12 Monkeys – Recap of Season 2 Episode 7 “Meltdown” [Spoilers]

June 7, 2016

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In the lead up to this week, Terry Matalas teased that ‘Meltdown’ will start a devastating chain of events that will lead into the finale. There would be love, death, the start of something beautiful, and the birth of something horrible. I waited all week with a mixed sense of excitement and dread.

We begin to learn about the significance of Year 1959. The Raritan Facilities in 1959 was an army base carrying out top secret research. Security tripled on the day that new experimental equipment arrived. I’ll wager that this piece of equipment relates to the Witness’s secret time travel technology. Four soldiers from 1959 ‘splinter’ that day, without Jones’ time serum. The men flicker in and out of matter form before being sucked away –just like the Witness’s own splintering sequence when he disappeared from the Emerson Hotel.

Cassie returns to 2044 with a blood curdling scream. She is fixated on a vision of the Witness in the facility. It is only when Cole comes to her that Cassie regains her presence of mind. In a beautifully shot scene, behind the blue glow of the time machine, we see Cole’s utter devotion to Cassie without him having to say a single word.

For a significant portion of the fan base who cheer for Casserole (NB: the ‘ship’ name for Cassie and Cole), the start of Season 2 definitely had an oppressive cloud hanging over them. This is the first real glimmer of a silver lining for our favourite character pairing. Casserole is not dead.

Cassie talks to the team about her encounters with the Witness, but worries she sounds insane. Ramse confirms the 12 Monkeys’ use of the red tea to meet the Witness. Jones makes the connection to Mother Jen’s tea and its ability to cause consciousness to drift outside of time. This begs the question – how long has Mother Jen been doing mental time travel? And to what end?

The clouds threaten to close over Casserole again as Deacon acts like her main man. Cole looks absolutely defeated as Cassie is escorted away by Deacon. Trying (and failing) to be noble, and perhaps also to protect himself, he tells Cassie that he doesn’t have a problem with that thing he thinks she has going on with Deacon. Cassie is crestfallen at Cole’s indifference. She returns to her room and beats her pain out into a punching bag.

Jones orders a review of Cassie’s time stream data to look for signs of another traveller’s presence. They found pentaquark signatures of a phantom tether of another traveller – tethered right to the Raritan Facility in their here and now. The Witness came to Cassie in 2016, from the 2044 time travel facility!

The Witness is using Cassie as a vehicle to carry out his sabotage. He drives Cassie to make the machine go into a perpetual splinter sequence. The machine shoots people in and out of the time stream – including Jones’ earlier test subjects who were lost in time, brought back as half-dead messes of blood and guts. Super gross.

In a brilliant piece of time travel causality, the effect becomes the cause. Forcing the time machine to disperse the temporal stream, allowed the Witness to come out of the time stream into the facility. This is how he tethered himself from the facility to make 2016 Cassie come back to break the machine to bring him in. Who knows to ‘when’ else and ‘who’ else the Witness travelled to. The paradoxes just get more interesting. At this point, Cassie still believes that she is just observing, not acting for, the Witness.

As Cole volunteers to shut down the Core, Cassie goes with him. She confides in Cole that he is her greatest weakness, by revealing that the witness chose to wear his face to her. Before Cole even had a chance to react to what must have been massive news for him, they are interrupted by another undead test subject. Cole loses Cassie as he puts the poor wretch down. Honestly, the timing of these two couldn’t be more rubbish.

Deacon helps Eckland get to the replacement lens array and back safely, via a deadly encounter with a pair of very confused soldiers from 1959. Deacon had the best lines this episode as he forced pacifist Eckland to take the gun. “Violence don’t make a man, but it’s a good way to unmake one.”

Just as Jones and Eckland’s relationship graduates into the bedroom, Eckland sacrifices his life to place the lens array into the time machine. Jones, desperate to stop Eckland’s romantic sacrifice, tells him that she doesn’t love him. “You did once, and that can’t be erased.” He saves the day regardless, disintegrating into the time stream.

The Witness drives Cassie to abduct Sam and hold him hostage by the Core. Emboldened by Cassie’s confession about his place in her heart, Cole breaks into the Core chamber via the underground river. Deacon sees Cassie holding a gun to Sam, through the glass in the door. He sends Ramse in to kill Cassie, because he says that neither Cole nor himself have it in them to stop her. This again?

In a terrifying sequence, Cassie is trapped inside the Witness House as the Witness seizes her mind. Through the window, Cassie sees a vast raw materials plant with the word ‘TITAN’ and the symbol worn by the 12 Monkeys, emblazoned across its tower. I call this the gypsum plant of metaphysical stuff, as Titan can refer both to the ‘White Clay Men’ from an ancient Orphic purification ritual aimed at transcending mortality – sound like the Messengers? – or to the mythological belief that humanity is created from the ashes of Titans. What a wonderful visual representation of a place outside of time, that is at once the beginning and the end.

Inside the Witness house, Cassie hears Cole’s voice calling to her to let Sam go and to fight the Witness. He starts to open up to Cassie about her importance to him. Out of complete faith that Cassie would not let him die, Cole orders Ramse to shoot him, not her. The sound of the gunshot breaks open the door of the Witness house, and Cassie escapes to find Cole bleeding on the ground.

In spite of Eckland’s sacrifice, a final sting in the tail makes its way to the Core, as the last residual feedback of splinter radiation kicks back and takes young Sam into the time stream. Ramse’s reaction to the sudden loss of his son is devastating. It could only be more devastating if it turned out that the Witness exploited Eckland’s love to take Sam, and to make Jones make her next move.

Cassie blames herself for Cole being shot, Eckland’s death, and Sam’s loss. Jones is quick to take the blame, and ominously declares that there is a solution. Well this is going to be good. Will it play into the Witness’s plans? Or will Jones manage to score a victory against the Big Bad?

Meanwhile, Sam survives, but ends up at an unknown point in the ancient past. As he calls for his dad, a figure approaches him and reaches out a hand. Sam doesn’t look scared. He calms down at the sight of this person. We don’t see who it is, but Sam takes the person’s hand.

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.