So far, the conflict over the undoing of the plague-pocalypse and then the destruction of Time has been between two parties—the Witness and his Army of the 12 Monkeys versus Project Splinter and Jennifer Goines and her Daughters.
But in the wake of their conflict, they have created a third, de facto party—the allies of Team Splinter and the discarded pawns of the Witness. People whose lives amount to collateral damage in the conflict between these two temporal superpowers.
I believe that someone could organize these individuals into a strategic and effective force that can make a difference in the outcome of this time war—Olivia.
She’s familiar with the Word of the Witness and the worldly workings of the Army over decades of time. She has visited the Red Forest and can navigate others to it via red leaf tea. She is gifted with supernatural strength and healing, and may very well be Splinter-compatible (like the Messengers, whose DNA and abilities contribute to her own, thanks to Vivian Rutledge).
She’d be like Professor X, rescuing and recruiting his X-Men, or Nick Fury collecting Secret Warriors, locating literal and figurative “orphans” of the conflict—the likes of Samuel Ramse, Agent Robert Gale, Gale’s granddaughter, Victoria Mason and her son, Elliot Jones, maybe even her brother, Tall Man—and recruiting them to join her in defying the will, plans, and Word of the Witness.
To assemble the most effective force possible, she’d need one thing that she’s apparently missing—time travel. As far as we know, she’s never engaged in actual time travel herself. She travels thru time the usual way—from past to future, one day at a time. Father created her in Germany in the 50s; Vivian brought her to America in 1961 to raise her; she grew up to become one of the leaders of the Army of the 12 Monkeys; and she rejects the Witness and his Word in 2016.
It shouldn’t be THAT difficult for her to get access to Elliot Jones’s Project Splinter, right? We know that she quits the Witness in 2016, but we don’t see her turn in her Monkey gun and badge. She may still retain her position in the Army and its authority, and with that authority, she should be able to finagle access to Elliot’s to-the-future Splinter device, right? And that gets her access to the future. And once in the future, she should potentially have access to all of Time (via Katarina’s Project Splinter, or perhaps the Witness’s Titan?).
Or maybe she contacts a Splinter agent in 2016 at the Emerson. Could she approach young Katarina? She wouldn’t need Elliot’s device if she can enlist the aid of a Splinternaut.
Let’s assume she gets access to time travel tech. She could turn 2044 Titan into the action-packed final showdown of TIME BANDITS! She could Splinter in allies from any point in time, including…
Samuel Ramse (post-Core-feedback blast, older? or perhaps still youthy, as proof for Ramse and company of her benevolent, anti-Witness intentions) Agent Robert Gale Gale’s granddaughter Elliot Jones (2016 or later) Jennifer & Daughters (2044, they stayed behind at the Bleeders’ camp) Victoria Mason & son (rescued from the Immortal by Cole and Ramse 1975) Tall Man (a future version?)
Could she save those who have died, or appeared to have died?
Elena? David Eckland? (dis-Splinter-ated) Eyepatch Ramse? Charlie Messenger?
And, since Olivia and none of these allies were actually present for the events we witness in 2044 Titan at the end of “Blood Washed Away,” they could Splinter in before them and pre-emptively undoing their deaths without causing a paradox.
Maybe undoing isn’t necessary, tho. This would be wild, but what if Olivia’s agents are already at Titan when Ramse, Deacon, Hannah, and Marcus are killed? They’re the ones (some of the ones) in the masks and robes, and have faked our heroes’ deaths! =)
Yeah…Probably not. Boo.
And it’s probably “easier” to have C+C show up at the Bleeders’ camp to rally Jennifer and her Daughters to join them and save Ramse and the gang before they get Katar’d up.
Better to keep Olivia’s Task Force O under wraps until they’re REALLY needed, right? =)
If the factory IS consumed by a massive paradox (more powerful than what we saw in “Blood Washed Away”), perhaps it’s by design. The paradox may have blasted the factory, its machinery, and materials out of reality and into the red tea zone, ready to be shaped and transformed into Titan.
I suspect that Elliot Jones is familiar with the red tea zone, thanks to some mind-expanding experimentation with the green-to-red ivy he created in his lab. He might understand the “timelessness” of the dimension, and figured out how to exploit it to develop the technology and complete the construction required to make Tall Man’s Project Titan a reality.
Rambling on revelations in and observations on events that transpire in "Hyena."
THE RED FOREST…
TALL MAN: 1957. Upstate New York. A paradox so powerful, it destroys the fabric of time…At least locally. Enough to maintain erosion forever. The birth of the Red Forest. Try to stop it, but you can't, because it's already happened. It's like a memory of tomorrow.
This sounds very similar to how I've imagined the creation of the Red Forest. A massive paradox that blows away a chunk of reality out of history and into the red leaf limbo-slash-plane. I suspect that this paradox is also the origin of the Witness as we know him. Someone we know will lose their physical form in reality, while their consciousness, their self, will survive in the Red Forest. How long will it take him to master the abilities he's demonstrated this season? Immersion-possession, mental suggestion and shape shifting, receiving/directing his followers in the house…?
I suspect this will happen, or be thwarted, and somehow collapse/reboot everything, in the season finale. Damn. That's gonna be nuts. =)
It *does* seem very traptastic, tho, doesn't it? It's not like Cole didn't legitimately torture the heck out of TM to motivate him, but I get the sense that TM chose his moment to reveal this info. He paced it all just right, ready for every beat… He gives up the Red Forest origin story, then asks about Oliver Peters's press conference, counts the seconds til his bomb goes off, then his henchman showing up, and wriggling himself free in time to escape.
Maybe "trap" isn't the correct word. Tableau? TM gives up the info in a very Witness-y way, to manipulate players into the positions he needs them in. I'm fairly certain that Team Splinter will understand that getting that info was "all too easy." I'm hopeful that they'll have a plan B and time-traveling plan C ready in anticipation. =)
TALL MAN v. OLIVIA.
Before Cole played "Those Endearing Young Charms" on Tall Man's bones, we got to listen in on the two leaders of the Army in a quiet moment at stately Witness Manor…
OLIVIA: Do you remember when Mother would speak of the Red Forest? Promise that we were important, that the cycle would lead us to a world without time…without death?
TALL MAN: Your father gave his life for it.
I definitely hear a capital M at the beginning of "Mother" as spoken by Olivia, referring to a title rather than a biological description. Perhaps Mother is an Army higher-up, someone who used to have Olivia's role as guide and speaker for the Witness?
I wonder if the Messengers called Olivia "Mother."
And Tall Man mentions Olivia's father again. The first/other time I recall was at the Paradox Ceremony for Traveler/Ramse/Ethan way back when. Tall Man seems to hold her father in high esteem, apparently saying that he sacrificed his life for the Red Forest. Could he mean specifically its creation, or is he speaking more generally of the cause? I want it to be for the literal forest, which, according to Tall Man, is spawned in the wake of a paradox in 1957 in upstate New York. That would make for a problematic timeline, tho, Olivia's father dying/disappearing in 1957 and Olivia likely born in the 70s, *maybe* late 60s, right?
Hrm…Does it sound to anyone else like Tall Man knew Olivia's father? At the Paradox Ceremony he said something like, "Your father would be so pleased to see this." Was he a Monkey peer and colleague? A Primary on the side of the Army?
OLIVIA: Why hasn't it come? The Witness...
TALL MAN: Works in mysterious ways, dear.
OLIVIA: As do you. I never expected you to embrace technology this way.
TALL MAN: We've spent far too long looking to the past for answers. Your leadership proved that. It's time to look to the future.
TALL MAN: Peters has finally come up for air.
OLIVIA: The Witness didn't foresee this, did he? Did he? He lies…
At this point Tall Man does something a bit horrible. He walks up to Olivia, places his hand over her mouth, and begins to asphyxiate her, keeping a tight hold and seal as Olivia helplessly attempts to twist out of his grip. He releases her before she passes out, or worse. As he walks away, Olivia gathers her wits as best she can, nonplussed, and asks…
OLIVIA: Where are you going?
TALL MAN: To secure *our* future.
Olivia is losing her faith while Tall Man holds steady. Opposite reactions to the same issue: The Word of the Witness can no longer be trusted. Olivia's beliefs are shaken to their core. Tall Man revels in taking the reins in the Cycle of Uncertainty. He's never been comfortable with the idea of his fate being written for him.
How far will Olivia's questions of the Witness take her? Is it possible that she will decide that she's been betrayed and used by the Witness? Will the Witness become a greater enemy to her than Project Splinter? Simply put, will she turn against Tall Man and the Witness and join Team Splinter, if only for one crucial mission or moment?
And is that exactly as the Witness planned?
JENNIFER'S SHELL GAME.
Gotta say, I *love* the circle that Jennifer and Cole open and close this episode. In 2044, Cole takes Jennifer to task for sitting on 30 years of foregone conclusions, "while" in 2016, Jennifer asks Cole how it all ends. And Jennifer tells Cole what she heard him tell her 30 years earlier which is what Jennifer tells Cole that she heard him tell her 30 years earlier which is what…
COLE: You got 30 years on all of us. You know how this ends, don't you?
JENNIFER: A wise man once told me, "There are many endings, but the right one is the one you choose."
JENNIFER: Then tell me what happens…How does this end?
COLE: There are many endings.
JENNIFER: Which is the right one?
COLE: The right one…is the one that you choose.
The writers really got me with this one. My immediate first thought in 2044 is, hey—I bet Cole said that to her. But then I realize Jennifer says "a wise man," which is not how Jennifer would label Cole (but of course, it IS, if she wanted to obfuscate the identity of the teller =). So, I settled on the words possibly coming from Ramse, who may or may not be destined to be Jennifer's good friend, in some time period.
In the shell game lesson that precedes this, Jennifer drops several interesting bombs, which, of course, Cole doesn't think to follow up on. Is that because he still considers her to be "crazy" as well as special? After everything that he's seen, heard, and experienced, and how well he's apparently adapted to the outside-iest of the box thinking there is—time travel, mental time travel, profiling Time as a conscious entity—how can he just discount remarks by this, or any, Primary?
COLE: I didn't come here to see you do a magic trick, Jennifer.
JENNIFER: This isn't magic. This is a lesson. Perception versus deception. Cassie, Ramse, Katarina, her daughter, my daughter…all of them, distractions… You keep watching the ball, you should be watching the hands.
COLE: I'm beginning to think you get off on this.
JENNIFER: There was a time when you could have known for sure.
[JENNIFER bites COLE’s hand]
COLE: Ah! The hell was that for?
JENNIFER: I told you to watch the hands.
DAUGHTERS?
Jennifer says "her daughter, my daughter…" Granted, those could be references to Hannah vs. Zeit, but in the context of that litany, it seems like a list of individuals, and tacking on a "pairing" at the end seems a little off. But, it IS Jennifer speaking hear, so who's to say? For me, tho, it opens up the possibility that she's had a daughter.
GETTING OFF?
In response to Cole's remark about Jennifer getting off on the oracle-ness of her Primary abilities, and maybe the ceremony attached to being Mother of Daughters, she future-reminds him," There was a time when you could have known for sure."
Being a dopey boy, well, I think you can hear Cole's clueless blinking in the wake of that, even if there's no actual time for it in the scene, right? And that little bomb whizzes right on by. =)
Maybe specifically a reference to their kiss? But I think what's more important is that in general, she fell for him. Did/will she get the chance to actually be in love with him? Sadly, given the tense of her words—barring any Primary tense confusion—it seems not.
WATCH THE HANDS?
And, what about "you should be watching the hands?" When he flashes back to her words later in the ep and earlier in time, we're shown Tall Man's gnarly hand. Cole's just started "working" on it with relish, but then he twigs to the figurative take on her words, realizes that this is a distraction, and the real danger is elsewhere. He notices Tall Man's hat, without the coat, and intuits the danger at the press conference.
But, it turns out that in fact, he would have done well not to take his eyes off of Tall Man's gnarly hand, which wriggles loose just in time to allow him to escape in the wake of a well-timed entrance by his henchgun. Jennifer gave him two warnings in one.
Or is it three? When I first heard her speak the words to Cole in 2044, I thought to connect them to something colorful, "hands…like the hands of a clock?" But after Tall Man's escape, I wondered if it might mean someone else's hands. Who do we know who might have a little thing, a bit of sensitivity, maybe, about their hands? Technically, it's only the one hand, but only creepy dudes and Kings of Pop can get away with wearing just one glove, right?
I'm talking about Ramse. Who, since his time in the Japanese prison seems to be pretty careful about wearing gloves whenever he can. I still haven't seen or heard anything in the show that explains why it is his one hand and arm didn't get the same protection the rest of his body did from the Quantum serum. The only "official" recognition of the fact was in the diagnosis he received when hospitalized in 1944—advanced osteoporosis in one arm. Was the serum not in his system long enough before he Splintered? Was his hand partially outside the stream when the Splinter initiated? Was his hand injured at the time he gave himself the serum, and so wasn't applied to a completely healthy "original?" Remember this, from "Shonin?"
OLIVIA: Time isn't perfect. Yet I'm envious how most of you seems to defy it.
WHAT ABOUT THAT BITE?
Tinfoil hat: ON! What if she gave Cole a dose of something right then? I don't think it took effect at all within the episode—or did it? Were his flashes back to 2044 because of a little bit of red in his system?
Nah, probably not. I have an odd feeling that it was Something, tho. Heh. Maybe just a little mark that Cassie can ask about at just the right wrong time? =)
DON'T WORRY, COLE, BE HAPPY…
Was interesting to see Cole's reaction to the Hyenas' plan to broadcast the truth about Markridge and the plague. In this sort of situation, in stories of this and adjacent genres, whistleblowing is a positive, righteous act. Transparency is The Right Thing, the Good. But here we have Cole, ostensibly our hero, explaining from a very difficult-to-argue-with position, that of someone who's *lived* through the aftermath, that the world is better off *not* knowing, at least for as long as possible.
He frames it as a loss of hope, which *is* foremost in his mind after recent events in his life. Well, maybe foremost after torturing the man who killed his father…and anything/everything that Cass seems to be withholding…But after that stuff, hope, definitely hope!
COLE: What? What, you want to tell the world the truth? That there's no hope? That they're all gonna die? I've seen what happens when people think their days are numbered. It's ugly. We're not speeding that up.
HYENA: People need to know the truth.
COLE: No. They don't. I know what happens. We turn on each other. We become animals. Real ones, not like you're pretending to be.
And Jennifer tries to reason him over to the side of the Hyenas…
JENNIFER: I get that you're afraid. We are entering uncharted territory, but old me told you to come here, right?
COLE: Yeah, so?
JENNIFER: What do you think it took to face the Monkeys head on? Fearlessness, right? Fearlessness that comes from knowing that everything is gonna be okay. Old me is proof that I live to fight another day.
COLE: What about everybody else? Hmm? Who's gonna save them if your little crew here is wrong?
"Uncharted territory." This Jennifer seems to know that Cole is not from a timeline in which Oliver Peters played blew the whistle on Markridge, its shady investors, and the plague. So, she and the Hyenas are going to Change things, and since they couldn't do it the way their doing it unless her older self sends Cole to join them, then they're…guaranteed to succeed?
But it's here where Cole out-Primaries the Primary. He's like—I dunno—an analog Primary, doing it longhand, somehow. He can see what she apparently can't. That others may not make it. Cole is becoming quite the tactician. In season 1, he was basically a weapon pointed at the past, aimed and fired by Katarina and Project Splinter, and to my mind, a stretch for the secret identity of the Witness. Now, though, he's grown to be so much more, so much smarter and more capable than that. I love/hate to say it, but he's definitely getting/got a head for it now. And of course, he ultimately wants to create a world in which Cass can be happy. Scrapping everything to start again might be the only way to do that right.
HANNAH DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT KATARINA…
A little disappointing. Hannah was 4 or 5 years old when the Daughters took her in, so she should have some memories of time w/Mama Katarina, right? But I suppose those would fade quickly enough in the 24 years since, with Daughter-ly duties, learning, and the fairy tale story Mother Jennifer told her.
I just *really* wanted the possibility of Hannah stealthily visiting and/or watching over Katarina as the years went by. Perhaps protecting her from scavs while out in the field and visiting her lab and rooms in the wee hours, going thru her photos, books, mementos, and notes…Maybe even learning enough to help complete some equations a few times when Jones falls asleep working on them.
O well *sigh*
And what about Hannah's remarks about the Splinter device?
HANNAH: Science killed the world. Now your machine is going to finish off what's left of us.
Where is this coming from? Is this judgement similar to Sam Ramse's take on his father's time traveling quest to save him? A wise child's reflection on her parent's reckless behavior? Or is this the culmination of teachings, learned with Jennifer and the Daughters? As a Primary, does Jennifer see the machine as an abomination (even though Time *likes* time travel)? As a survivor of the plague, with the knowledge of a Primary, does she see it—and technology—as evil?
Does Jennifer have good reason to teach Hannah and her Daughters to be wary/untrusting of science? Of the Splinter device specifically? That conditioning could be a positive if the Daughters are an army that Jennifer plans to sic on the Witness and his technology. Will she lead them on an assault of Titan?
Or, does Jennifer know that there is a time in the near future when the device must be destroyed or crippled and her Daughters will be the ones to do it. Another set of Messengers, waiting for the right moment? September 2044? Perhaps it will be done to prevent someone who's Splintered from returning (sent to distant past or future, as a trap?), or to prevent someone from the 2040s from exploiting it, or maybe to isolate some dangerous side effect or phenomenon, like the red skies, in the 2040s.
Or something.
RANDOM BITS.
"The A-Team with all Murdocks!" Howling Mad Hyenas! Jennfier Goines is awesome in every time period. I just wish she wasn't so sad.
Early on, Ramse asks Cole about his bullet wound—man, for a best friend, he sure perforates Cole a lot, doesn't he? Would love a JAWS-y scar scene with some of our main characters. Maybe back in Kat's office w/her good hooch. Or maybe a flashback to that whiskey that Cole brought back to share with Deacon, although that would leave Cassandra out of the mix, so maybe not. Boo.
Kat and Project Splinter have been tracking the progress of the anomaly storms in 2044. On her wall is a record of recent observations and the last is dated September 14, 2044. Just a week to Jennifer's alleged expiration date!
In this ep, for the first time for me, Jennifer said "Otter eyes" and I heard "Otterize," as in, to transform into an otter. It makes me wonder if this is the seed of a clue or hint, fuzzy and incomplete, in her Primary mind, something that will make sense in a crucial moment. A password? Or that it sounds like another word or phrase that will be one choice among several. "Authorize?" "Cauterize?"
In any case, I still hope/believe that it connects to a yet-to-be-seen moment in Cole's future and Jennifer's childhood. A Splinter mission (or maybe misfire?) that has Cole drop in on the Goines's home one Saturday morning while 8-yo pre-Primary Jennifer is cartooning and Kellogg's Sugar Bombing, maybe w/a wide braced smile. She will see/meet him and dub/associate him with "Otter eyes." Years later, that will come back to her, fuzzily.
Cole explains that anomaly storms are eating the future and working their way back in time (to 2016 at the time). Did Katarina explain that much to him before he Splintered? Is this a demonstration of a special connection or awarnes that Cole has to Time? I don't think so, not exactly. I think it shows just how adept he's become at navigating the weird logic of time travel and its side effects/collateral damage.
Marcus makes an interesting point back in 2044, tho. In his—and Adler's—opinion, no one really KNOWS how the outcomes of Splinter missions are affecting the anomalies. Where there *seemed* to be a correlation before, there is not. Of course, other measures/countermeasures made in history via the Witness and the Army may have been/be/will be compensating, but basically, Whitley and Adler seem to be right.
What if the time storms aren't working their way "backward" but are following the cracks in time left by Splinter events? What if they're appearing in 2016 (enough to make the news crawl on cable news) because Project Splinter has visited the time repeatedly? Next, would be 2015, then 1944 and 1975 (the Messengers Splintered then, too). Of course, there's no telling how the aftermath of the 1957 paradox—which, if the Tall Man wasn't b.s.ing them, is responsible for the creation of the Red Forest and thusly is a fixed point in Time—will affect or accelerate the red skies' spread. Fun times. =)
Thought it was interesting that the Keeper was quick to taze with Ramse, but not so much with Cassandra. Did he lose someone, wife or daughter? Does he have a Daughter, perhaps?
Yes, I did catch the use of past tense in Cass's truth about her hating Ramse.
CASS: I hate him…because someone I cared about…someone I sacrificed everything for…chose him over me.
She says "cared" and the Keeper reads that as true. When Ramse says "same," the Keeper reads that as true, too. So, do Cass and Ramse both no longer care about Cole? Of course not. Past tense "cared" and present tense "care" are not mutually exclusive states. So, she tells the truth while possibly playing—for Ramse's benefit—at not being as interested in Cole as she once was, and getting to spit some bile she'd been building up.
I love that Ramse gets to express himself by echoing others in such succinct ways…
"Me too."
"Same."
That’s so Ramse =)
I hope we get a reason to see the Keeper again. I wonder how well he'd be able to read a Primary hooked up to a polygraph, eh? Did he ever identify who or what he was back in the world?
He *feels* like a test or challenge in a heroic quest, doesn't he? Like a Sphinx, but not quite. A creature or being who will trades in truths. Sounds a little more Whedon than D'Aulaire's, right? But that feeling… A truly excellent character creation.
KEEPER: You know, whatever battle you're about to walk into together...It won't be your hatred for each other that will divide you. It will be the lies you tell to camouflage it.
Mythic, man.
And I didn't even get to the Elliot Jones, TITAN, and “See you soon” rabbit holes! I'm gonna try and cobble together something about EJ (*so* pleased to see him again! =), T-town, and the knock at the door in a post before Monday.
Some *SPOILER*y discussion of the Word of the Witness. If you haven't watched episode 5 (”Bodies of Water”) yet, get thee to syfy.com and do it. Then come back for the crazy talk. =)
THE WORD OF THE WITNESS…
So, while wandering stately Witness Manor, Jennifer Tyler Goines finds “The Word of the Witness,” the reality map that guides the Army, presumably created or commissioned somehow by the Witness. (See a very excellent fan reconstruction-dissection *here*…) It includes the names of some of our favorite players, Primaries, events we've seen and events we have yet to, in the future and past, most with rough coordinates in space and time. Also, familiar phrases, including the mantras we've heard spoken by Olivia and the Messengers, the Druze-y Pact of Time's Custodian, and—most conspicuous to me—"THESE ARMS OF MINE."
What's that phrase doing there? We know it as the song that Cassie and Cole dance to at the museum gala dealio, and a musical theme played throughout season 1, which would be unknown to the Witness unless we're gonna break a fourth or fifth or sixth wall in the future. That could work in a HOLY MOUNTAIN or ANIMAL MAN way, but the payoff would have to be a whole season of action after the reveal. That could/would be amazing. =)
But for now, we're gonna keep it to three walls, and the only important association of that song with our plot and characters so far is that it's the song they dance to. I had a flash to the idea that it would be a detail that Cassie and/or James would pass on in the story of how they met and fell in love, when they tell that story to their child. A sweet idea, yes? But not one that I'm holding onto right now…
Something occurs to me—the Witness created this map. Maybe it's his own handwriting, maybe it's a custom font, doesn't matter. The content of it is dictated (as in decided upon) by the Witness. I think it's safe to say that the Witness knows where it's being kept, right? And, I think it's also a pretty safe bet that in the course of the war between Splinter and the Monkeys, the Witness knew/knows that it would be discovered by Jennifer Goines.
No doubt the Word is a map that describes the Witness's knowledge of past and future events, and is used by his Army as a guide and reference for their mission, but I also think that some of what's inscribed must be meant for Jennifer's eyes. A specific for-instance: the date of her death, made known to her in 2016, may be the inspiration for turning her Daughters of the post-apoc into a badass fighting force rather than a Temperance Society or Prog Rock Band.
COLE: And if the 12 Monkeys ever got to you… JENNIFER: They won't get me with my Daughters around. My army is better than theirs.
And in general, for Jennifer at that point in her life, coming off the meds that suppressed her natural connection to Time, the Word is a trigger bomb. Who knows how many potential leads she will scribble off in the next few hours or days?
So, with that in mind, why include "These Arms of Mine?"
For someone specific to see it.
Think about it. What does "These Arms of Mine" mean to Jennifer? Maybe her Primary abilities gave her an unsolicited glimpse of that moment, ostensibly an important moment in James and Cassandra's relationship. Maybe not the moment when either fell in love w/the other, but definitely one that they would both recall fondly and over and over again later in life, regardless of how things end or last. How would Jennifer interpret this? I think it's safe to say that the Witness considers the song important, and so, that event—Cassie and Cole's dance—important. But who would know to associate that song with that moment? Only Cassie and Cole (and anyone they share it with, true, but let's keep variables to a minimum and say that no one they tell remembers). So, what else can Jennifer think except that one of them is the Witness. She's already been Primarily clued into some kind of doom associated with the two of them…
JENNIFER: You want her to love you, but she doesn't. Being single is not the end of the world. You two together is, though.
What will Jennifer do with this information? That’s the real question. Time will tell, I suppose. =)
A few other ideas about why "These Arms of Mine" should figure so prominently in the Word. Note that they are not necessarily mutually exclusive with the idea above…
It's code. It stands for something else. Maybe a cycle or phase of a cycle. The initial letters strike me as somewhat conspicuous: T A O M. The Army of Monkeys.
It's a password. It unlocks the files on the Druze USB stick.
It's an anagram. Yeah, what are the chances? Lucky for you, I have trouble sleeping… The funnest I could come up with: RAMSE IS THE FENOM =) The most serious: TIME FEARS NO SHEM (or SHEM FEARS NO TIME), where "Shem" could be the name of Noah's first born (http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Shem.html), and/or Hebrew meaning someone's essential identity (http://beth-abraham.org/shem.html). The subtleties of Hebrew and Bible Study are not a specialty of mine. Some others… --- MEN R ASHES OF TIME --- RISE OF THE MASMEN --- THE ARMIES OF MENS --- RISE OF MME ATHENS --- FEAR SHOMEN TIMES Please let me know if you manage to solve the jumble in a way that really and truly clicks. Thanks! =)
A couple of specific Words worth noting…
Kyle Slade (born 1939) is apparently somehow “equivalent” to (shares a “ring” with) Syria in 1322. The last time I remember Syria being mentioned was in connection to the origin of the Druze. I'm thinking that the Witness or a minion of his gained the trust of a tribe of Druze in that year. Perhaps he used present/future knowledge to save one or many of them from some threat, or win them some important survival advantage or resource? In any case, he engages them in the Pact of Time's Custodian, which I believe involves a series of directions that must be executed at specific times over centuries. The Druze as characterized in 12 MONKEYS are a people who choose to live outside of and apart from global society and technology. They would be highly insulated from ripples caused by tinkering with history via time travel, and thusly, the perfect long-term agents of the Witness in reality.
I’m looking forward to an encounter with a truly mad Primary. How would a Primary choose victims? Wouldn’t they be fated to die by his hand? A curse or a guiltless existence? Whatever the case, the vibe coming off of Kyle Slade at the end of this episode is pretty heavy on bloody murderer. That monkey painting on his unfinished warehouse/loft window looks to be a very particular coagulating red, donchathink?
I wouldn’t mind if it was a cheeky bait and switch, tho. What if he’s dangerous/not like Jennifer and Tommy because he can rationally process his connection to Time? And he leverages it as something more innocuous… A commercial artist? What if he’s doing something like making the Army of the 12 Monkeys cool and edgy?
Yeah… That’s a stretch. Let’s stick w/cerebral serial killer. Always a good time! =)
"The Pact of Time's Custodian must be honored." Seen next to “THESE ARMS OF MINE.” Also a reference to the Druze. I wonder if that time has already passed. Perhaps that's what led to Olivia's acquisition of the ancient relic that hid the USB drive. Hrm… Maybe that’s the case, but the Army has yet to deliver their end on an agreed exchange or compensation. Hrm… I wonder how many Druze have survived the virus and its mutations in the future. Perhaps they will be another force to contend with in 2044.
IT TAKES TWO.
Jennifer dropped this little bomb on Cole…
JENNIFER: And if they paradox even one more Primary—game over.
Now we know—how many Primaries does it take to get to the Temporal Hell on Earth center of a Red Forest Pop…
T-hoo!~ (2)
IMMERSED.
When Olivia guides Cassie to the Red Forest this time, it is at the specific direction of the Witness. He tells Olivia: PREPARE HER.
Executing the Witness's order involves what Olivia and the Tall Man refer to as Immersion.
OLIVIA: I will complete the Immersion with Dr. Railly. Alone. You have a plague to reconstruct for your beautiful, uncertain cycle.
This is the full Red Leaf Tea spa treatment. Cassie is placed in a tub of water treated with the crimson herb. Jennifer and Joan Jett appear to interrupt the ritual, drawing Olivia away from Cassie. However, the words prove to be less important than the brew…
TALL MAN: Dr. Railly's Immersion is complete.
In my mind, I immediately liken Witness Immersion to Smoke Monster Infection. Of course, the rules of that were never exact, so all that that really means is that Cassandra Railly cannot be 100% trusted right now. She may be a passive, unknowing, unwitting pawn of the Witness. Her every decision might be dictated by him (so, her decision to stay in 2016 with Jennifer might not have been wholly her own). She may be the Witness's sleeper agent, fully herself until the moment he decides to set her dial to "evil" at a crucial moment. Immersion seems like it will manifest itself as some kind of programming or mind control.
This begs the question: Who else has been immersed?
Olivia? Tall Man? The Messengers? I think not. As far as we know, these members of the Army have joined willingly, as true believers. Olivia has mentioned her father. We know Tall Man's mother was a Messenger, engineered to serve the Army. Maybe it's done as a kind of baptism for the loyal, and helps reinforce already existing faith? But I don't think it's required of the loyal Army soldiers.
Could Jennifer's mother's attempt on her life have been a disturbed form of Immersion?
JENNIFER: They started as stick figures. Got better as I got older. My mother hated them. The disturbed images disturbed her already disturbed mind. CASSANDRA: Your mother was mentally ill? JENNIFER: Not Primary, just sick. She hated them. The things I saw… Madness feeding madness… There's a monster. She wants to destroy the world… It's me… I'm the monster. She tried to drown me, but the tub overflowed, then the maid came, called 911. Daddy spent a lot of money to make that one go away… And then he sent her away, and then eventually it was time for me to go away…
The psych records that Cassandra had indicated that Jennifer's Primary behavior manifested after her near-death at her mother's hand. Could that have been an intended result? What if Olivia (or another Army lieutenant) had Immersed Jennifer's mother? Could her mental illness have resulted from trying to fight the manipulations of the Witness? Would be some grand turnabout if Olivia was responsible for Mama Goines's illness.
When Jennifer rescues Cassie, she has to snap her out of the Red Tea trance. Half-dazed, Cassie says one word to Jennifer…
CASSANDRA: Olivia… JENNIFER: Yeah… Right.
The way Cassie looks, the way she says "Olivia…" Jennifer knows exactly what Cassie means. Extreme prejudice. She confronts Olivia…
JENNIFER: You tried to make my friend crazy. No more tea, no more water, no more *baths*… You know what the difference between you and my mother is? I get to say good bye to you.
Did we just witness Jennifer's first attempted homicide?
TALL MAN IS A FAN OF THE SHOW!
*So* love this meta-dialogue! =)
TALL MAN: It's 1975 to be precise. We sent two of our Messengers there after him… We *will* send… It's all this time travel! It's tricky to follow… It's rewarding when you do. Memories… CASSANDRA: How did you survive the paradox at the bookstore? TALL MAN: Oh, me? I have really good genes…
Good genes. Half Messenger, engineered by the Father for resilience and time travel. The other half…? I'm still rooting for Agent Gale.
HOW WELL DOES TALL MAN KNOW CASSIE?
TALL MAN: My how you've changed…
To which Cassie is Tall Man comparing her to? Does the Army not know that Cassie shot the Traveler? Perhaps that knowledge is overshadowed by Mama Vivian's story of how Cassie gave up a Primary to save that mifit nobody under the Witness's protection, James Cole.
MOVIN' RIGHT ALONG…
This, when Cole, Ramse, and Deacon pile into a truck for a field trip to an anomaly factory…
DEACON: You are… Lady Macbeth at best. RAMSE: I never pegged you as a reader… DEACON: Books didn't die in the apocalypse… which reminds me… COLE: Jesus, would you shut up! I swear I'd drive this thing into an anomaly right now if I could get away from the sound of your voice!
There was a lot of great jibber jabber among the boys this episode. Including this perfectly pitched dumb boy stuff early on, when Cassie is getting ready to Splinter back to meet young Jennifer…
DEACON: You all keep going on and on about how dangerous it would be for these Primary wackos to fall into the wrong hands. Maybe the smart move would be to gather whatever information you need and take them off the board. COLE: Yeah, that would be your solution, wouldn't it, Teddy boy? DEACON: Hey look, it's Time Jesus. COLE: See you soon. DEACON: Watch your back. COLE: Splinter safe. JONES: Gentlemen, if you please.
I'd love for Deacon to come out as gay, or otherwise somehow definitively declare his completely platonic relationship w/Cassie. I so want Deacon to be pushing Cole's Cassie buttons. Cassie doesn't even have to be in on it, because c'mon, put yourself in her shoes. It's ridiculous, why bother clearing the air when there's nothing to clear, right?
Not that Deacon doesn't have other buttons to push…
DEACON: Glad to see Cassie's cleaning up your mess. COLE: My mess? How's that now? DEACON: Weren't you supposed to save the world? Bang-up job. Love the red skies. COLE: My job would be a hell of a lot easier if you hadn't walked the Messengers in through the front door. And for a guy who's always going on about traitors... DEACON: Said the man whose best friend is a mass murderer.
Gotta say, I love how Cole and Ramse win Deacon's respect. The post-apoc outside of Splinter and Spearhead truly is a wilderness, and the human culture that survives in that has seriously different standards and expectations compared to so-called civilization in 2016. I really appreciate the grizzly reminder of that difference given to us this episode by Deacon's bloody return to the facility after Cole and Ramse's trap.
DEACON: Now, my guys… They don't know what you tried to do, do they? I won't tell if you won't. Respect. Hey, next time you go to the past, why don't you bring back some whiskey? We can finally have that drink.
Some *SPOILER*y discussion of what we see (and don't see) of the Witness in this episode. If you haven't watched this week's episode yet, get thee to syfy.com and do it. Then come back and have your mind blown!
Or at least your eyes strained a bit.
Meanwhile, at stately Witness Manor… When Olivia visits the Red Forest via a dose of red leaf brew—taken in a ceremonial chamber designed specifically for such communion (it could probably do with a good fainting couch, tho) we learn that she communicates with him by entering the simultaneously crumbling-building-rebuilding house on the edge of the forest. She speaks her thoughts and dares some questions and the walls of the house answer with words supernaturally scrawled on them.
Was kinda surprised that the Witness *seems* to own up to being fallible.
Technically, though, that's not what he says…
OLIVIA: Time has been altered. Change was not supposed to be possible. You promised the cycle would hold… MY WITNESS THE HOUSE: TIME EVOLVES
Pretty rude, that, donchathink? ALL CAPS? I suppose his minions are all a bit too afeared to school him on polite wall post etiquette…
I still believe that the Witness is feeding half-truths and hidden misdirection/motivation. He passes on enough information to have his players advance to a certain next stage, then redirects or discards them. We saw it pretty explicitly with Vivian Rutledge (aka Lady Messenger) who, as a Messenger, was indoctrinated to believe in the Witness's word and the promise of a deathless paradise called the Red Forest, and trained for a singular purpose—the paradox assassination of a Primary. She was not taught to think of a life outside or beyond that mission. Yet when she survives, she goes on to become the mother of a very important lieutenant in the Army in the early 2000s, Tall Man. I can't believe the Witness doesn't know that that will happen, that that is "luck."" He's used Vivian to complete a Primary mission (pun intended) and then left her in just the right time and place and state of mind to be of even more service to the Army, and perhaps allows her to do it believing it's of her own free will (which it is and isn't, depending on your POV =).
Tall Man kind of puts it into words when he somewhat snidely welcomes Olivia back from the Forest…
TALL MAN: You get your answers, darling? Of course not. The one who sees all, knows all, asking us to see nothing and know nothing. It's chaos. It's beautiful. A new uncertain cycle has begun.
He's seeing this apparently unmapped cycle as a great challenge and adventure, which, if you buy my explanation of Witness direction above, is exactly how he needs to see it in order to achieve what the Witness wishes. While the Tall Man certainly operates as a true believer, personally, it seems he'd rather not feel like a pawn or puppet while fulfilling the Word.
Later in the episode, when Olivia guides Cassie to the house, the Witness appears as the Plague Doctor and then as Aaron, the right side of his face apparently scarred from the fire which Cole and Cassie believed he died in. The Witness does not speak as either figure, at least, not that we get to see/hear.
It's interesting. The Witness's communication method certainly seems like a Primary's—writing on the wall. However, I think that this user interface is out of necessity, not any kind of Primary-esque mania.
What we/visitors to My Witness The House see seems to be instantaneous and/or otherworldly. The Witness's words as writing on the wall appears instantly. Apparitions (whether Plague Doctor or burninated Aaron) appear spontaneously. I see this and it inspires the following thought: try to reduce this "supernatural" behavior to some trick of physics, based on—what else?—time. What if the Witness is in the room, but moving/living at a hyper-accelerated state? Like the Flash, or, better yet—and better demonstrated on screen—Quicksilver? We've seen this very effect on the show a couple of times. First, when Cole was caught in the blast of the watch paradox. And again (I think) when the Messengers took over the Splinter facility.
So, from the POV of a visitor to the Red Forest, words appear and disappear on the walls in a flash. However, from the Witness's POV, he writes them casually, and leaves them on the walls for days, possibly even months, in order for them to appear for the seconds needed for his visitor to read them. This is all just theory (one that I realllly love), but let's just say that for every second a guest experiences, the Witness experiences an hour. That means that 2.5 days would pass for him while only a minute passes for Olivia or Cassie.
The Witness himself could be pacing back and forth in the room next to a visitor and they wouldn't notice. At most/best, a guest might notice a blur. For the Witness to appear as the Plague Doctor, and then burninated Aaron, he would costume up and stand in place for hours, maybe days, for a guest to register his presence. Maybe he sets a timer/alarm/reminder and stands in position for a minute every hour for several days. Whatever frequency it would take to fool a visitor's persistence of vision. Painstaking work, but we know that the Witness is nothing if not meticulous, right?
The real trick involved in communicating is understanding the speech of his visitors. He would perceive their speech as radically slowed down. Like Bugs Bunny and that mini-Frankenstein doctor when they break that jar of ether, y'know? Perhaps he's just trained his ear/mind to understand. Or maybe he uses the timer/reminder trick again to record mouth shape and position and plays them back for himself on a zoetrope or flip book and reads lips. Or, if he's real lucky, there was a reel-to-reel in that house when it got paradoxed or anomalied and he uses it to record and speed up the spoken words of his visitors.
We haven’t seen the rest of the house. And I think it must have been rooted in reality (at least *a* reality), along with the forest, at some point in its past. Maybe it was loaded with 20th or 21st century technology that he takes advantage of and keeps hidden from guests. Or perhaps the Witness has items scavenged or “washed up” from different eras when the Red Forest has bordered/borders reality (via an original paradox event, anomalies, and/or time storms).
And all that wallpapering! I wonder if he's learned to make his own paste and paper. Does he ever change the actual design? Why not paint? Hrm… He could probably only make red paint after any original paint runs out, right? So…He has to recycle and re-use the wallpaper. He must be going nuts! (Safe to say, right?) Probably doesn't have cable, fiber, or dish, right? I hope he has some good books in that house. He should really ask his minions to bring him some offerings. The red leaf seems to offer an astral form of visitation. I wonder if there's any way visitors can take or leave anything besides words and ideas. Visitors turn the front door knob. Can they draw on the walls as well? Break things?
Some writing on the wall worth remembering…
When Olivia enters the house: 1957-1959 THIS WAS HOME
This seemed unprompted, not a response to a query by Olivia. Perhaps Olivia caught him in a century of forgetfulness? Or maybe that message is meant for someone else whose visit overlaps hers?
When Olivia asks what the Witness wants from her: FIND CASSANDRA / PREPARE HER
Olivia responds that Cass is a threat who should be eliminated…
To that: NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO *
* Punctuated with a scare-stare by the Plague Doctor.
Something that sticks in my mind… Olivia says something interesting when complaining about how things have not gone as they were foretold.
Why become part of a group that seeks to wipe most of humanity from the Earth?
Have we heard any Army of the 12 Monkeys propaganda yet? I feel like I'm imprinting from other sources (the film and other superfun eschatological storylines) a manifesto that involves restoring a balance to the planet's ecology, one that human beings have been upsetting with unchecked population grown and the exploitation of resources required to support it. Reduced for fun semantics, the Earth is the host and humankind the virus. The plague, then, is a cure.
I'll buy that as the pitch given to recruit true-believer footsoldiers (I'm not sure we've seen any, mercs will work for $$), but I've got to believe there's more to it than that for an Inner Circle / upper Monkeys management. I suppose Tall Man does seem to be a legit horticultural enthusiast, though, right?
I'm definitely not convinced that Olivia would be into it. She's committed to a mission, as far as plague-starting goes, but what's really in it for her? She describes a plan that her father had for her, along with a thing in a box that came with instructions…
The only thing in a box we're familiar with so far is the Annapurna Remains, but that's only been in a box since the 80s. Unless—whoa!—was it excavated and found in that cryotank? That would be pretty awesome, but also a ridiculous thing for the Yakuza (or anyone) to overlook in a sales pitch, right? Oh, something that kinda bugged me: if the Yakuza didn't know about the virus, how would they know that a frozen rotting corpse would be valued at half a million dollars? Perhaps a little bird named Olivia told them, following the gospel of Ramse?
Hrm… Could she be referring to herself? Was SHE the thing in a box? An slowly aging time traveler like Ramse, but transported without knowing? Sedated and/or on life support? Could Olivia be…
Hannah? Launched in a cryotank by Katarina into the past in the hopes that Splinter serum + Splinter process would supercharge her system enough to defeat the virus and live out her life in the past?
Who would be Olivia's father? Someone who communicates with Jones by leaving messages/signs in the present/past that she uncovers in the future? I've been hoping to have a connection like that revealed at some point.
Wait—What was I talking about? Oh! Right. The plague. Why would anyone want to release such a thing Where's the advantage? Some possibilities…
1. Protected bloodlines. The Army has engineered the virus to ignore those w certain genetic markers, those belonging to members, agents, and benefactors of the Army, to spare them and their posterity. We've seen that the immune produce immune offspring (Sam Ramse).
This idea falls apart when you factor in the mutating nature of the virus. Maybe the Army didn't plan on it? Could Peters have added it as a poison pill? But Cole and Cass have been telling anyone who'll listen that it mutates. Could it be that the Army wouldn't believe them?
Seems unlikely. So, not part of the Army's plan. However, a promise of such engineering would be a good way to sell the plague's development to certain parties (like Goines and Markridge), so maybe the initial iteration *is* designed to protect certain bloodlines, but successive mutations roll the dice.
So, this could be a false pretense advantage, another part of the means to some greater, so far unknown, end…
The aftermath of the plague is an environment that produces something unique: successful time travel. In this scenario, the virus (and death of billions) is a means to the end of time travel, and at least one specific Splinter into the past that enables Something Important to happen. Something on the order of the extinction of the dinosaurs and an ice age.
So, before the plague, Project Splinter was in development, but doomed to failure or incompletion. Perhaps they didn't have the right minds or resources and/or funding was cut. Whatever the circumstances, it was a dead end, decommissioned, mothballed. Then along comes the plague, which triggers the execution of Spearhead protocols, followed by Foster's coup and Jones's revival and completion of Project Splinter.
Paradise / Utopia. Perhaps humanity rebuilds civilization sometime beyond 2043, in a benevolent and near-perfect fashion. And the only way that it could have come about was in the aftermath of the purge brought on by the virus. If NOT for the virus, humanity's unchecked growth would have led to the destruction of our ecosystem and the extinction of humanity, whether by war, plague, or hunger. The virus allows humanity to reboot and rebuild, correcting for the errors of pre-21st century society.
So perhaps this is what drives the Army's Inner Circle. They may not live to participate in it, but if they don't manipulate events to release the virus, no man or woman ever will.
Olivia's mentioned "the twelve," and when she has, I certainly don't think "monkeys." She's talking about people. Peters tried to clue us in a little…
PETERS: They kept talking about the Messengers. Part of their plan… The Twelve.
Twelve emissaries from the future?
Basically, I like to think that these trips, these loops, that Cole, and now Ramse, are creating, connecting 2043 and 1987 and back, are concentric. The innermost rings of a larger pattern of circles and trips, ultimately ending in some great payoff or return for our players and humanity. But will that payoff be worth it if it means that it is Fated, that no one living within these loops truly has any freedom or free will? Does it matter?
Maybe the story really begins when someone—Cassie? Cole? AARON? =) —says F-U to Fate and posterity and promise. Amerca!
I do love this show. Or maybe the one in my head. Whichever. =)
Keep on keepin on~
P.S. If you haven't watched it, see THE WORLD'S END. Why? Oh, no reason.
P.P.S. Also, maybe CABIN IN THE WOODS. And ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK and/or L.A. =)
Okay. A recap-type write-up of episode 11 quickly got away from me with tangents and what-ifs. So, I'm gonna try and keep this non-epic by going thru and rambling a bit on new info/insights we get on some characters this episode…
THE GOINES FAMILY.
LELAND: I don't know boys… One-Eyed Willy's a little lackluster…
Was Leland, like, a cool dad back before he was a virus-weaponizing corporate villain? I like the idea of Leland going with his precocious nerdgirl daughter to see THE GOONIES. Maybe a couple of times. =)
When Leland visits Jennifer at J.D. Peoples in 2014, he mentions her mother, who was also thought to be mentally ill. When he leaves, one of his cronies explains that Jennifer shouldn't be locked up for killing her Night Room colleagues. Security footage clearly shows that she did not kill them. Goines explains that she is exactly where she should be.
When Olivia visits Jennifer after her apparent release, she asks about her mother, and seems to know that Leland had her locked away and forgotten as well. Perhaps Jennifer and her mother share a natural ESP of some kind, something that manifests as symptoms of mental illness, informally, a Cassandra complex.
I'd like another look at the drawings she makes in the hospital. Animals and nature retaking cities. Maybe red leaves? And then, the fierce black monkey. From where does she pull that image? From Markridge labs' test subjects? She said she freed them, right? Six and six? Or did the agents of the Army wear the image as sigil on their clothes or as tattoos (the Chechnya assassin had one).
Hey, did you hear what Jennifer was murmuring outside the Markridge conference room in 2011…?
JENNIFER: Everything's changing… Green to red. Everything's changing… Green to red.
So, she's either been present for a paradox shower, has had visions of one, or is somehow "reading" the effects of one (perhaps ripples from the 1995 one?). This is at a time when she's working as a Markridge scientist, before the Army's Night Room massacre, before Jennifer's stay at J.D. Peoples. She's definitely vibrating at some kind of special frequency. Maybe like her mother? Who perhaps was prescribed a certain red tea while pregnant…? By Dr. Guy-who's-Olivia's-father…?
Perhaps this extra sense or sight is an ability resulting from engaging in the nasty in the past-y ((c) FUTURAMA =). Remember what Jennifer told Ramse in 2043…
JENNIFER: We're the daughters of mothers and midnight and fathers. It's all out of order. But there's still time. For you, and me. We have work to finish.
What happened to his hand? His left hand, right? Was he injured in 2043 before Splintering? Wounded during his fight with Cole in 1987? Oh! Maybe he had that hand outside of the Splinter stream, holding his gun on the technician who executed the Splinter? Given the layout of the Splinter lab, tho, probably would've been his right hand. Hrm…
One day Olivia interrupts Ramse while he's thinking of Sam, recalling memories from the future. The first time I watched, I heard…
OLIVIA: Time isn't perfect. Yet I'm envious how most of you seem to defy it.
She reaches out to touch him, he pulls away, and the scene continues, revealing how the Army has made strategic investments for profit and to help events along their proper, future historical, paths. She seems to be speaking of Ramse and humanity as something different from herself, ready to fight fate, time, mortality.
The second time I watched, I heard…
OLIVIA: Time isn't perfect. Yet I'm envious how most of you seems to defy it.
She reaches out to touch his hand, which he pulls away, and the scene continues… She's referring to most of RAMSE, not most of humanity.
For the most part, it appears that Ramse's aging has been arrested, or at least dramatically slowed. The only part of him that shows the signs of time's passing is his hand (and wrist/forearm). Visually, this was difficult for me to make out. Early on, I thought that his hand seemed to be coated or covered with something silvery/metallic, maybe some compromised protective gear? Later, in prison, maybe a brace or cast? Then, in a shot while in prison, it seemed to be scarred. Only when I properly (I think) heard Olivia's words with her actions and his reaction, did it click that it's meant to be age, and in contrast with the rest of his body (at least, of what we can see). I'm still not sure what it looks like, tho. Wrinkled? Gray? Oh! If it was his gun hand, maybe the metal/materials of the gun became embedded in his flesh? Combine that w serum-healing and that's kinda Wolverine!
Remember when Peters analyzed Cole's physiology back in 2015? Scans showed that he was running hot, featuring upgrades like enhanced strength and healing. I think he might have described his blood as a biological computer, too? When cumulative Splinter events don't drain away years of your life, the Splinter serum seems to act as something of a Super-Soldier Serum (w Vita-Rays, turned Steve Rogers into Captain America in the MCU). Would love to see that exploited in some superhuman feats and action scenes.
OLIVIA.
When Olivia comments on Ramse's moisturizing regimen, she seems to imply that she herself ages like a typical human being. Gotta say, it's difficult to confirm that by observation, right? It's 20 years from when she welcomes Ramse into the fold to when she confronts Aaron Marker outside the Army's container lab. She looks like an ageless replicant every time we see her.
When the pendant paradox mitzvah is complete…
TALL MAN: Your father was right.
OLIVIA: Yes. He has come.
And when Olivia meets Jennifer in 2014…
OLIVIA: My father was the same. He had plans for me. There was a thing in a box, with printed instructions. Difficult… Problematic.
Who is her father? What plans did he have for her? The only thing in a box we've seen thus far is the precursor, but it's only been in a box since the 1980s, and her father is spoken of in the past tense already in 1995. Huh, Jennifer has actually already seen the precursor when Olivia speaks to her. So, I'm thinking that the thing in a box that Olivia refers to is something else. Printed instructions. Some relic of the future—a box containing some artifact and perhaps a timeline or calendar, a written history or diary, which would be interpreted as instructions—deposited in the past, and passed down across generations.
I love that we get to see her—and so, the Army of the 12 Monkeys—as an influence behind so many people and projects we encounter in their more developed forms in the future. She and Ramse meet with Leland in 2011 because the Army's financial group is heavily invested in Markridge. She plants the seed of the Daughters in Jennifer's mind in 2014. She shows up at Senator Royce's office in 2015 because the Army is funding the "selective survival protocol" that will ultimately become Project Spearhead.
ROYCE: Tell you what, the investor is on their way over here right now, and they're looking for someone to spearhead the project…
The one big ticket item we haven't seen Olivia connected to (yet) is Raritan National Laboratory and Project Splinter. I think it's in the first episode that Cole describes to Cass that scientists from his time used technology from her time to develop a solution to beating the plague. In my head, I believed that Splinter was unfinished at the time of the outbreak, and that Jones's ragtag Spearhead refugees sought out the facility to complete the work. Hence the early ghastly test runs and results.
But—who's to say it wasn't operational before the plague and then abandoned, de-powered, and/or disabled? That would open up some very interesting possibilities. At the time of the growing outbreak, Splintering would have offered not a cure for, but an escape from the plague. Perhaps someone/s from the original Project Splinter is manipulating the manipulators to ensure that s/he is able to make the Splinter that save his/her life?
You see how a mild-mannered write-up of episode 11 would quickly get a bit superfantastical? Yeah, I might have a problem. =)
ON CHILDREN.
JONES: The greatest lie is believing we are shaping them, that we have any control. No. They make us. They can destroy us.
That's Katarina talking about how both Ramse's and her own actions are inspired by their children. Hannah's death set Jones on a path to change the past as they know it. Sam's life sets Ramse on a path to preserve it. Reminds me of another nugget of fried wisdom for Ramse (the not-Witness) from Jennifer in 2043…
JENNIFER: Death can be both cause and effect. That's how it works. No straight lines. You're ready. It's time… to go.
It seems the child pretty consistently destroys the parent in the world of 12 MONKEYS. Sam inspires Ramse into Atari (a situation he’d otherwise never fall into). Hannah drives Katarina to seek a solution that will erase her own existence. Marcus Whitley chooses Dr. Jones over his father. Jennifer Goines is in part responsible for events that lead to Leland's death (and legacy). And Olivia and Tall Man do speak of her father in the past tense…
Fun times!
