Sequence 0[]
The Core Traveler Team prepare to embark on a mission that will take the whole day. Grant MacLaren texts Kathryn MacLaren not to wait up. Carly Shannon leaves a post-it note on the fridge for Jeff Conniker. Marcy Warton is already on the way to Ops. There, Philip Pearson feeds Poppy while Trevor Holden goofs off nearby. Kat is annoyed at seeing the text, then her spirits lift up upon the delivery of some flowers, then back to annoyed again when she learns her mother sent them, not Grant. She passive-aggressively reminds Grant it's their anniversary.
However, the Travelers' mission is on a region with no cell reception. Grant can't call or receive messages, and the whole team razz him for neglecting his tenth wedding anniversary. While bantering about possible conciliatory gifts for Kat, the team wait for something that will impact the site that is of great importance to the future. As they prepare the boats for travel, however, scuba-clad assailants wielding assault weaponry emerge from the water and gun down the whole team, leaving no survivors.
Sequence 1[]
17 minutes earlier in another timeline, around 12:31 PM, skydivers Carrie and her brother Wayne do a tandem jump. Carrie is overwritten in the air by Traveler 5001. Upon arrival at the host, she immediately calls Grant's phone. No response because of no reception, therefore she calls Wakefield. She invokes Protocol Alpha and requests armed assets at coordinates 49.3506 N 122.8599 W—where Grant's team are—within 17 minutes. However, Wakefield notifies her there's no possible way to get the reinforcements there within the allotted time. The connection cuts out, then the Traveler takes a car upon hitting the ground, telling her friend Lars it's an emergency.
En route she keeps redialing Grant's number to no avail, until she encounters a mute but armed stranger parked in the middle of nowhere who keeps signaling her to go away. The Traveler tries to bluff her way in, then proceeds to run to the woods on foot, but the stranger is a crack shot and manages to graze her neck. Slowed down and bleeding heavily, even nearly getting run over by a trucker, 5001 manages to arrive at the location and scream out warnings. Grant notices her this time, but it is too late as the underwater assailants have started emerging and shooting at the team.
Meanwhile at the FBI, Wakefield researches the coordinates and summons Callahan to his office to discuss his findings. The mission venue is where the Fraser meteorite is supposed to be discovered in 2068. This meteorite contains materials integral to the development of room-temperature superconductors: core Traveler technologies like consciousness transfer and the Director's very existence hinge on this event. Wakefield suspects the Faction is trying to get their hands on the meteorite: even if most of them were overwritten when the Director prevailed against their rebellion in the future, there are still some free agents in the 21st century who weren't discovered. However, he doesn't discount the possibility that this could be someone else pulling the strings, and he deems it worse.
Sequence 2[]
The Director keeps redoing the same 17 minutes because of the importance of the mission, successively sending Travelers after each failure. Carrie is again overwritten midjump, this time by Traveler 5002. Wayne sees her distress, but is knocked unconscious by Carrie's flailing and he plummets to his death. 5002 ignores Lars upon landing, who rushed over to Wayne's body. She tries to use his car, but Lars took the keys with him. She goes for the pickup nearby, but the truck is unexpectedly guarded by a vicious dog. 5002 is mauled by the dog after accidentally letting it out of the truck, resulting in mission failure.
Sequence 3[]
Traveler 5003 overwriting Carrie again knocks Wayne unconscious. This time, 5003 pulls Wayne's parachute. On reaching the ground, however, Lars tells her Wayne will likely break his neck at the rate he's falling, even with the chute deployed. She steals Lars' sandwich and uses it to distract the dog in the pickup, as the historical record in Carrie's camera now detected a knife in the pickup that she can use against the mute guard. On reaching the area with the guard, 5003 uses American Sign Language to communicate with him, pretending to be lost, and baits him into getting closer. 5003 flings the knife in the guard's shoulder and makes a run for it, again encountering the trucker in the woods. The guard pursues inside his SUV but the truck's length considerably delays him.
Meanwhile, Kat is fruitlessly leaving voicemails for Grant blatantly hinting he should not have forgotten what day it is, all things considered, and lays out some of her plans that she would really like his input on. As for Grant, he wonders how something artificially expensive like diamonds can help get him out of the proverbial "dog pound". The team offer some insights ranging from useful historical context to sarcastic joking.
Carrie manages to reach Grant and company. They recognize her but are confused by her arrival. She is shot by the mute guard and the scuba assailants surface out of the water and start shooting, leaving no survivors again.
Sequence 4[]
The repeated sequential overwrites are straining Carrie's body. She barely deploys her chute on time, resulting in a rough landing. Wayne is still knocked unconscious and will also likely break his neck on hitting the ground. Lars rushes over to Carrie, who demands for his keys and insists on getting up. She drops all pretense at a Traveler coverup and declares the future is at stake, but Lars doesn't understand and leaves her to assist Wayne. Traveler 5004 takes a few steps, though she doesn't get far before she collapses dead.
Sequence 5[]
Traveler 5005 again barely deploys the chute on time. Wayne is still knocked unconscious. Lars rushes over to Carrie when she lands, who finally acknowledges that there's too much strain on her body to be of use. She tries to relay her mission to Lars by telling him about Grant's team but Lars only sees his friend dying and spouting nonsense.
Meanwhile, the team remark on the beauty of the venue, as the contemporary natural wonders of the time either dried up or were built over in the future they remembered. Without anyone warning them and the attack proceeding without a hitch, the mission is again a failure.
Sequence 6[]
Traveler 5006 is too weak to deploy the chute and impacts the ground, resulting in her death and mission failure.
Sequence 7 & 8[]
The Director tries again for the seventh time, to predictable results.
On the Director's eighth try, it switches hosts and chooses Wayne, since he was always a casualty in previous iterations. Carrie simply dies as a result of too many overwrites in rapid succession and impacts the ground without deploying her chute. Wayne demands Lars' keys, uses the car to reach the pickup truck faster, then switches to the motorcycle at the back of the pickup in an attempt to reach MacLaren's team on time. Wayne opts to sidestep the confrontation with the mute guard, forcing the guard to follow into the woods in his SUV.
Kat again leaves messages for Grant and spells out it's their 10-year anniversary, warning him to have a worthy gift ready when he gets home. At the mission site, Grant privately confides in Marcy that he knows she's unhappy in light of her forced consciousness repackage and reset, overwriting her memories of the first time she arrived. Grant tells her these memories can still be accessed, referring to the time he nearly died in the crash of Flight 329. Grant advises her that perhaps these memories hold the key to understanding the immutable part of who she is.
With the trucker again caught in the middle of a Traveler and the mute guard, the latter decides to kill the trucker and move his vehicle out of the way. The guard takes a shortcut and ambushes Wayne, successfully shooting him down within sight of Grant's team. The Travelers are again caught off-guard and are wiped out.
Sequence 9[]
Carrie's group and the Travelers meet at a gas station a few hours before their respective activities. Grant engages in small talk with Carrie. Marcy jokes Grant's flirting with someone too young for him, and Carly notifies him Kat texted that it's their anniversary, leading to Grant agonizing over the issue for the rest of the mission. The Travelers briefly get lost even while consulting a map, while Carrie, Lars and Wayne happily sing along during their road trip.
Traveler 5008 goes into Wayne during the skydive, and proceeds to be efficient in attempting to reach the mission site on time. Simultaneously, Traveler 5009 is deployed into the trucker, since he was now a historical casualty. 5008 arrives just in time for the shootout to begin, but this time the Travelers have prepared a counteroffensive and shoot down the scuba attackers. 5009 arrived at the site much quicker since he was closer, and had more than enough time to warn MacLaren's team and prepare for the ambush, in addition to eliminating the mute guard.
5008 and 5009 apprise MacLaren's team of the future's herculean efforts, informing them of the previous attempts to save them. The meteor streaks overhead and crashes into the lake, spurring the retrieval part of the mission. 5008 and 5009 offer to stand guard while Mac's team secure the meteorite, and also inform them they have their next mission.
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