12 Monkeys S04E05: After
Mar. 7th, 2023 09:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annavereIn which it turns out the best time traveler isn't a time traveler and someone should seriously have won an award for the creation of this episode.
I can't even choose a favorite moment or line of dialogue, but perhaps nothing had the cathartic delight of Robert Gale successfully gaming the system. "Fate, my ass." He owned this episode - except so did everyone else who walked into the hotel. He was so good at everything, and so quick on the uptake with all the looping craziness. And the Gale and Jennifer show! This feels like the perfect ending for Gale (and so uplifting), so I hope he's finished, yet still want more.
The script and the editing were incredibly tight. A couple of minutes to set things up, and then they're off to the races. Nothing lets up, every single detail is perfect and the loops are so tightly packed it's dizzying how completely it works. Nothing feels contrived or forced to conform to a necessary plot point.
Oh, and the Summer in the City transition is my favorite bit of incidental music on the entire show, and I doubt it will be beaten.
This was a Cole/Cassie episode all the way, and unlike most of the previous ones focused on them, this time it really worked for me, from the intimacy of their sex scene to the anguish of watching each other die. It was an emotional powerhouse and Cassie got all the great pessimistic lines which totally resonated with my recent plot-induced doldrums. "If we're lucky - and history has proven we're not." "There are two ways this goes." "It's not all that matters." Etc. Even when she's shown wavering at the end, I completely love her. She's been through so much.
I have been frequently annoyed by the show's villains. For the most part, they lack either off the chart charisma or persuasive human motivation, and consequently they're just kind of there. Olivia showed promise last season but that's gone now. However, Zalman Shaw has risen above the crowd and become the exemplar of the cult. He has the Tall Man's genial smile, but with him it doesn't appear to be entirely a front. He's human, with motives of loss and Miltonian rebellion, and this makes him persuasive and far more scary when he starts torturing Cole and Cassie.
Cole having a vision of a beach when his heart stopped beating really spun me. I suspect this is plot related, and Cassie dismisses it as an hallucination, but I'm so thrilled they finally went there and addressed that whole afterlife idea. So now Cole believes in the possibility and Cassie doesn't, which creates an interesting philosophical split between them and their motivations, hence that final scene where Cassie kind of gets where Shaw is coming from. Cole and Cassie both believe the only time they have together is now, but it sure means different things to them. Neat.
Deacon is once again a scene stealer as he drapes himself over some random loser and sweet talks the suitcase everybody's been chasing into his grasp. Then his confrontation with Jennifer, returning her sly wink on his way out the door, singing his song. Marvelous.
I am less than thrilled about the writers finally setting up a WWII visit, though I guess it's logical. I shall hope for very few Nazis.
I can't even choose a favorite moment or line of dialogue, but perhaps nothing had the cathartic delight of Robert Gale successfully gaming the system. "Fate, my ass." He owned this episode - except so did everyone else who walked into the hotel. He was so good at everything, and so quick on the uptake with all the looping craziness. And the Gale and Jennifer show! This feels like the perfect ending for Gale (and so uplifting), so I hope he's finished, yet still want more.
The script and the editing were incredibly tight. A couple of minutes to set things up, and then they're off to the races. Nothing lets up, every single detail is perfect and the loops are so tightly packed it's dizzying how completely it works. Nothing feels contrived or forced to conform to a necessary plot point.
Oh, and the Summer in the City transition is my favorite bit of incidental music on the entire show, and I doubt it will be beaten.
This was a Cole/Cassie episode all the way, and unlike most of the previous ones focused on them, this time it really worked for me, from the intimacy of their sex scene to the anguish of watching each other die. It was an emotional powerhouse and Cassie got all the great pessimistic lines which totally resonated with my recent plot-induced doldrums. "If we're lucky - and history has proven we're not." "There are two ways this goes." "It's not all that matters." Etc. Even when she's shown wavering at the end, I completely love her. She's been through so much.
I have been frequently annoyed by the show's villains. For the most part, they lack either off the chart charisma or persuasive human motivation, and consequently they're just kind of there. Olivia showed promise last season but that's gone now. However, Zalman Shaw has risen above the crowd and become the exemplar of the cult. He has the Tall Man's genial smile, but with him it doesn't appear to be entirely a front. He's human, with motives of loss and Miltonian rebellion, and this makes him persuasive and far more scary when he starts torturing Cole and Cassie.
Cole having a vision of a beach when his heart stopped beating really spun me. I suspect this is plot related, and Cassie dismisses it as an hallucination, but I'm so thrilled they finally went there and addressed that whole afterlife idea. So now Cole believes in the possibility and Cassie doesn't, which creates an interesting philosophical split between them and their motivations, hence that final scene where Cassie kind of gets where Shaw is coming from. Cole and Cassie both believe the only time they have together is now, but it sure means different things to them. Neat.
Deacon is once again a scene stealer as he drapes himself over some random loser and sweet talks the suitcase everybody's been chasing into his grasp. Then his confrontation with Jennifer, returning her sly wink on his way out the door, singing his song. Marvelous.
I am less than thrilled about the writers finally setting up a WWII visit, though I guess it's logical. I shall hope for very few Nazis.
no subject
Date: 2023-03-09 02:16 am (UTC)I shall hope for very few Nazis.
Well...I'll just say the next episode is probably the one I rewatch the most often.
no subject
Date: 2023-03-09 01:24 pm (UTC)