12 Monkeys – Recap of Season 2 Episode 2 “Primary” [Spoilers]

May 14, 2016

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Every richly textured time travel story explores its impact on the human psyche. In the opening sequence Cassie reflects on her metamorphosis with an air of ennui. “Not every caterpillar becomes a butterfly”. She has been constantly up against the most elemental dichotomy in the animal kingdom – kill or be killed – just to scavenge equipment to repair the time machine.

12 Monkeys fans are reeling from the change in Cassie. Gone is the Cassie who wouldn’t shoot the scientist who made the virus. This Cassie seemingly parrots Theodore William Deacon (I love this sneaky Bill & Ted reference), a sadistic character full of excuses: “Let them live, create an enemy.”

Cassie has also seemingly cozied up to Deacon. He thinks he’s just doing what it takes to survive, but he still has too much fun hurting people. He now works as Jones’ security. I wonder how much of Cassie’s ‘relationship’ with Deacon is to keep him on side for the mission?

Some fans are having difficulty with Cassie being at odds with Cole. She had a lot of unresolved hurt to mull over in 2043-44, and some things have clearly festered. Whilst she initially appeared stoic about Aaron’s death because he betrayed them, Cole’s double-standard defense of Ramse must have shaken her stoicism and broke her heart.

If Cassie had any unspoken expectations of Cole, she might have wanted him to let Ramse die, deal with Jennifer with the same ferocity shown to Aaron, and to retrieve her from the apocalypse using the 2015 time machine. She just wanted equal treatment, since she moved mountains to save Cole.

Think about it. When Cole calls young Jones from the Emerson hotel, she snappily tells him that if he’s still there, it’s because Future-Her couldn’t or wouldn’t come for him after 27 years of deliberation. Being around old Jones, Cassie could have equated Cole not turning up for her as proof that he had given up. He would have had 28 years to try, or to simply wait for her to arrive.

When Cassie returns to 2016, Cole stops her from killing Jennifer and Ramse! Cole showed no mercy to the people she cared about. To rub salt in the wounds, “let them live to create an ally” seems to be Cole’s new approach. The last thing Cassie was prepared to do was to let Cole off lightly before addressing why he let her people die whilst his guilty friends get to live.

Telling herself that Cole is emotionally compromised, Cassie abandons him in 2016 with Jennifer. It is an emotional and reckless decision, if she still thinks Jennifer is a threat. She uses the injection meant to fix Cole’s broken tether to the future on Ramse instead, to have him tortured by Deacon.

Though only a year for Sam, 29 years have passed since Ramse last saw his son. In a tough scene to watch, Cassie threatens Sam to rattle Ramse. Ramse reveals that he was the stranger in 2013 that saved Deacon’s mother from his violent father, after watching him cry. Interestingly, Cassie stops Deacon from drowning Ramse. She also didn’t shoot through Cole to kill Jennifer, so Cassie isn’t lost.

Saving people, not killing people, is the only thing that has changed fate. Because Cole showed mercy, Ramse helps Cole find Jennifer, and Jennifer lets them destroy the virus to stop the 2016 plague. Our A-Team immediately senses time change around them. In an impressively cinematic scene, 2044 Jones gawks slackjawed in the eye of a time storm, as people and objects buzz in and out of existence between slipping time streams.

In this new timeline, the plague is released in 2018. Far less people die because Cassie prepares the CDC. This time, Future-Cassie will not die in 2017 or to give Cole Jones’ address to save his life in 2015! Yet because of the serum, Cole’s very existence is now doubly-paradoxical. Could this be the first hint of time folding in on itself?

When those injected with the time serum slip into a new time line, they take over from the version of themselves that lived there before. What would happen if all versions of someone had the time serum? Would they merge as multiple voices in one head with every time change?

With that, we need to talk about Jennifer again. Huge things about Jennifer were unveiled to us in ‘Primary’. The biggest revelation of all, confirming a fan favourite theory, is that the voices in her head are real and show her the changes in all of time itself. Olivia tells Jennifer that she is primary – that she is time. Jennifer is ontologically human, so we still don’t know how this works.

As soon as time changes around them, Jennifer sees something that makes her urgently insist that Cole must find his way home. Flustered, she helps him get to room 607 at the Emerson Hotel – a room that Cole is yet to purchase in 1944. She is so insistent that they get a room with a primary number, the receptionist shouts after Cole, “I’d double-bag it with that one!” (Yup, he really said that.)

Getting Cole home is apparently so crucial, Jennifer dedicates her life to making sure Cassie goes back to 2016 for Cole – even though the voices in her head tell her that Cole and Cassie together means the monkeys get what they want.

In a less surprising revelation, we learn that Jennifer’s crush on Cole had developed into serious love sickness – serious enough for Olivia to use to manipulate Jennifer into wanting to unleash the plague. It turns out that Olivia hypnotised Jennifer into believing that she could ‘stop the voices’ and be with Cole, if she just ‘fulfils her purpose’ and ends the world.

In a truly bittersweet and sad moment, Jennifer realises that Olivia lied – Cole would never be hers. Cole wins huge sensitivity points for not freaking out when Jennifer leans in to kiss him. What a splendid man he has become! He comforts her and promises her that she has a real purpose in life. We know now that Cole’s kindness inspired Jennifer to found ‘The Daughters’. The old Jennifer at the helm of this formidable group that we see in this timeline looks different – younger – than the one who gave Ramse the medallion.

The episode closes with an awkward exchange between Cole and Cassie. Cassie is still mad at Cole. Cole reminds Cassie that killing people changes nothing and leaves her with a picture of the both of them looking gorgeous together in the 1940s. Cassie cries when she sees the picture. Are these happy tears? Tears of frustration? More anger, Cassie? Fans everywhere are dying to see how the two of them will manage to get back on the same page.

Dr Vance Eckland is the bioengineer and Jones’ lover in the new timeline. Jones doesn’t remember him, but he remembers all of her. Dr Eckland tells Katarina: “The most fun I’ve ever had was breaking down all the walls you built around yourself. Now I get to do it all again.” We hope that Dr Eckland has tips for Cole on how to break down the walls that Cassie has built for herself!

Catch up on Season 1, streaming now on Hulu with exclusive special features, or buy the DVD / Blu-ray. Watch Season 2 of 12 Monkeys on Mondays at 9/8c, or on Syfy.com, Amazon Video, iTunes, Google Play, Youtube and XBox.