An unusually paradoxical episode of 12 Monkeys tonight - 1.12, with the self-referential #12, aptly named "Paradox" - which actually artfully skirted with paradox, rather than plunged right into it - except once - which could have torn the story asunder.Other than the plunge, the closest to actual paradox was Cole as a boy nearly meeting Cole the adult hero of our story - the TVs show's nod to the incandescent airport scene at the end of the movie. In the metaphysics of the television show, two people meeting themselves like that - that is, an older and younger version of the same person - could have catastrophic physical consequences, that go beyond the psychological, philosophical loops of suddenly remembering meeting your earlier self, and the infinite mirror-of-mirror regress that could/would result from that.
But there are lots of other goodies. Cole's father meets his grown son, and sacrifices his life to save him. Young Cole meets young Ramse - and, remember, based on what we saw last week, adult Ramse is now on hand in this time, too. Most enjoyably, we meet a younger Jones, and Railly is crucial in starting Jones on her pivotal career. (I guess I have to now admit that I was wrong that Jones was really an older Railly - would have been a nice twist.) We also learn about the piece of paper passed between Railly and Cole in an earlier episode - it contains the address of where the young Cole is now, i.e., where he is 2015.
The logic of the value of the young Cole to our story is sound - his blood can save the older Cole, nothing like getting a little transfusion or even just a shot of antibodies from your younger self, a plunge of antibodies to counter the ravages of time travel, if the plunge itself doesn't kill you. In this sense, the son was truly and literally father to the man, or the man that the older Cole will now continue to be.
The death of Cole's father, sad as it was to both young and older Cole, was a noble sacrifice to the time travel story, down to the way that Railly handled it. Unclear, though, is what happened exactly to the Witness - was he blown to bits in the profound wrenching in time/space when older Cole injected himself with his younger self's blood? Was he a casualty of the plunge of that needle? If so, we still don't know exactly who he was - the closest we've come is Ramse's word at the end of the last episode that he knows the identity of the Witness.
Lots of wheels within wheels turning in impossible directions for next week's season finale.
See also this Italian review, w/reference to Hawking and my story, "The Chronology Protection Case"
And see also 12 Monkeys series on SyFy: Paradox Prominent and Excellent ...12 Monkeys 1.2: Your Future, His Past ... 12 Monkeys 1.3: Paradoxes, Lies, and Near Intersections ... 12 Monkeys 1.4: "Uneasy Math" ... 12 Monkeys 1.5: The Heart of the Matter ... 12 Monkeys 1.6: Can I Get a Witness? ... 12 Monkeys 1.7: Snowden, the Virus, and the Irresistible ... 12 Monkeys 1.8: Intelligent Vaccine vs. Time Travel ... 12 Monkeys 1.9: Shelley, Keats, and Time Travel ... 12 Monkey 1.10: The Last Jump ... 12 Monkeys 1.11: What-Ifs
podcast review of Predestination and 12 Monkeys
three time travel novels: the Sierra Waters trilogy
What if the Soviet Union survived into the 21st century,
and Eddie and the Cruisers were a real band?
The Chronology Protection Case movie
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#SFWApro
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