What I’m Watching: 12 Monkeys (Series Finale)

12 Monkeys: Season 4, Episode 10 and 11 “The Beginning, Parts 1 and 2”

It’s been a long road to get here. I say that mainly because of all the time-jumping this show has done which has often been mind-boggling and impossible to follow, and it’s still not clear to me exactly when – or if – Cole and Cassie’s time in that house where Athan was conceived happened. While the fight to destroy time has become a bit much over the past season or two, I was still excitedly following this show to see how it was all going to play out. I like that this double-decker finale was able to rescue two deceased characters from the past, Ramse and Deacon, and have them help in the ultimate battle to take down the Witness for good and save time. As if Ramse and Cole driving into the frightening red forest with “I’ve Had the Time of My Life” playing wasn’t cool enough, we also nearly got everything they worked so hard to do reversed by Cassie feeling the allure of the red forest and its timeless ability to preserve whatever you want for eternity. Cole, as always, talked her back off the ledge, and Olivia experienced a pretty brutal and irreversible death. Jones taking her last smoke and sending everyone back to their respective timelines was a fittingly melancholy way to send off this show, having saved the world but sentencing those responsible to a far less worthwhile and exciting fate. It was great to see, in the final moments of the episode, that Jones had decided to save Cole and send this last version of him back to Cassie, who was living in that house, experiencing her own version of happiness, albeit without him. It’s as fitting an end as any, and I liked seeing the red leaf as an “Inception”-style hint that maybe this could be the red forest, and time was actually destroyed, though it’s likely that didn’t happen. I’m still happy that the terrific 1995 film, which I really should watch again, was turned into a show, and though I got lost a bunch of times along the way, I’m still pretty pleased with the overall product.

Series finale: B+
Series grade: B
Season MVP: Aaron Stanford as Cole
Season grade: B
Series MVP: Emily Hampshire as Jennifer
Best Season: Season 1
Best Episodes: “Thief” and “Witness”