Thursday, July 9, 2015

Summer DVR Dump: 12 Monkeys 1.05: “The Night Room”

“I’m from the apocalypse. Everything here looks weird to me.”
- Cole

So as we learned at the end of the last episode, Cassie thinks she’s found the Night Room (hence the title of this episode). Before we get there, though, we see the Night Room in 2011 as Jennifer is being transported there to do work. We get the layout of the place and all of the security measures in place to protect the experiments and the virus. It turns out Jennifer is the only one who can open the vault to get at the virus. We briefly jump to 2015 where we see the man in the hat trying to break Jennifer. It’s unclear whether he does or not. In 2043, before Cole jumps back to meet up with Cassie to storm the castle, he, Jones and Ramse end up having a little drinking party. It’s become a tradition for Cole and Ramse to toss a few back before he splinters. Just in case, you know?

Cole and Cassie meet up outside the lab that Cassie found. It’s the only place using the amount of electricity and power needed to keep it running. Cassie thinks they need a plan before they just go charging in but Cole’s plan is simply just charge in. He’s of the mindset that if this works, he disappears and the future is saved (kind of like in the pilot). Cassie even points out that Cole has the same look on his face as he did when he killed Leland Goines. I guess that’s an understandable reaction for Cole to have but it probably won’t get them what they want in the long run. They get inside the building, run into a scientist and are promptly detained by 12 Monkey soldiers. Come on, how did Cole not see that coming? As I mentioned it is still unclear whether Jennifer gave up the location or not. But it certainly doesn’t look good for our resident scientific nut job when the man in the hat shows up.

The man in the hat believes that the scientist can open the vault but he repeatedly says that he can’t. In fact, no one at the lab can (because clearly Jennifer isn’t there). The poor scientist gets a bullet to the back of the head for his trouble. But hey, at least he was able to tell Cole and Cassie that there is a failsafe that will basically light up the entire building in flames if a virus gets out. The only catch is there are two buttons that need to be pushed and one of them is near the vault. Basically, whoever pushes the second button gets turned to ash. With the scientist dead, the man in the hat implements his plan B: blow torches.

While things are progressing in 2015, things are also getting serious in 2043. Ramse starts to question stories the West Seven told about a crazy German doctor turning people inside out. So he decides to go investigate Jones (which is her married name). He finds a music box and a bunch of photos of people in the time machine and they are not looking so good. Of course Jones walks in and finds him and they get into a rather emotional confrontation. Jones explained that she did it to save all of human history and the sacrifices of the people who came before Cole were necessary. Ramse points out that what they do now still matters. He is just not very happy with her. While he doesn’t trust her or the chick from the West Seven, he still believes in the mission.

It seems Jennifer may have given up the Night Room after all but she didn’t tell them about the vault. The man in the hat tries to torture Cole to find out how to get into the vault but obviously Cole doesn’t know how. The little chat does prompt Cassie to question if Cole killed Henri. She’s kind of horrified that he did. But they have more important things to worry about when the man in the hat gets into the vault. There is a creepy skull that is apparently the origin of the virus. Awesome.

The situation escalates fairly rapidly when one of the soldiers tries to reach for the skull and his hand gets incinerated. How do you like those failsafe protocols buddy? So the solution is clearly to threaten Jennifer. She says she’ll only tell her secrets to Cole. Convenient since he’s right upstairs explaining to Cassie why he killed Henri. He also shares a story from his scavenger days about killing a woman and how he is seeking forgiveness. The 12 monkey soldiers head out and Jennifer reveals to Cole and Cassie that she has all the codes and they start to make their way to the vault so they can destroy the virus. But of course, it’s a giant trap and Jennifer is tricked into shutting down the fail safe on the vault. But Cole and Cassie manage to get a little leverage and activate the fire. So yay for that!

Unfortunately Cole is still around so that means burning up the place didn’t have the desired effect. I mean are barely halfway through the season at this point so it can’t work. Not only does he have to fret about still being alive but the 12 Monkeys have Cassie and he can’t get to her before they whisk her away in a van and he splinters. If he thought things would be hunky dory at home, he’d be very wrong. Something has gone horribly awry in the timeline because the 2043 he returns to is not that he one he left. For one thing it’s run by the West Seven. I am fairly certain he is not going to be happy about this new development. From the little we’ve already seen of these guys, they aren’t very nice and Cole seemed quite happy to be rid of them. So did Ramse. But I guess we will have to wait and see what happens in this alternate timeline.

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