12 MONKEYS Recap: Father’s Day

Season 2, Episode 10: “Fatherland”
Directed by Guy Norman Bee
Written by Oliver Griggsby

So this answered a burning question I’ve had for a while: how long is Cole (Aaron Stanford) going to put up with Cassandra (Amanda Schull) being a jerk? Exactly this long.

I’m still not sure why they are writing her this way. If they are playing the old unresolved sexual tension game, there are plenty of ways to keep them apart. She doesn’t even have to be in the same time that Cole is. She could be in 2016. Watching her character deconstruct is very painful.

They have nearly unresolvable problems on the outside. It’s not necessary to have so much internal conflict.

This mission goes to Hell in a handcart because of internal conflict. Having passed the test of truth, Cassie and Ramse (Kirk Acevedo) are certain that the information that they received from the Keeper will lead them to the Witness in 1961. Jones (Barbara Sukowa) is certain that they only have five days before the collapse of time will destroy them and that the only way to stop it is to go back to 1957, when a huge explosion happened that she thinks was the primary being paradoxed. Cole sides with Jones and prepares to go on the mission, telling Ramse and Cassie that he needs them to back him up. Ramse backs down quickly, too quickly, and the next thing you know they are talking to Dr. Adler (Andrew Gillies) and trying to convince him that they are right.

Before they leave, Deacon (Todd Stashwick) tries to tell Cassie about his feelings for her and she turns him away. We find out that they slept together once — only once — when she thought she was going to die. She’s not interested in having a relationship. At least now we know. And now Deacon knows. I felt very sorry for him, since it was so hard for him to tell her and all of his hopes were dashed. (I can’t believe I feel sorry for Deacon.)

Once they get to the Emerson, Cole sees JFK on TV and questions the year. He succumbs to the drink he was drinking. Cassandra slipped him a mickey. I knew she was up to no good because she was happy and relaxed.

Cassie and Ramse go to find a Dr. Kirshner (Matt Frewer), who was mentioned in the CIA document and is about to be picked up by the Mossad, who are tracking down Nazi war criminals. They find him at a Wagner opera, which is very appropriate. Cassie and Ramse dressed up make a beautiful couple. Cassie sends a note to Kirshner saying that they are after him, and he comes out to the lobby. They almost get away with him, but they are captured by the Mossad.

Meanwhile, Cole finds himself in the wrong year, 1961, with no money, since Cassie and Ramse raided the safe. He calls the FBI agent that he met in 1944, Robert Gale (Jay Karnes). The agent talks about being old friends. Evidently this is the second time Cole meets him, but he has seen Cole more often than that. Cole talks him into taking him to Berlin, where the wall is being built. They find Cassie and Ramse being tortured by a Mossad agent, and rescue them. He tells them that the mention of Titan in the CIA report was inadvertently planted by themselves, during this interrogation. However, Cassie sees that Kirshner is wearing a medallion with the symbol of the Witness on it. The FBI agent is killed when they escape to go to Kirshner’s lab. He sacrifices his life distracting the guards on the newly built wall.

They get some info out of Kirshner. He is not involved in Titan. He has been making babies: tougher and longer lived, but mostly immune. He started his genetic manipulations under Hitler.

He seems quite proud of his work. He takes them to a little girl kept in a box inside the room. The army of the twelve monkeys shows up, including the messenger that stayed in 1944. Kirshner is fatally wounded. During the firefight, Cole asks Ramse to help him get the girl. He thinks she is key. Ramse goes for the corner of the Witness map instead because it says Titan on it.

The little girl is, of course, Olivia (Alisen Down). She gets taken back to the now familiar mansion and is evidently raised by Vivian Rutledge (Scottie Thompson), with the Tall Man (Tom Noonan) as her brother. That explains their relationship, finally. Proving that she does heal better and is more resilient, she gets out of her wheelchair and leaves the mansion, leaving the Witness necklace on her so called mother’s grave. I can only think of this as a good thing. An Olivia turned against the Witness and the monkeys can only be good for our side.

When Cole gets back to 2044, he is PISSED. I’ve never seen him so angry. He demands that Cassie and Ramse be locked up. Whitley (Demore Barnes) is unsure whether or not to obey the order, but Jones backs Cole up. Dr. Adler confessed to sending them to the wrong year, so he’s in the doghouse, too. Jones is frantic about the lost time, which is ironic considering she has a time machine.

During all of this, Deacon is standing on the veranda, drinking and facing the oncoming storm.

I don’t blame Cole one bit. They hijacked the mission, drugged him, and left him stranded without any resources. If they hadn’t done that, Cole wouldn’t have called Agent Gale and he would still be alive. In the past, anyway. With friends like that, who needs enemies? How can he ever trust them to have his back again? It doesn’t matter if they were right or wrong about which mission they should have gone on, they completely screwed up this one. When Cassie says something about how they could still fix it, Cole says, “There is no we. Not anymore.” He is finished, fed up, kaput. We will see how long that lasts. Jennifer (Emily Hampshire) says that the path to Titan leads to death. I think they will still be on it. I see a prison break in their future, with Cole having to save them. He might as well let them go hang!

If Dr. Kirshner used Olivia’s DNA to make the messengers, then Olivia’s mother was actually her daughter, and the Tall Man is her grandson.

Matt Frewer did a wonderful eerie job. It was great to see him as usual. His interrogation was beautifully shot. Jay Karnes also was a pleasure to see. It’s reassuring to know that we will see him again even if he is dead.

There’s a bit at the beginning where Deacon and Whitley are out patrolling the time storms and come across a child. He says his camp is gone, and walks into the storm. I’m not sure he was a child, his clothes were too big. It will be interesting to see if they do anything with it.

I really hope, given their birth dates on the Witness map, that Cole and Ramse are not “made” children, too. Of course Cassandra isn’t, because she is not immune. But why would you make the people who will be your enemies?

So what do you think? Is it over between Cassie and Cole? Should it be?

12 Monkeys airs on Syfy on Mondays, 9pm/8c. See all our recaps of the show here.