The Cole we meet again in 2016 may sleep with one eye open, half expecting Ramse to kill him. None the less, once again he is left with Ramse as his only companion. So Cole makes lemonade. In a new cycle of Cole’s transformation, diplomacy and faith is the new name of the game.
We see the muscle memory return to the bromance, as Cole and Ramse exchange easy banter alongside shifty side-eyes. Together, they escape fate again on a bridge in Budapest, defying the prophecies of the all-seeing Witness. They are meant to die after being surrounded by Olivia and her motorcycle gang. Yet Cole literally takes a leap of faith off the bridge with Ramse following blindly right behind him. As their fates are unwritten, it’s the blind leading the blind.
Is the Witness losing his touch? Ever since the Mexican standoff at Raritan, the Witness hasn’t been right about many things. Even Olivia starts her own deviation and orders her foot soldier to tail Jennifer, against the Witness’s wishes. How does this fit in with the theory that Cole might be the Witness? If the Witness is a double agent, then a mask would come in handy?
We start to see small pay offs for ‘Second Chances’ Cole. When Ramse is paralysed by 12 Monkeys double agent Dr Kelman, he learns vital information that Jennifer will release the virus in Manhattan on Chinese New Year. Ramse strains to unparalyse himself in time to alert Cole that Dr Kelman is coming to kill him. Kelman’s drugs are no match for the regenerative properties of the time serum. In spite of Ramse’s earlier declarations that he isn’t going to help erase his son’s existence, he changes heart about parting ways and tells Cole about Jennifer.
We see a grim transformation in 2043-44 for Cassie, as she adopts survivor mode, thanks to Deacon. It appears that Cassie might be immune after all, but now it’s her soul that we worry for. Cassie had actually started to become more callous during season 1. Who can forget the torture of the douchey ex, or the Slap Heard Around the World in ‘Arms of Mine’? Yes, that was Cassie. Cassie also realised that it was surprisingly easy for her to shoot to kill Ramse. “Grieving over who we were only gets in the way of who we need to become.”
This is a difficult transformation, because Cassie only needs Terminator-mode if she plans on keeping the apocalypse. In the bigger picture, the mission needs a dialed back Cassie. In Season 1, Cassie exerts a lot of power through brains and grace. We hope she doesn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater, though abrupt transformations can sometimes make people do dumb things.
We meet Jones again with a fully-stocked case of time serum, one of which she takes for herself to sense changes to the past. It is a smart move, with Cole stuck in the past. But wasn’t Jones down to the last three injections at the end of ‘Divine Move’? These injections are so hard to synthesise, Jones is willing to kill for them. That’s how Sam’s mum died, remember? Something else changes also. We meet Whitley again, but his hands aren’t destroyed by hunting knives. Could this be the first of several very subtle changes we see to the future as a result of Cole and Ramse changing fate?
Jones still enjoys a good bit of murder. As the messengers commandeer the time machine, they still need Jones to drive. As a show of force, Jones splinters half of a messenger into an unknown point in history, leaving a mess of blood and guts on the chair. She chuckles glibly at this and asks “who’s next?” Could this half body be the Annapurna Remains, aka the Origin of the Virus we met in the Night Room? Also, did I catch the messenger played by Scottie Thompson look at Cassie in a significant way, hinting at a connection? Blink and you’d miss it.
Last but not least, we need to talk about Jennifer. We already know she disguises sense in gibberish. During a random speed date, she describes herself as ’10 fingers, 10 pies, potpourri, a mixed bag’. Could potpourri be code for the red tea leaves, and the rest bad poetry for the fact that she sees many timelines? This is easily one of the funniest scenes, as she first pulls out the virus, then pulls a gun and demands her hapless speed date to be a hero and shoot her. “Stock tip: Invest heavily in very deep holes,” huffs a disappointed Jennifer, when she realises that Mr Boat-and-Loud-Tie isn’t going to be the guy to stop her. But maybe he did! He does file the police report which Cassie finds in the future. Did Jennifer do this on purpose, with full foreknowledge?
Finally Cole finds Jennifer – and she runs away from him! Jennifer has such a crush on Cole, under normal circumstances she would only run to him. The depth of her shame at what she believes is her destiny to do – to release the virus – must run deep. The 12 Monkeys agents arrive and are about to shoot Cole for trying to stop Jennifer, when Cassie suddenly pops up and executes every single last one of them. Wow she is a great shot!
A stunned and slightly upset Cole, who has never seen this Sarah Connor version of Cassie before, pulls a gun on Cassie to stop her from killing Jennifer. ‘Second Chance’ Cole wants to find a better way, so no one has to die. He’s having a hard time dealing with the subversion of his good influence. As Cassie growls at Cole to not make her have to shoot him, Cole reminds her that no one can make her do anything, that she has a choice to make. Make the right choice Cassie! The past and the future depends on it!
Catch up on Season 1, streaming now on Hulu with exclusive special features. Watch Season 2 of 12 Monkeys on Mondays at 9/8c, or on Syfy.com, Amazon Video, iTunes, Google Play, Youtube and XBox.
Jessica Hardaway
Latest posts by Jessica Hardaway (see all)
- 12 Monkeys – Season 3 – Final Act [Spoilers] - May 25, 2017
- 12 Monkeys – Season 3 – Act II [Spoilers] - May 23, 2017
- 12 Monkeys – Season 3 – Episodes 1 to 4 [Spoilers] - May 22, 2017
This is an awesome recap! I see you also picked out as signifant Jennifer running AWAY from Cole, someone she otherwise can’t seem to get enough of under normal circumstances. Also, Cassie seems to have completely switched skill sets. I see no evidence of cleverness or savoie faire in her current modus operendi. She’s turned in her superior brain strengths for just enough brawn to get the job done, short changing herself in the process!