Everything we’ve been watching up to now was about finding the location of the virus. On last week’s episode of “12 Monkeys,” while Cole battled with Deacon and the West 7, Cassandra found the Night Room. Will we finally learn the source of the virus, or who’s in charge of the Army of the 12 Monkeys, or where Jennifer Goines is being held? Yep, it’s time for another time-travel waltz. Hang on to your partner and, whatever you do, don’t splinter.
2011
We watch as a package is delivered to the Markridge Facility. It’s Jennifer Goines (Emily Hampshire). She’s told by Ivan the technician that the Night Room is safe. Jennifer knows better even though Ivan is confident that the big burn precautions will destroy the virus before it can become airborne. Nothing is fail proof. Not when the Pallid Man is around.
2043
The attack on the facility by West 7 has jeopardized the power to the time machine, but Cole doesn’t care. He wants to return because Cassie has learned the location of the Night Room and, because he likes Cassie. Ramse is upset. He has every right to be. He knows what will happen if Cole succeeds.
What would you do if you knew that you would cease to exist if your mission was a success? You’d stop a pandemic, but you might never be born. Thinking about stuff like that calls for a drink. Max, Ramse, Cole and Jones have a drink before the next trip. They’re all nervous. With every trip back into time, Cole is taking a big risk.
Ramse and Cole want to know more about Jones and her past, but all she says is she was married for a few days and her maiden name was Werner. Max doesn’t trust Jones. She tells Ramse about a rumor. It seems Jones has a bad reputation. Lots of failed experiments and Ramse wonders if Cole was the first time traveler. We find out that he wasn’t. The failed experiments look like one of those transporter disasters on “Star Trek.” Jones doesn’t apologize, but she does mention Mozart.
When we think of any major disaster, we naturally think of the loss of lives, but the damage done by a natural or man-made disaster goes much deeper. Humans have history. Our history can be found in art, music and architecture. Without history, who are we? I think this is what Jones was trying to explain to Ramse. To completely destroy a people, you destroy any evidence of their history. We’ve seen examples of this during World War Two and in Afghanistan. Jones does promise Ramse that she’ll do her best to keep Cole from coming back looking like chopped meat. She mentions the Godel Curve and the closed timeline theory.
2015
While Cole and Cassie make their way to the location of the Night Room, The Pallid Man is busy torturing Jennifer Goines. He wants to get into the vault. I don’t think Pallid Man is going to get much from her because she is like Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter. You have no freaking idea if what she is saying is true or false and, just like the Mad Hatter, Jennifer likes talking in riddles. The Pallid Man hates riddles. When Cole and Cassie finally get inside the facility, they find all the security people dead and one very confused technician.
Apparently Pallid Man was able to get Jennifer to reveal the location of the Night Room via bamboo sticks under the nails, but she didn’t tell him everything. Jennifer tells Cole and Cassie that the vault can’t be broken into. Since she won’t give the code to Pallid Man, he decides to use the bamboo sticks on Cole. When the torture doesn’t work, Pallid Man becomes Chatty Cathy and tells Cassie that Cole killed Henri and he also tells Jennifer that Cole killed her father. While Jennifer is happy that daddy is dead, Cassie is upset about Cole killing Henri. Cole tries to explain to Cassie what living in the future is like, but I guess she’ll have to see it for herself to understand.
Night Room
Well, the bad guys did get the vault open thanks to Pallid Man tricking everyone into thinking he left. But Cole and Cassie use the big burn to destroy everything in the room. The virus is toast so why isn’t Cole gone? What does the crispy critter in the specimen bottle have to do with Cole? Why is Cole’s nose bleeding?
Conclusion
How strange that the specimen called M5 10, which was locked inside the vault, looked a lot like the failed time travel experiments of Dr. Katarina Werner aka Jones. Is it? The time-travel waltz has made a complete circle and we are left to wonder if the chicken came before the egg. Is the future responsible for the past?
Pallid Man’s plans to take the virus have gone up in smoke, but he’s given us a clue and he’s taken Cassie as a hostage. Cole is splintered back to the future, but it wasn’t the future he was expecting. He may be in the year 2043 but he’s in an alternate universe where West 7 has control of the facility. We end this dance with a larger mystery than we started with. What happened to Ramse and Jones and who is The Witness? See you next week. Try not to get splintered.
