’12 Monkeys’ Review: The Road to Titan

12 Monkeys season 2 has been a crazy ride full of new revelations, fascinating primaries, and unexpected twists and turns. Now that we’re at the second to the last episode of the season, our heroes face two missions: Cole and Cassie back in 1957 attempt to stop the final massive paradox from happening, while Ramse, Jennifer, the Daughters and Team Revenge head to Titan to kill the Witness. It’s a race against clock as both groups hope that their objectives are achieved to prevent the collapse of time itself.

Here’s are the important things to know about Blood Washed Away:

1957-1959

Cole and Cassie have decided that the primary must be an employee inside the Maxwell Rigfield Factory. They arrive in January and the explosion happens in November that year so they have 11 months to find their target before the Messengers do.

This whole time, C & C haven’t really patched things up even though Cassie had told Cole that she didn’t want to be afraid anymore. However, they suck it up and attempt to work together to find the primary. Dr. Railly joins the secretarial staff in the office, while Cole entered the labor force. Slowly they both investigated and eliminated all the different workers in the factory. With only a few days left, the two get desperate and even more catty with their time running out and no leads.

They get into an argument and Cole heads to the Emerson’s bar to get a drink and clear his head. There he sees a co-worker named Charlie who we find out is there because his dying wife told him to get out of the house for a bit. Charlie gives his friend some advice that no matter what’s happening between him and his lady, in the end the only thing he’ll want is more time with her. Listening, Cole goes back upstairs where Cassie is on the phone. Once her call is done, she comes outside to the living room (he sleeps on the couch) and says that they have a new lead. Looks like there will be day laborers coming to the factory in the next few days to fix the roof and one of them must be the primary, which is why they haven’t found anything this whole time. She somewhat apologizes too that they haven’t been very kind of each other these months and says that she hoped Ramse would get to Titan and kill the Witness to undo all of this but it’s getting down to the line and this is their last chance.

When the day laborers start working, Cole finagles his way into watching over them. He thinks that the primary could be a man named Reginald because he’s super twitchy and seems to be afraid of Cole. He tells Cassie his suspicions and has her go through his files to see if she can uncover anything. She ends up finding a drawing of a monkey on his hiring paper. She shows it to Cole that night after he comes back to their room and tells her that he thinks Reginald is their primary.

The next day they spot Reggie and Cole tells Cassie that he can handle this himself and that if anything happens he’ll meet her back at the Emerson. Reluctantly she agrees and he takes the other man towards the back. Out front, a woman in a robe has appeared with a gun and a box for some unknown reason and Cassie hears about it once she is inside the office. She takes off thinking that it could be one of the Messengers here to paradox their primary. In the meantime Cole is discovers that Reggie is a fake and that he was paid to act frightened of him.

Cassie takes her own gun and confronts the woman inside the factory floor. The other woman asks where her husband is and the doctor in turn asks who is her husband. Charlie enters and disarms Cassie then pushes her over and goes to his dying wife Melinda. Damn. It turns out Melinda is the primary, Charlie is one of the Messengers, and against all odds they fell in love. Charlie takes the bone knife from the box as his wife reassures him that she’s known her whole life that this is what’s supposed to happen but he is in agony because he doesn’t want to hurt her.

Charlie tells Cassie that he had killed the other Messenger and that not everything the Witness said was true. Melinda is urging her husband to paradox her so that they can live together forever in the red forest. Seems like love once again is a motivating factor to bring on the end of time. Cole arrives at the scene and Charlie apologizes, saying that he of all people should understand this and then he stabs his wife. Mission fail.

Cole visits Cassie at the hospital where she has been under a coma for the last 19 days after the blast. He apologies that it was his fault and that he couldn’t stop the paradox. He whispers that the best thing for her now is to wake up and forget that she ever knew him. Cole kisses her forehead and takes one last long lingering look before departing. While asleep, Cassie has been dreaming about the red forest and the house of cedar and pine. When she finally wakes up it’s been six months since the explosion and the doctor informs her that they haven’t had any other patients from that incident. It’s now also 1958 and Cassie’s thinking wth.

She returns to the Emerson to find their room cleaned out apart of the furniture. Cassie feels completely alone and abandoned. Can’t blame her, guy should have left some kind of note at least. Another six months later, we see that she’s now working as a nurse at the hospital where doctors come to her for her medical help because she is all knowing.

We flash to 1959, Cassie is still by herself and is writing a note to Cole, wondering where he is right now and if he was with someone he loved. Looks like she has been searching for him this entire time because a bellhop knocks at her door and delivers a note from an American Union representative who said that they found an address for the name she was looking for. The name: Morris Morrison. OH COLE!!! The address is 10 Old Pines Rd. (wink wink), Binghamton NY.

Cassie drives upstate to see Morris but is completely freaked the hell out when she gets there because YES THAT’s RIGHT, WELCOME TO THE HOUSE OF MOTHER FREAKING CEDAR AND PINE. So the question is, what the hell is Cole doing there?!? Could he be the Witness after all? Oh 12 Monkeys you love with screw with us don’t you!! Many fans do believe that Cole is the Witness and him being at his house definitely makes us think, possibly.

Cole is out back sawing a piece of wood when he cuts himself and his blood falls to the tall grass. He notices her approach and asks what she’s doing here and she in turn asks the same thing. He responds that he bought the house just because he saw a for sale sign when he was driving by. The time traveler says that she is safe here because there is no plague and no red forest, she can live a life. Cassie though doesn’t want to just forget the future but Cole doesn’t know what else to do. As she berates him that he left because he was afraid, it begins to rain and her mind is going into overdrive remembering Olivia’s words. She goes inside the house with him to clean his wound. As she walks into the living room and sees the old grandfather clock, she remembers it from the time she was trapped inside her mind while the Witness controlled her body.

As she recalls red tea visions, Cassie tells a confused Cole that the Army of the 12 Monkeys knew this place and this very moment. He argues that she should forget about this an go live her life because for once there’s time. She responds back saying that this wasn’t permanent and that she’s still supposed to die at the CDC in 2018 but he says that they don’t know that. Cole believes that Ramse managed to find Titan and kill the Witness and so until time comes crashing down around them they should believe that he succeeded in the future.

Angry, Cassie says fine she’ll leave because that’s what he wants anyways and in turn Cole tells her that he left because he wanted her to be free of him. But she didn’t ask for that! She finally says what we’ve all been thinking that he left her because he’s in love with her. Cassie had always known duh. Cole though throws it right back at her because she kept pushing him away so that she wouldn’t have anyone else to lose and now she doesn’t. They have a stare down and then finally Cassie kisses him passionately. About damn time guys! The lovebirds get their groove on.

2044

Meanwhile in the future, Team Revenge is having a rough time getting to Colorado. They are incredibly low on food and supplies while having to constantly fight other scavengers along the way. Almost to their destination though, Ramse asks one of the fallen scavs if he’s seen a place about 30 miles away from here called Titan and the other man says that there is a place with lights and sounds but they stay far away from it after some of their folks went and never returned. Ramse then kills the guy without hesitation. Doing him a favor I guess?

While Whitley tells him that the group needs to rest, Ramse is adamant that they move on. However it looks like they do take some time to just relax because when nightfall hits, Deacon comes back and says that they found the other group’s camp but there wasn’t any food to be found. Hannah also returns via horseback and says that she scouted the example location of where Titan ought to be but there was nothing there.

Jennifer’s lieutenant loses her cool and challenges Ramse, tired that they didn’t really have their Mother anymore and that she didn’t want them following a mission that wasn’t even really theirs to begin with. He brings up a good counterargument because even if the Daughters left, where would they go? Where could they go? The time storm was on their heels and no place was really safe. Their only shot was to find Titan and kill the Witness to end all of this once and for all. He tells Jennifer to set her people straight but the young woman isn’t feeling very confident about her leadership skills. Her lieutenant has had it though and says that they are done following this girl. To settle this, they have a fight of course because in the apocalypse might is right? Or so it seems that to be a leader in the future, you have to be very alpha and be one badass mofo that can’t be killed easily. So they battle and Ramse wins. He’s about to slit her throat when Jennifer intercedes and begs him to stop with the killing.

Ramse, Adler, Hannah and others look at the map where Ramse says that since the GPS she was using was connected to the transponder in the Humvee that broke down that it must have sent her on the wrong direction. In addition there were hills and valleys around there so she could have been close but missed it. Jennifer comes up to the small group and says that the Daughters aren’t going with them but Hannah says that she needs to convince them to come because the storm is just behind them and its catching up fast. Hannah says that she taught them to be willing to give up their lives for each other and if that she should at least be willing to give up hers for them. Jones’ daughter decides to go with Ramse and the rest of Team Revenge to Titan still, even though she herself doesn’t know if its really there.

They head to the spot where Hannah had scouted and they finally see the lights of Titan. Once they enter, we see that it is a huge industrial complex. Music begins to play and Deacon asks Ramse why he’s going towards the sound because nothing about this place says good idea. But at this point we know that the man is beyond reason and he knows that the Witness is here. The small group comes upon a clearing where a small circular stage with strange lit up red symbols on it has been built, with a hooded person standing at the center, he/she facing away from them. Ramse immediately thinks this is Witness and tells the figure to turn around. It does and they see a person wearing the plague mask.

Ramse screams for him/her to take off the mask when other 12 Monkeys minions come out and they are ambushed. The time traveler gets stabbed and one by one everyone in his party gets killed: Whitley, Hannah, and Deacon. Death was waiting for them at Titan.

Final Thoughts

Ahhh!!! So now that both missions failed, what happens next? There is definitely something more going on with Cole and Cassie that we know off because it’s no coincidence that they are now at the house of cedar and pine. Will there be ramifications in the future now that the two have gotten together? Is Cassie still going to die at the CDC in 2018? This episode has brought on so many new questions naturally.

While we still don’t know the Witness’ identity, he must be somehow linked to Cassie and Cole, given the importance he gives to both individuals and the attachment to the house of cedar and pine. Let’s not forget the whole 1957-1959 this was home message we saw earlier this season.

There have been lots of changes for our major characters this season so far and it’s been a lot of fun to see them deal with it. Deacon fell in love and got rejected, Jennifer came to the future and has to learn to become a leader, Cole actually becoming a leader, Jones losing hope and then gaining it back, Cassie and Ramse becoming consumed with anger and revenge and becoming allies because of their common interest. It’s also been fascinating to see how intricate the plans of 12 Monkeys have been and the mystery behind the Witness.

It’s definitely been an amazing season and one can only ponder what the finale will bring and thank you Syfy for renewing (at last).

Watch the preview for next week’s season 2 finale:

12 Monkeys airs Mondays 9/8 central on Syfy.

Catch up on all things 12 Monkeys here.