Rufus tells Wyatt and Lucy about the Protocol he and Mason have come up with for just such an eventuality. Rufus buries a plastic container a certain distance and depth from the Lifeboat. In the present, Mason and Jiya locate the container in a Pittsburgh suburb, but the message has degraded over the centuries, and they're only able to make out the words "millennium" and "death".
In the past, the trio is captured by the Shawnee, whose chieftess Nonhelema plans to execute Lucy and Wyatt, but wants to let Rufus go, assuming him to be a slave. Rufus defends his friends, impressing her enough to release all of them. They infiltrate Fort Duquesne, and Rufus uses a blacksmith's tools to fashion crude capacitors, necessary to repair the Lifeboat. They're able to jump back just in time, as the French are closing in. Meanwhile, Jiya figures out Rufus's message and realizes that the Lifeboat's navigation system is damaged, so she uses the Mason Industries computers to "lock onto" the Lifeboat and guide it back to the right location. After their return, Rufus and Jiya start a relationship. The team also learns that the incident has made it into the history books as the first documented UFO sighting.
Tropes
- The Dung Ages: The medical treatment of that time is truly horrifying to a modern person, such as injecting mercury into someone's rectum to resolve "an imbalance of fluids".
- Eternal English: Lucy speaks flawless French... except it's 21st century French, but no one in 1754 has any trouble understanding her. The only time she gets confused looks is when she mentions the word "infected", as such a word hasn't been invented yet.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Jiya recalls Rufus telling her that they can never be friends because she's a Trekkie and he's a Star Wars fan. She then suddenly realizes what Rufus's message means.
- Gas Leak Cover-Up: Agent Christopher uses the old "chemical spill" excuse to explain the government evacuating everyone from a Pittsburgh suburb and digging around in someone's backyard.
- Motive Misidentification: The team assumes Flynn is planning something in 1754. In fact, it's a trap, meant to strand the team in that century.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The Shawnee chieftess Nonhelema. She initially wants to execute Wyatt and Lucy, as white people haven't been kind or trustworthy to the natives, but chooses to spare Rufus, as she believes that he, as a slave, had no choice but to come to her lands. She's impressed when Rufus earnestly defends Wyatt and Lucy, calling them his friends, and decides to spare all three, figuring the Wyatt and Lucy must have done something right to befriend a black man.
- Stranded with Edison: Fortunately for Wyatt and Lucy, they're stranded in the past with Rufus, who manages to fashion crude capacitors using some glass jars and foil using blacksmith's tools at Fort Duquesne.
- Write Back to the Future: Rufus attempts to follow the Protocol and buries a message in a plastic cylinder for Mason to find. Unfortunately, the cylinder ends up being cracked over the centuries, and the message is degraded, leaving only two words visible: "millennium" and "death". Eventually, Jiya has an epiphany and realizes that he means Millennium Falcon and Death Star.
- Your Mom: After getting captured by the French, Wyatt asks Lucy to translate the phrase "I slept with your mom" in French. He then uses it to get a guard close, before jumping on him.
