12 Monkeys S04E04: Legacy
Mar. 4th, 2023 10:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
12 Monkeys goes Weird Western, Soap Opera and What the Actual Fuck.
After my earlier criticisms, opening with a Katarina monologue about the possibility of an afterlife was a bit of a shock. I feel I should mention that all my interest in religious/theological topics is purely speculative. Being agnostic, it's easier for me to engage with these concepts in fiction than reality, so I do that a lot.
The Elliot plotline is finally picked up again, long after I'd forgotten about it, and he makes a good impression, surprisingly three dimensional. On the one hand he's feckless, arrogant and immature. On the other hand, he jumps at the chance of fatherhood both times and courageously chooses to oppose the cult. The family reunion did a lot of heavy lifting and created a complex emotional center to this episode which I really enjoyed.
"They played to your ego, Elliot. It's a very simple instrument." Ouch.
Meanwhile, Jennifer, Cole and Katarina are hiding things which might be the tiniest bit important from each other. It's all dealt with by the end of the episode, and I honestly have a hard time believing even dying Katarina would be as maudlin as she is in the final "act as a family" scene, but at least it puts paid to all the secrecy.
The 1852 excursion is top to bottom ludicrous, and one of the least silly things is how Cole, Cassie and Jennifer all suddenly know how to ride horses. Handy.
Cole, Cassie and Hannah look tremendously good in western designer outfits and I feel Jennifer's pain as she gripes over being left out of the costuming.
My sense of humor is clearly not as sophisticated as I always believed, because Cole playing a Saturday Morning Cartoon version of a western hero had me cackling all through his laundry monologue. Sadly, upon shooting up the saloon ceiling like Yosemite Sam, he retires this ludicrous bit of paper-thin pretense. The joke is aided by the possibility that everyone in town is enacting the same charade.
Come to think of it, why wouldn't they build Titan in the future? I have to assume they imported all their labor anyway, so why run this surreal game on top of it? Eh, maybe it's the cultist equivalent of a Renaissance Fair.
The return of the Tall Man, not quite dead yet. Also, he's back to being sinister, which is... nice.
While on the run, a perfectly good brewing argument surrounding Jennifer's lost Primariness gets interrupted by an unwelcome return of the new age red tea blather from season two and I cede the floor when it comes to matters of stereotypes and problematic content to those more knowledgeable, so will just mention that I think Magical Native American Guy really did this episode no favors and move on.
Attempting to dynamite Titan. Well, I figured that wouldn't work, but it creates a fun action sequence. Elliot and Hannah get some good interaction. I really wish there had been a little more time for them together but along comes Deacon to rain on that parade. And how is the man who shot Elliot Jones not on the Word of the Witness?
In the end, it turns out Elliot's lab assistant Emma is Olivia's daughter. She's yet another deranged cultist, and sports a chilling thousand yard stare which screams abuse victim, but I'm not hoping for anything here. As much as I enjoy 12 Monkeys, the villains have been almost uniformly uninteresting and whenever any of them begin to accumulate layers or personal motives, those get scrubbed in short order. Of course, since the heroes act like villains half the time, this isn't really a problem for me. Right now I'm mostly sad Olivia has traded in her Lannister style for Palpatine (and the pulsating makeup is all kinds of yuck).
Seven episodes to go!
After my earlier criticisms, opening with a Katarina monologue about the possibility of an afterlife was a bit of a shock. I feel I should mention that all my interest in religious/theological topics is purely speculative. Being agnostic, it's easier for me to engage with these concepts in fiction than reality, so I do that a lot.
The Elliot plotline is finally picked up again, long after I'd forgotten about it, and he makes a good impression, surprisingly three dimensional. On the one hand he's feckless, arrogant and immature. On the other hand, he jumps at the chance of fatherhood both times and courageously chooses to oppose the cult. The family reunion did a lot of heavy lifting and created a complex emotional center to this episode which I really enjoyed.
"They played to your ego, Elliot. It's a very simple instrument." Ouch.
Meanwhile, Jennifer, Cole and Katarina are hiding things which might be the tiniest bit important from each other. It's all dealt with by the end of the episode, and I honestly have a hard time believing even dying Katarina would be as maudlin as she is in the final "act as a family" scene, but at least it puts paid to all the secrecy.
The 1852 excursion is top to bottom ludicrous, and one of the least silly things is how Cole, Cassie and Jennifer all suddenly know how to ride horses. Handy.
Cole, Cassie and Hannah look tremendously good in western designer outfits and I feel Jennifer's pain as she gripes over being left out of the costuming.
My sense of humor is clearly not as sophisticated as I always believed, because Cole playing a Saturday Morning Cartoon version of a western hero had me cackling all through his laundry monologue. Sadly, upon shooting up the saloon ceiling like Yosemite Sam, he retires this ludicrous bit of paper-thin pretense. The joke is aided by the possibility that everyone in town is enacting the same charade.
Come to think of it, why wouldn't they build Titan in the future? I have to assume they imported all their labor anyway, so why run this surreal game on top of it? Eh, maybe it's the cultist equivalent of a Renaissance Fair.
The return of the Tall Man, not quite dead yet. Also, he's back to being sinister, which is... nice.
While on the run, a perfectly good brewing argument surrounding Jennifer's lost Primariness gets interrupted by an unwelcome return of the new age red tea blather from season two and I cede the floor when it comes to matters of stereotypes and problematic content to those more knowledgeable, so will just mention that I think Magical Native American Guy really did this episode no favors and move on.
Attempting to dynamite Titan. Well, I figured that wouldn't work, but it creates a fun action sequence. Elliot and Hannah get some good interaction. I really wish there had been a little more time for them together but along comes Deacon to rain on that parade. And how is the man who shot Elliot Jones not on the Word of the Witness?
In the end, it turns out Elliot's lab assistant Emma is Olivia's daughter. She's yet another deranged cultist, and sports a chilling thousand yard stare which screams abuse victim, but I'm not hoping for anything here. As much as I enjoy 12 Monkeys, the villains have been almost uniformly uninteresting and whenever any of them begin to accumulate layers or personal motives, those get scrubbed in short order. Of course, since the heroes act like villains half the time, this isn't really a problem for me. Right now I'm mostly sad Olivia has traded in her Lannister style for Palpatine (and the pulsating makeup is all kinds of yuck).
Seven episodes to go!
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