Last week’s episode left both Cole (Aaron Stanford) and Ramse (Kirk Acevedo) in a pretty bad place, especially for Ramse. He discovers that he helped slaughter the very people who had worked so hard to find a cure, and in effect, gave Dr. Jones (Barbara Sukowa) even more power, the very woman who if successful in her mission will cause his son to cease to exist. Oh, and by the way, his best friend, Cole, kicked him to the curb over a woman. But, we’ve seen what kind of man Ramse is, and so, we should have guessed that Ramse wasn’t going to take all of this sitting down. In just a matter of days, he’s gained a family, and there was no way he was going to lose it without a fight. Tonight’s episode is round 1 of this new war between Cole and Ramse, and from the looks of things, Ramse may have gotten the upper hand on this one.

YEAR 2015 — MEET CASSIE AND AARON AS THE NEW BONNIE AND CLYDE

The episode begins somewhat uneventful in the year 2015. Aaron (Noah Bean) and Cassie (Amanda Schull) believe they have destroyed the virus, and they can go back to just being, you know, them. It is nice. For the first time in a while, Cassie seems happy. The girl has been through hell, and so, she definitely deserves it.

But, of course, that moment is short-lived. Within a matter of minutes, Cole barges through the door, and the nightmare begins all over again. Cassie is just shocked beyond belief that he’s still alive, but Aaron is actually pretty pissed.

The fact that he’s here…again. He has no idea how to stop this — Aaron

A big argument erupts about how pointless it is to continue this mission, but Cassie ultimately sees no choice — she has to push on. She has to start again and find the true source of the plague. Of course, Aaron is adamantly against it but has that stopped Cassie before? It didn’t then, and it won’t now.

So, where does Cassie go next in her quest for the plague? She finally decides that Leland Goines’ “rolling stone,” Dr. Peters, might be a good starting point since he is the one who developed the virus. Track Dr. Peters down, kill him, problem solved (now haven’t we heard THAT a hundred times before!). First stop is Dr. Peters’ last known address. Someone is there, but unfortunately, that someone is very dead. What’s more it’s not even Dr. Peters but his husband, Jason.  He had also been dead for a while, with full decomp set in but somewhat masked with some lovely lavender petals. Yes, the Pallid Man had been there, and as always, is one step ahead of the good guys.

But, the trip to Dr. Peters’ place isn’t a complete bust. Cassie stumbles on Dr. Peters’ private journal which is full of all sorts of goodies. There’s mention of the Annapuma Remains, as well as when Leland Goines first obtains the virus. It’s November 21, 1987 in Toyko at a nightclub called the Night Dragon, a place that we had heard before. Cole now knows where he needs to go next, but there’s not a lot of time to chat about it because he almost immediately splinters after that.

Cassie is on her own now — or is she? This is when Cassie asks Aaron to team up with her, and honestly, it’s one of my favorite parts of the episode. I love the look on Aaron’s face — he’s not keen on the idea at all, but at the same time, he seems flattered that Cassie wants to work with him (instead of Cole, of course). Say “hello” to the next Bonnie and Clyde , and what a lovely team they make.

They still have the problem of tracking down Dr. Peters, and so, this is where Cassie and Aaron start. If Peters is creating a virus, he’ll need animals to test it on, and so, Cassie, being the smart cookie that she is, is able to locate him pretty quickly by finding out where animals that would be the most optimal for testing were shipped to recently. This leads them to a storage facility, and Aaron and Cassie split up to search the containers.

Cassie finds Dr. Peters and his make-shift lab first, but unfortunately, it’s too late. The virus is done, and it has already transferred hands. In addition, Dr. Peters is just about at his wit’s end. They had threatened to kill his husband if he didn’t create the virus, and all of it was for nothing because they killed Jason anyways. He is beyond despondent with the news and begs Cassie to kill him, but she refuses. The damage is already done, he created the virus, so what purpose would there be for killing him now.

Outside, Aaron runs into his own trouble. Remember the Striking Woman from “The Red Forest” who likes to chant about walking through the red forest and the grass is tall. Yeah, she’s back, and the only thing she really does is give Aaron something interesting to think about. She says that Dr. Railly is very important, and she must be protected at all costs.

Tell me, what are you willing to do to keep her alive? — Striking Woman to Aaron

So, what exactly does this mean? We don’t get to hear the rest of their conversation, and so, we don’t know what she told Aaron to do (if anything). Could she be implying that Aaron needs to kill Cole? Cole certainly seems to be the reason why Cassie keeps dying over and over again, and so that would make sense. Guess we’ll have to wait until next week to get an answer on that one.

One good thing did some out of this little mission — they got the date of the time and place where Leland Goines first obtained the virus, which gives Cole his next destination. 1987, here we come, but first we have to deal with some drama in present-day 2043….

YEAR 2043 — THE COLE/RAMSE HONEYMOON IS OVER

As soon as we met Elena (Amy Sloan) and Sam for the first time in “Yesterday,” I knew at least one of them was toast. I’m sure most of the viewers thought the same thing. Well, tonight, we do lose Elena, which sets in motion a chain reaction of events that will likely end Ramse and Cole’s friendship forever and quite possibly put the mission in serious jeopardy.

After the big fallout between Ramse and Cole at the end of the last episode, Ramse leaves with Elena and Sam and takes them to another survivor camp where he thinks (or hopes rather) that they will be safe. But, before he leaves Jones’ base, he decides to do some much-needed “housecleaning.” In Ramse’s eyes, the “mission” is a total sham and even if Jones is successful, that would mean losing Sam and he wasn’t going to let that happen. So, he takes the injections Dr. Jones gives to Cole before a splinter and burns the big billboard they are using to track the clues of the origin of the virus. At the very least, without the injections Cole can’t do any more jumps, and if Cole can’t go back, his son is safe. Nice plan — at least on the surface.

But, of course, as we might suspect, it goes completely sideways and backfires. After they arrive at the new survivor camp, Ramse is distracted by a group of nomads passing by. What gets his attention immediately is the symbol of the Army of the 12 Monkeys on the side of one of their wagons. He is told by one of the survivors that they are a group of nomads — all women — called “The Daughters,” (cough, cough, that should ring a bell given Jennifer Goines’ little speech in last week’s episode where she makes reference to “daughters”) but Ramse has to see for himself, and so, he follows them. When he arrives at their camp, a very strange-looking woman steps out, and at first, I didn’t recognize her. But, as soon as she uttered the all-familiar phrase, “12’s not primary,” I knew it was our crazy Jennifer (Emily Hampshire), but about 30 years older.

Ramse asks about the 12 Monkeys symbol on their caravan and wants to know what she can tell him about the plague. Jennifer’s response is the only person who knows how the plague started is “The Witness,” (which begs the question once again of who in the hell is this Witness), but she also immediately asks to see Cole. She goes on to say if Ramse can take her to Cole, she can give him what he needs. Of course, at this point, Ramse is very confused. How did this crazy woman know Cole, and better yet, how does she know what he needs?

She then hands him Pallid Man’s (Tom Noonan) necklace, the same one she tore off his neck in “The Night Room,” and gives a very chilling speech:

Wait. There’s something you need to know. Today, something happens that will change things for you. They say things happen for a reason. That’s a lie! Death can be the cause & the effect. That’s how it works. Mastering the minds, you’re ready. It’s time to go. — Jennifer to Ramse

 

Unknown to Ramse, while he is there talking to Jennifer, Whitley (Demore Barnes) and Co. are attacking the survivor camp in an effort to retrieve the injections, and Elena is killed in the crossfire. Is that what Jennifer was talking about when she said something will happen today that will change Ramse forever? But, how does Jennifer know these things before they happen? Is she some kind of psychic? Not likely. A more plausible explanation is there’s a whole slew of splinters that Cole did where he told Jennifer about certain future events, but we haven’t seen those jumps happen yet (as a sidenote, it must have been really handy for Jennifer to seemingly be able to foretell future events. No wonder she eventually became viewed as a soothsayer or shaman, and people began following her).

The entire thing spooks Ramse out enough to where he runs back to the camp, only to find Sam sitting over his dead mother’s body. What a sad, heart-wrenching scene! At this very moment, everything changes for Ramse, and it becomes his personal mission to stop Cole and make sure his son is not erased. To hell with the plague — Ramse’s got a real future, right now, with a son he never knew he had. Cole can take the plague and his “mission” and shove them up his ass.

You’re not alone. You always got me. I’ll always protect you. Always. I got to do something, go away for a bit. But, I promise you, I’m going to come back — Ramse to Sam

Next step, Ramse is back at the doors of Jones’ compound, seemingly willing to deliver the injections that Whitley tried to take by force. I think most of us could smell the trap a mile away, but Jones is desperate and lets him in. It is also particularly interesting that Whitley outright defies Jones and refuses to attack Ramse and take the injections by force. Whitley doesn’t like what Jones made him do, which ultimately got Elena killed and made Sam motherless. Is Whitley starting to come around and see Jones’ crazy antics for what they are?

As we all knew, Ramse isn’t there to return the injections and immediately attacks the compound. His first course of action is to put explosives on the time machine — no time machine, no more jumps, his future with his son is intact. There is a huge fire fight, Max (yes, Max is still there, but honestly, I had forgotten about her) is mortally wounded, but again, interestingly enough, Ramse spares Whitley. Ramse learned that Whitley executed the man who killed Elena, and so, he knows that Whitley isn’t entirely on board with Jones’ scheming and dreaming.

What happens next is totally utterly shocking and unexpected. Jones is able to get to the explosives and deactivate them — no surprises there. Here, Ramse makes a decision that I don’t think anyone could have seen coming.

I promised my son I’d always protect him. I can’t do it now, so I’ll do it then — Ramse to Jones

Then, Ramse injects himself, gets on the time machine, and he’s officially on his way to the pre-programmed date of 1987 in Toyko, Japan. Cole still hasn’t fully recovered from his last jump, but it’s now critical that he follow Ramse and stop him before he destroys the mission altogether.

There are 2 very important (and very unpleasant) ramifications of what just happened. First, Jones didn’t have time to lock on Ramse’s exact coordinates, and so, there is no way to bring him back. I.E. — the trip Ramse just elected to take is 1-way. I wonder what he would think if he knew that. Second, Cole’s molecular structure is so damaged that Jones is certain this will be Cole’s last trip.

1987 is the endgame. You must find the source of the plague and you must eliminate it — Jones to Cole

No pressure, Cole, right?

THE VERDICT

All in all, I liked this episode. There was a ton of character development, and the entire cast’s performances were phenomenal.  However, there was one that stood out from the rest, and that is Emily Hampshire. Wow. Wow. Wow. This girl has done a stellar job from the very beginning, but this episode illustrated just what a wide range she has. She can be this giddy girl babbling on about complete nonsense one minute and turn around and be this serious, devoted scientist the next as we saw in flashbacks in “The Night Room.” But, as we saw in this episode, she can also flip the switch once again and morph into this old, decrepit soothsayer but with a tiny age of crazy. It’s highly unlikely she’ll ever get an Emmy nomination for the role because, well, this is Syfy, but that doesn’t mean she’s not deserving of it. I can’t wait to see what more she can do in these final 3 episodes of the season.

Nevertheless, next week should be a pretty intense. Cole is walking on some seriously thin ice. When he gets to 1987, he’s going to be under the gun to find the virus, but he’s also going to be facing other issues that he hadn’t had to deal with before. Ramse is going to be on his tail, and if his son is at stake, it wouldn’t surprise me if he tried to kill Cole. And, what about Aaron in 2015? What’s he planning on doing, and will his actions interfere so much as to derail the mission altogether?

12 Monkeys  airs on Fridays at 10/9c on Syfy.

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