After Flynn takes the plutonium core of the atom bomb, the team seems to worry, as if the slightest vibration could set off a nuclear reaction. In reality, the plutonium core in an atomic weapon is inert (sub-critical) until the pressure waves from the conventional explosives in the bomb compress the fissile material to critical density and start the nuclear reaction.
A plutonium core of that size would weigh around 30 kg (70 Lb). It could not be handled like a baseball, as was depicted. The density of plutonium is around 17 g/cm3, so it is very heavy.
Flynn is shown handling raw plutonium with no protective clothing. In reality, he would die after such direct exposure. At the very least, he would become extremely sick due to radiation poisoning.
There is no way the plutonium core of an atom bomb would be so poorly guarded. However, Flynn gets a key, opens a locked door and takes it. No guards, not one single person around is shown.
At the end of the episode the clock at Mason Industries keeps showing the same time because it is the mission time clock.
During a fight scene between Wyatt Logan and Flynn Garcia, the silenced pistol in Wyatt's right hand is knocked out of his hand but reappears in his hand in the next shot without him picking it up.
In the series' lore, time travelers can't go back to a time period where they already exist. But Anthony Bruhl, the pilot of the Mothership, is played by Matt Frewer who was born in 1958; the character of Bruhl is obviously a similar age. Ergo, Bruhl would be 3 or 4 years old in 1962, the setting of this episode.
The soundtrack includes numbers from the iconic album "Sinatra at the Sands" but these live performances with the Count Basie orchestra did not take place until early 1966.
When the team lands in 1962, Rufus asks, "Who would set off an atomic bomb outside of Las Vegas?" Lucy answers, "The US Department of Energy."
The US Department of Energy was established under President Jimmy Carter, but not until 1977.
The US Department of Energy was established under President Jimmy Carter, but not until 1977.
The typewriter used to write down Wyatt's telegram is an IBM Correcting Selectric II, which was not in production until 1973.
There was no full moon on September 21, 1962 - it was one week earlier, on the 14th.
When they first show Las Vegas in 1962 with the Sands, they have the location wrong. The Pioneer Club and the Golden Nugget would be at this point in reference to the Horseshoe and the Mint. The Sands was located on the four lane highway, not a narrow two-lane street. Also, the newest car is possibly a 1958, which would be odd not to see a newer car in Las Vegas.
The Christy pit, i.e. the plutonium core stolen from the weapons test site, would no longer be usable after being buried in the ground for 55 years due to the short half-life (138.376 days) of the polonium in the nuclear initiator.
In order for nuclear fission to take place, the bomb needs a neutron source and a Christy pit has, in its center, a beryllium/polonium initiator that starts the fission reaction after the core is compressed by an implosion that forces the plutonium to a super-critical state. Without an initiator, the pit would be useless - and, by the same token, an expired pit would also be useless, due to the polonium decaying to the point where it could not produce a sufficient injection of neutrons.
In order for nuclear fission to take place, the bomb needs a neutron source and a Christy pit has, in its center, a beryllium/polonium initiator that starts the fission reaction after the core is compressed by an implosion that forces the plutonium to a super-critical state. Without an initiator, the pit would be useless - and, by the same token, an expired pit would also be useless, due to the polonium decaying to the point where it could not produce a sufficient injection of neutrons.
After arriving outside Las Vegas in 1962 and seeing the atomic bomb explosion, Lucy makes reference to the US Department of Energy. That agency did not exist until 1977. As a competent historian, she would not have made this mistake and would have referred instead to the Atomic Energy Commission, which was the name of the department in 1962.