants, Cahill tells Lucy that she's also a part of Rittenhouse. Lucy refuses to be a part of Rittenhouse, aiming to stop them. When the team travels back to 1954, Lucy gets the help of her grandfather to help bring Rittenhouse down. The plan works, and they get enough evidence to arrest Rittenhouse members. Just as Lucy gets permission to get Amy back using the time machine, she discovers that Carol is also part of Rittenhouse.
In season two, Lucy is kidnapped by Rittenhouse, but later joins Carol and Emma in 1918 France to save Nicholas Keynes. She reunites with Wyatt and Rufus, who were led to believe she was dead, and reveals her plan to stop Rittenhouse, even if it meant killing herself. Emma discovers her plan, but Wyatt shows up and saves Lucy. Carol and Emma escape with Nicholas, while Lucy returns with Wyatt and Rufus. Lucy starts a romantic relationship with Wyatt, but when he discovers his wife, Jessica, is alive again, Lucy backs off. When Jessica realizes Lucy loves Wyatt, Lucy convinces her to stay and give Wyatt a second chance. Lucy befriends Flynn while dealing with her heartbreak, and finds out that a future version of herself gave Flynn the journal. While dealing with Rufus' death, Lucy is shocked when a second Lifeboat appears with Lucy and Wyatt from the future, offering to help the team save Rufus.
Lucy Preston is named after Bill S. Preston, Esquire, the first main protagonist of the Bill & Ted franchise.

Wyatt Logan

Wyatt Logan is a U.S. Army Delta Force operative assigned to the Lifeboat team. As an elite soldier, he has expertise in weapons, picking locks, and is fluent in four languages. He constantly tries to cope with the loss of his wife Jessica, who was murdered in 2012. Because of this, he often wishes to use the time machine to prevent her death. While in 1962 Las Vegas, he takes a cue from Back to the Future Part II and has Western Union write a telegram for Jessica in 2012, but it doesn't work. After returning from 1893 Chicago, Flynn calls Wyatt and tells him who killed his wife, and suggests what he should do to reverse it. Wyatt also suffers from PTSD after being the lone survivor of a failed operation. With the help of Rufus, Wyatt steals the Lifeboat and travels to 1983 to prevent the birth of Wes Gilliam, the serial killer who murdered Jessica. While he succeeds in erasing Gilliam from existence, he is arrested by Homeland Security and discovers that Jessica remains dead. He promptly escapes with the help of Agent Christopher, and reunites with the team to continue chasing after Flynn. After the team's 1954 mission, Wyatt decides to stick around with the team.
In season two, Wyatt develops a romantic relationship with Lucy, but after the team's 1941 Hollywood mission, he discovers that Jessica is alive. When Jessica threatens to divorce him, Wyatt reveals the existence of the time machine, and her original fate so she will give him a second chance. Despite choosing his wife, Wyatt still has feelings for Lucy, and is jealous when she hangs out more with Flynn. Though Wyatt becomes suspicious of Jessica, he refuses to let Agent Christopher move her out after he discovers Jessica is pregnant. When Jessica later reveals herself to be a Rittenhouse member, Wyatt admits his suspicions to the team. After returning from 1888 Chinatown, Wyatt admits to Lucy that he loves her just as a second Lifeboat shows up with Wyatt and Lucy from the future.
Wyatt Logan is named after Ted "Theodore" Logan, the second main protagonist of the Bill & Ted franchise.

Rufus Carlin

Rufus Carlin is a programmer at Mason Industries assigned as the pilot of the prototype time machine "Lifeboat." He is initially uncomfortable with the idea of traveling with the team due to the unkind history of African-Americans over the centuries. During their adventures, Rufus sometimes uses names of famous black celebrities as his alias. He often asks historical figures why they do what they do. Rufus also has a complicated relationship with his co-worker Jiya, as they are both sci-fi fans. Though he bonds well with his teammates, he is revealed to be recording their activities under Mason's orders. When Rufus threatens to quit, he is threatened by an agent of Rittenhouse to stay with the team in order to assure the safety of his family. Rufus later records a threatening message and hands it to Mason to give to Rittenhouse. Mason responds by giving Rufus only six months in the company before eventually replacing him with Jiya, reminding him that he is expendable. During the team's 1931 Chicago mission, Rufus is shot by Al Capone, and he loses consciousness as he prepares the Lifeboat to jump back to the present. He recovers from his wound and has Jiya assist him in the team's 1954 mission.
In season two, Rufus becomes more concerned about Jiya's condition, as she sees premonitions of him in danger. He does not take this well, and asks Jiya to not tell him about her visions. Jiya later admits that she had another vision of Rufus dying, which Rufus has a hard time dealing with, acting recklessly, then distant from Jiya. When the team heads to 1888 Chinatown to rescue Jiya, she tells Rufus that her vision shows him dying trying to get her home, and refuses to return to protect him. Despite Jiya saving Rufus from the death her vision saw, Rufus still ends up getting shot dead by Emma Whitmore.
In "The Miracle of Christmas," the future Wyatt and Lucy reveal that saving Rufus is the key to defeating Rittenhouse and the answer lies in the future Lucy's journal. Wyatt eventually realizes that Jessica's presence in the timeline is what led to Rufus' death and she has to be removed to undo all that she caused. Flynn travels back 2012, sacrificing himself to kill Jessica on the night that she originally died. Rufus is restored to life and rescues his friends in 1848, but is left with the memories of a whole different timeline since their mission in Hollywood. After the death of Emma and the defeat of Rittenhouse, Rufus and Jiya marry and by 2023 run RIYA Industries together.
Rufus Carlin is named after actor George Carlin and his character Rufus in the Bill & Ted franchise.

Garcia Flynn

Garcia Flynn is the series' antihero. A former NSA agent stationed in Eastern Europe, Flynn steals the Mothership with the intent of changing American history. While still with the NSA, Flynn intercepted a series of wire transfers between Mason and Rittenhouse. When he reported this to his superiors, Rittenhouse murdered his wife and daughter, but he escaped and was framed for the crime; since then, he swore to destroy Rittenhouse from its foundations. Flynn also possesses a journal written by Lucy sometime in the future, which he uses as a road map to his time travels. Despite his ruthlessness, Flynn shows guilt, telling Lucy that the atrocities he's committed make him unable to stay with his family, even if they do come back. Despite killing David Rittenhouse in 1780, Flynn discovers that history does not change at all. As he attempts to kill several Rittenhouse members in 1954, Lucy stops him and convinces him of another way to take down the organization. In the present day, as Rittenhouse members are being arrested with evidence collected on the organization, Lucy gives Flynn the name of the person who ordered the hit on his family, but Flynn is immediately arrested by Agent Christopher.
In season two, Flynn is in prison, but still provides the Lifeboat team with clues after Rittenhouse acquires the Mothership. While in 1941 Hollywood, the team helps Flynn escape from prison. He joins them in their hideout, and also starts traveling back with the Lifeboat team on their missions. Flynn later tells Lucy that a future version of her gave him the diary, suggesting that it will be possible one day to travel back into their own timeline.
In "The Miracle of Christmas", Lucy discovers from the journal that she and Flynn end up together, but he tells her that it does not last as she loves Wyatt more. After Wyatt realizes that removing Jessica from the timeline will save Rufus, Flynn slips off and takes the Lifeboat to 2012. He murders Jessica on the night that she originally died, saving Rufus. Suffering from the side effects of traveling back to his own timeline, Flynn returns the Lifeboat to the team, and stays back, seeing his family one last time before dying in 2012. The team mourns his death. After defeating Rittenhouse, Lucy and Wyatt name one of their daughters after Flynn. In 2023, the team makes one last trip to 2014 in São Paulo, where Lucy meets with the grief-stricken Flynn and sets him on his path.

Connor Mason

Connor Mason is the CEO of Mason Industries in San Francisco and the inventor of the two time machines. Of Black British descent, Mason is a father figure to Rufus, having taken him off the streets of Chicago and providing him with an education at MIT. It is later revealed by Flynn that Rittenhouse had secretly funded Mason's time machine project. While they have mutual understandings with each other about the project, Mason questions Rittenhouse's decisions such as recruiting Lucy when there are hundreds of history professors in the country with actual tenure. Agent Christopher discovers that Mason went bankrupt and he was suddenly given $2.5 billion to fund the time machine project. Connor has Rufus secretly record the missions for Rittenhouse, but Rufus eventually gets fed up and refuses to spy on his friends. Rittenhouse then orders Mason to train Jiya to become the Lifeboat pilot, replacing Rufus in six months. Though Mason goes along with Rittenhouse after they take over the Lifeboat missions, he later reveals to Agent Christopher that he was actually playing along, and has now got access to NSA servers to help her convict the Rittenhouse members. He admits that after Rittenhouse wanted to replace Rufus, he felt guilty, and wanted to save him by helping Agent Christopher. His software helps Christopher expose and arrest the Rittenhouse agents.
In season two, Mason Industries is in shambles after Rittenhouse bombs the company headquarters. While the Lifeboat team is relocated to a secret bunker by Agent Christopher, Mason faces bankruptcy and goes on a drinking binge, but he restores his faith in himself after saving blues musician Robert Johnson from Rittenhouse in 1936. In 2023, after the defeat of Rittenhouse, its shown that Mason chose to continue working with the government rather than rebuilding his business.

Denise Christopher

Denise Christopher is a Department of Homeland Security agent in charge of the Lifeboat team. She is initially unaware of the existence of Rittenhouse, but she grows suspicious of Mason and puts him under surveillance, eventually discovering Rittenhouse's agent, Benjamin Cahill. Agent Christopher is a lesbian and is married to a woman named Michelle, with two children, Olivia and Mark. After Lucy's sister Amy disappears from existence, Agent Christopher gives Lucy a flash drive containing photographs of her family and makes her promise to give it to her should her own family ever cease to exist. After Wyatt steals the time machine, Christopher is replaced by NSA Agent Neville, but later finds out that it's actually Rittenhouse who took over. She secretly assembles the Lifeboat team in a warehouse in Oakland to plan their next course of action. When Rittenhouse discovers them, she helps the team escape and is arrested by Agent Neville, but with the help of Mason and the Lifeboat team, she turns the tables and has Rittenhouse members all over the country arrested.
In season two, Agent Christopher relocates the Lifeboat team to an abandoned nuclear bunker after Mason Industries is destroyed in a bombing staged by the remnants of Rittenhouse. When the team travels back to 1981, they discover that a young Agent Christopher, then a rookie MPD officer, is Rittenhouse's target, and Wyatt saves her from an attempted assassination. She was born Dhriti Sirivastava, and changed her name to honor the female officer who comforted her after her father was killed in an attempted robbery. Though she survives Rittenhouse trying to kill her, she is pressured by her mother into accepting an arranged marriage to a family friend, Sunil Devati. However, Lucy and Jiya help change her mind by showing her the drive, and she breaks off the engagement, saving her career and her family.

Jiya Marri

Jiya Marri is a programmer at Mason Industries. Rufus has a crush on her, and after he asks her out, she also shows interest in him. Their relationship develops over the course of the missions. When Rufus starts to defy Rittenhouse, Jiya is selected by Mason to replace him as the Lifeboat's pilot within six months, though Jiya has no idea about the threat to Rufus. Shortly after the team steals the Lifeboat, Jiya is detained by Neville. She is released with the help of Agent Christopher, and helps a wounded Rufus pilot the Lifeboat to the team's 1954 mission. However, because the Lifeboat was not designed to carry more than three passengers, Jiya loses consciousness and experiences seizures before being brought back into the present timeline. While hospitalized, she experiences another convulsion and has a brief vision of the Golden Gate Bridge being built in the late 1930s.
In season two, Jiya's seizures become premonitions, mostly about Rufus. Jiya is told by a doctor that she's completely healthy, though she still has visions. Jiya has a vision of Rufus dying that distresses her. After being kidnapped by Jessica, who forces her to pilot the Lifeboat to Rittenhouse headquarters, Jiya escapes and tries to get home. Due to being drugged and sustaining damage on the Lifeboat, Jiya ends up stranded in 1880s San Francisco. She manages to send a message, giving the location of the Lifeboat and telling the team not to come for her. Nevertheless, the team travels to 1888 Chinatown to bring her home. They find out that Jiya has actually been there for three years. Rufus finds her, and she reveals that he dies trying to rescue her, and refuses to leave. Rufus and Lucy, though, convince Jiya to come. Though Jiya is able to save Rufus from being killed as she predicted, Rufus still dies another way, and Jiya is heartbroken. This later reversed and they still remain an couple in the time jump with their own company RIYA now.

Supporting characters

Anthony Bruhl

Anthony Bruhl is a scientist at Mason Industries and the head of the time machine project who is abducted by Flynn. It is later revealed that Anthony helped Flynn steal the Mothership. He still doesn't agree with Flynn's actions, and tries to protect Rufus from getting hurt by Flynn. After uncovering Rittenhouse's plan, Anthony attempts to destroy the Mothership with C-4 explosives only to be killed by Flynn.

Carol Preston

Carol Preston is Lucy's mother. Following the Hindenburg mission, a chain reaction results in Henry Wallace, Carol's husband in the original timeline, marrying the granddaughter of a Hindenburg survivor. As a result, Carol never meets Henry, never becomes a smoker and does not contract lung cancer. The resulting butterfly effect erases the existence of her youngest daughter Amy while simultaneously exposing the fact that Lucy's father is not Henry. Following the downfall of Rittenhouse, Lucy reveals to Carol about her time travels and her intention to bring Amy back into the timeline, but Carol reveals to her that she is a Rittenhouse member, to Lucy's horror. She informs Lucy that Rittenhouse has recovered the Mothership, and is preparing their mission to alter history as they see fit.
In season two, she takes Lucy back to 1918 WWI to recover soldier Nicholas Keynes. However, Lucy tries to hinder her mother's plan, until Wyatt and Rufus show up and force Carol and Emma to give up Lucy in exchange for Nicholas. When Lucy asks her mother to choose her over Rittenhouse, Carol refuses, and leaves with Emma and Nicholas. When Nicholas wakes up, Carol reveals that she is his granddaughter. When Nicholas puts a hit out on Lucy for hindering Rittenhouse's plans, Carol tries to protect Lucy, but she still stays with Rittenhouse. Tensions arise between Carol and Emma, who is unhappy that Carol is still protecting Lucy. In 1888 San Francisco, Carol is shot dead by Emma after preventing the latter from killing Lucy.

Benjamin Cahill

Benjamin Cahill is a Rittenhouse member who oversees the activities of Mason Industries and blackmails Rufus into committing to the Lifeboat team's mission. Outside of Rittenhouse, he is a pediatric surgeon at UCSF. The butterfly effect caused by the Hindenburg mission exposes the fact that Cahill is Lucy's birth father, which is why he chose her to be the Lifeboat trio's historian. When Lucy discovers his identity and confronts him, Cahill tells her that her own involvement with Rittenhouse is in her blood. After Wyatt steals the Lifeboat for his personal mission in 1983, Cahill takes charge of the team's missions. Agent Christopher, however, takes back control of the Lifeboat's missions and, thanks to Rittenhouse data collected by Lucy's grandfather, has Cahill arrested and sent to prison.
In "The Miracle of Christmas," Agent Christopher enlists Benjamin's help to take down Emma and the remnants of Rittenhouse. Disgusted by what Emma has turned Rittenhouse into, Benjamin agrees to help save his daughter in exchange for immunity and protection for his teenage son, stating that family still means something to him. With Benjamin's help, Emma and the remnants of Rittenhouse are taken down and the team is rescued from death in 1950 North Korea.

Emma Whitmore

Emma Whitmore is a former Mason Industries employee and one of the Lifeboat's first test pilots who stranded herself in the 19th century after Rittenhouse threatened her family. She stays in the timeline for a decade until Flynn finds her. Upon returning to the present day, Emma reveals Rittenhouse's plan to control history with the Mothership. She assumes the role of the Mothership's pilot following Anthony's death. Following the downfall of Rittenhouse and the arrest of Flynn, Emma is revealed to be a Rittenhouse agent, stealing the Mothership after killing agents sent to retrieve it.
In season two, Emma now pilots the Mothership for Rittenhouse. Emma is bitter towards Lucy, since she hid out for a decade to prove her loyalty, while Lucy is accepted because she's a "pure-blood." Emma discovers Lucy's plan to sabotage Rittenhouse and tries to kill her, but Lucy is saved by Wyatt. Emma constantly clashes with Carol, insinuating herself to have more power within Rittenhouse. While offering a temporary truce to Rufus and Flynn, Emma reveals that she and her mother ran away from her abusive father when she was a child. Emma graduated with top honors at a magnet school and was accepted into CalTech, leading to her recruitment in Rittenhouse. When Carol prevents Emma from killing Lucy in 1888, she kills Carol and Nicholas in a rage, then takes leadership of Rittenhouse.
In "The Miracle of Christmas", Emma plots to kill the Lifeboat team. Flynn secretly travels back to 2012 and kills Jessica Logan, Emma's second-in-command. Furious, she lures the team to 1950 North Korea to have the advancing Chinese Army kill them. However, Emma is tracked down and captured by Agent Christopher, with the help of Benjamin Cahill, and forced to fly the Mothership to the past and rescue the team. Emma attempts to trade saving Amy for her own freedom, but Lucy refuses. Moments later, Emma is killed by Chinese soldiers and her body is left behind in 1950 as the team escapes in the Mothership. Emma's death marks the end of Rittenhouse and their mission.

Nicholas Keynes

Nicholas Keynes is a U.S. Army soldier stationed in France during the Battle of Saint-Mihiel of World War I. Lucy, Carol, and Emma travel to 1918 to bring Nicholas to the present, the latter two of the three accomplishing the mission. It is later revealed that Keynes is Carol's grandfather and penned a manifesto in 1910 that planted the foundation for time travel. Keynes proceeds to take leadership of Rittenhouse and puts a master plan of reshaping history to perfection into action. He and Carol are killed by Emma during the 1888 Chinatown mission.

Jessica Logan

Jessica Logan is Wyatt's wife. Prior to Wyatt joining the Lifeboat team, Jessica was murdered in 2012. Wyatt attempts to prevent the murder by hijacking the Lifeboat and erase the existence of the murderer, only to discover that Jessica remains dead. After going to 1941 Hollywood, Wyatt discovers that Jessica is alive, and it is revealed that Rittenhouse prevented her death. When Jessica threatens to divorce Wyatt, he takes her to the bunker to reveal her original fate, and convince her to give him a second chance. Wyatt later finds out that Jessica's brother, Kevin, is alive, but he died of leukemia in the original timeline. Jessica tells Wyatt that she's pregnant just as he finds out about Kevin. Jessica later reveals herself to be a Rittenhouse member, kidnapping Jiya and stealing the Lifeboat. When Rittenhouse travels back to 1888, Jessica is there, and Wyatt confronts her about Rittenhouse. She reveals that Rittenhouse saved Kevin, and then recruited her into their organization. Despite declaring her loyalty to Rittenhouse, Wyatt lets Jessica escape.
In "The Miracle of Christmas," it's revealed that Jessica lied about being pregnant. Wyatt realizes that if Jessica dies the way she originally did, they will be able to save Rufus. Flynn slips away and travels back to 2012, where he kills Jessica on the night she originally died. Jessica's death in 2012 restores Rufus to life and creates an alternate timeline for everyone but Wyatt, Lucy, Jiya and Emma, who still remember what happened when Jessica still existed. Wyatt realizes that Flynn had been Jessica's killer all along and her murder had been intended to save Wyatt.

Recurring characters

Season 1

"Pilot"

"The War to End All Wars"