12 Monkeys “Meltdown” was written by Richard E Robbins and was directed by Grant Harvey, whose other credits include Orphan Black, Bitten, and Killjoys. The episode ends on a disturbing cliffhanger, and I was particularly bummed that we lost Michael Hogan as Eckland. He will be very much missed by this reviewer. I loved the added dimension he gave to Jones (Barbara Sukowa) and the bit of lightness he added to the world.
The episode begins in 1959 at the Facility. Four soldiers are playing poker. They have no idea what the “new equipment” is that they are guarding. The lights flicker and they suddenly splinter. There’s a terrific song
“Moving Train” that plays over this scene that was written for the episode by Kelsy Karter.
We jump to 2016 and Cassie (Amanda Schull) is clearly still not quite right. She seems to hear someone in the apartment with her but doesn’t find anyone. We – VERY creepily – see the Witness standing behind the door. Cassie gives herself a shot and splinters.
In 2044, Eckland and Jones are playing cards in bed. It would seem they’ve “rekindled” their romance fully, and I loved getting to see Jones actually happy – however short lived it is. Eckland teases Jones that only the Germans would invent a card game where the rules changed half way through – and of course, isn’t that how their relationship has run its course? Half way through, time changed and Jones didn’t even remember Eckland. Yet, he’s clearly won her back as she actually GIGGLES at his teasing – and teases him back. Eckland asks her if she ever would have remarried, and she tells him that she prefers to correct her mistakes, not repeat them. Which makes her last comment in the episode all the more ominous.
Cassie returns utterly disoriented and still “seeing” the Witness – maybe. She reports seeing the witness as Aaron (Noah Bean) after having taken the tea. She also suggests that he splintered at the end of the conversation. Ramse (Kirk Acevedo) confirms that the tea was “trippy” even though he never took it himself – it wasn’t why he was there. Jones muses that the tea is actually some kind of mental time travel or a method of communication, which seems pretty accurate given what we know so far.
Ramsey insists that the Witness can’t have a time travel machine because then they wouldn’t have needed Elliot Jones to build the one they have. Jones concludes that the Witness is somehow their equal as far as time travel and the timeline are concerned. Cole (Aaron Stanford) insists that they need to be ready for a countermove from him. Jones wants to know why the Witness contacted Cassie, and when she falters in her answer, it’s Deacon (Todd Stashwick) who steps in to stop the questioning and take her off to rest. Cole is stunned.
Ramse brings Sam (Peter DaCunha) two toy figures for the model he’s built. Using the blueprints, Sam has built a model of the entire Facility! Both Ramse and I were impressed! I loved Sam imitating Jones – “Initiate spinter sequence!” and Ramse saying it sounded exactly like her. Ramse asks where’d he go, and Sam answers, “Nobody knows” in a nice bit of foreshadowing when Sam disappears at the end of the episode.
Cassie thinks she hears Olivia’s voice and follows it to the splinter chamber where she thinks she sees the Witness, but then she wakes up on the floor of her room. Was it all simply an hallucination? She wanders into the meeting room and finds Cole there studying the wall. She asks him if he ever sees weird things when he splinters – like people. He confirms he sees colors and lights, but no people. He then tells her he understands about her relationship with Deacon and it doesn’t bother him. She says she didn’t think it did. She tells him that they don’t know each other the way they used to and walks away. Cole watches her go, obviously sad – for their lost connection or for what Cassie has become?
Jones wants to check the time stream data for when Cassie was in 2016. She tells Eckland to look for any evidence that there was another time traveler there with her. This is interspersed with Cassie working the heavy bag – physically and mentally battling her demons. Eckland and Adler (Andrew Gillies) discover that there is a phantom tether in the facility right now! And then the machine goes nuts – after Cassie has had another vision.
Jones tells the others to shut the machine down, but they can’t – it’s been disabled. Time streams are bleeding out all over – birds disappear and Cole and Sam have close calls. Jones has them pull the lens array and they discover it’s been put in backwards and is now destroyed.
All of the failsafes have also been disabled, and suddenly, into the chaos, Marshall (Phil Borg) appears. I thought the makeup and effects for this were terrific. He’s one of the first “volunteer” scavengers sent through the machine who was very literally splintered. I loved the look on Deacon’s face! Just before Marshall can kill Jones, Cole kills him.
Cole wonders what else from the time stream might have gotten into the facility. Jones is convinced that someone is trying to destroy the facility, and Cole is convinced that this is the counterstrike he was worried about. Cassie reveals that the Witness is there. Cassie and Cole go to shut down the reactor.
Eckland insists on going with Deacon to get a replacement array. He refuses to let Jones risk herself – it’s not chivalry. They’re all screwed if anything happens to her. I loved him refusing a gun because he’s a pacifist! Of course he is! I loved these two together. When they get to the stash of equipment, Deacon refuses to help look – he’s the lookout, Eckland is the errand boy. I loved Eckland commenting on the great fringe benefits and Deacon shutting him down – “No details!” – in horror!
As the two are about to leave, they’re stopped by the soldiers from 1959. Again, I loved Deacon’s “time SNAFU” comment as he tries to explain time travel in one sentence! Both Stashwick and Hogan excel at bringing the comedy to a dramatic moment without losing the drama – and the two together were gold. They certainly looked like they had a ball shooting those scenes.
When the soldiers start shooting, Eckland still doesn’t want to take the gun, but he has no choice. Deacon tells him, “Die like a pacifist or live like a man!” Naturally, it’s Eckland who gets shot, but I did love the moment with the grenade when Eckland just squeaks “Jesus Christ!” and throws it back!
Cassie tells Cole about drinking the tea, and he wants to know what else she didn’t tell him. She confesses that the Witness came as Aaron but then changed to look like Cole. Cole is confused until Cassie explains that the Witness thought that Cole’s face would have more of an impact on her to get her to stop time. Cole finally realizes that Cassie is admitting that she still has feelings for him.
Meanwhile, Ramse is separated from Sam when they are attacked by the time travelling dog, and Cassie and Cole are separated when Cole stops to take care of another splinter casualty (Sean Fowler). And then we see that it’s Cassie who’s taken Sam.
This was another nicely interwoven scene as we see that Cassie thinks she is walking in the red forest – and then ends up locked in a room. It’s a nice metaphor for her being locked away in her own mind while the Witness uses her body to use Sam as a hostage to prevent the others from shutting down the reactor. There’s also a scene of her looking out the window at the red storm converging on TITAN – the original name of the facility? But what does this mean?
Ramse and Cole work together – using the vital information that the get from Sam! I loved him pointing at the floor to remind Ramse that he’d told him about the river running under the facility to cool the reactor. This is how they can get in after the door is disabled.
Deacon shows up in the nick of time to help Ramse get Cole in to try to break through to Cassie. Once he gets in, Cole tells her that she’s strong and she can beat this. Ramse and Deacon are watching from outside. Deacon isn’t convinced that Cole can get through, so he tells Ramse that he’s going to have to go in there and do what has to be done because he knows that neither he nor Cole will be able to kill Cassie! Aw! Deacon, you really care!
Ramse goes in, and Cole knows that Cassie does still care for him and how he can break her out of her own mind. He tells her, “No one’s ever known me like you. You wouldn’t let me die.” He gets Ramse to shoot him, and suddenly the door to the room in her mind flies open and Cole is lying on the floor outside – she breaks free. Deacon watching from the corridor is clearly not too happy about Cassie rushing to Cole’s side…
Deacon screams at Ramse to shut down the core, but as he does, there’s a feedback of splinter radiation and Sam disappears!
Meanwhile, Jones and Eckland have been working with the machine. Things worsen as the machine continues to deteriorate and they can’t replace the array without being exposed to temporal radiation. But Eckland knows that with the core still active, they have to replace the array, so he fakes out a call on the radio to distract Jones, grabs the array and rushes into the machine before she can stop him.
Jones is frantic, telling him it will kill him – to which he answers, “But it might save you!” Eckland tells her it’s not that bad, he kind of digs it – and anyway, “going out in a wild romantic gesture for a beautiful woman, all in the name of love” – for him, it’s worth it. Jones tells him she doesn’t love him – she’s obviously lying. But he tells her, “You did once and that can’t be erased.” And then he is actually erased – or goes up in smoke in a very cool special effect. Jones is clearly devastated and a very small ‘oh’ escapes her.
Jones comes to Ramse who is staring at Sam’s model. The two now have something very much in common – they’ve both just lost someone they love. Ramse asks if Sam is dead, and Jones says she doesn’t know. He asks if Sam could survive, and Jones answers truthfully – unlikely. But Jones still gives him hope – Ramse was lost in time and found his way home. But Ramse isn’t so hopeful. Sam was just a boy – HIS boy. Ramse then takes his bag and leaves. Where is he going? The red storm seems to be worse than ever.
Cole will make a full recovery, and Cassie and Jones talk. Jones tells Cassie that the time tether had connected Cassie to a consciousness. Her mind was the receiver and the Witness had used her against them. Jones has developed a series of shots to prevent it from happening again. Cassie is devastated, blaming herself for Cole, Sam, and Eckland. Jones insists that she is the one to blame – and then ominously says there is a solution. What is it? Will she destroy the machine? Time travel herself? Go back to the Red Forest?
The final scene shows Sam lost and tumbling through time. He’s in a forest – but it’s not red. Someone offers him their hand and Sam takes it. Sam’s a smart kid. I don’t think he’d take the hand of someone he didn’t know. Is Sam himself the Witness? Is it Ramse after all?
This was another interesting episode – it’s not going to be a favorite because of killing off Eckland. Hey showrunners Terry Matalas and Travis Fickett! Bring back Michael Hogan, okay?? We need another time re-set!!! Who do you think is the Witness? What did you think of the episode? Still some of the best effects on tv! 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.
