What I’m Watching: 12 Monkeys

12 Monkeys: Season 2, Episode 3 “One Hundred Years” (B+)

With so much going on in 2044 and 1944, the present is a distant memory. Though it doesn’t totally make sense to me, I do like the notion of James and Cassie going back in time to fulfill things that they’ve already known will come to pass. What’s much freakier is the fact that this situation very much resembles the state of affairs at the start of this show last season, where an adult child of a formidable father is confined to an insane asylum but has a masterful knowledge of what’s to come. The younger Thomas Crawford knew names of future people he couldn’t possibly know, and something pretty crazy happened with the Red Forest when he got stabbed that affected Deacon and his henchmen as they tried to get rid of Ramse a hundred years later. I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m definitely intrigued. It’s continually terrific to see Cassie as the hardened, focused one constantly berating James about his lack of commitment to the mission. The personality shift and the change in character dynamics has been excellent for this show, and it has really given this second season a strong edge and will do so in the near future now that they’re stranded in the past. On the guest star front, I was delighted to recognize Jay Karnes, most well known for his role as Detective Holland Wagenbach on “The Shield,” as the bumbling FBI agent who pressed James to tell him his war stories.