Episode 11 of 12 Monkeys is packed full of facts and information. After I watched it, I felt a little over whelmed, but I loved the entire episode. It is like all the episodes up to this point were loosely stacked bricks and “Shonin” was the mortar filling in the gaps.
What is exceptionally unique about this episode is that it replays the events and splinters from throughout the first season, but from Ramse’s point of view instead of from Cole’s. It turns out that Ramse traveled back in time and may have been behind most of the events thus far.
The episode started out a bit shaky. Leland Goines is in a Tokyo nightclub snorting coke and Zeljko Ivanek is wearing a distractingly terrible wig! He is meeting with Japanese business/criminal types that actually wheel out The Origin, the torso stored and protected in a box that was destroyed in the Night Room by Cole and Cassandra. The torso contains the origins of the virus. Enter Cole. Splinter stage left. He grabs Goines and insists that they destroy The Origin. Ramse and Cole then duke it out in a knife fight and Cole gets stabbed. Ramse is arrested and spends several years in prison. Meanwhile, in the science facility in 2043, Jones is watching Cole’s vitals and sees he is dying. She uses the time machine to splinter Cole to 2015 and loses the tether on him. Cole is lost in time. Once again in a giant fake out, Cole is nursed by Cassandra while other scientists and Whitley try to convince Jones that the project is over and a complete failure.
While in prison, Ramse is contacted by Olivia, the Striking Woman from the “Red Forest” episode. Ramse, the token “good guy” and Cole’s conscience, slowly becomes The Witness who is the driving force behind Olivia and the Pallid Man. Until this episode, we believed that they were trying to kill or hurt Cole and Cassandra. Instead, they were being led by Ramse to preserve all of the events leading up to the plague by making sure the time loops and splinters occurred. Each portion of Season 1 had to happen for the plague to occur. They were not fighting Cole; they were carrying out the cycle of interference. Could Ramse be the driving force behind the Army of the 12 Monkeys? Not only is Ramse transformed into a super villain, but Aaron is also approached by Olivia and joins her ranks in order to ensure Cassandra’s safety.
Jennifer Goines, my favorite character, is peppered throughout the episode. We also get confirmation that Goines was framed and did not kill her colleagues in the Night Room. Her mother suffered with mental illness for years, making Goines an easy target to frame and exploit by her father. Goines may be too far gone, as she is haunted by her father’s research and the deaths of her colleagues, but I would love for her to return to the masses and use her knowledge for good.
Ramse is feeling pretty confident and is certain that Cole died when he splintered to 1987. He has no idea that Cole has made it to 2015, but without a tether to splinter him back to 2043. The final splinter used most of the remaining power from the Core. Without electrical power and man power, the facility is vulnerable to any attack.
The last two episodes of this season will be “must see” episodes as I am sure they will continue to fill in each crack throughout the season’s plot. Everything that we think we have seen or known could change based on this changing point of view and Ramse’s travels.