At the start of 12 Monkey’s the time travel was easy, the show procedural and yet it still had a level of intensity and stakes that set it apart from the other Friday night offerings. But as we move into the second half of the season, the tension has ratcheted, the time travel is pushed to new heights, and the stakes are so high the main character just died. Now, I don’t think the show Terry Matalas and Travis Flickett are pulling a Game of Thrones here, but I don’t doubt that they could and that says a lot about the caliber of writers they have at their command. This week’s episode was written by Sean Tretta who deftly balances quiet character moments with grand action sequences.
It’s an exceptional study of the contract between creator and audience, as each week the writers say “Okay, you did good following us last week, now watch this” rewarding viewers with more and more complex time jumps while challenging them to follow details from the first half of the season to their payoff. Cole tries to stop Operation Troy in Chechnya only moments after leaving Cassie, stating that he was sent back by Cassie one week in the future, with all the details of an already occurred Operation Troy. The only movement of the episode only feels bulky when the show caters to the fans rather than pushing their comprehension with Cassie’s false incomprehension of the timeline.
The show has never shied away from the lengths required of Cole and others in the future in order to change their past. This week, fresh from discovering that his jumps in time would ultimately kill him, Cole brings that nostalgia to the gala Cassie and he crash in order to find an archeologist who may have information of the Army of the 12 Monkeys. Juxtaposed against the gala in the first episode, we really see how transformed our characters are by their adventures. While once it was Cole who was single-minded in his pursuit to stop the virus, it is Cassie now who feels the weight of those seven billion souls driving her. 12 Monkeys has the gravitas of a massive story but each installment feels tight and graceful. This episode is about enjoying the moments, and lets each scene still as Cole, in what may be the most poignant moment of the series yet, absorbs the lost art and culture of this time. He is finally interested in what he is sacrificing himself for beyond the cold reality of 7 billion data point. He slows. He stops, “We’re here. Let’s be here.”
When Cole and Cassie interrogate the archaeologist about a picture of an ancient artifact linked to the Army, they learn that it is tied to an offshoot of the Druze religion based in Chechnya. This particular sect of Druze consider themselves the custodian of time in a pact between man and God and use the artifact to grind herbs for a tea, which sounds remarkably similar to our favorite Army weirdo and of course, Deacon. Of course, I expect all will be explained but the clue is just vague enough to add atmosphere without any concrete expectations.
Somewhat clumsily, the outbreak in Operation Troy is the code word for using the Markridge virus to eliminate former CIA analyst and current Snowden from leaking classified information. It seems a little extreme to use the most deadly virus known to man for an assassination, but understandable in the face of precarious diplomacy. Bombing, or an even more covert operation, could have unbalanced the political situation in the area. But it makes the entire situation seems so heartbreakingly unnecessary, as the CIA are forced to bomb the area anyway to prevent the virus from reaching Russia, killing Cole in the process.
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Going into this episode we knew exactly what would happen, though Cassie’s murder was avoided in the last episode, there was still an outbreak in Chechnya that had to be averted. We knew that our heroes would succeed in averting the plague there, because the significant change in the time stream was no longer present. Yet, the tension remain ratcheted as high as it ever has previously, and the episode still provided us with enough nail-biting that it felt fresh. Adam Wexler, who’s presence seem to only be vehicle to impart the clue that the Army of the 12 Monkeys was involved in a yakuza war in Tokyo in the 1987s, still feels fully fleshed out in a way that makes me think we haven’t seen the last of him. The motivations of the Army seem vague and unformed yet, as if they are the quintessential Big Bad. However, this is 12 Monkeys, a show that has proven itself to be far more complex than it seems at first glance, and I’m waiting for the other foot to drop. Only the detail of the ancient Chechen plate gives us a new angle to approach the central mystery with (or rather, revisits an old angle as now Cole knows why he visits Leland Goines in 1987) but how the show will retrieve Cole, I’m unsure.
EPISODE RATING: 8.9/10
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