12 Monkeys Finale: The Beginning

[annavere]

My DVDs have this featured as one block, so we watched it all in one go and then I watched the whole thing again, like any sensible person. I will say it all here. The first half is all action and adoration. The second is an art house question mark which nevertheless answered my most pressing question about this story. Lots of thoughts, and then some...

Athan! More charming than he has ever been. Discussing arrogance and selfishness with his own great-grandmother? The two of them having a civil conversation? This is like a scene from fanfic in the best possible way.

The meeting scene is so intensely quiet, with the dim lighting and lowered voices. Changing the recipe from kill one bad guy to kill one good guy? A stroke of genius. Amanda Schull is as amazing as ever with Cassie's reaction to the news. I got chills.

Cole is truly a hero. Him cutting off Katarina's self-pitying speech and cutting through everyone's defeatism is so good. This is his test: To commit to true erasure. It makes sense that this would be the answer, where it all leads. And his relationship with Cassie has come so far, as neither of them avoid the conversation that needs to happen. There is no fobbing her off with 'we'll discuss this after Titan.' Nothing passive-aggressive, all their feelings right on the table.

Then the total cuteness of "I have a plan."

Ramse! And it's Cassie's idea! I laughed in delight both times I watched this sequence. It is perfection, and Ramse's nonplussed reaction turning to rage, the two of them tussling until it finally turns into a cooldown hug - and suddenly my laughter is on the edge of tears. My favorite Cole/Ramse scene, hands down.

Cassie's face while watching them and the reveal that she had her gun ready. Damn, I missed this...

Perfect reactions all around when Ramse walks into the office. The breakthrough this episode represents, of them finally realizing the full capabilities of time, and making it work for them instead of reacting to outward events, is pure joy.

However, I am sincerely confused by where Matthew was keeping his car, how Cole knew about it, where it was in relation to Raritan, etc. I should have paid more attention when he was introduced in season one, clearly.

Cole/Cassie take a moment for themselves on the beach. Gorgeous imagery. They were firing on all cylinders in the production house for this one, and the score in this episode is the best it's ever been.

Red tea callback. Jennifer baiting Olivia and Katarina playing on her fears is so earned. These two women know Olivia best, and now they can leverage it.

Ramse requesting a good song to die. <3 Their entire shock and awe plan is so much fun. Sometimes action movie setpieces don't do it for me, feeling contrived or breaking character for the sake of kicking ass, but this one rules. It's a team effort, and everyone's role works on well-established lines.

Alright, the 15 minute countdown is a little silly.

Katarina: "I am standing for this." Damn right.

Adler is cut down at last, the darkest hour arrives and then... Max! Yes, I was genuinely super excited to see Max. Admittedly, this sows fresh confusion, because if she's still with Deacon, they haven't found Raritan yet, meaning their later/prior attack on the facility is to some extent scripted? Anyway, still delighted to see her.

Jennifer's DJing is superb. My new favorite Jennifer moment, perhaps. "A face for radio!" LOL.

Deacon! Deacon's song! Deacon's army! The surprise of his entrance was somewhat stolen by Ramse doing it first, so in this case the twist lies in which Deacon it is: The best one if you need some castles stormed and some killing done. Again, they make time work for them.

And of course it has to be Cassie, the one most tempted by what the Red Forest was supposed to offer, who reaches the machine. Alright, there's the Jennifer 'gets knocked out, misses final showdown' cliche, and the 'beats person instead of killing them' cliche, but the emotions are earned, and that shot of Cassie looking out over the end of the world is striking in its beauty and horror. This is her test.

Although realistically, that final minute was up ages ago. Cole sure gives a nice speech, though. :)

Olivia's ending is gruesome and karmic.

One last Cassie/Deacon moment, reminding me how much I still love them. I am unsure what this alteration to causality does to his earlier villainy. I'll have to see what I think when I rewatch 'Atari.'

Ramse returning to the moment of his death finally addresses my huge problem with the concept of free will and time travel. His relaxed pose when he takes his place in the chair is when it clicked for me: Each of them commit to their endings out of love, in the belief that their sacrifice is worth it. Ramse, Hannah, Jennifer and Cassie finish their stories insuring that the correct path is taken. They know and they choose.

Ramse: "I wanna save [my goodbye] for the one who needs it." <3 And his "I'll see you soon" was plainly his tiny way of trying to tell Cole that they would have one more moment.

And of course Jennifer's send off is to applause. And Cole returns Cassie's watch. Katarina sees Cole to the end, makes final preparations and dies having a smoke. Cole commits to being erased. It's beautiful, and graceful and gives each of the players the space they deserve. And then...

I have endless questions. Is the happiness montage actually real, or is Cassie only wondering at the possibility? When do they remember who they were, and in how much detail? Since anyone who went through the time stream should be able to remember, wouldn't that include Whitley and Sam? How was Sam even born? Ramse had to have found Elena, but how? Why does he appear to be wealthy? Why is Jennifer running Markridge and what happened to Leland? Why are Kat and Elliot still together? Do any of them get PSTD or turn into adrenaline junkies? Do they seek each other out?

I'm so happy for Aaron, sight unseen. Sure, Cassie dumps him out of the blue, and I'm sure that hurts, but he'll live and might meet someone else who can feed the better wolf. I love the hopefulness of this ending for everyone, strange and dreamlike as it is.

And then Cole on the beach. I find Katarina choosing to play God one last time less than reassuring, but Jennifer should know what she's talking about and I choose to believe she's right. After all, Cole didn't try to get out of it. He was innocent in his destruction and agreed to be sacrificed once he knew, and Time does owe him for its existence.

I did find the final scene a trifle unsettling. So I did some exploring and there's a contingent of fans who think the Red Forest came to pass, that Cassie did not stop the machine and everything afterward was after the end. I reject this theory, for a couple of reasons. Obviously, such an interpretation would make Cassie the villain protagonist - or worse, since everyone's clearly happy afterward, it would mean Olivia was a hero trying to liberate humanity and I find that philosophically noxious. However, I also think there's no textual evidence for the theory, because time is clearly still happening afterward, which is one of the only things we know for sure does not occur in the Red Forest.

And yet there is still an esoteric feeling that something might be wrong. From the first Cole appearing in Cassie's life has always been a declaration that trouble is brewing, and it's hard for me to shake that. But of course, if the cycle is truly broken, as I believe has happened, then Cole appearing outside that house indicates a fresh start, a beginning. The pattern has been broken and it's open-ended what might be next. Maybe it's a little unsettling, but it's also completely fitting to the story they spent four seasons telling and strangely hopeful all at once, and you can't say fairer than that.



And so it ends. It has truly been a pleasure.

Comments

[killabeez]

Ahhhh, yay, you made it!! ::applauds:: Thank you SO much for watching this on my say-so, and for sharing all your thoughts and reactions. It's felt like my birthday every time you made a post. ♥

So, Terry M. has said that he does not adhere himself to the red forest ending, and neither do I. I think your interpretation is exactly correct—time is obviously flowing, and Cassie spent years waiting for Cole to show up, which is the opposite of what we saw in Shaw's explanation of the red forest. And I also completely agree that the unsettling ending is in keeping with the tone of the whole show, and because Katarina's final act of hubris opened up a little sliver of possibility for what will happen next. Also, for me, the red leaf and the music at the end is more about how close they came—that the story was almost an ouroboros of a different kind, where the losses and grief Cassie suffered might have been the cause as much as Cole's existence.

re: Aaron, I knowwww, I just rewatched the last 3 in anticipation of you watching them, and I was happy all over again that Aaron lives!

It sounds like Whitley's future as an architect IS in the DVD version, which YAY—I believe it's cut out of the Netflix version?? At least, I couldn't spot it.

Re: the memories, Terry M. has also said that he believes everyone eventually remembers. I think what we saw with Cassie in the montage is that it's gradual, and she likely doesn't remember everything, but the serum would preserve their memories to at least some degree.

I'm so glad the ending resolved your discontent with the free will question. I hoped it would. You put your finger on it—they all make the choice to do this together, and to trust that everyone else will make the same choice. And I kind of love that Cole is alone at the end and has to make that choice with no one to see him do it. I cry a little every time.

Why is Ramse seemingly wealthy? Well, if he has memories going back to the 90s, he could easily make a few strategic financial decisions. :) And yes, he likely had to deliberately seek out and find Elena to make sure Sam was born. (I've seen this mentioned once or twice in discussion, but it's still a fic I'd love to read!)

What happened to Leland? GOOD QUESTION. Let's hope karma caught up to him. But in my mind, Jennifer, who plainly remembers the most of all of them, ousted him from the company in some clever fashion rather than him being murdered.

As many times as I've rewatched the ending of S4 (and S4 in general), I can never help clapping my hands with pure joy when Cassie says, "but maybe there's a page missing."

So, regarding Deacon's surprise ending, Max, etc. This is one of the things I pick up and turn over a lot, especially because of Jennifer's "we got a whole lotta shit to do" when they make their exit together. One: Deacon did NOT remember this outcome when he initially took over Raritan—he didn't remember it until he gets the nosebleed in Titan, right before they go to the middle ages. Two: He and Jennifer don't actually HAVE a whole lotta shit to do, because Cole gets in the machine and resets time, but to keep causality intact, they have to behave as if they do up until the moment when Cole gets into the machine—just like everyone else, they have to close the loops. So Jennifer has to make sure she and Deacon (and the Daughters, and Max and the West VII) stay on track up until that moment. Three: when Deacon gets the nosebleed, he remembers old Jennifer bringing him his knife and telling him he doesn't have a future, them storming Titan, and his own role in it, and the fact that he—S4 Deacon—is notably missing, so he's pretty sure he's going to die imminently. Does that help at all?

[annavere]

Alright! Finally we can discuss the show properly! You have so many good explanations for what didn't make sense to me, and yes, the Deacon bullet points help immensely.

Whitley was not in the montage on my DVD set. There are deleted scenes, maybe he'll show up there? I'll do a post when I watch them.

I really love your theory of Jennifer cleverly ousting her father. I also wonder if, as the one who remembers the most, she is the one who seeks the others out and helps them when they begin having flashbacks, maybe helping to steer them on the correct path. For example, maybe Ramse wouldn't remember enough to find Elena without help. Jennifer could still be the heart of the group, even when they're starting over.

I like your explanation of Ramse's wealth. There would be so many options for each of the time travelers to course correct. And some of it could be pure instinct - like Hannah gravitating to the wilderness despite an undoubtedly urban upbringing, before her memories eventually start to return. Despite closing the loop, so many stories remain open. It was really well done.

[killabeez]

I forgot to comment on the Longest 15 Minutes Since Cassie Found a Kinky Boudoir. Why is it always a countdown clock??? Why is it always down to the last second??? I swear, it's like they think we have never watched a movie or TV show, and will find this super extra stressful—instead of knowing instantly that the clock is going to reach the last second right before the miraculous save. But yay for Olivia's poetic demise.

EDIT: Oh, and I also forgot to say, my personal headcanon is that Kat and Elliot still split up and coparented as friends, and the scene we see is of their once-a-month family get-together. In my world, Kat and Eckland still met and got married, and he goes off and communes with nature once a month while the Jones's have their family day.

[annavere]

What makes the countdown clock especially terrible for me is that I immediately begin calculating how long things might reasonably take, and by the time Cole was giving his speech with its dramatic and ponderous pauses, I was fairly certain the timer had already gone off, killing the suspense. It's a very silly trope.

Thinking over it, I really like how, after the entire show built up Cole/Cassie as an epic love story, they were both equally at the center of events. Together, they might have ended the world, through Cole's continued existence or through Cassie choosing the Red Forest, but instead they chose to save it.

I like your headcanon re: Kat, Eliot and Eckland. Even without the time travel, I think their marriage was always a shaky proposition. It might have lasted a little longer than eight days and been more amicably dissolved, though.

Since Eckland got dissolved by the time stream, would that preserve some fragment of his memory?

And Eckland being a hippie, he might get along great with Hannah.

[killabeez]

Since Eckland got dissolved by the time stream, would that preserve some fragment of his memory?

That's entirely possible, IMO. We don't have much info about how Titan and the vests work, nor do we know about what those time travel mechanisms mean for those who use them. We don't know a lot, and that means we can do with it what we want.

(Though I'll admit, it would be fairly interesting to read the story where Kat remembers and Eckland doesn't! Turnabout, and all that.)

[annavere]

That would make a good story! I think the way 12 Monkeys ends is especially perfect for those of us who like amnesia as a trope. :)

[killabeez]

Oh, and sorry, I also forgot to comment on Matthew's car! So, it's significant that Hannah and Emma find his trailer when they are almost AT Raritan, because if you recall, they're on their way to find Kat and Elliot to prove to them Hannah's their daughter. Matthew's trailer (and presumably his auto shop and the storage building where he puts his car) are all very close to Raritan. I have to think that Matthew used to take little James with him to lovingly polish the car/teach him how to change the oil, etc.

The gas still being good in the tank is the biggest stretch of all. Even if Matthew drained the tank and had an airtight tank with stabilizer, it's almost impossible that stored gasoline could have lasted from 2010 (when he put the car away) to 2043 (when Cole & Ramse needed it). It's hard to imagine any gasoline anywhere still viable after 33 years. (Or I guess, technically, for 25 years since the release of the virus. But still, not likely.)

And regarding your comment about Cassie and the virus on One Minute to Midnight, she actually DOES die two days later, in her own timeline. :)

[annavere]

As far as gasoline goes, I apply my Jeremiah headcanon. 12 Monkeys takes place in an alternative universe where they invented some kind of preservative which renders gas and diesel stable for prodigious lengths of time.

Thank you for the geographic explanation. Very handy.

[killabeez]

Yes, either that or someone had a way of creating ethanol. (Though in Jeremiah, they actually call it gasoline I believe. They don't specify in 12M, and even if they were using ethanol, that wouldn't devalidate Ramse's line about the gas that's left in the tank.

[killabeez]

Oh, oh! (sorry!) Here's another thought for you, regarding why the ominous ending. If we accept that all of Team Worst Good Guys (or at least, all the Travelers) get some or most of their memories back, then by extension, any of the cult members who also took injections—IF they took injections, we're still not sure—or did Titan and the time-travel vests alleviate that?—but ANYWAYS, potentially, they could still remember things, too. Olivia is gone, and we don't know about Athan, but Shaw, at least, still exists. And if the Horsemen still exist, there's the question of whether they might still remember, too.They couldn't likely recreate time travel without the Joneses, but did they take injections, or some equivalent of that? We just don't know.

[annavere]

Good point. Titan did recruit from different eras but it is an open question what happened to them all. Magdalena in particular - if she retains memory, that's a scary thought, even if she can't use time travel anymore.

Here's another question for you: Why wasn't Deacon on the Word of the Witness?

[killabeez]

I think you said it, or something like it? Can't stage a surprise rescue if Olivia sees you coming. :) He was always the wild card. If he'd been on the Word, Olivia would have considered him a genuine threat, and he couldn't have played the part that he did. Good call, Athan!

(Which brings up more questions than it answers, actually, because it gets into Athan's actual motivations and goals at different times, as well as his own hubris. Did he fail to see the role Deacon would play because Deacon himself was so unpredictable? Because he, like Olivia, had a blind spot? Did Ramse change Deacon's potential role when he saved Deacon's mom? Did Deacon get the chance at redemption only because Athan failed to see it as a possibility? He didn't believe in his own potential for change until after the Word was long finished, so maybe he couldn't see it in another? Chicken or egg?)

[annavere]

Well, now I want a Deacon and Athan scene. Such fascinating questions.

[killabeez]

I think there's still a ton to explore, especially about free will, redemption, and how much the Primaries knew when, the ways they were able to influence the eventual outcome, etc. I'm still super curious about how the primaries in 1491 were able to turn off Jennifer's access, and why 1491 to begin with. Athan is a giant mystery in himself. His plan, his motivations, the different possible ways he could have gone, his redemption—all of that. And Athan and Deacon as parallels/foils, yes!

Hubris is obviously key to everything in this show. That's also an endless rich deposit to be mined. Kat, Elliot, Athan, Olivia, Ramse, Time itself as a sentient entity. The idea that Time as an entity is born specifically because of human sentience, and the intertwined fate that follows. So much metaphysical ground to be explored, and I think the show canon basically opens the door to any thread you want to follow.

[annavere]

I have nothing intellectually rigorous to add here, so picture me nodding in agreement and taking notes for my rewatch.