12 Monkeys...

The episodes I most recently recorded and watched were episode 5 & 6.

**spoilers below**

Episode 5 - ‘After’

This episode was full of amusing quotes...and, surprisingly, most of them came from Cassie (who doesn't typically get a chance to be 'funny' that often). The best part, though, was her reaction after Jennifer Goines knocked on the door while Cole and Cassie were in bed, shouting out to them, "Guys, I found something! Come on, out of bed! Let's move! Besides, I know what you're doing in there. Better be careful this time. Butt stuff only!". The line from Jennifer was already pretty funny, but Amanda Schull's face/reaction was hilarious and totally made that a great comedic moment. I wish I could've found a picture or GIF of it.

Some other amusing exchanges/lines from her...

Cassie: "Hey, what are you doing?"

Cole: "What do you think I'm doing?"

Cassie: "Okay, there are two ways this goes. One, you go in there looking for the weapon. And what do you know? Bang, bang, loop, loop. It was us who killed the Russians all along. Two, surprise - it the Army of the 12 Monkeys - Olivia's final suckerpunch."

Cole: "I can't sit here any longer. Let's go stretch our legs, peek in the window or something."

Cassie: "No rushing in?"

Cole: "No. I just want to get a breath of good old 1966 fresh air. Promise. Come on, it's a nice night. Hmm?"

Cassie: [muttering] "Bullshit."

===

Jennifer: "This is July 21, 1966. What do you see?"

Cole: "Climb the steps, ring the bell." You found it."

Jennifer: "Yes!"

Cassie: "Couldn't help but notice the dead guys."

===

After Future Cole was referred to as "Future asshole", Cassie saying to 'her' Cole, "Listen, present-day asshole...", and also when Jennifer was on one of her ramblings, Cassie's reaction (she has such little patience for when Jennifer's does this).

Having said that^, Jennifer did get some amusing moments too. 

Jennifer: "♪ A mystery McGuffin! We're going on a hunt! ♪"

Also "oops loop" was a good one.

I liked seeing Agent Robert Gale again. He was great with Jennifer (who was trying so hard to be 'classic spy' and he was just all, "I know this already. Get on with it!"). Her "Worst spy ever!" claim after he couldn't be bothered completing the secret phrases he had to utter was also amusing.



And although this episode certainly brought the funny, there were some serious/emotional moments too. Even though we knew Cassie and Cole weren't going to die, it was still pretty effectively sad to see Cassie have to watch Cole die in her arms. And top of that, second Cassie had to hear first Cassie go through all that again later on.

Cole was selfless when Christopher Lloyd's character asked him to choose which of them received the antidote and Cole immediately said Cassie (not that we expected anything less).

Christopher Lloyd was certainly effectively creepy in the episode. I think this is the best use of him as a guest star that I've seen (I've seen him guest star on other shows, but he didn't really make much of an impression - whereas here he did).

This was an excellent episode and I wasn't sure how the second one was going to live up to it...but it most definitely did.

Episode 6 - ‘Die Glocke’.

The beginning of the episode certainly didn't promise much humour, given the setting and time period and...you know...cold-blooded murder. However, things got a bit more entertaining once the gang traveled back in time.

Firstly, good on Jennifer for not forgetting she'd already lived in the time period they were wanting to travel back to and that she had 'Naziphobia'. I could understand her frustration/hesitation.

I kind of loved Cassie's "Holy shit. You've got some balls on you, Jones." reaction to Jones getting them past the Nazis at the door to the gala.

I also liked that although Jones and Jennifer had knowledge of other languages, poor Cole did not and their advice for getting by was simply to say "Oui." (and that he said "Yes." even when he was being insulted, since it was all he knew how to say). 

The highlight of the episode, however, was Jennifer singing to Hitler and the cutting between that and Cassie's 'distraction'/mowing down Nazis.



I have to roll my eyes at some people complaining about Cassie's method of distraction being 'gratuitous' (I wonder how many of them complained about scenes of Cole without a shirt). Why shouldn't an attractive woman embrace her sexiness and use it to kill a bunch of Nazis? This show doesn't go 'silly' very often, and when it does, it embraces it and it *works*. 

I'm not a fan of Pink's music (though apparently Hitler was into it...?), but Jennifer made that moment awesome. Not only did I appreciate that she started off a bit shaky/uncertain, only to grow more confident as she progressed...but then that confidence grew to such a state that she was giving the finger to a room full of Nazis (including Hitler himself). Not only was that moment very 'Jennifer', but so was her setting off the bomb to kill Hitler, consequences be damned.

These two episodes were pretty great. Here's hoping the rest of the season can keep up this standard.


The only reason I recognised him here was because I knew the actor's name and had seen it in the list of guest stars at the beginning. Also, he may have looked quite a bit different, but his voice still sounded basically the same, so that too helped me realise it was him after he showed up...though it did take a minute to register.

I honestly can't recall the details of last season, since it's been a while.

Well, we got the series final of 12 Monkeys here on Friday.

The two episodes from last week had some good parts to them...



As for the series final…



Anyway, this is one show that I’m pretty certain I’ll be getting the complete series boxset of (when/if it’s ever actually released here, that is). It would definitely be worth rewatching. Kudos to the show creators, cast and everyone involved in making this series for keeping its quality consistently excellent throughout its four season run. Not many shows seem to be able to manage that and oftentimes go out with a whimper, but this one went out whilst still on top. Well done, show.