12 Monkeys Season 1 Finale Review: May the Circle Be Broken
12 Monkeys S01E13: "Arms of Mine"
12 Monkeys has played an interesting game with us all season long, prompting the interminable debate about the little blink of existence we call life and the push and pull between fate and free will. But the series cheated a bit by playing everything as fate even when the characters believed they were acting of their own accord. Oh, you shot that guy? Well, you were SUPPOSED to shoot that guy.
The evidence was right there in Cole's kickass opening voiceover: "Where are you right now? Somewhere warm? Safe? Next to someone you love? Now what if all that was gone, and the only thing you could do was survive? You would, right? You'd try. You'd do things, horrible things. Until you have that last thing you have left: yourself. But what if you could take it back? All of it. A reset switch. You'd hit it, right? You'd have to. Even if you didn't want to. Because sometimes the choice isn't even yours, it's fate."
The basic idea is that everything that's transpired during 12 Monkeys' first season is part of a master plan, and each step Cole thinks he's taken toward stopping the plague has actually been a step toward starting the plague. That's how it was, that's how it's always been, and that's how it always will be. Everyone is being corralled like rats in a maze. While previous episodes have hinted at this, "Arms of Mine" hit it home like a ton of bricks to the old noggin, as if every one of 12 Monkeys's characters has been following a set of predetermined tracks instead making their own decisions. Or maybe not! Maybe one of those characters jumped the tracks. Way to spoil the meticulously crafted plan, Cole!
Let's have dessert first and begin at the end of the episode, because that's where the critical moment occurred. Olivia had just said there was nothing more powerful than fate, as her cabal's plan to keep the time circle unbroken was going smoothly: Ramse's body would be found in Raritan National Labs with the early version of the time-travel machine, and he'd be identified as his big-time investor cover Ethan Seckie. Cole would disappear into obscurity. And Olivia and her pals would hide in a bunker in Colorado to wait the plague out.
But just as Olivia spoke about fate, the camera lingered on Cole as he paused, backtracked to Ramse, and carried his frenemy out of the Raritan Lab. That wasn't supposed to happen, according to Olivia. And that was after Cole sent Cassie—who was suffering from a gunshot wound, and taking it like a champ, I might add—forward to 2043, where Jones would be able to save her. Was sending Cassie to the future also not supposed to happen, according to Olivia's plans? Did Cole's free will intervene? Did Cole break the chain of fate that everyone was supposed to abide by? And if so, when? It's impossible to identify the exact moment in which Cole exited the circle Olivia was harping about all episode—if that is indeed what he did—but we should try to pinpoint it anyway. It's part of the fun of watching a show as "interactive" as 12 Monkeys, even if it's pure guesswork.
In a scene just before the gun showdown, Cole had his piece drawn on Ramse and Ramse told him to pull the trigger. Was Cole supposed to shoot him then? Did Cole's refusal to pull the trigger alter what was supposed to happen, allowing Cassie to enter the standoff and join the gunfight herself when she wasn't meant to be there? It would seem, for some reason or another, that Cole found a way to depart from the destiny that had been set for him. Or was it Cassie who modified things? Ramse seemed content to have Cole shoot him ("Atari," as in, it was the only move left), but he flipped his lid when his security man aimed his gun at Cassie, begging him not to fire. Did Ramse tell Cole to send Cassie ahead to 2043 so she wouldn't die there with him, messing with Olivia's plans and hurting his son's chances of existing in the future? Another detail to remember: 2017 Cassie—the one who told Cole they'd been through so much together—is still out there somewhere, ready to give Cole the address to Dr. Jones' house in 2015 so that 2015 Cassie can use it to save Cole's life after he splinters from 1987 Tokyo. But did sending Cassie to 2043 break that chain, too? So many questions to ponder.
There's still a lot happening on 12 Monkeys that's way above my pay grade (or I've been defeated by all this complex mythology), and the show isn't in any rush to answer our pressing questions. The red forest? I have no idea what's up with that, or what it meant when Cassie was walking through that indoor hydroponics display of red-leafed ivy. Did Aaron actually die in that fire? It would seem so, but the popular TV rule of, "If you didn't see him die and you didn't see a body, you shouldn't assume he died" definitely applies.
And what do you make of those chalky hooded men? At one point, their leader said to Jones, "We represent the future, Madame. We do not wish to be relegated to the past." That would appear to support my theory from last week about them being time travelers from beyond 2043—or perhaps they operate outside of time and space, like the Observers from Fringe (same complexion, too!). However, camera edits made it seem like these 12 men (yes, there are 12, despite only 11 showing up on camera last week) were the babies of "the coming of the 12" that Olivia was so excited about in 2015. Although they also looked much older than 28 years old. Are they the 12 Monkeys? Gosh, it's hard to say no.
In the final moments of the finale, we saw Jennifer Goines—who acted deliciously wacky all episode long—jetsetting around the globe with the intent to disperse the virus. The scene marked another deviation between 12 Monkeys and its source material, where Dr. Peters (and not Brad Pitt's character) was revealed in the last few frames to be the one who spread the virus all over the world. The show is implying that Jennifer was working with Olivia's group for at least a while; Jennifer was also telling someone, probably Olivia, that, "It's done, he knows," which could mean she gave Cole the information that would lead him to Ramse at Raritan National Laboratory.
Finally, we have to consider the element of camera trickery. In a previous episode, camerawork strongly suggested that Ramse was the Witness, but in "Arms of Mine," he was like, "Whaaa? I ain't no Witness." All it confirmed was that Cole believed Ramse was the Witness, not that Ramse was the actual Witness. Can we trust any of 12 Monkeys' camera cues? Are those 12 pale dudes the grown-up versions of the babies? Was Jennifer really spreading the virus? Did Aaron actually die? At this point, no answer would surprise me.
This is how "Ams of Mine," and really the entirety of 12 Monkeys' first season, made me feel:
Good lord, thinking about this stuff makes me want to crawl into the brains of series creators Terry Matalas and Travis Fickett and dig around in search of answers. I was hoping for a finale that would fill in some of the blanks of 12 Monkeys' complex story, but "Arms of Mine" managed to avoid doling out answers while still being an entertaining hour that sucked me in even further. While it's possible that the series is spiraling too far out of control to present anything coherent when all is said and done, so far, it's shown a remarkable capability for tethering its mythology to the story it's trying to tell. 12 Monkeys may not always be clear or straightforward, but Season 1 was incredibly compelling; if only we could jump forward to 2016 and start watching Season 2 right away...
NOT QUITE 12 NOTES
– Buh-bye, Aaron! You tried so hard to save Cassie's life that you got yourself killed.
– "He made his choice" was muttered twice, once by Cole as Aaron was about to burn to death while pinned under the shelf, and once by Cassie, when she was about to shoot Ramse. Who's actually making the choices, though?
– Dang! Kirk Acevedo was intense in this episode! He's one of the more underrated actors working today.
– Who was the Dr. Jones fella we met in 2015? Katerina Jones' husband was out of the picture by then, and that guy definitely wasn't her dad. So who was it? And was he the one sending ivy into the future since he could only send things into the future?
