12 Monkeys Season Three Begins

[annavere]

Everyone on the 12 Monkeys Rewatch appear to hate this episode with a fiery vengeance. I thought it was mostly pretty fascinating. So...

Stunning visuals of the dead future world Cole's busy running around in. Cole nearly killing himself in his single-minded fury and going nose to nose with a furious Katarina threatening to put him down like a rabid dog was a treat. Cole doing battle with Hannah, likewise.

Best of all, Cole meeting his future self, giving him a chance to decompress and communicate his pain in a scene which goes from highly amusing to completely heartbreaking in a matter of minutes. Cole asking himself what the point even is, if they can't fight fate, and finally addressing his original hope of erasure. His absolute fury at having erased the only life he wanted and future Cole telling him to forgive himself for things he hasn't even done yet. The power of this scene was incredible.

"There's a beginning and there's an end to all this. And all you and I are ever gonna have is what's in between."

New theory on how this show might end. The only way they can save the world is to get to the ending. At which point, having played the whole thing out, they will finally know what happened and why, and might be able to make a difference. Until then, it's not gonna work because it's not supposed to.

Future Cassie showing up briefly, probably meant to reassure the audience that she won't be dying from the Handmaid's Tale crap she's going through in Titan as much as anything.

I did find Cassie's plot somewhat interesting, primarily because the obvious solution (as it were) was so uncomfortable to posit that even I balked at the thought, and then the show did it for me when Cassie took a header rather than let the cult get her child, choosing death rather than gamble on a rescue that might come too late. All for naught, and all very horrifying. The closest comparison among shows I've actually seen would be Game of Thrones, with Titan as a futuristic King's Landing and lots of gratuitous stabbing of sympathetic people. It's not what I want from this show, and they could have completely lost the birthing scene and I'd have been happy, but the core ethical concept powering it and the question of how Cassie is keeping her own sense of self in such a hopeless circumstance are kind of interesting.

No indication of what happened to Ramse. Deacon still dead. Jennifer's rendition of 99 Luftballoons is perfection.

Comments

[killabeez]

I had to go read our comments to see what we said, and I note that I didn't say much—but I think what we all reacted to was specifically the Cassie-in-Titan part. For me, it's just a trope (magical baby!) that I'm so sick of, I've quit several shows over it in the past. It's my least favorite part of Angel the Series, I quit BSG and X-Files because of it, and childbirth scenes (especially forced childbirth/childbirth without emotional support) are hugely triggering for me. (I've never watched that Gabrielle arc in Xena without fast forwarding basically the whole thing.) But all that said, I agree with you, the rest of this episode is great. And so much happens in it!

The only part of Cassie-in Titan I do love is the moment when she chooses death rather than being used, and it's dramatically effective if awful that the choice gets taken away from her. But all that said, as much as I don't "enjoy" this particular section of plot, I didn't give up on this show the way I have on others because it felt vital to the story, and also, it didn't go on too long. It's still viscerally horrifying, but it didn't feel to me like a season 8 "we don't know what else to do with this female character" thing, as it has in other shows. (And I should note, in the rewatch I was kind of strong-arming two good friends into watching it, and all three of us have expressed how sick we are of magical baby in the past, so I knew this episode was going to be tough for them. I was trying to assure them, yes, this part is tough, but hang in there with me! :)

[annavere]

I can certainly understand that reaction. I watch so few shows that my exposure to the trope is thankfully limited, but it isn't easy to deal with when it crops up.

Considering that Angel centered two seasons in a row on magical babies, I'm curious why you didn't bail?

[killabeez]

I actually started watching Angel at season 5! I had multiple friends who were really into it at the time, so I'd watched tons of vids and heard about most of the storylines, so I knew mostly what I was getting into—but it was Spike who got me to watch. (I also came late to Buffy, getting hooked by the musical episode and starting in S6. Souled Spike was apparently my kryptonite.)

I also ended up loving Darla like mad, so I tolerated the trope—and as previously mentioned, the Jasmine storyline hit some of my favorite narrative notes. I think X-Files and BSG just left me gunshy.