With the Army of the 12 Monkeys’ stamp of death being led back to Jennifer Goines (Emily Hampshire), last week’s episode focused on Cole (Aaron Stanford) trying to pry information about the virus and about the 12 Monkeys out of the mentally unstable girl. Of course, this didn’t work out very well and now, with Jennifer being kidnapped by the Pale Man (I’m going to call the guy this going forward, for lack of a better term), Dr. Jones (Barbara Sukowa) and Cole decide to shift their efforts in a different direction.

The episode begins with Dr. Railly (Amanda Schull) being contacted by the police about her prior visit to the J. D. Peoples Institution and what she could remember about the man who had kidnapped Jennifer. She’s able to give them a pretty good description of Pale Man, but in the process, she learns that Jennifer is institutionalized for killing all of her co-workers at the Markridge Group — well, all of her co-workers except one. Yes, “the one that got away,” as Jennifer had described to Cole. The police has a photo of the entire team at the Markridge Group, and when they point out the man who had escaped, surprisingly enough, Dr. Railly recognizes him. Dr. Railly is a pretty smart cookie because after distracting the detective, she is able to get a picture of the doctor on her iPhone. In just a few seconds and with a snap of a single picture, we now have the focus of this episode, which is to find this doctor. After all, you find the doctor, you find this Night Room, thus you find the virus. Sounds like a plan, right? Well, as with anything in this show, it’s not quite that simple.

The doctor they are looking for — and whom Dr. Railly recognized — is Dr. Henri Toussaint (Lyriq Bent, “Rookie Blue”). She had met him when she assisted the CDC with an outbreak in Haiti in 2014. Cole, of course, wants to speak with him immediately but unfortunately, he is dead. He had been killed in Haiti, and ironically (and suspiciously) on a medical supply run that Dr. Railly had asked him to go on. But, of course, with a time machine at his disposal, Cole has the idea of going back to 2014 before Dr. Toussaint is killed so that he can ask him about the Night Room. That is what is quickly decided, and so, Cole now has his mission for this episode. However, there is one major condition  — under no circumstances should Cole interact with the Dr. Railly from 2014. The reason is it’s imperative that she shows up at the John Adams Hotel in 2015 to save Cole’s life, and any interaction could end up preventing that from happening, thus causing Cole to cease to exist.

Before the future Cole even arrives in Haiti, we get some pretty good character development scenes with Dr. Railly, one of which is a serious WTF moment. First, we see that Dr. Railly has honest-to-God gone off the rails since her first meeting with Cole in 2013. She’s completely obsessed with outbreaks, and whenever one pops up — no matter how small — she has to be on site because she’s convinced this is “the one” that Cole was talking about that wipes out nearly all of humanity. It’s severely interfering with her relationship with Aaron (Noah Bean), and it’s making her appear like a total fruit loop in front of her colleagues. However, the one scene that shocked the crap out of me is the one where she kisses Dr. Toussaint at the hotel and presumably they have sex after having meet him just hours prior. What the hell! A little promiscuous, don’t you think? And, not a very nice thing to do to Aaron either. Aaron annoys the hell out of me, but Dr. Railly’s actions certainly didn’t earn her any brownie points in my book.

Once Cole arrives, that’s when things get interesting. Cole initially tries pulling Dr. Toussaint away from the medical tent on the pretense that the family he’s staying with is very ill and needs his help. But, with Dr. Railly approaching and not wanting her to spot him, he runs off and ends up having to intercept the doctor when he goes on the medical supply run (the one that he is killed on). As it turns out, Cole isn’t the only one in Haiti looking for Dr. Toussaint — Pale Man is there too. The one advantage Cole has in this situation is that it appears this is the first time Pale Man has met Cole.

You don’t know me, but you will! — Cole to Pale Man

At this point, Cole hits Pale Man in the face with a bottle, which leaves the conspicuous scar that we saw in the last episode. This causes Pale Man to run off, and so, Cole gets the alone time with Dr. Toussaint that he had hoped for so that can get the intel on the Night Room.

Unfortunately, the Night Room is a laboratory that is always on the move for security reasons. But, Dr. Toussaint does offer a possible way to track it down. Some new equipment had just been created that uses ultraviolet radiation to eradicate any virus — basically, if you find this souped-up piece of equipment, the Night Room won’t be far away. It’s not the location of the Night Room, but it’s definitely a good start.

Then, comes the big shocker of the episode. Dr. Toussaint isn’t killed by any Haitian gang, and not even by Pale Man, but by Cole himself. WTH? What. The. Hell! I don’t know about the rest of the audience but I was shocked beyond belief. Now, after regaining my composure and thinking about it for a moment, it did make some sense — Cole couldn’t risk anyone else, especially Pale Man, getting to Dr. Toussaint, and so, he had to kill him to protect the information on the Night Room. But, even still, WOW.

I absolutely loved this twist and ending, not only because it was completely unexpected, but for two other big reasons. First, did Dr. Jones give the order to kill Dr. Toussaint? I don’t remember hearing her tell Cole to do that. So, if she didn’t give the order, that means Cole has gone somewhat rogue and trying to make strategic decisions on his own — which, in my opinion, is very dangerous. Cole doesn’t have the intimate knowledge about time that Dr. Jones does, and his actions could very well be jeopardizing the entire mission.

Second, for those who have seen the original 12 Monkeys film, is this surprising turn of events starting to make the series appear more and more like the movie? As some of you know, I haven’t seen the film, but from what I know, one of the biggest premises is the fact that Cole actually brought on the disaster himself by going back in time — that is, if he had never gone back, all of the catastrophes would have never happened. This is the ultimate paradox, and I’m starting to see it in the series, at least on a small scale. Dr. Toussaint was murdered, but at the hand of Cole, which of course would have never occurred were it not for Cole’s time travels. And, what about Pale Man? I’m really beginning to question whether Pale Man would even be here if Cole hadn’t started asking about the Army of the 12 Monkeys, which may or may not have anything to do with the virus outbreak in the first place! And that brings me to an even bigger question — is Pale Man even from the present time? He wasn’t even phased when Cole punched him, and he seems a tad bit too strong for an old guy. Could he, too, actually be from the future like Cole? The future definitely would have the medical advancements to make an old guy move and fight like a younger man. Who knows. But, I’m definitely intrigued and can’t wait to find out the next piece in the puzzle. While the Pilot was very good and episode 2 was above average, this episode was great and is the one that has really pulled me in. From this point on, I’m here for the long haul.

12 Monkeys airs on Fridays at 9/8c on Syfy.

Critic Grade — A

NEXT WEEK ON “12 Monkeys” — Episode 1.04 “Atari”

We have known for some time that Todd Stashwick had been cast in this series. I absolutely love the actor, and so, I have been anxiously waiting for his character to show up. Stashwick is to portray Deacon, the leader of a group of scavengers called the West 7 marauders that Cole and Ramse used to be a part of. We see him only briefly at the very end of tonight’s episode, but with that smirk on his face, you just know this guy is going to be bad news.  And, it looks like next week’s episode will focus on this new baddie of the series, who I’m sure will cause nothing but trouble for Cole and his mission.

Official Synopsis of Episode 1.04 from Syfy: “A fight for the future ensues when a dangerous band of marauders hunting for Cole and Ramse threatens the mission to save the past.”

PHOTOS

 

 

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