12 Monkeys: S01E12: "Paradox"

Rating: 6

In A Nutshell

In the future, Katerina, her scientists and (strangely enough) some military, all start again with their investigations, whilst also investigating some red ivy growing on the time machine. Meanwhile, Cassie looks to help Cole live past the next few days by getting the 2015 versions of Katerina and Cole's dad onboard.

What I liked

The mystery of the red ivy was brief, and although we can sort of guess where it's from, given last week's episode, it was curious enough to stimulate my mind.

Aaron seems to have turned into a bumbling fool, intent on ignoring his missus' wishes and trying to thwart them. Admittedly he's got his brains and logic all screwed up, but at least it gets the bad guys involved and livens things up.

Well, the very pale faces army at the end raised a few eyebrows.

What I Didn't Like

This episode won't win any awards for originality or for lacking of contrived plotwork. I could just have got past 2015's Katerina being reasonably easily convinced to take part in proceedings, but Cole's dad was far too easily in on the swing of things. I guess they have to keep the plot moving, and maybe the 12 Monkeys Army was enough of a name drop from Cassie to have him do all that based on very little to start off with.

Lots of contrived plot here including, disappointedly, with the milk glass dropping on floor flashbacks of the last 3 episodes all relating to a small moment in this episode. Hardly really seemed worth all the effort to get us thinking about what they could mean.

Huh?

I was sure that the last scientist left the facility last week along with the military. Now it's swarming with white coats and a splattering of military?

Is the 12 Monkey's bad guy the master of avoiding bullets?

And Finally

With contrived get-togethers and cheese having a heavy load in this episode, the quality naturally diminished. I guess they needed to sort out Cole's health for the sake of next season, but it was sort of unoriginal in it's undertaking.

Rating: 6 out of 10 (Sprinkling of curiosity in amongst some of the most unoriginal contrived work ever seen).