Thankfully, the show established its groundwork fairly quickly, and lost no time introducing some interesting complications.
The story starts off with cute memories of Halloween candy (I loved Zagnut Bars.
My sister loved Baby Ruth bars) but quickly turns dark: I dont love Halloween anymore.
Credit: Ben Mark Holzberg/Hulu
Cut in quick, scary cuts of the mans father brutally killing his family with a hammer.
The man is named Harry, a student in Jakes present-day creative writing night class.
The next scene introduces a vitally important character: Al Templeton, the owner of Jakes favorite greasy spoon.
Jake comes to this diner so often Al is even on good terms with Jakes ex-wife, Christy.
Now the real story begins.
Moments after Christy leaves, Al returns, but he appears a different man.
The next day, back in his classroom, Jake offers his view on history.
People tend to think the important stories are wars, elections, political movements, but these people matter.
Little things matter, says Jake, sounding not a little like historian Howard Zinn.
The student promises to send Jake the video.
Jake returns to Als diner to take him up on his explanation promise.
Als response takes a page out of the writing teachers playbook: show, dont tell.
Als hunch was correct: seeing things firsthand helps Jake quickly accustom himself to the sci-fi concepts in play.
Al is under the impression that history can be changed.
Specifically, he wants to prevent the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Jake argues that trying to change the past is arrogant.
After all, Al does seem to be laboring under some misapprehensions about the butterfly effect.
Neither of those bode well for the outcome of altering so momentous a historical event as the Kennedy assassination.
Al, however, is insistent.
In his words, you save Kennedys life, you make a better world, you little shit.
When Jake returns to the present, that carving is indeed intact outside the diner.
Jake cheers for Harry walking across the stage and trades barbs with Alice, a bitter school employee.
Something about Alices manner convinces Jake to return to Al.
Als task for Jake is to go back and see if Lee Harvey Oswald shot at Walker as well.
Dont worry about the yellow-card man, hes not important, Al says.
His indication of familiarity doesnt exactly provide reassurance to Jake.
Eventually, Jake relents.
He immediately finds that Als nostalgic insistence that food tasted better in 1960 is actually true.
attempt to stay sweet, he tells her before moving on to the next items on his list.
NEXT: The past pushes back
Jake naively mishandles his first attempt at sports gambling.
When he offers to lay down $100 on 35-to-1 boxing odds, the entire shady bar goes silent.
Things get even worse when the improbable bet goes Jakes way (as history said it would).
Denizens of the 60s didnt exactly have a reference for viral videos.
He encounters a Richard Nixon campaign billboard declaring They Cant Lick Our Dick!
Scouting out an important assassination locale, Jake enjoys some flirtatious banter with a book-loving blonde.
The conversation ends badly for Jake when its revealed hes been flirting with a married woman.
Youre gonna feel apart from other people, Jake remembers Al telling him.
That doesnt go away.
Jakes staying at a new bed-and-breakfast Al told him about.
Tailing de Mohrenschildt brings Jake to a Kennedy campaign rally.
Jake is initially able to sneak past security, but then gets another dose of you shouldnt be here.
All in all, it looks like a nightmare realm, where space and time are breaking down.
Jake escapes only to immediately end up in the clutches of much-less-nightmarish Kennedy security.
Jake too, gets some pushback from the past.
The owners son, that bright young military recruit, is burnt to a crisp.
Is that charred corpse really any better an outcome than Vietnam?
Welcome to time travel, Jake.
Via time-travel arithmetic, Jake decides one tragic small historical change might be justified by another, positive one.
Theres still about three years until the all-important title date.
Looks like Jake might have some time for someSliding Doors-style acts of heroism.
