Its the episode where the gang travels back to World War II.
Its an old-fashioned heist, with every kind of time travel twist.
Which explains why the French Resistance appears with a plan to blow up the mansion.
Credit: Ben Mark Holzbert/Syfy
Which is a problem, because our heroes really need to steal a top secret plot thing.
is the kind of question a different show might ponder.
The good guys successfully grab the plot thing; its a bell shaped like a monkey head.
Theyre driving away, back to the future.
12 Monkeyswas about the end of the world.
The apocalypse has gone mainstream, so even non-fantastical series feel apocalyptic lately.
Months could pass in an episode, or years.
Characters splintered across the timeline, living whole lives in distant pasts, reappearing unexpectedly in various futures.
Existential dilemmas were struggled with, gotten over.
The laws of time were honored, and broken.
Structurally, certain elements of12 Monkeyswere old-fashioned, downright procedural-ish.
By necessity but also by purpose,12 Monkeysheld true to certain day-one aspects of itself.
Cole was a time traveler from a ruined future, trying to stop the end of the world.
They all fought a mysterious force, the Army of the 12 Monkeys.
The nature of that army evolved, as12 Monkeysitself moved beyond its influences.
Under his guidance, this12 Monkeysbecame a soulful cliffhanger opera.
Characters would execute elaborate time-heists requiring period-piece attire and gunplay and then do it all again a week later.
The fourth season took trips to Nazi-occupied France, the Wild West, the Medieval era.
I just murdered seven billion people is something someone said in the finale.
Time will collapse in a matter of hours, said someone else.
The climactic plan required a suicide run straight into a universe-crunching chronopolis.
Of course, Ramse died because Cole killed him.
So Ramse agreed to help Cole.
They got into a vintage car.
The spiraling narrative produced a feeling of relentless surprise.
Multiple selves would pile up, and the show had a clever way of subverting even your cleverest expectations.
Deacon appeared to dietwicein the final season once they cut off his head!
and he still returned for the finale, brought back from the past to save the future.
Executed poorly, this couldve gotten repetitive quickly, or felt cheap.
Deacon and Ramse rejoined the Jones crew for a battle with the forces of Titan.
This was a suicide mission in every sense of the word.
If they were successful, they would erase James Cole from history.
And everyone else would die so that they could live again.
All would be rebooted.12 Monkeysended by erasing12 Monkeys.
Olivia died grotesquely, her top half beamed back centuries, leaving her waistline spurting blood skyward.
So Olivia won the series-long Which Character Is The Ancient Plague Skeleton?
But what of the revelation that the Deacon from the past was involved in this final future showdown?
Gonna be ahellof a performance, said Past Deacon.
He was pretending the whole timeshould be an unconvincing twist.
You bought it from12 Monkeys, where every character had a little extra spring in their step.
She treated her farewell as a curtain call.
New theory:12 Monkeyswas the story of an acting troupe holding off oblivion one performance at a time.
Cole and Cassie ruminated over their love story, soon to be deleted.
You and me, we didnt get a lot of time, said Cole.
But we lived a lifetime together.
I always enjoyed Aaron Stanfords performance.
He had a grizzled professionalism, like Cole was fixing time the way a plumber fixes the sink.
(Hes probably the last cosmic hero who will ever look like even vaguely like Kurt Cobain.)
Still, it made sense to me that12 Monkeyssaved its final farewell foranothercoupling.
All their other friends long dead, Cole and Jones shared a final moment.
The doctor was finished programming her machine, was just about expired from a dose of radiation.
How about one more smoke?
They shared some terse parting words.
The ending ofLa Jeteeis horrifying, the climax of Gilliams12 Monkeysequally downbeat but halfway-hopeful.
Cassie beamed back to the moment this show began, left with memories of a life (lives?)
The plague never decimated humanity.
Deacon opened a bar, dead children lived again, Jennifer grew a freaking unicorn.
And Cole survived, because Jones let herself breakonerule of causality.
He got to join Cassie in their house, just as autumn started turning the forest red.
It was one leap of logic in a finale that otherwise followed rigid rules of time-space canon.
I think the show earned it.
What about manipulating time?
Oh, time knows said Jennifer.
But it also knows it owes you one.
And the camera pulled back, to a setting I assume the script referred to asEXT.
And we seemed to see an eyelid closing: The cosmos, resting peacefully at last.
Or, maybe, winking at us.
The finale paid off every idea the show ever had about itself, curlicue revelations sprinkled alongside brawly catharsis.
Its one of the most gratifying finales Ive ever seen, satisfying and surprising, brainy and bighearted.
Like the best finales, it was partly about theneedfor finality.
It was existential pop, cheerful heroes regarding the void with dark humor.
Everyone died a few times, but youve never met such friendly ghosts.
The cycle has ended; cant wait for it to start again.
Finale Grade: A
Final Season Grade: B+
