What I’m Watching: 12 Monkeys

12 Monkeys: Season 1, Episode 7 “The Keys” (B-)

This show is starting to get a bit ahead of itself, eager to redefine the outbreak of the virus in each episode and circle back to what it means for the future without necessarily thinking it through entirely. I did like the notion of Cole coming back to a week earlier after having already gone through and failed to be able to stop the virus from breaking out on his previous trip. That said, it gave the episode a one-track feel. I wasn’t entirely sold on the time spent in the future over the course of the past few episodes, but I do feel like we’re always missing out on something, be it 2043, the actual 12 Monkeys, or, more importantly, Jennifer, who is one of this show’s best characters who we rarely get to see. Now, we’ve come to the point where Aaron is a fully trusted ally, one who puts himself in a precarious position related to his work to be able to secure important intelligence and help Cole to prevent what he now understands to be the cataclysmic event that results in the future he knew coming to exist. The virus being exposed is an important development, even if it appears to have been contained because no one infected any mass center of population. I’m very intrigued by the notion that Cole died, and then we saw a past version of him, who left unaware that it might be the final time Cassandra would see him. I’m hopeful that we get a new version of Cole from a fresh future and that he approaches Cassandra as if he doesn’t know her, and she gets to be the one to fill him in on what’s going on.