The romantic drama series on Showtime, Fellow Travelers, is back with its sixth episode, which is arguably much more dramatic than political as compared to the contents of the last few weeks. The time period also shifts forward slightly, as we are no longer bound to the ‘50s, moving into the calmer times of the ‘60s. New details about Tim are revealed, and the effect that he had on the Fuller-Smith household is also presented in episode 6 of the show.
Spoiler Alert
How is Tim a convicted felon?
Fellow Travelers Episode 6 begins with the present time, when Tim is still admitted to the hospital, being treated after his horrific seizures around two episodes back. Hawk regularly visits the man, and now that Tim is in a better state, the two men are finally able to have conversations. Hawk notices a specific tattoo on Tim’s hand, and the latter states that it was his prison tattoo, suggesting that he had been to prison and had also gotten himself inked there. In the very next moment, Tim talks about how he was a convicted felon. Soon enough, scenes from the past are shown, revealing what happened in the 1960s.
The ending of episode 5 had shown Tim enlisting for service in the US Army, but in 1968, the man was completely against the army and its activities in the ongoing Vietnam War. Tim was also desperate to get rid of his emotional attachment to Hawk, and in the process, he had grown extremely religious and even associated with a group of Christian anarchists, if we may call them so. The opposition against the Vietnam War was also made by various religious groups, as sending helpless young troops to essentially die in foreign lands was seen as an act of pure evil. In many ways, Tim had certain conservative beliefs along with his identity as a closeted homosexual, and now he has replaced his physical and emotional urges with a love for God. Totally invested in the work of God and protesting against the Vietnam War, Tim participated in a number of raids at draft offices to destroy the draft cards and disrupt the entire process.
As a result, Tim and a number of other participants in this protest were arrested, and criminal charges were brought against them. Despite his fallout with the young man after his marriage to Lucy, Hawk used to stay informed about Tim through their common friend, Marcus. It was, therefore, through the journalist that Hawk found out about Tim’s arrest and decided to help his old lover out by using his influence. By now, Hawk was a married man living a supposed happy life with Lucy and their two children, Kimberly and Jackson. There was a particular countryside house that the family used as a vacation retreat, and along with this house was a small hunting cabin that mostly served as Hawk’s man-cave of sorts. At present, the Fuller-Smith family is heading to this very country house, and Hawk decides to meet with Tim.
Hawk brings Tim to the hunting cabin, which had originally belonged to his father-in-law, Senator Smith, and tells the young man to stay put at the place for some time. Hawk also arranges for his lawyer to set the records straight and wipe out the criminal charges against his lover, but ultimately, this setup does not work out. Although the two men do get intimate at the hunting cabin, Tim decides not to get involved with Hawk once again and instead be involved in his religious works. This commitment to the religious group also means being part of the protests wholeheartedly, and so Tim finally gives himself up to the authorities at the end of the episode. Hawk has no option but to look on as his lover gets shoved into a police car, despite all his best efforts to protect him.
How does Tim’s presence affect Hawk’s family life?
Hawk’s familial life is affected in more ways than one due to Tim secretly staying at the hunting cabin that the family-owned. One effect is positive, in the case of Hawk’s adolescent son Jackson, who commits a number of wayward acts out of a developing anger against his father. Like many teenage sons and their fathers, Hawk and Jackson do not understand each other, and so they have been growing distant with every passing day. This has a significantly bad effect on the young boy, as he starts to lose his way in life, even stealing jewelry and expensive items from houses in the neighborhood. When Hawk confronts the boy about this and his other behavioral issues, Jackson refuses to pay any attention to him, and he starts to consider his father as someone entirely against him.
This situation changes when the boy leaves the house out of anger one evening and goes over to the hunting cabin nearby. During this time, Tim left the cabin and sneaked close to the Smith house to look at the fancy guests that Hawk and Lucy hosted there. As he spotted a policeman close to the house, Tim left the place to return to the cabin, only to find that Jackson had already reached and entered there. The boy had immediately understood that someone was living at the cabin, and this is how he made his first introduction to Tim. The man promises not to tell Hawk about any of this, and he swiftly befriends the boy, especially by showing interest in Jackson’s hobby of writing poetry. Through this series of interactions, it becomes quite clear that Tim is capable of easily becoming friends with young teenagers, and from an objective standpoint, he perhaps would have been a better father than Hawk.
However, Tim’s positive effect rubs off on both father and son, as it successfully mends the relationship between Hawk and Jackson. By the end of the episode, when Tim has been taken away by the police, Hawk and Jackson have a hearty discussion, and the father promises to be by his son at all times. Jackson fears that there is something wrong with him, suggesting that his wayward acts also do not come very naturally to him. But Hawk reassures him that there is nothing wrong with the boy, and he also apologizes for being so absent from Jackson’s life so far.
While this effect is quite positive, Tim’s presence has a negative impact on the family as well, when Lucy finds out about the secret lover of her husband. For quite some time, Lucy had suspected that Hawk was having one, or many, extramarital affairs, and despite initially wanting to find out more, she was advised by the likes of her mother that men are supposed to be and act exactly like this. It is suggested that she had then found out about Hawk’s intimacy with the man responsible for maintenance and construction at the country house, and she had gotten rid of him because of this reason.
However, Lucy had then also stumbled across a letter that had been left for her husband from outside of their apartment in Washington. In reality, this letter was from Tim, who had written to his beloved Hawk about how he was unable and unwilling to forget about their relationship, and he wanted to keep loving him. The relationship between the two men was explicitly mentioned in the letter, as this was the last communication from Tim’s side before he left for his duty with the army. As it reached Lucy instead of Hawk, the letter had repercussions in the romantic lives of the couple, with Lucy now confronting Hawk directly. She states that such extramarital affairs should not reach her or her house, even if they exist somewhere outside, and this is almost like an ultimatum to Hawk.
Lucy had perhaps known for a long time that her husband was having affairs and that he was also involved with men. The woman had always been open about her support for homosexuals, and she would have perhaps supported Hawk if he had told her about his orientation before their marriage. But to Lucy, their marriage obviously meant that Hawk would give up on any such interests and settle with her. Lucy’s anger, at present, is, therefore, because of the very fact that Tim turning up at their house was like an immense act of disrespect against her, and it is Hawk who is thoroughly to blame.
Does Marcus tell his father about his true identity?
Along with these more important happenings, Fellow Travelers episode 6 also has some short sections on Marcus and Frankie. The two had previously had a disagreement with regards to Marcus choosing to be respected and loved by his father rather than be open about his identity and sexual orientation. However, in this episode, Marcus finally tells his father that he has no intention of getting married to the woman he has chosen for him, or any woman for that matter. Having children is also not part of his wish, and when the father asks him about whether he has loved anyone, Marcus mentions the name of Frankie. This is definitely not a totally revolutionary step, for the man does not entirely come clean to his father about his preferences. Frankie now leaves the world of entertainment and decides to pursue further education in order to change society for the better. The two continue to remain lovers despite the rough patches that come in their way.
