12 Monkeys “Fatherland” was written by Oliver Grigsby and was directed by Guy Norman Bee, whose other credits include Supernatural, Arrow, and The Magicians. It’s always nice to have a new director who is able to seamlessly absorb the feel of the show and bring a wealth of action and effects expertise with him. This is another great episode with yet another great twist – I figured it out before the big reveal, but not by much! A special shout out to Todd Stashwick for this episode - I love the layers that we're getting from Deacon. Aaron Stanford also delivers a powerful performance in the episode.
The episode begins in 2016 in Berlin. Olivia (Alisen Down) is visiting a deserted and rundown facility. When she’s asked what happened there, she says “Betrayal.” There’s a nice clue of an old stuffed rat – and yes, the rat did seem a little on the nose to me.
Back in 2044, Jones (Barbara Sukowa) has sent Whitley (Demore Barnes) and Deacon (Todd Stashwick) out to look for more data. Whitley is giving Deacon a hard time and we hear that a number of Deacon’s men have deserted. But Whitley knows why Deacon is staying – because he’s hopelessly in love with Cassie (Amanda Schull). The group runs into a little boy (Jake Bell-Webster) who is the sole survivor from one of the camps hit by the storm. When he turns to go back into the storm, Whitley tries to go after him, and Deacon stops Whitley – saving his life. Like it or not, Deacon has changed. Is it just Cassie or have the meds helped too?
Jones and Cole (Aaron Stanford) discuss their next move. They have only 5 days before the storm destroys the facility. Jones has tracked the last primary to a factory explosion in 1957, so the plan is to go back a year before that because they don’t know who the primary is. Cassie points out that their real time tethers will be broken once the facility is consumed, but Jones assures her that if they stop the paradox the destruction will be reversed – or at least it will never have happened because they will have stopped the Red Storms.
Ramse (Kirk Acevedo) is completely unconvinced it will work – nothing does when Jones plays God. He wants to go back to 1961 to find Dr Albert Kirschner (Matt Frewer). The redacted CIA file from the Keeper mentions Kirschner and Titan. Jones confirms that Kirschner being hunted by Mossad (Daniel Kash) is true – it happened. But they only have time for one mission. If they choose the wrong mission, everyone dies. Cole makes the decision – 1957.
Ramse is totally pissed at Cole – since when does he make the decisions? Adler (Andrew Gillies) insists that they have the power for both jumps, but Jones says they don’t have the time. Cole tells Ramse and Cassie that he needs them and asks them to come. As soon as they get back, he promises to go after the Witness. Cassie appeals to Jones, who says she’d prefer to go with a mission of hope (1957) not a mission of revenge (1961).
Ramse agrees way to easily, and Cassie calls him on it immediately. But Ramse has a plan and it involves Adler who also knows what it’s like to be denied his own revenge. Jones is furious when she finds out that he’s encrypted the tethers. She’ll have to wait – like he’s had to wait for his own revenge.
Deacon comes to say good bye to Cassie before she splinters, and because Whitley has goaded him – “Does SHE know?” – he tries to tell her how he feels. I loved Stashwick in this scene as we see a softer side to Deacon and get a little more insight into the character. Apparently, he was already a fanboy of her when they met. He tells her he remembered watching her on tv when he was a kid and the plague hit, and then he tries to confess how much she means to him.
She cuts him off and tells him it was only one night. Confirming that she did sleep with him – but only because she thought she was going to die. She tells him that that part of her is long gone and it’s the only way she can do this. She can’t afford to be vulnerable in any way. Deacon tells her, “You finally fit in around this place.” So it was her vulnerability, her optimism that he was drawn to, but now she is the same as the rest of them – hardened to do what has to be done, cutting those emotions off.
Cole meets Cassie and Ramse in the bar of the Emerson after they splinter. It was a nice subterfuge to have the dates so close together so that it’s not immediately obvious that Cassie and Ramse have colluded with Adler and brought them to 1961 not 1957. Cassie and Ramse drug Cole and leave him with no money or passport in the apartment in the Emerson. But Cole calls up an old friend…
I loved that they brought back Agent Gale (Jay Karnes). As soon as he sees Cole, he marvels, “You haven’t aged a day!” Why do I get the feeling that we’re going to be seeing a time loop that takes us back just before this? It’s clear as they talk that while this is the second time Cole has seen Gale, Gale has actually seen Cole quite a bit over the years.
It’s also clear that his relationship with Cole has had a negative effect on his life – he lost his wife and doesn’t see his granddaughter. Knowing the future makes you gloomy. He also tells Cole, “Nefarious characters seem to coalesce around you like bum hairs around a drain” in response to what Ramse and Cassie did to him. And he warns Cole that “Your loyalty is going to bite you in the ass one day.” He even tells him that sometimes, you have to go it alone. Given how this plays out later in the episode, I’m betting that this final bit of advice is something that Cole has said to him in Gale’s recent past – oh, how I love the time loops on this show!
Meanwhile, Ramse and Cassie’s plan to get to Kirschner before Mossad backfires and they are taken prisoner too. Ramse tells Mossad they just want to ask Kirschner about Titan, and we learn that they asked the CIA about Titan and they didn’t know. Mossad drives his fingernail into the cut over Ramse’s eye but he won’t break, so he hits Cassie. Cassie tells him that they are also hunting someone that killed a lot of people and Kirschner can help find him.
At that moment, Cole and Gale bust in. And Cole tells them that they created their own time loop. He’s seen the unredacted CIA report and Cassie and Ramse are the ones mentioning Kirschner and Titan in it! Cassie still tries to go after Kirschner and Cole has to pull her off, but not before she spots him wearing the mark of the witness.
Frewer is always fun to watch, and he creates another clearly unbalanced character here. Kirschner relates that the Witness came to him when he was a young student and encouraged his research into eugenics. It was Kirschner who created the Messengers! Cole suggest something out of HG Wells, but Gale goes to Mary Shelley and Frankenstein. Gale also remembers Vivian (Scottie Thompson) – the woman from 1944 – mentioning “father.”
As soon as Kirschner hears Cole’s name, he lights up – the Witness mentioned Cole a great deal. Kirschner offers to take them to his lab, but they have to cross the wall. Gale was only able to get papers for himself and Cole – they need another way out and Gale knows one, but they find it guarded. Ramse makes it out, but when Cassie and Kirschner go, Kirschner makes a noise, pinning Cole and Gale down. Gale sacrifices himself – sometimes you have to go it alone – to save Cole. I would have been sadder to see Gale die if I wasn’t sure we’d see him in our future and his past! I also loved how this scene was shot - Gale looks like the hero of a 1940s spy movie - complete with black and white effect on this sequence.
Ramse insists that they can still “win” just by putting a bullet in Kirschner’s head and stopping his research – but honestly it’s too late for that in 1961. The lab turns out to be the lab Olivia is in in 2016. There is a child (Emma Smulowitz) in a box. The Witness sent him Vivian and he used her eggs to create the child – who happens to be carrying the stuffed rat we see in the opening scene.
Kirschner also has the Written Word of the Witness. The group is attacked by Vivian. Kirschner is shot and Vivian escapes with the young girl – who calls her mother and refers to Kirschner as father – and of course, she’s young Olivia. And it’s at this point that Jones is able to splinter them back. Cole is desperate to get the child – good call Cole – but Ramse is fixated on the Word because he’s seen coordinates for Titan in the corner. Instead of helping Cole, Ramse rips off the coordinates – and yes. Every time we’ve seen the Word it has been missing that corner! Such careful writing! Love this show!
The final scene in 1961 is Vivian taking Olivia home. She tells her that her father’s cycle has ended. She gives young Olivia the sign of the Witness that he was wearing and tells her that the Witness “will show you a world without pain or death. He will take care of you and never, ever leave you.” In the present, Olivia somewhat miraculously stands up from her wheelchair and walks out of the lab. But remember, she is a super-genetically enhanced human!
Olivia visits her mother’s grave. She feels betrayed by both her parents and tells her mother so. She also tells her that she’s done with the Witness: “My place in the great cycle ends today. At least with him.”
Back in 2044 there are mere hours left before the storm hits the Facility. Ramse doesn’t care because now they have Titan – but Cole orders that they be locked up. They aren’t going to get to act on the information. Cassie insists that “We can still do this.” But Cole coldly tells her, “There is no we.” And it’s hard to blame him after the two people he considers closest to him have betrayed him so thoroughly and likely doomed everyone through their own selfishness.
The final shot in the episode is of Deacon getting drunk on the roof and watching the storm come – he certainly seems to be welcoming it. Is anyone else thinking that Deacon just might end up being the Witness? And no. At this point, I have not seen anything past the next episode, so this is pure speculation – but the Witness has been trying to lure Cassie to join him…
What did you think of the episode? Theories? Are you team Cole/Jones or team Cassie/Ramse? Could their revenge also stop the cycle? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
About the Author - Lisa Macklem
I do interviews and write articles for the site in addition to reviewing a number of shows, including Supernatural, Arrow, Agents of Shield, Agent Carter, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, The X-Files, Defiance, Bitten, Killjoys, and a few others! I'm active on the Con scene when I have the time. When I'm not writing about television shows, I'm often writing about entertainment and media law in my capacity as a legal scholar. I also work in theatre when the opportunity arises. I'm an avid runner and rider, currently training in dressage.
