12 Monkeys - "Tomorrow" Never Dies.


"Cry Havoc and Let Slip the Dogs of War"


See that? Foster and Jones aren't the only ones that can quote Shakespeare.  

When Foster and Jones sat alone, presumably to reach a detente, they both quoted Shakespeare's 19th Sonnet.

Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws,
And make the earth devour her own sweet brood;
Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws,
And burn the long-lived phoenix in her blood;
Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleet'st,
And do whate'er thou wilt, swift-footed Time,
To the wide world and all her fading sweets;
But I forbid thee one most heinous crime:
O, carve not with thy hours my love's fair brow,
Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen;
Him in thy course untainted do allow
For beauty's pattern to succeeding men.
Yet, do thy worst, old Time: despite thy wrong,
My love shall in my verse ever live young
The last two lines of the sonnet are particularly poignant in that both Jones and Foster lament the loves they have lost.  But as the sonnet tells us, at least they will live on in verse or rather the hearts and memories of those who hold them dearly.


Jones put a hole in that notion when her inner Marc Antony put aside the conventions of civilized behavior and the "dogs of war" were allowed to run amok in the hallways of the Spearhead compound.

I have to admit, as big a fan that I am of Jones, her brutal solution shocked me.  This was the woman that embraced all that was great from culture and civilization.  She even lectured Foster in their previous meeting that they could have it all again.

Foster retorted they could still have these things as long as they lived in their memories.  It seems he miscalculated Jones and the depths of her despair.  (I squirmed when Foster invoked the memory of Katerina's lost child again.)


As we learned later on, the fires of that despair burned far greater than Foster realized.

As some of you know I have a theory that I call the "Hannah Timeline."  It has some flaws but basically it entails the solution to saving the future is only viable if it includes Jones' daughter "Hannah."

A cure to the mutated plague of 2033 did not encompass that time as it would have been too late to save the precious Hannah.  Hence Katerina's final solution.
Jones torched any evidence that a solution was at hand when she put her lighter to the proof of Foster's success.  I considered that proof still lived on in the servers of the Spearhead compound but as long as the only core is in her hands there is no chance those servers will ever will see the power they need once again.

What possible proof could unseat Jones now?


Ah, there is still the word of Elena and her passionate ally, Ramse.  I think Elena has found someone in Jose that is willing to preserve the world of 2033 if not 2043.  I think Ramse would also protect this world "by any means necessary" to paraphrase Jones from the previous episode.

So it begs the question, if Jones was willing to murder anyone that stood in her way at the Spearhead compound and destroy any evidence of its success, what would she do to Elena and Family?


Jones knows the success of her bloody gambit lies in the fortunes of James Cole.  She held him closely as he returned from the past as if he was a child of her own.  In a way he is, for without Cole there will be no Hannah.


As one life returned in Cole another ebbed away in Cassie.  Cole held her as close as he was embraced by Jones.  The two scenes played out in remarkably similar fashion.  At least in as much that the end solution to Jones and Cole's plans need to dovetail together.

Jones needs Cole for Hannah to live and Cole needs Jones' plan to work so Cassie will survive.  (If the plan ultimately prevails there might not be any future for Cole and Cassie but I'm sure he is not thinking that now.)
Finally, Ramse told Cole in so many words that he will do what has to be done.  A veiled threat if there ever was one.  Cole sensed this right away and told Ramse he would stop him. So, if another question is to be asked, how far would Ramse go?

All the way to the West 7?  I think yes.

The Red Forest
This is interesting!  The dying Cassie invoked the surreal Red Forest.  She slipped a little in asking him and realized her mistake when she admitted he doesn't know everything yet.  We also learned that Cole will visit Cassie once again before this fated meaning.  In addition to all these mysterious nuggets she handed him a slip a paper the contents of which she told him not to reveal to anyone.

I take it to mean that includes Jones.
If Cole is to retain an ace up his sleeve that slip of paper may just be the card he needs to play if Jones finds Cole expendable.  It may even contain information that will save the future but not include Hannah's survival.  Cole will have to safeguard this secret closely.
So why the Red Forest?  Is may actually be a tangible place to go much like the Night Room was.  I think we've only seen it when Cole and Cassie hallucinate but that doesn't mean it isn't actually real.  If I were to go on a wild tangent (which I am prone to do) the Red Forest may only be accessible through a fugue state (an altered state of consciousness in which a person may move about purposely and even speak, but is not fully aware.) but in this case can also act in a physical nature. 

If Cole is to travel to the Red Forest in this fugue state and retain the means to physically interact with it what would he find there?

He may find "The Witness" for one.  Someone he may not be prepared to take on.  He may find that mysterious building the collapses and rebuilds itself.  Does the witness "live" there or more importantly, does he "work" there?

The Red Forest building may be a place where the virus is allowed to constantly mutate, always being kept out of the reach of those who wish to cure it.  It may also contain a rudimentary time machine that allows the virus to be randomly inserted into various timelines foiling the attempts of humanity to survive.  Worse yet, the Red Forest (and it's building) may be able to insert itself into any timeline as long as it is invoked by the tea or the tea drinking Witness.

A bizarre thesis to be sure but not so far off from what we've seen so far.

Odds and Ends
Jennifer Goines made a brief return.  She was roiling up the crowd just outside the gates of the Baltimore CDC compound.


She also made a reference to the women in the crowd and possibly twelve of them.  She then went on to call one of them a "bright little monkey."  Whaaaat?  Is Jennifer going to be part of the "Army of the 12 Monkeys" origin story?



Who watches the Watchmen?

Cassie's watch got some serious face time.  We now know she doesn't die alone and the scratch is still there so nothing has changed.  Then something does.  Is something going to change in the future or the past that will unscratch the watch?  Will Cassie be left there the same as she is now until Cole returns to the unscratched watch?  What if Cole returns to her in the future and finds the watch unscratched?  (I would need to take a pill and lie down for a while.)





I couldn't help but notice the similarities between the stressed out Ramse and Bruce Willis Cole from the movie Twelve Monkeys.
And then there is this.


Things are so dire in the year 2017 that the last surviving member of the Addams Family has succumbed to the plague.

Sniff, thank you Thing.

Comments

  1. I have to say, I’m still reeling from last Friday’s episode. Just WOW! It was really difficult for me to write my thoughts down. But here they are. Please forgive me if this doesn’t make much sense.

    I don’t know what to think of Jones’ behavior. From “Yesterday” we knew something like this was coming but I obviously didn’t envision it to be so … brutal? My wonderful Jones picture has been tainted for now but I’m not willing to hate her for it yet. I will try to keep an open mind. In general I would say that the characters on this show are all so human and relatable that you can understand their motivation behind their behavior. But… damn it, Jones! What does it say about Barbara Sukowa’s acting chops that we feel so shocked about what happened? 

    Cassies’s death and Cole witnessing it and holding her in his arms broke my heart. As things look now this couple will never have a future but you still feel so much for them that you are devastated when Cassie dies. I think the scratch on Cassie’s watch vanished because her and Cole’s loop is finished. For now (you never know what Terry and Travis are planning) they won’t see each other ever again between 2017 and 2043. First I thought that the scratch vanished because of the address that Cassie gave Cole. But I doubt that now. However, I think that Cassie gave Cole the address to younger Cole’s location, be it his parent’s house or an orphanage? I think that Cole will need something from younger Cole to survive?

    Cole’s and Ramse’s argument and their friendship ultimately coming to an end (for now?) made me just so sad. Their bromance was epic. Now they are adversaries! How can it be more dramatic? It breaks my heart so much (again). I couldn’t imagine what Ramse would do to stop Cole and Jones from changing the past but when I saw the sneak peek for next Friday I almost screamed at my phone. I’m so worried about what might happen to these two. And to think of the fact that Cole is doing the time traveling thanks to Ramse’s decision to save Cole’s soul... Damn the writing is so fantastic!!!

    I don’t hope that Jones is only gentle with Cole and that she only cares about him now because he is the means to get her daughter back. I hope that Cole and her have created a bond between each other now that they have this one goal to stop the virus. I hope that this bond is real and that it is not just Jones using her time traveler. I think the bond Cole has with Jones is real.
    I have no major theory about the Red Forest yet, but I agree that it could be a place that can only be seen in a delirious state. And I think it has to do with the Witness.

    I guess Jennifer has more to do with the making of the Army of the 12 Monkeys than I previously thought. I read about the daughters on The Wall on Syfy.com a while back and wondered what it could mean. Then Deacon mentioned them again and it became a bit clearer. Now we might have seen the beginning of “The Daughters”. But what do The Daughters have to do with the Army of the 12 Monkeys? Or are they not related at all?

    The fact that all their motivations, Jones’, Ramse’s and Cole’s, are, as I wrote above, so human and relatable, drives me nuts. I can relate to them so much that the conflict it creates drives me bonkers. I want the next episode now!!! The wait is so unbearable. ARGH!

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  2. Hello Eileen,

    Barbara Sukowa's acting chops? She is a treasure. Even her physical mannerisms are something to behold. (Okay, smelling salts before I swoon. Phew!) I love her but, yeah, that scene shocked me. So cold blooded. I was going to make a joke in the blog post about my head hitting the pillow at night thinking of Jonesy. Only now I'm going to leave a night light on. She spooked me! I was also afraid her arc was going to take her too far and she would be killed off at the end. Saints be praised she'll be back next season!

    So you are a Cole and Cassie shipper eh? I don't do so much of that myself. (Besides it would be a betrayal of my imaginary love affair with Jones.) I'm glad they make a good pair but I think most of the chemistry comes from her. He can be the loveable oaf while she is the compassionate, brilliant and worldly scientist. My favorite scene between the two of them was during the reception when she was trying to teach him to dance and he was gorging on appetizers.

    Listen to me! You're turning me into a shipper! Stop!

    As far as the "bromance" is concerned, unfortunately I've seen the spoilers too. Including the ones from March 27th episode. I wish I hadn't but there it is. I'll have to make a better effort to stay spoiler free. Part of my schtick is to see if I can outguess the writers and predict where the show is going. I think I'm pretty good at it (ouch, I just hurt my arm patting myself on the back) but spoilers rob me of that intuitive edge. (I also have a "happy dance" when I get things right. It's not for public consumption but let's just say there is a lot of fist pumping and hip swinging.)

    Anyway where was I?

    There was a time I was convinced they were going to kill off Ramse but I'm starting to back off from it now as too obvious. But you never know!

    The Cole and Jones relationship is fascinating and ever evolving. They are growing closer together but for different reasons! What if those reasons finally conflict with each other? Maybe that will drive the season finale.

    I hope the Daughters are not a distraction from the main plot line. Sometimes TV shows put too many irons in the fire and they have to service them all at the expense of each other. It's a juggling act and it bothers me a little.

    Hang in there Eileen, it is almost Friday and we can all monkey around again.

    Thanks!

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