12 Monkeys - Season Finale “Arms of Mine” (Recap & Review)
(SPOILERS BELOW!!!)
The episode begins with a narration from Cole. He is reflecting on what he's gone through and is asking what would someone be willing to do. Would you change something if you could? Would fate allow it? These are wonderful questions to answer at this point and really tie in to the ending as well (more on that later). Cole and Cassie have Aaron bound to a chair. They are questioning him about his involvement with the Army. Aaron was working with them to ensure Cassie's safety, but this involvement is what got Cole's father killed. Aaron tells Cole that he is not saint, he will not save them, and that he is just a savage. Cole agrees that he is savage and tells him that he became savage because of the things he saw that he shouldn't have seen and after having to do some of those things to survive. He watched the world die alone and “now I know who to thank for that.”
Jump back to year 2043 where Katarina Jones and her team are trying to find out why red plants came back in the time machine. One suggests it's because of temporal interference or that it is just an anomaly. She knows it's not random. Marcus, the ever helpful solider, says he should take the injections and be sent back because he thinks he can help since Cole will not be able to return. Jones says it's over. The viewer is left with questions here and wonders what is really going on in her mind. Meanwhile Deacon and the unknown group of men are watching the building. Deacon is confused about why they are there and remarks about their use of the word “centuries” as he thinks it's old-timey. This really piqued my interest because I was already suspicious of these men as I was trying to count them last episode. Are there 12 men? Are they from the past? Deacon just wants to work with them because he wants the building after they are finished.
Back to 2015 where Cole and Cassie have Aaron bound to the chair. Cole says this isn't something I want to do, but you know I will. Aaron tells them he only spoke to the woman and that she know what is coming and is planning for it. Aaron breaks free from his cable as Cassie and Cole are talking. He punches Cole and flees. Cole chases him and they end up in a room where Aaron lights Cole on fire. He removes the clothing that is on fire and they continue to fight. Aaron falls into shelving which falls on him and spills chemicals into the erupting fire. Cassie and Cole must leave Aaron behind, but they are left to his screams as they leave. It seems like Aaron will die, but it's hard to say if this will be the last we see of him. Later they find out that the Markridge Group is having a charity event. Jennifer, after having taken over the company last week, is delivering the speech at the event. She says they will realize and transcend her father's dreams. She seemed so put-together. However, she soon causes an uproar when she talks about her plans for cloning the dodo bird and then perhaps a unicorn. Cole and Cassie meet up with her following the mass departure of the audience. She says she was “super cray” when she was off her medications especially when talking about the Night Room and when she saw Cole disappear. Cassie asks if she meant it about the dodo bird. Jennifer, still not liking Cassie, says of course she means it, she doesn't lie, but she does have other plans for her company as well. Cassie loses patience with her and smacks her. Jennifer never says what those plans are and it definitely makes me wonder, can we trust her? They do see a photo of Ramse. Cole is surprised because he hasn't aged at all. Cassie reminds him that Jones' injections make it so time moves around you. Ramse and the group plan to go to the facility where it all began. They want to destroy the machine so that Cole can never come back or so it seems. They leave to go to the facility. Jennifer gets a phone call after they leave. She says, “It's done. He knows.” Meanwhile Ramse is staring out the window when the woman approaches him. He says he can't remember his son's face. It's clear that this time has been hard on him. She reminds him that the circle is completing and that it's closing with each action. He must go to the machine tonight.
Cut back to 2043 where Deacon and the unknown group are preparing to enter the building. Deacon's friend releases bats that go into the building and cause the grid to go haywire. Jones knows they are coming. Cut back to 2015 in the same room where a scientist is working on the machine. He is speaking about the machine and its limitations. “Progress is a game of inches. Leaps and bounds are only in hindsight.” He wishes he could send a primate back or that he could test this more. His colleague reminds him of what that could do and makes a quick remark about things changing and mentions something going green to red. He doesn't go into detail here, but we know this is something that does happen later.
Back to year 2043 where the unknown group and Deacon are moving into the building. Deacon knows the exhaust fans are the way in after the last attack. A solider fires at them, but this only delays them a second. One of the unknown men steps forward. He slowly and methodically stabs the solider. This looks only too easy for him and makes me wonder what will we see from this group. Jones is preparing a bomb in the other room. Now we're in the year 2015 where Cole and Cassie are sitting outside the building. She asks, “what is this place?” He replies, “that's home.” This is where his mission began. She doesn't know how they will get in with all of the security, but like Deacon he knows the exhaust tunnels are the way inside. As they make their way in, Ramse is talking to the scientist about the time machine. The scientist says it works, but that they can't bring anything back. He thinks it's impossible and that it has limits. Of course we know this will not always be true. Back to 2043 where the unknown group says we need the woman alive, but the rest are meaningless. Jones is working on a bomb but Marcus is pleading with her to leave. She says she can't and that she failed.
Back to 2015 when Cole and Cassie have made it into the building. He gives her directions to go somewhere when they split up. It seems that he has actually given her directions to somewhere else in an effort to keep her away from Ramse. She ends up in a room full of the red plants. The voice from earlier in the season comes back to her. (“You're walking in a red forest.”) It's almost as though she is triggered by seeing this. Cole finds Ramse and the machine. Ramse seems genuinely surprised to see his old friend because he believed that he killed him in Tokyo. Cole asks why he is doing this. Ramse says, “This, this place, without me coming here it would never happen. Jones didn't want me there in 2043 and it was mine. It took time travel to create time travel. There are no straight lines, brother.” It's clear that Ramse just wants to go home to his son. He thinks they can find another cure and that “our only future is the future.” This was a neat scene. There is definitely quotable dialogue, but it's also a window into Ramse's vision and soul. He hasn't been happy and relishing in his supposed victory over Cole or benefiting from what he has been doing. He seems sad and resolved to go back to the future, the world after the virus, just to be with his son. Cole questions him for killing 7 billion people just to save one. Ramse calls Cole out and says he'd do the same for Cassie.
Cut back to 2043 when the unknown group break into the room. Jones is standing by the machine with her bomb. She says she has nothing to live for. One of the men from the unknown group steps forward and says, “We represent the future, madame. We do not wish to be relegated to the past.” She wants them to let her people go free and then she will give them the machine. If not, she will blow them all away. She says, “You can't change the past. All that matters is what happens here, in this time.”
Perhaps she's right about not being able to fully change the past. It's clear that a lot is predetermined in this story. One thing happens and it causes many more things to happen afterward. Just like in real life, we might dislike one thing that happens at the time without fully understanding what that means for the future. Perhaps she's also right about “all that matters is what happens here” not in this time as much as in this place. The characters make decisions here in this room that could change the past and future later on in the episode that were not predetermined. This really brings back the question about fate from earlier in the episode. (More on that later).
Cole and Ramse are still talking. Ramse says he was his brother and that he has been living with the guilt for all these years. Cassie runs into the room and is surprised that Cole is just talking to him. She wants to shoot him. She calls him the witness, but he says that he isn't the witness. There's a stretched out moment with all of them at gunpoint. Cole convinces her to lower her gun, but she says “he made his choice” and then shoots Ramse. Then his security guard shoots Cassie. This wasn't very surprising, but what happened next was. Ramse tells Cole to use the injection he found to send Cassie to Jones. He was going to use it, but he says Jones can save Cassie. Cole injects her, carries her to the machine, and says he will see her soon. She doesn't think so. I think the audience might have liked a better sendoff here. Where was the kiss or last romantic/meaningful statement? This brought me back to an earlier episode when Cole told Ramse that he was a good guy in every reality. I believe this is true, even now. It's hard to forgive some of his decisions and that he shot Max, but it's endearing to see him give up his trip home and to come through in the end. I've enjoyed the chemistry between Cole and Ramse throughout the show. Thinking he will die from his gunshot wound, Ramse tells Cole to find his son if he makes it back. Cole agrees and starts to leave.
Back to 2015 where the woman is waiting by the window. A man tells her “the 12 are ready. All 12 are healthy.” She says, “in 28 years they will be ready. This is quite the undertaking.” She walks into the room past the 12 nurses. It's not much of a surprise that she finds 12 babies resting in the room. She says the cycle is complete. When asked of Ramse she says, “from this day...history will show he will be found dead by the machine. His cycle is done. Cole will flee in obscurity unknown to us. It's preordained, scripted by time, unmovable cause there's nothing more powerful than fate.” HOWEVER, unknown to she who knows the future events and contrary to what fate had planned (or maybe not really, maybe just the fate that was already known) Cole goes back and gets Ramse. He says no one needs to die. He flees with Ramse. This was so exciting. Did Cole change the fate or was he always meant to do this? What happens now?
Back to 2043 where they are going to lock up Jones. Deacon is asking if that's the machine Cole used as he guides her away. She says yes, but that he will never be back. Just then the machine starts up and someone is coming back. It's Cassie! Jones is surprised. The audience expects this now, but is probably surprised that it actually happened. What does this mean for Cassie's future? Will she still be there in 2017 to leave the message for Cole? Back to 2015 where someone is asking about why they are going to use a virus, and isn't there a better way, or something more reliable. Who is speaking? Who is on the plane? It's Jennifer. Oh no! What are those plans that she has that she wouldn't reveal earlier? She leaves us guessing, “I have work to finish.”
You can watch episodes of the first season On Demand and on syfy.com
Review by: LBurden
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