12 Monkeys 2.10: The Drugging

A strong 12 Monkeys 2.10 last night, in which the larger story was about the Nazi origin of the villains who are trying to destroy time and the world in the future, but the micro-story was the fissioning of the relationship between Cole, Cassie, and Ramse.

This has been building up for a while.   But the straw that breaks our lead time-traveler's back is his drugging by Cassie and Ramse, after the doc technician in 2044 goes against Jones' order and sends the team back to the early 1960s not the late 1950s.

I don't blame Cole for being furious.  Actually drugging him to get their plan in action is a new low blow, whatever their conviction that their plan is the only way to go.  What this tells Cole is that he can no longer trust either his best friend or the woman he loves.

Worse, he had been indicating to Cassie that he loves her in the past few episodes.  We're supposed to think that Cassie on some level loves Cole, too, but her head being inhabited by the arch-villain has permanently messed up her soul to the point where she can't reciprocate.  Too bad, I like Cole and Cassie together.

Jennifer was completely out of this episode, and she and Jones are the only allies Cole has left.  I can't say reliable, because fortunately nothing is reliable in this set-up, but I certainly prefer Jennifer and her innate insanity to Cassie's, imposed and a consequence of her mind being inhabited.

Meanwhile, the two most important lasting consequences of the episode loom large in future.  Agent Gale will be missed - he was an excellent temporal character, in both times - though, come to think of it, he did tell Cole he's seen a lot of him, much to Cole's surprise, who recalls seeing him just once in the 1940s, and you know what that means in a time-travel tale: we may well see Gale again, and that's good (though will Cole warn Gale of his death in Germany? - tough call).  And the second is the piece torn off the wall map or whatever it was with the information about Titan.  Ramse has this. He's now under lock and key in the future.  But he won't be there for long ...

See also 12 Monkeys 2.1: Whatever Will Be, Will Be ... 12 Monkeys 2.2: The Serum ... 12 Monkeys 2.3: Primaries and Paradoxes ... 12 Monkeys 2.4: Saving Time ... 12 Monkeys 2.5: Jennifer's Story ... 12 Monkeys 2.6: "'Tis Death Is Dead" ... 12 Monkeys 2.7: Ultimate Universes ... 12 Monkeys 2.8: Time Itself Wants Time Travel ... 12 Monkeys 2.9: Hands On

And 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 ... 12 Monkeys 1.2: The Plunge ... 12 Monkeys Season 1 Finale: "Time Travel to Create Time Travel"

#SFWApro

podcast review of Predestination and 12 Monkeys