As the finale of The Time Traveler’s Wife begins, Henry DeTamble (Theo James) says he hates video. 28-year-old Henry sleeps with 20-year-old Clare Abshire (Rose Leslie). He time travels and wakes up in his other house. Henry knows that most people love nostalgia and video, but nostalgia for a time traveler is a bear trap. While talking to the camera, Henry begins coughing until he disappears. A younger Henry looks at the camera and the wheelchair where older Henry had been sitting. He sees two tapes that say “the wedding final edit” on the spine. 34-year-old Clare begins calling his name from nearby, but he disappears before she can see him. A young Clare (Caitlin Shorey) runs to the clearing to meet with him. She checks the box and only finds a pair of shoes.
42-year-old Henry says her name. When he asks her about the music, 14-year-old Clare says it is her mom playing records at her garden party. Henry doesn’t want his shoes and seems to be emotional about something although he only blames memories. He admits it is because of the song. Clare asks what he is remembering before he says shoe polish day. Richard DeTamble (Josh Stamberg) watches a home video of his wedding to Annette (Kate Siegel). Since his liquid bottle is empty, he goes for more but notices something odd about it. He yells for Henry (Brian Altemus) and walks into his room where he finds Henry and Henry experimenting. One Henry disappears while the other joins Richard downstairs to say he isn’t gay. Richard seems more concerned by the fact that there were two of him.
Richard doesn’t care if he is gay. Since he is a professional musician, he claims everyone is gay. Henry tries to explain the time traveling thing to his father. He pushes the alcohol bottle in front of his father who says it is all water. Henry explains that he wasn’t skipping class all those times and instead was time traveling. His father doesn’t want to believe it so Henry tells him he knows about them kissing in the rain for the very first time. When she walked inside, he did a little dance. He danced too. Henry asks if he can turn the TV off because he can hear his mom’s voice. Although he likes hearing her voice, he hates video. 20-year-old Clare is shocked that he hates video. Clare wants a video so she can look back while Henry says he goes back. Gomez (Desmin Borges) says he is bored again.
Henry claims the only thing people remember about videos is watching them. Charisse (Natasha Lopez) asks Henry if he is grumpy today. Clare believes it can be blamed on his time traveling last night. Henry is asked whether his dad is bringing anyone. He pauses for a minute before admitting he keeps forgetting that his dad is going to be there. Later, Clare says she is looking forward to meeting his dad and asks why he avoids him. Henry says he drinks too much. When his dad looks at him, he only sees that his wife is not there. When Henry looks at him, he is thinking about where his mom is. Henry time travels and sees Clare in a chair nearby. Once he looks in the closet, he finds a wheelchair in the back. Clare is watching their wedding video and crying. He says Clare’s name but disappears before he can talk to her.
He jumps back to five weeks until the wedding. Clare tells him he was gone most of the night and asks whether it was a bad one. He says it was nothing. She tells him to get in the shower because he knows where they’re going. As they head to the meeting, they talk about Henry visiting a doctor to get examined although he doesn’t like that idea. Henry doesn’t think they’d let him go home, but Clare will make sure he always comes home. He says he has happiness and that means suddenly having an opinion about the future. Henry thinks it is a mistake. Clare says they love each other and love is what gives meaning to life. She thinks it is the single best thing. Henry calls it cruel because it gives hope to mortals. Richard greets them moments later. He is surprised she isn’t blonde and Henry knows her last name.
As they look through wedding photos, Richard asks what Clare’s interest in Henry is. The joke about Henry experimenting with himself. Richard learns they’re getting married on October 23rd. Once they leave, Henry asks Clare if she liked him. She says he reminded her of him. He asks whether it was a yes or no, but she says both. Later that night, Henry travels to his house and finds that Henry and Clare are coming to look at the house. Clare asks Henry why he always goes to a window to look at the backyard. Henry asks the relator (Finnerty Steeves) for a minute so he can tell Clare that this is the house and the studio is going to be great.
He has seen that tree at various heights. Henry hides nearby as they agree to check out the studio. When she asks how they can afford this place, Henry agrees they can play the lottery. He tells the “ghost” that the lottery is tonight at eight. Henry watches the lottery drawing that night. He hides the numbers in a book. Then, it is four weeks until the wedding as Richard tells his son it is nice he has started coming around again. Henry asks about tranquilizers because he is worried he could time travel during his wedding. His dad recommends going to the doctor. Once he time travels, he finds Clare crying in bed. She hears him, but he again disappears before she can see him. Instead, his handprint is left on the glass nearby. Henry returns to three weeks until the wedding and tells Clare he is fine. She wonders why he stopped telling her when he has gone.
He sees the box that the other Clare had. She explains that her mother gave it to her for her precious jewelry. Henry calls his father to say he is worried about the future so he has been returning there over and over. Clare interrupts to get his help picking the silverware although Henry doesn’t seem to care much. Henry helps her before returning to his call to tell his father he is worried. Clare looks at baby clothes as Henry says he is full of hope. He time travels and finds Henry in bed with Clare who gets up to use the bathroom. Once he tries to grab the jewelry box, he is transported back to his room and a younger Clare. It is one week before the wedding. Lucille (Jaime Ray Newman) and Philip (Michael Park) talk to Richard about Annette’s singing. Gomez talks to Mark (Peter Graham) about his jokes and comedic instinct.
Clare goes inside to check on Henry and to tell him the wedding is a major Broadway production. He asks if she is worried that he’ll time travel and leave her at the altar, but Clare says he won’t because she knows they’re married in the future. Henry says he was reading about drugs before realizing he needs to make a phone call. Then, it is two days before the wedding. Gomez meets with Henry although he says he is there for a client. He denies that Clare sent him to follow Henry. Once Ben arrives, Henry introduces him to Gomez while claiming he is from library school. Gomez leaves and they go inside. Ben tells him he is dealing with AIDS by taking ten pills a day and they work. Henry wants something so he can stay in place for hours without stressing out or time traveling. After Ben learns about the wedding, he wonders if he should call Evangeline.
He only remembered that he was supposed to get her cat food. Ben offers Henry morphine plus none of your business. Alicia (Taylor Richardson) talks to Clare about a haircut before a song on the radio gets Clare’s attention. They walk in on Charisse to see what she is doing, but she claims it is just a thing. Ben drags Henry around his house while complaining that he just swallowed the pill. Gomez bangs on the door to demand he open up. By the time Gomez comes inside, Henry has already time traveled. He overhears 36-year-old Henry arguing with 29-year-old Clare inside the house. She yells that she’ll never forgive him for this. Henry sees an older version of himself sitting in a wheelchair. He returns to Gomez and throws up before traveling again and seeing a young Clare. Then, he travels and sees Gomez comforting Clare outside the house.
It looks like a wedding inside. He returns to their fight. Henry eventually returns to Ben’s house where Richard has come to help. Gomez tells him that he is getting married in seven hours so he was freaking out and thought Richard could help. They argue about Ben being a drug dealer as Henry disappears. It looks like Henry has returned to the moment after the fight. He finds the jewelry box. When opened, he finds a bunch of pregnancy tests in the box. He pulls out one that confirms Clare is pregnant. He sees her sculptures that look like lost babies. Clare tells him to go away. Henry walks away and hears 36-year-old Henry tells someone it went badly because Clare said he was basically a murderer. He tells David he needs to go when he sees younger Henry in the room.
Older Henry asks if he is from before the wedding and worrying about the future. He is asked why Clare is crying. Older Henry says she technically isn’t his wife because he couldn’t stick the landing. They begin discussing the miscarriages as older Henry suggests the time traveling babies travel right out of the wombs. Young Henry wants to know what he has done since he had to do something. He tries to tell him what it is like. Every time Clare gets pregnant, she thinks this is the one. She is so full of hope and happiness that it fills up the house. Henry has always known it won’t work since he was standing on the other side of the desk. He reveals he has a vasectomy. Junior Henry claims he won’t do that although older Henry believes he will. He tells him that he won’t change it and couldn’t even get married. When junior Henry punches him, he disappears.
Clare comes out and finds their clothes on the floor. Henry returns home to Clare while Clare at the wedding learns that they’ve found Henry. Richard tells Gomez to look at him because it is the 36-year-old Henry. Clare lets 28-year-old Henry come into her home. She gives him a towel and learns that he just punched her husband. Clare says not tonight. She isn’t ready for this because it is shoe polish day. Ben learns that he is still there when Henry is 36 and they played pool last Tuesday. He says he needs shoe polish while the other Henry tells Clare that her husband is an a-hole. Older Henry uses the shoe polish to make himself look younger because he knows how this works out. Richard tells him that his mother would be proud. He believes Henry is looking at him like he hasn’t seen him in a while. He asks Richard whether marrying his mother was worth losing her.
He is aging faster than he should and has seen enough of the future to know he won’t make it all the way with Clare. Richard says it wasn’t easy even though it was worth it. He doesn’t say it enough, but it was worth it because of Henry. Richard recommends giving her a child if he can’t say. When Henry says there might be a problem with that, Richard suggests problems can be solved. Henry isn’t sure about this problem though. The younger Henry finds out that older Henry shows up at the wedding. He watches the wedding video with Clare who also walks down the aisle. Clare realizes she is marrying a different Henry. Young Henry thinks Clare must be happy he hit her husband since he saw them fighting. As they go through the ceremony, Henry tells Clare he hates what he did to her.
Clare says he did what he thought he had to because he thought she couldn’t take it anymore. She wanted his children more than anything in the world. Although Henry says he wanted that too, she says he gave up after five tries. Henry says he is supposed to make her happy. She admits she likes being the older woman finally. They’re not supposed to make each other happy, but it is great if they do. The point is that they’re getting married and not going on vacation. She claims it is like setting sail into a storm knowing you both won’t make it out on the other side. You cling on for as long as possible since you know this is as good as it gets. They agree to try to forgive one another when they hurt each other. She misses the young a-hole Henry and wonders whether she chased him away.
Clare asks him to come and see her sometimes when he time travels here. At the wedding, Henry tells Clare that Junior will be back in a bit. Charisse sings the song she wrote for the wedding.
The Time Traveler’s Wife Review
Despite some annoyances and hiccups, The Time Traveler’s Wife was enjoyable as a whole. Some episodes were better than others while the finale lacked a real emotional power punch, but it provided a satisfying ending for a first season. Henry taunting himself through the wedding video was one of the few times I laughed during the series. The story is uniquely clever and that really shined through during the finale.
The Henry-on-Henry sex scene was still overplayed if not a bit weird. Although the first season was enjoyable, it still feels that this has only been partially rewound. The finale was similar as I kept waiting for a deeply emotional moment that never came. I was expecting more about the miscarriages or young Henry attempting to solve that problem. The second episode was more emotionally explosive when compared to the final episode which was good in its own way.
It would be a bit disappointing if the story ends here because it is just getting started, but more could’ve been done close the door after one season too. Viewers deserve more and there is obviously plenty of time traveling adventure left to enjoy. While the finale never hit an emotional high, it was a good conclusion to a season that was worthwhile overall. The finale scores a 7 out of 10. Recaps of The Time Traveler’s Wife can be found on Reel Mockery here.
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Jay Skelton is a fan of all television shows and movies. He tries his best to keep up with the latest foreign television shows and movies. Jay loves skinny dipping in the dark too.
