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”

What I’m Watching: 12 Monkeys (Penultimate Episode)

12 Monkeys: Season 4, Episode 9 “One Minute More” (B+)

As this episode started and our friends were talking about going back to JFK Airport to when the virus first broke out, I was thinking how crazy it would be if this show ended the same way that the movie did with a scene at airport security. It’s not looking that way, but we did get a few very interesting revelations, namely that Cassie was the one to unleash the virus because that’s what the primaries always wanted her to do, and that we didn’t quite know who Cole’s mother actually was. Emma still subverted the purpose that Olivia always intended for, but she died too soon to become Cole’s mother, something that Hannah stepped in to do when she fell in love with his father. Sacrificing her life so that Cole could live at the airport was a perfect end to her cycle, one that demonstrates immense loyalty both to her son and to the mission that she seemed to know she was on all along. Whether or not Cole has to die remains a question, and the very ominous “To be concluded” end title was extremely exciting. It’s been a long run with this show and a wild ride with all of this time-destroying business, and I do think that it’s been worthwhile, getting back to causality, time travel, and a true nail-biter of a conclusion to figure out just how this wacky show is going to wrap all of its many ever-changing threads and characters up once and for all.

What I’m Watching: 12 Monkeys

12 Monkeys: Season 4, Episode 8 “Demons” (B)

This show came up in conversation with another TV fan who didn’t know that it was anything more than a movie, and it would be hard to believe that things would end up in 1491 with characters being beheaded when you look at the very different 1995 film and the 1962 French short on which that’s based. It does make some sense that the fight to save time would be taken back to a crucial era in our history where stakes seemed much higher and more weight was put on beliefs that were deemed either heretical or prophetical. It’s a good thing that Jennifer wasn’t burned at the stake as a witch, and of course we had some anachronistic weaponry from Cole and Cassie to save her at just the right moment. Olivia found herself a great right-hand man in the primary who didn’t want to listen to the voices. It’s always a shame to watch things play out where the good guys almost get the upper hand before it all turns and the weapon is completely destroyed with Titan on the move to who knows where. At least Adler got the suit working in time for Cole to make his escape and save everyone except Deacon, who honestly went out the way he probably would have wanted. Now that 1491 is a thing of the past, I’d hope the last three episodes won’t feature as many beheadings and people being burned alive. Cole is the one emphasized as the savior, but I think that the women on this show – particularly Emma and Hannah – may be the ones to save the day and save time itself.

What I’m Watching: 12 Monkeys

12 Monkeys: Season 4, Episode 7 “Daughters” (B+)

This episode reframed how we look at this show in a really cool way, showing how Hannah and Emma have experienced events and how they look at the world, in a welcome return to the type of time travel familiar to this show. Both have essentially been living for the sake of their mothers, but they’ve been appreciated in remarkably different ways. I’m so pleased to have been correct in my suspicion that Emma is indeed Cole’s mother, though how she got there doesn’t make entirely as much sense to me. From what I can understand, Olivia tormented Jones by making her think that she was killing Hannah over and over again, and somehow Emma was able to watch this happen as Jones was experiencing it. Seeing how little Olivia valued Jones’ offspring compelled Emma to realize that she’s been living a life for all the wrong reasons, and Olivia confirmed that by calling her an extension of herself, and hardly an ideal one at that. While it seemed that she had jumped to her death from Titan, it appears that she actually went back in time to, for the first time in her life, become her own person. I like the idea that Hannah and Emma, two daughters who haven’t really experienced time in the same way as anyone else, are now together creating the future that they’ve both come to know. Jennifer’s quick return after her ill-fated trip back to the past was a harsh reminder that we’re close to the end now, and the light-hearted nature of some recent episodes shouldn’t be considered an appropriate sample for what’s to come, especially not for poor Deacon.

What I’m Watching: 12 Monkeys

12 Monkeys: Season 4, Episode 6 “Die Glocke” (B)

I don’t think I would ever have imagined when this show started back in 2015 that we’d see Hitler being serenaded with Pink’s “U and Ur Hand” and liking it. Weird and wild as that may be, it felt more true to this show than the sight of Cassie mowing down a bunch of Nazis while dressed as a dominatrix. Maybe it’s because Nazis have never been the villains on this show, though I suppose their quest to establish a master race is about the closest thing out there to the drive to destroy time and vanquish all who might stop them that we see from Olivia and her cult followers. This season has turned into much more of an adventure series, with our friends going back every episode to a different era to find the clues left for them by the primaries. I think I liked it better when the plague was going to break out and destroying the fabric of time wasn’t even on the table, but at least it’s entertaining these days. Cole just saying “oui” to every question he was asked since he, unlike Jennifer, hadn’t learned French due to being marooned in France for five years was one such silly example that just happened to work. Deacon revealing himself to be on the right side of things was one piece of good news, and delivering Jones to Olivia was an interesting development that hopefully speaks to a greater plan that will shift the power to our friends on the side of time.

What I’m Watching: 12 Monkeys

12 Monkeys: Season 4, Episode 5 “After” (B+)

I remember when Christopher Lloyd first appeared on this show as Zalmon Shaw, with his time-traveling history as Doc Brown in the “Back to the Future” series a completely different role, far jollier and nobler than his frightening villain here. What we saw in the opening moments of this episode reframed that, as he contends on a regular basis with painful memories of losing his wife and yearns for the post-time red forest in which joy will always overwhelm sadness. Sacrificing his life so that a young Pallid Man could get away wasn’t the most important of his presence in this hour, but rather the fact that he convinced Cassie of the appeal of the red forest, suggesting that she may not be in this fight in the same way anywhere, which could prove dangerous. I’m not sure that I support the logic of Gale and Jennifer writing the words whose presence in history is what brought them to that place to begin with, and it reminds me of the crucial scene in “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” where a character saving himself doesn’t actually make sense. Still, it was worthwhile to see Jay Karnes as Gale again, who knows the drill and didn’t need Jennifer to explain it to him, and for Cassie to go back in time and hide from herself so that she could save Cole. On that note, Cole’s knowledge that he had to survive is a similarly risky gambit, but it means he’s not going to hold back from doing anything life-threatening. We’re close to the end, but not quite close enough for major characters to be dying for good.

What I’m Watching: 12 Monkeys

12 Monkeys: Season 4, Episode 4 “Legacy” (b)

This was a bit of a weird episode – not that most of this show’s are normal – but I suppose having a time machine entitles you to a few wild adventures throughout history, even if the fate of time itself hangs in the balance. Traveling back to 1852 to find the key to stopping Olivia and saving time ended up offering a few surprises, not the least of which was the return of Peter Outerbridge’s Dr. Elliot Jones. His explanation of his creation of a research vessel that could travel through time certainly sounded more noble than the Titan we’ve come to know, but of course it’s a head trip to see people like the Pallid Man we know to be dead very much alive and well, taking orders from others in the present that we’re experiencing. Jennifer wanting to be back in touch with the voices she heard when she was primary led to the unfortunate infiltration of her vision by Olivia, whose Witness-possession of people is getting really freaky. It now seems that Emma, revealed to be both Olivia’s daughter and Elliot’s apprentice, may be James’ mother, though I’m not entirely sure yet and don’t want to look it up for fear of spoiling things I shouldn’t yet know that haven’t happened yet (I mean in episodes I haven’t seen, not events that will take place in the future on this linear-optional head trip). Deacon does appear to have fully switched sides, but something tells me he’ll come back to help the good guys just when they need him most.

What I’m Watching: 12 Monkeys

12 Monkeys: Season 4, Episode 3 “45 RPM” (B+)

I’ll be honest – it’s been a while since I felt like I really understood how time worked on this show, if I ever did. What our friends do in the past may in fact already have been done, and I couldn’t tell you which version of Cole that was who saved Jennifer when she dove onto the train tracks and told her to get another version of him a cheeseburger. I’m also not sure who Olivia’s baby is going to be, whether it’s important, and if we’re already supposed to know his or her identity. Either way, I’m following along closely and trying to make sense of it all. Olivia going back through her own mind to get answers about what’s changing and seeing her future self as the Witness was pretty trippy, and possessing her younger self to explain that it was her and not Vivian was a freaky but crucial revelation. Vivian was eerie enough with her steadfast devotion to the mission, and now she sacrificed herself so that her daughter, who will become the evil Witness, can live. Maybe it’s a good thing that she was more powerful in the past and now she’s stuck interrogating Deacon, who is hardly going to give her the answers she wants. Cole knowing how to open something because of his father’s story was cool, and, once again, if I’m understanding correctly and we don’t yet know, I think that Cole’s father is the baby that Olivia is going to have. We’ll soon see, I guess!

What I’m Watching: 12 Monkeys

12 Monkeys: Season 4, Episode 2 “Ouroboros” (B)

As I write this, I’m well aware that the final season of this show has already completed finished airing, but I still have a full nine hours left before I’m all done with this wild time-bending adventure. We’ve reached a point typical of shows at this point close to the end of their runs, which allows characters to relive past moments and see better, or at least naiver times, once again. Often, shows have transformed so much from their starts to their ends that newly important characters play an overly crucial role in current events even if they haven’t been stalwarts the whole time, and this show is a fortunate exception. Not only can its characters actually travel through time, but we’re getting to see them go back to the formative moments that got everything started, with the reintroduction of Ramse as a particularly sentimental inclusion. Cole suggesting that Jones should walk around as herself since their former selves were only looking for scavenging intruders and not their mirror images was clever, and it’s incredible to see just how much Jones knows about her own future as a result of repeated non-paradox visits from those with information about what will come in her life. Cassie going back to 1971 to kill Olivia with no tether was made all the more impactful by her appropriation of Cole’s “This was always a one-way trip” catchphrase, cementing the fact that she’s become the most hardened of all these time-travelers, a major difference from how she was when she first started. As I stated in my review of the season premiere, I really do wish that Jennifer’s hallucinated self who evaporated into oblivion had died a real death, but I’m on the edge of my seat with curiosity after her latest move to fall back onto the train platform with a certainty that she wasn’t alone.

What I’m Watching: 12 Monkeys (Season Premiere)

12 Monkeys: Season 4, Episode 1 “The End” (B)

I never understand why networks feel the need to release an entire season over the course of a short time period since, unless it’s dropped all on the same day on a streaming service. It just doesn’t feel like the network is all that invested in the success of its programming, cramming all the episodes in instead of spreading them out over the course of ten to thirteen weeks. After airing all ten hours of season three in a single weekend last year, the eleven episodes of season four will be spread across four weeks, the third of which is tonight. I’m going to stretch it out as I usually do, watching a few quickly as I catch up on all my shows but still taking them one episode at a time. I like a lot of things about this show but I’m not quite as into the mindless action which involves gun battles that end only with fringe characters dying. Olivia, the newly cemented Witness, arriving with an entire city to destroy the nuisance that is Jones and her time-traveling facility once and for all, is a formidable and unforgiving nemesis, and though she believes that she’s taken them out, she’s not going to stop once it’s clear that they’re poised to be far more influential than they knew. Returning to the moment before Cole went back in time to first meet Cassie is fascinating, and I’m so interested to see where things go from here. I was thrilled about the notion of two different Jennifers defying a paradox to work together on heists, and the revelation that she’s just imagining separate versions of herself is a real letdown.

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

12 Monkeys: Season 3, Episode 10 “Witness” (B+)

Here we are, over two months after this show wrapped up its weekend run. I think that watching it all in one binge might have helped the first half of the season go quicker and feel more exciting since there wouldn’t be any sort of wait for things to actually happen and get more coherent, but it was nice to experience the creative resurgence with the final three episodes of the season, which were really great and helped to close a loop of sorts. This was a transformative episode for Athan, who we only really met as an adult an episode ago, and to see him go from destroying his mother’s vest so her father would have to choose between saving her or coming after him to realizing that, thanks to Jennifer nursing him back to help, he was supposed to sacrifice himself to save his parents was pretty incredible. I loved how Jennifer suggested to Athan that, since they both see time the same way, they should fast-forward through everything to get to the important part. We’ve seen two false witnesses now, which seems just about right for many religions. Olivia makes far more sense as the true witness, since she has an ambition to see the dark destruction of time fulfilled. I liked Athan’s clarifying point: “I have witnessed.” I’m excited to see what Jennifer’s new role will be, and equally intrigued by the seeming revelation that she is Cole’s mother. I eagerly await season four, whenever it’s slated to be released. The end of this season has left me on a high.

Season grade: B
Season MVP: Emily Hampshire as Jennifer

What I’m Watching: 12 Monkeys

12 Monkeys: Season 3, Episode 9 “Thief” (B+)

I couldn’t have imagined how well-suited for this role James Callis would be, and what an episode this was, explaining who the witness is in the most humanizing way possible. The opening scene painted the witness as an eager time traveler who saw so much and was almost bored by its impermanence, and painted this all as much lighter than anything else on the show up to this point has indicated. His vast fortunes helped him to woo Eliza, the woman who quickly became the love of his life, thanks to a showy stunt in a fancy establishment. The flashes to visions of the red forest and to the people in his life dying weren’t nearly as notable as the passion he felt for her, but then when she was killed, everything changed. Watching him travel back in time again and again trying to save her only to see time take her some way or another was a furious chronicle of a descent into darkness. His meetings with both of his parents earlier in their lives were intriguing, yet he never said enough to indicate just who they would become or who he was. Having them find him at the end of the episode as he declared that they were there at the end was ominous, and I’m cautiously curious to see what happens next. After a bit of a messy season, it’s great to see things take on a fascinating new direction. I’m not quite sure what’s going on with Jennifer and her past and future selves giving her advice, but I hope that we see her again in a less oppressive environment.

What I’m Watching: 12 Monkeys

12 Monkeys: Season 3, Episode 8 “Masks” (B+)

Now, this is more like it. After a season that’s felt all over the place, here’s an hour that actually is but still manages to seem much more coherent and compelling. Cole and Cassandra definitely have some cool new tricks as they fight their pursuers and use their time suits to jump around and gain the upper hand, though there’s also some artistry going on, like Cassandra having to improvise after getting her hands tied behind her back mid-fight. I enjoyed watching Cole teaching Cassandra how to pickpocket followed by her showing him how to dance, and they needed all the preparation they could given that Jones herself deemed it worthwhile to travel back in time to express just how furious she was that Cole had betrayed her. Fortunately, Jennifer used her turtle to cause a paradox so that a perfectly willing Dr. Lasky could send her back in time to dress up in the witness mask and shoot fireworks off as a distraction. Jennifer really is endearing, and it’s a shame that she helped them get away and now she’s the one in a cage, something that’s going to continue to drive her crazy. It’s still intriguing to see how the witness has gone down his path, and I didn’t recognize the superb casting choice of James Callis, best known as Gaius Baltar from “Battlestar Galactica,” as the man to play this mythical being who we’ve previously only seen in a mask or as a ghost of sorts writing stuff on the wall in a very creepy way.

What I’m Watching: 12 Monkeys

12 Monkeys: Season 3, Episode 7 “Nurture” (B)

I’m starting to feel as if I’ve become detached from time, not quite sure exactly what’s going on here anymore and where our characters have gone. Cassandra going back to visit her mother felt especially strange, partially because we’ve never really heard much about her and because it happened so casually. What’s much more interesting to me is the way that the young witness is being portrayed, not eager to harm innocent people and still just a normal young boy in a few ways while he’s being prepared for a life of grand omniscience. I can’t help but feel that we’re in a bit of a “Looper” situation here, where witnessing the stonefaced executions of those around him like Deacon are going to transform him into the ruthless being that he becomes. Or maybe Cole got through to him, in the moment that he decided to spare him, teaching him about the value of life? Jennifer and the witness boding about being primary was an interesting moment, and it’s at least good that they share a connection. Hannah getting hit was an unfortunate casualty of the mission, and I’m sure that’s going to drive Jones and her new partner Deacon to rage in their quest for revenge. Cole and Cassandra have now officially picked a side, and that closing shot of them sporting the fancy futuristic time suits and coordinating their time travel means that things are changing in a completely irreversible way. I have no idea what – or when – comes next, but I’m definitely intrigued.

What I’m Watching: 12 Monkeys

12 Monkeys: Season 3, Episode 6 “Nature” (B)

This episode was substantially creepy, with an important origin of the 12 Monkeys being showcased with our time-traveling friends at the center. Casting Christopher Lloyd of eternal “Back to the Future” fame in the role of the acting father of the young witness and the wife of Scottie Thompson’s eternally eerie Vivian Rutledge was smart and cool in one sense but also jarring because of the villainous nature of his character. It’s hard to get the image of the chain-locked exit to the tent in which the meeting of the mourning took place and a child destined for great time-destroying evil showed just how far down that path he had already gone. As usual, Cole and Cassandra weren’t going to let themselves be taken out, seizing the opportunity to travel with the advanced new technology to a separate place so that they could escape certain death and then head back to the future to decide what to do. It was good to see Jay Karnes’ Agent Gale again and to watch him start to accept his fate, doing his best to intervene and save the lives of all the innocent people inside that tent only to realize the inevitability of his existence. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the end with the witness, and I’m still curious, as all viewers are I’m sure, who the witness ends up becoming when he grows up and if we’ve already met him. I was less taken with Jennifer’s freaky hallucinations, and I’m really not sure where all that is headed.

What I’m Watching: 12 Monkeys

12 Monkeys: Season 3, Episode 5 “Causality” (B)

Now, this was a bit of strange episode. Sometimes, this show is deathly serious, and stands by its notion of time as this governing force that apparently can – and almost was – destroyed, with those trying to stop it hopeless to have any effect since it’s all predetermined anyway. This episode approached things from a far more humorous perspective, one that worked and proved to be very entertaining but felt odd for the standard tone of this show. I think I understand what’s going on more than I ever have before, as we see the “side mission” of Cole and Cassandra to find the written web and hide the portion that outs them as the witness’ parents and the main drive led by Jennifer to go back in time and copy the document without altering history and causing enormous causality problems. Jennifer certainly has flair, and it was particularly startling to see Olivia acting out her antics as she was recounting the plan. Ultimately, it was a great idea to have Jennifer pose as her own mother, though she managed to hit her credit limit within moments, triggering the arrival of an unexpected guest star, Zeljko Ivanek, whose Leland Goines was killed off in the very first episode of this show. Despite a brief nosebleed that Olivia got, they were able to pull it off, and Jennifer even kept Cole and Cassandra’s secret once she discovered it. The introduction of the young witness seems to indicate that nothing they can do will stop his birth, and they’re going have to confront him as an adult once he’s finally unmasked and seen in his grown form.

What I’m Watching: 12 Monkeys

12 Monkeys: Season 3, Episode 4 “Brothers” (B-)

To describe this show as lost in time might not be all that accurate, but it seems fitting given that this show’s frequent flitting around the timestream as of late has made it almost impossible to follow and not all that enticing anymore either. Tracking down Cassandra before Cole ever met her to the point that he could go and give her a heartfelt speech after having not seen her for so long gave this show a very dated feel, though of course it also added incredible poignancy to the surprising return at the end of the episode to the exact place from which she so fatefully disappeared at the close of last season. I for one am very glad she’s back, since now it’s clear what the mission is and that, tragically and fatefully enough, it was Cole and Cassandra themselves who created the witness, who has become the bane of both of their existences. Killing Ramse so that he wouldn’t take her out before she had a chance to give birth to the witness was an important act for him to do, and given that this is the now the thirteenth or fourteenth time that Ramse has betrayed Cole and he’s had to decide whether or not to forgive him, it’s about time. I far prepared the season opener that showed Cole making the choice to forgive Ramse, but at this point I’ll settle for Cole and Cassandra being reunited, ready to sit down and work with Jones and Jennifer to figure out how best to stop the witness once and for all. Not that they’ll stay put for long, I’m sure.

What I’m Watching: 12 Monkeys

12 Monkeys: Season 3, Episode 3 “Enemy” (C+)

I’m really not sure what to make of this episode. I thought that I might have missed an episode since I’m watching only once a week and I couldn’t for the life of me remember where we left Deacon, who still makes me think every time he appears on screen of Todd Stashwick’s detestable role on “The Riches.” After what felt like an eternity of being tormented by what I guess must have been his own mind, Deacon broke free and showed us that there is still hope for Cassandra to make it out of all this okay, and that maybe she’ll be reunited with Cole sooner rather than later. Olivia being in captivity demonstrated a fiery anger and cruelty from both Jones and Cole that we haven’t really seen before, and I wouldn’t have imagined that time travel could be used as a torture tactic. It sure looked painful, and though it didn’t quite do the trick, there’s no denying that there is an incredible brutality in it. I’m really foggy on a lot of the details that got us here, which I blame on the show’s confusing nature and the fact that I don’t really believe that it’s all plotted out ahead of time and not merely directed by whatever tangent seems the most appealing in the moment. Ramse having turned evil might have been a simple explanation, but the fact that he does indeed want to kill the witness isn’t actually good news since the only way he and Olivia have concluded that they can really rid the world of him is to kill Cassandra, a sobering solution indeed.

What I’m Watching: 12 Monkeys

12 Monkeys: Season 3, Episode 2 “Guardians” (B)

This was a solid improvement over the opening hour, and a sign that we’re probably headed somewhere positive for the remainder of the season. The most significant thing is that this new technology that allows splintering without any sort of tether or an advertisement placed in the classifieds of a newspaper changes the game entirely, and now once again has led to time being changed around them since the both creepy and destructive Magdalena has again gone back in time to sacrifice herself so that their mission, to keep the baby witness safe, can be preserved. Cassandra was rightly horrified that, when she asked to see her son, she was brought just to a mask representative of him as an adult, with his younger newborn form being constantly transported throughout time to assure that he can grow up to be the man/demon/whatever he is that he will eventually become. I couldn’t have been more excited to see Jennifer, who was trapped in 1917 in France and doing what any good stranded time-traveler should, which is to recreate famous elements of pop culture long before they were actually invented, like playing Charlie Chaplin and E.T. That she put together a version of her own story with “Je splinter” was great, and I like that, after initially arriving in his traditional brutish fashion, he made up for it once they restarted the time loop by applauding Jennifer’s performance and telling her that they came to rescue her. Everyone in the future seemed pretty horrified to see her return, and I look forward to what Jones and crew can engineer now with enhanced knowledge.

What I’m Watching: 12 Monkeys (Season Premiere)

12 Monkeys: Season 3, Episode 1 “Mother” (C+)

I already have a strict policy about how I watch streaming shows, and I wasn’t about to let a whole season – let alone the penultimate season – of this show go by over the course of just three days. I can’t understand why Syfy decided to air the same thing over one weekend, but I’m going to let it last me throughout part of the summer. That said, I wasn’t too enthralled by this opening hour, which had an intriguing introduction with Jones narrating how they’ve gotten to where they are. The problem is that this show has always been best when it’s dealt with time travel and, in my opinion, visited the recent past or the near future. Heading too far into the future enables the presence of advanced technology which permits villainous characters to go back in time, kill someone to prevent what they know has happened, and then trap someone in an impossible loop from which they have no hope of escaping. What makes even less sense is that Cole, wearing a protective device that allowed him to be present with his former self without causing a paradox, was actually with Cassandra when he told his former self to give up looking for her. I’m not a fan of all this business with the Witness, and I just hope that this new nightmare is over soon so that we can get back to our characters doing what they do best – traveling through time to try to stop evil forces from prevailing. Putting Jennifer front and center again can’t hurt either.