12 Monkeys Recap with Spoilers: “Paradox”

It's the penultimate episode of 12 Monkeys season 1 this week. Let's get started!

2043: "There's no sign of Cole's tracer." After knowing they managed to bring him to 2015, but not all the way back to their present, Katrina and Dr. Adler say that they are now "abandoned" and Cole is "just a memory." Katrina seems a bit distraught, despite her surface coldness.

2015: Manhattan... and a young Katrina? Woah! She's sitting with an older man, revealed to be her father. She's explaining to him that she wants to work in a research lab in the US, which he's trying to talk her out of doing. He's interesting - starts off telling her she needs to use her considerable knowledge to help people in the here and now, then also tells her she needs love in her life.

Katrina heads to her home in Astoria - where Cassie is waiting for her. She tells her their "mutual friend Cole" is dying, but of course she's about 27 years too early for Katrina to know who the heck she's talking about. After taking her away at gunpoint (desperate times and all that), we get back to Cassie and Aaron's place, where Cole is laid up.

He dreams, briefly, about the future/past, and wakes suddenly, confused about where he is.

Cassie and Katrina are talking inside the latter's home, and showing her proof of her work to convince her.

Back at Cassie and Aaron's Cole starts seizing in front of Aaron, foaming at the mouth. Aaron calls Cassie, who tells him where there's an epipen in the house. Aaron injects Cole, and he wakes up.

Katrina grabs a knife to drive Cassie out of her home. This is all a little hard for Katrina to swallow, and Cassie finally rips the bandaid off: "Future you sent him here, and now he's dying. Please help me save him."

Cole wakes all the way up, he's been "in and out of it for a few days," Aaron tells us. Katrina and Cassie come in, and Cole is more than a little blown away. "You've always known me," to which she replies, "perhaps my always and your always aren't the same."

As Katrina preps getting tests ready, an existential discussion between Cole and Cassie commences over fate - it seems Cole is in his own turn of "giving up."

2043: Katrina wants to recommence their research of the 12 Monkeys, Goines, Dr. Railly, Markridge, and anything else they can analyze about the virus. They start to piece together every little bit of evidence and history they can find, and discover a new CEO was put in at Markridge in late 2015.

2015: And there we go, Markridge, in the midst of a board meeting, where the CEO is revealed to have been banging one of the other board members, and also embezzling. Jennifer Goines hostiley takes over the company, and throws out the old boss.

Back to Cassie's house, Katrina says, "Cole is going to die." She analyzes Cassie's relationship with him. Cassie tells her about the watch demonstration Cole originally showed her, which makes Katrina think that if they can find 5 year-old Cole, and put some of his blood in adult, corrupted Cole, then perhaps they can use a paradox to save his life.

Aaron storms out. He makes a phone call, presumably to Olivia, the erstwhile "Striking Woman" and says he wants to make a deal. His only goal is to save Cassie. Near the capital, he's now chatting with Olivia, and wants details about how she can save them. He doesn't mind, you know, allowing genocide, as long as Cassie is safe.

Elsewhere, Cassie and Katrina are in a car, driving to Cole's house, to ask his father Matthew if they can borrow a little blood - you know, totally normal. Katrina reveals that she's currently pregnant (meet Hannah!) by experiencing some morning sickness. She also reveals she plans to have an abortion, as the father left her after only 6 days of marriage.

2043: We see the evidence that didn't happen, as Katrina looks through her collection of pictures and things that belong to Hannah. One of the things in her memory box was a business card, for "Northside Garage." It puzzled her.

2015: Cassie and Katrina pull up to Northside Garage, and speak to someone who says his name is Anderson, and that Matthew Cole disappeared, hasn't been seen for months. They hear a child on a swing, though, and it's James.

The jig is up, and he admits he is a little paranoid due to the kid's mom. He seems to be a good, protective father. He tells him that he needs to never say "I can't."

Cassie tells Matthew the truth, and he gets a shotgun and tells her to leave. She mentions the Army of the 12 Monkeys, and he suddenly perks up - turns out James' mother also mentioned them, and that he needed to protect James from them. This convinces him to come meet adult James.

Back at Cassie's house, father meets son in a chilling moment.

2043: Work continues on Project Splinter. After a small tachyon surge in the middle of the night, some reddened leaves appeared on the machine. Curious.

2015: Young Katrina is drawing some blood from young Cole. Cassie actually draws the blood - adult James comes into the room, and both he and the boy get sudden headaches. Katrina reminds him that he needs to stay away. He lies back down, and Matthew sits with him. They have a heart to heart, and Matthew tells Adult James about his mother, that they had a brief love affair, and she came back a year later with their son, saying "she couldn't protect you." They have the "I can't" and "the only failure is giving up" conversation again.

Matthew goes outside to try to process what has just happened here. Cassie checks on him, then gets a phone call from Aaron, urging her to come around the corner to the parking lot. He tries to get her into a car, and says, "They're going to win this, they won't wait any longer, just come with me!" The pallid man is driving up in another vehicle. Cassie comes in, and in a wordless, slow motion sequence, she grabs young James and carries him out, Katrina and Matthew leave, with Adult James's gun. He still has the blood from the little one though.

Matthew tries to stop their attackers, the Pallid Man and two others, and kills one - but The Pallid Man gets him, and kills him, shot to the head, with young James watching from the back of the car as the two doctors and the child make their escape.

Pallid Man and a thug come in and say "It's over Cole," but James injects himself with the kid's blood. He is raised into the air by the paradox energy, which then explodes from this body, shattering the windows and blowing back the two assailants.

When Cassie returns, he's lying on the floor naked - he survived and seems to be renewed. Cassie tells Cole that his father was killed, and that Katrina has the boy - then that Aaron was the one that ratted them out.

Katrina brought young James to Child Protective Services, and notes that she is keeping her own child. While she decides she doesn't want to know more about the future from Cole, she does tell him, "I'm a scientist, I don't believe in fate." She also informs him that because of the Paradox, he is now completely stuck in the past - he can never return.

Young James meets a slightly older boy, who introduces himself: Jose - yup, that's Ramse.

Cole and Cassie take each others' hands.

2043: The red English Ivy is growing on the machine at Project Splinter. They don't know why it's red, but do know that it's "not from our time." An alarm goes off, and Whitley is sitting in their entryway - with a severed head. "They're coming. They're coming." is all he can say. Several bodies are being laid out, and a group of pale men in all black clothing and hoods are lined up. "This facility is very important to us. You're sure you can get us in?" Deacon (oh crap!) turns around, and assures them that he can.