12 Monkeys - S1E9 - Tomorrow
Previously on 12 Monkeys, ‘Yesterday’
We left off last week with Cole stuck in a plague-ridden 2017, Ramse discovering a long lost son, and Cassie re-hooking up with Handsome Aaron. There is a whole lot of awesome going on so let’s dive in.
Cole, limping and filthy, is wandering the streets of Chechnya and spots Cassie on TV pleading for the immune to come to the Baltimore CDC. It seems like a direct message to Cole, who she believes is dead, but the timeliness of his stumbling upon her interview implies he’s headed to Baltimore. Some U.S. soldiers happen to recognize him and they’ve got a chopper nearby to take him to the U.S. One guess where: Yep, Baltimore!
In 2043, Jones is re-convincing her team that a cure is impossible. There isn’t and will be no vaccine and Operation Splinter is the only rational cause. She’s revving up her soldiers to take Foster’s core.
Ramse implores Elena to get her and Samuel out of Spearhead. The vaccine is a fake and he wants them out of there. Elena refuses to believe him at first, but later agrees. But not without finding something first. Unfortunately, Foster catches them in the act and they get locked up.
Flash back to 2 years prior (2041) where Cole and Ramse are roaming around in the woods. They’re cold, starving and without ammo. But Ramse is the eternal optimist and really, Cole is the luckiest bastard of all time, so we know they’re going to magically find a perfect solution. Which they do. They take on a camp of 6 guys and end up being brought to Operation Splinter. And we all know how that turned out.
Back in 2017, Cole has gotten a bath and a ride to the CDC. And Jennifer is there! Oh, how I’ve missed her! She’s wearing a hoodie and a feather boa (or maybe it’s a scarf, but I prefer to think of it as the boa) and screaming nonsensical things and looking fabulous as always. Where the hell has she been? I hope she sticks around this time. They bring Cole to Cassie and she doesn’t look all that surprised to see him as they share a touching reunion hug.
Jones pays another visit to Foster and issue him one last chance to give up the core. He turns her down and she lets him know that she will have his core – if he won’t give it to her, she will take it. He tries to reminisce and sweet talk him, but she is having none of it. And outta nowhere she shoots him right in the gut. She watches impassively as he dies within seconds. Yikes. That was cold. Even for Jones.
In 2041, Cole and Ramse are getting a butt kicking (well, mostly Cole is) by Whitley until Jones comes in to stop it. She implores Cole to join her mission and he succinctly tells her to, “Go to hell.”
Turns out that Whitley was successful in convincing his father to help him and he shoots down some Spearhead soldiers as the Splinter team sweeps in. They kill basically everyone in there, setting Ramse and family free, Whitley’s father dying in the ambush. But they get the core.
Back in 2017, Cassie and Cole are having quite the “moment” but she’s coughing and clearly sick, so their time is limited. She tells them she’s seen a lot of him over the past two years (which explains why she wasn’t at all surprised to see a man who was supposed to be dead) and then she collapses in his arms.
They bring the core back to Operation Splinter and Jones offer meager apologies to Whitley for his father. Ramse tries to console Elena, who is still convinced that Foster had found the cure. It seems that Ramse has forgotten that if Jones is successful, his own son would never exist, because while he didn’t help Operation Splinter raid Spearhead, he certainly didn’t help Spearhead survive it.
Cassie wakes up in Cole’s arms, surprised to see him though they’d been reunited moments before She calls him “James” (ooooh…a hint of intimacy that occurred during the past two years?) and asks if he found the Red Forest. She wants to tell him things but can’t change the path he’s on. She gives him an address that his “life depends on” and asks him not to leave her alone while she dies. And as she fades away in his arms, I am literally choking up. Damn this show. Getting me all up in my feelings. He shuts her eyes and kisses her forehead as I go grab some Kleenex. Well that was heartbreaking.
At Operation Splinter, Jones gets the machine up and running again and summons Cole back to 2043. As he disappears we see the scratch on Cassie’s watch face disappear with him. Holy…what the? Does that mean whatever happens over the last two years erases what he’d done the years before? Is this one of those time loop things that indicates that at some point Cole is successful and he and Cassie never actually meet? What does that mean??? The way this show messes with my mind is so painfully glorious and I cannot get enough.
Ramse and Cole have it out at the end of the episode. Ramse no longer believes in Jones – he wants to save his own son. But Cole wants to save the world (read: Cassie). They’re both fighting for the loves of their lives, with no plausible way for them to both win. We’ve spent weeks developing the brotherhood between these two friends and it is awful to watch it shred to pieces. Ramse tells Cole he needs to stop and Cole refuses. Cole is choosing Cassie over Ramse and the bromance is over. Damn. Their relationship was the most heartwarming (and the best comic relief) part of the show.
And so ends another flawless episode. The story twists even further and leaves me wanting more. Plus, we got to dive into yet another side character bringing yet another layer of depth to the show itself. Jones is ruthless and hell-bent and will stop at nothing to prevent the plague. While her character brings a dynamic to the show that is much needed, it’s great to see just why she is this way. As a mom, I can promise you that I would do no less do get my baby boy back, so while she’s a tad overboard, I can still relate to her. And I love getting a glimpse into such a complex and intense character’s head. This show is so good with character development that ties directly into the storyline. It just gets better and better.
Can’t wait, as always, until next week!
