12 Monkeys S04E03: 45 RPM
Feb. 27th, 2023 06:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annavereA mixed bag of great concepts and things I am beginning to really struggle with, although possibly that's just my mood. This was mostly an Olivia episode, with the Raritan group missing. The Olivia stuff was good. It was the B plot I had trouble with, along with the overarching (overwhelming?) motif of fate.
I do not like Olivia but she's become a fairly interesting character by this point, and this episode's double twist involving her and her mother Messenger was well crafted. I also enjoyed the current Olivia struggling with her new role as the Witness when she has none of the necessary credentials and was sorry that turned out to be a one-episode deal, as she's now amped up and confident of all the answers.
Cassie is completely marvelous in this episode, having perfectly synthesized the warring aspects of her personality. She's the stone cold killer capable of single-handedly storming a mansion, yet she retains her humanity enough to attempt the free will argument (sigh) on Olivia and empathize with her worst enemy for seemingly being in the same situation she was in. And then the crushing blow when once again it turns out that being able to time travel doesn't change anything unless it was already supposed to be changed. It must be existentially horrifying, and maybe that's going to be addressed soon. It's beginning to get really depressing.
Basically, nobody has any free will. At all. They think they do, but they don't. Cassie's desire for vengeance overriding her other instincts should be impactful, and I can certainly see how she made the decision. Olivia mocking her with Athan's murder, while standing before her with the black eyes last seen when she took Aaron's form, plus Cassie having been taught to shoot by Deacon (who also drilled into her head the mantra "let them live, create an enemy") and basically all of Cassie's dead are given a place in this scene, which therefore should give it a lot of emotional impact. However, that is undercut by Olivia's gloating about Fate's stranglehold on events, which makes all of those character details cease to drive the scene. Cassie shoots because Cassie shoots.
Extrapolating from this point, Cassie didn't overcome her darkest instincts and choose to save Katarina - Fate did. The Witness lied about the date of Ramse's death because that's what the Witness had to do - Cole didn't change anything by saving him because it was always going to happen. I love these people and I'm being told by the overarching narrative that they have never done anything of their own when it's their own damn story.
Or maybe Olivia is successfully gaslighting me.
In the B plot, Jennifer gets rescued a split second before the train hits her by future!Cole, looking ever so world-weary. But, as much as I'm delighted that Interpol Varys is not another creepy cultist, and thus has the chance to be an interesting character, I am not that wild about the MacGuffin angle. It's possible I missed all the clues leading to this moment, but it seems to have come out of nowhere. Cole could have solved the whole thing at the start if he'd had this magical trinket presented to him, but he didn't so we just watched the characters go in circles for three seasons, and I'm a little blindsided by how philosophically distressing I find this. Hell, even the villains don't have any real agency.
Aside from that, I did enjoy this episode. It had good action, a fun score and Deacon has once more proven himself indestructible. The looping nature of everything in this world does mean that Cassie inadvertently got to save Deacon after all, via showing up in Olivia's memories and tipping her off that the group survived her death ray. This makes me happy.
Deacon doesn't appear to see it that way. He's pissed. I hope that's partly for Olivia's benefit, but even if he's playing up to avoid getting executed, I doubt there's much acting required. He does have abandonment issues.
I was developing a theory about Olivia's head priest, who survived the Paradox explosion and was left with a cloudy eye that matches the pickled Himalayan mummy containing the original virus (which I always figured would turn out to be the corpse of a time traveler). But Olivia killed him (she's getting more kill-crazy lately) so I guess that's out.
Meanwhile, Titan is a doomsday device. Olivia has a kid for some reason. Bad tidings are afoot.
I do not like Olivia but she's become a fairly interesting character by this point, and this episode's double twist involving her and her mother Messenger was well crafted. I also enjoyed the current Olivia struggling with her new role as the Witness when she has none of the necessary credentials and was sorry that turned out to be a one-episode deal, as she's now amped up and confident of all the answers.
Cassie is completely marvelous in this episode, having perfectly synthesized the warring aspects of her personality. She's the stone cold killer capable of single-handedly storming a mansion, yet she retains her humanity enough to attempt the free will argument (sigh) on Olivia and empathize with her worst enemy for seemingly being in the same situation she was in. And then the crushing blow when once again it turns out that being able to time travel doesn't change anything unless it was already supposed to be changed. It must be existentially horrifying, and maybe that's going to be addressed soon. It's beginning to get really depressing.
Basically, nobody has any free will. At all. They think they do, but they don't. Cassie's desire for vengeance overriding her other instincts should be impactful, and I can certainly see how she made the decision. Olivia mocking her with Athan's murder, while standing before her with the black eyes last seen when she took Aaron's form, plus Cassie having been taught to shoot by Deacon (who also drilled into her head the mantra "let them live, create an enemy") and basically all of Cassie's dead are given a place in this scene, which therefore should give it a lot of emotional impact. However, that is undercut by Olivia's gloating about Fate's stranglehold on events, which makes all of those character details cease to drive the scene. Cassie shoots because Cassie shoots.
Extrapolating from this point, Cassie didn't overcome her darkest instincts and choose to save Katarina - Fate did. The Witness lied about the date of Ramse's death because that's what the Witness had to do - Cole didn't change anything by saving him because it was always going to happen. I love these people and I'm being told by the overarching narrative that they have never done anything of their own when it's their own damn story.
Or maybe Olivia is successfully gaslighting me.
In the B plot, Jennifer gets rescued a split second before the train hits her by future!Cole, looking ever so world-weary. But, as much as I'm delighted that Interpol Varys is not another creepy cultist, and thus has the chance to be an interesting character, I am not that wild about the MacGuffin angle. It's possible I missed all the clues leading to this moment, but it seems to have come out of nowhere. Cole could have solved the whole thing at the start if he'd had this magical trinket presented to him, but he didn't so we just watched the characters go in circles for three seasons, and I'm a little blindsided by how philosophically distressing I find this. Hell, even the villains don't have any real agency.
Aside from that, I did enjoy this episode. It had good action, a fun score and Deacon has once more proven himself indestructible. The looping nature of everything in this world does mean that Cassie inadvertently got to save Deacon after all, via showing up in Olivia's memories and tipping her off that the group survived her death ray. This makes me happy.
Deacon doesn't appear to see it that way. He's pissed. I hope that's partly for Olivia's benefit, but even if he's playing up to avoid getting executed, I doubt there's much acting required. He does have abandonment issues.
I was developing a theory about Olivia's head priest, who survived the Paradox explosion and was left with a cloudy eye that matches the pickled Himalayan mummy containing the original virus (which I always figured would turn out to be the corpse of a time traveler). But Olivia killed him (she's getting more kill-crazy lately) so I guess that's out.
Meanwhile, Titan is a doomsday device. Olivia has a kid for some reason. Bad tidings are afoot.
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Date: 2023-02-27 11:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-02-28 02:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-02-28 05:08 pm (UTC)