Syfy definitely managed to pack in a lot of information and surprises in “Yesterday,” the 8th episode of 12 Monkeys. Of course, Cole is STILL alive! Not that I have anything against Cole. I am disappointed that this show is going to habitually end on an exciting note only to scream, “Psych!” at the start of the following episode.
We and Cassandra believe that Cole spends the entire episode under rubble following the blast in Chechyna. At the end of the episode, PSYCH! Cole was transported to 2017 at the last minute, causing him to survive the blast! Ever loyal, Cassandra traveled to Chechnya and paid of a cab driver and armed soldiers to gain access to the blast site.
Meanwhile, in 2043, the transporter’s core is shot. Jones cannot splinter Cole back to the present and the facility only has enough electricity to last a couple days. There is only one hope. Jones must send Whitley and Ramse to Spearhead where we get another future-history lesson. When doctors and scientists could not figure out a cure for The Plague, the President, high ranking military leaders, and the top scientific minds were sent to Spearhead to search for a cure. The Plague mutated and broke out in Spearhead. Colonal Foster, one of the residents of Spearhead, staged a coup and Jones fled to begin The Splinter Project. Now that her core is unstable, she needs a manifold to fix it. The only place she can turn is to Spearhead — which is still run by the religious Colonel Foster who will not spare his core or help Jones bring Cole back unless she joins Foster’s search for a cure. He is using the core to power his servers which are running an algorithm to predict how and when the virus mutates. He has indeed discovered a cure for a strain of the virus from 2033.
Foster feels that The Plague was meant to happen. He feels that though it is right to create a cure, it is wrong to tamper with history. The Plague could have been like the massive flood in the Biblical story of Noah’s Ark. The world became too evil and needed a cleansing that wiped out the majority of the human race in order to cleanse the Earth. If Jones alters history, there could be a new catastrophic event wedged into the timeline that wiped out most of humanity.
At Spearhead, Ramse encounters Elana (Amy Sloan), a former flame who is following the good Colonel and attempting to help him discover a cure. In a reveal more gripping than an episode of Maury Povich, Elena introduces Ramse to his 5 year old son, Sam. Ramse now has something to live for other than his friendship with Cole and his shared responsibility to saving humanity. Sam is the first child we have met who is living in 2043. Although I respect Ramse as a stand up and all around nice guy, the addition of Elena and Sam to the cast does not work for me.
So many of the supporting cast, especially in the 2043 scenes, appear out of nowhere, tell their stories, and then disappear. Hopefully they’ll stick around, since by adding Sam and Elena, Ramse does have more of a purpose — and more reasons to show off those Precious Moments puppy dog eyes.
When Cole emerges from the rubble, with the help of a little girl whose coughing signals that she is infected with the virus, Cole is shocked to realize he did not stop The Plague (yet again) and it is 2017. Personally, I cannot wait to see what happens in 2017! I think that we will see that Aaron is an evil, corrupt politician who sold the world out for his own gain. I imagine Cassandra will have nearly driven herself nuts trying to cure the virus.
Episode 9, “Tomorrow,” promises to be exciting as Cole further explores 2017. Jones has told Whitley that they must take Spearhead’s core by “any means necessary.” Jones may be slowly paving her way to join the likes of Scully, Sarah Connor, and Ripley in the ranks of badass women of Sci-Fi!