12 Monkeys, S03E02: Guardians
Jan. 16th, 2023 06:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annavereThey have now done Paris in the 20s. For as dark as it is, 12 Monkeys is becoming rather whimsical in its settings.
Okay, I laughed harder at Jennifer's opening parody of the "where are you right now?" speech than at any subsequent event. Loved the postcards and the leveraging of pop culture and the phonograph records. However, the sheer awfulness of how Cole and Katarina treat Jennifer almost feels out of character - at least for Cole, who has normally been the one to treat her like a human being (I'll have to chalk it up to the stress of losing Cassie and Ramse). And still she helps them with a distraction dance and everything. She's officially too good for these people.
It gets better when the day is erased and Cole uses the opportunity to fix his earlier mistake by giving Jennifer the greeting she deserved in the first place. They both remain fully aware how it originally went down, which seems important. Considering how Cole has craved ignorance of his actions through erasure from the beginning, I think this moment actually feeds into his later asking Jennifer where she wants to be and in acknowledging that he made a mistake with Cassie in 1959.
Speaking of, Cassie visits the museum of the Witness and is approached by a cultist who seems willing to help her. My first thought is it's a set up (though I thought that about Arianna last episode and was wrong), but we'll see. Her baby is now a parcel being shipped through time.
I find I have nothing much to say on plot developments because the enemy now have perfect cheat codes for any situation, which would seem to make winning impossible. It's hard to get invested in content analysis of this episode when all of that content got undone and left the heroes where they started. Though at least they know a little more. Thankfully, the steampunk nannies are considerably more menacing than the super strong Messengers, and now that I've written that sentence it sounds funny, but it's true. Also, the whole villain aesthetic has improved.
So why did the Messengers need to use Katarina's machine again?
Deacon is still dead. Jennifer slightly sad about it. No one else cares.
The Ramse plotline, with him bivouacking across the continent with Olivia and her followers, and threatening her at the drop of a hat (his hostility remains incredibly hot, sad to say), is alright. I should probably find Olivia a more interesting character than I do, considering she's now working her own agenda but I think the problem is she's so glacially composed at all points that it's hard to see her as anything more than a construct, engineered like a robot.
I was so dreading the Sam reunion, suspecting he would either be revealed as a dying old man or some psychopath who blamed Ramse for his entire existence, so I was pleasantly surprised by how upbeat (!) the scene turned out to be. Still a good kid, despite everything, and still with kind words for his father. Ramse so choked he can barely talk, mercy killing his own boy, and the scene was agonizing enough but all I can think is 'well, it could have been worse.' It's that kind of a show.
Then he turns up at Raritan with Olivia as a hostage. I have no idea if this is legit (Ramse, alas, is only ever on the side of revenge these days), but maybe Olivia will become a more interesting character if she's allowed to interact with the core group.
Okay, I laughed harder at Jennifer's opening parody of the "where are you right now?" speech than at any subsequent event. Loved the postcards and the leveraging of pop culture and the phonograph records. However, the sheer awfulness of how Cole and Katarina treat Jennifer almost feels out of character - at least for Cole, who has normally been the one to treat her like a human being (I'll have to chalk it up to the stress of losing Cassie and Ramse). And still she helps them with a distraction dance and everything. She's officially too good for these people.
It gets better when the day is erased and Cole uses the opportunity to fix his earlier mistake by giving Jennifer the greeting she deserved in the first place. They both remain fully aware how it originally went down, which seems important. Considering how Cole has craved ignorance of his actions through erasure from the beginning, I think this moment actually feeds into his later asking Jennifer where she wants to be and in acknowledging that he made a mistake with Cassie in 1959.
Speaking of, Cassie visits the museum of the Witness and is approached by a cultist who seems willing to help her. My first thought is it's a set up (though I thought that about Arianna last episode and was wrong), but we'll see. Her baby is now a parcel being shipped through time.
I find I have nothing much to say on plot developments because the enemy now have perfect cheat codes for any situation, which would seem to make winning impossible. It's hard to get invested in content analysis of this episode when all of that content got undone and left the heroes where they started. Though at least they know a little more. Thankfully, the steampunk nannies are considerably more menacing than the super strong Messengers, and now that I've written that sentence it sounds funny, but it's true. Also, the whole villain aesthetic has improved.
So why did the Messengers need to use Katarina's machine again?
Deacon is still dead. Jennifer slightly sad about it. No one else cares.
The Ramse plotline, with him bivouacking across the continent with Olivia and her followers, and threatening her at the drop of a hat (his hostility remains incredibly hot, sad to say), is alright. I should probably find Olivia a more interesting character than I do, considering she's now working her own agenda but I think the problem is she's so glacially composed at all points that it's hard to see her as anything more than a construct, engineered like a robot.
I was so dreading the Sam reunion, suspecting he would either be revealed as a dying old man or some psychopath who blamed Ramse for his entire existence, so I was pleasantly surprised by how upbeat (!) the scene turned out to be. Still a good kid, despite everything, and still with kind words for his father. Ramse so choked he can barely talk, mercy killing his own boy, and the scene was agonizing enough but all I can think is 'well, it could have been worse.' It's that kind of a show.
Then he turns up at Raritan with Olivia as a hostage. I have no idea if this is legit (Ramse, alas, is only ever on the side of revenge these days), but maybe Olivia will become a more interesting character if she's allowed to interact with the core group.
