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sarea
I know, I know, I don't post for months, and now I won't shut up. THAT'S JUST HOW I ROLL.
It's especially how I roll when I'm into a TV show and I've just finished watching what's aired so far.
Well.
I really should have saved some of my energy from ranting and raving after ep 10, but how was I to know?
Things can change very quickly on this show, but unlike other shows, it has a built-in premise that allows it to do so in a way that makes sense, so it doesn't bother me. Basically, in the space of 3 episodes, we go from "there is NO WE" to "what are we going to do about our demon baby?" Ahem.
Jade and I have speculated for a long time about the identity of The Witness. For the longest time, we thought that my initial theory -- that The Witness was his mother -- was the correct one, because she's mentioned but never shown, she was said to have known about the 12 Monkeys, and TV shows just love to bring a mother back into a child's life to tear them apart (see: Alias; Prison Break). However, a number of episodes ago, they started to use the pronoun "he." We still weren't sure if that meant for sure The Witness was male; after all, we call God "he" but we don't actually fucking know. Maybe it was just shorthand for them, or maybe the Army was convinced of his gender but was erroneous... I mean, all they ever got were words scrawled on the wall of a house. Still, it led us to expand our speculation, and almost right away, we wondered whether The Witness could be Cole and Cassie's child. It seemed possible, but improbable, if only because THEY HADN'T EVEN KISSED YET... but with the time travel element, that didn't matter. It only mattered that they could potentially create a child sometime down the road. Still, it wasn't a theory we particularly thought fit with all the puzzle pieces; it was just all we had.
Enter the final episode of S2. Cole and Cassie FINALLY, AT LONG LAST, kiss. And much, much more. Thank goodness I didn't go looking for Cole/Cassie vids or anything like that because they are naturally full of those scenes (from both of the final two episodes, actually), and I would have been like, WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT *HEAD EXPLODES*
OK, let's be honest, I was still like that, only it was all within the context of an episode, so it was awesome. In fact, let's recap using IMs between me and Jade.
The part where Cole and Ramse are arguing, and Ramse, stupid, selfish prick that he is, says something about how Cole can't understand because Cole's never been a father:
Sarea: he's going to be a father before the show ends
just to make ramse's words ironic
Jade: yes
that line was a gun on the table
Sarea: yes yes it was
The part where Cole has gone to 1957 to stop the messenger, and Cassie has followed him there after getting out of Ramse's truck all dramatic like:
Sarea: i almost want to say THE END
Jade: :)))))))
yes, that was an excellent series we watched where it ends with Cole and Cassie living happily in 1957
while everyone in the future dies the end
Sarea: and then they kissed, and the world still ended, but as long as they get to live a long and fruitful life together in 1957, who cares
The part where Cole and Cassie have failed to stop the assassination of the last (or whatever) primary, thus failing to save the world and dooming them to live out the rest of their lives in 1957, when the reverberation of the paradox has left Cassie comatose and Cole leaving her in the hospital after kissing her on the forehead:
Sarea: couldn't they have fucking even KISSED ONCE before breaking up forever
HONESTLY
Jade: lololol
no because i'ts NOT LIKE THAT
that's all they ever say
when it is SO LIKE THAT
Sarea: WHAT THE FUCK DOES ANY OF THIS MEAN
JUST TELL US
The part where Cassie has woken from the coma, discovers where Cole is, and goes looking for him:
Jade: he's noah from the notebook
Sarea: LOL
Jade: and this whole thing was about how he was building their house
I WROTE TO YOU EVERY DAY FOR A YEAR
Sarea: LOLOL
it's not over. it'll never be over!
shit, listen, it's nice to catch up, but i'm bleeding out here. no really i feel a little faint
Jade: :)))
Sarea: yeah they failed and there's no machine, so...
Jade: yeah they CAN'T do anything
Sarea: go row a boat through some birds now
The part where Cole and Cassie have built a life in 1959, are happy and in love, and never mind that it is completely fleeting and they are inevitably doomed for the moment, they are exchanging Christmas gifts, and Cole has given Cassie a beautiful butterfly hair ornament or something. Cassie's gift was a razor blade, to try and get him to shave, which he refuses, but then she says she has something else for him, and goes to a drawer and pulls out an envelope...:
Sarea: omg
Jade: omg
Sarea: omg
omg
Jade: omg
Sarea: omg
OMG
Jade: notice how we have both seen fiction before
so we understand
what is coming instantly
Sarea: yes LOLOL
omg
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
oh god that terrible terrible things are coming
such terrible things
Jade: their baby is the witness isn't it.
Sarea: AS LONG AS IT GETS TO LIVE
Jade :))))))))))
yes suddenly we've switched sides
Okay, so yeah, CASSIE IS NOW PREGNANT WITH COLE'S BABY. AND IT'S THE WITNESS. WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!!!
Let's first address the pregnancy and the stuff that led up to the pregnancy. Even though they had to rush us through their whole "relationship," it was still pretty good. I mean, it helps that if you watch this show, you'd be crazy not to ship them, so right away you pretty much accept everything they're giving you. They've been through SO MUCH, they deserve a little happiness.
It was hard, really hard, to see Cole give all that up to save the world. Of course, this not being my first TV show or my first time travel story, it was inevitable that he would have to make that choice. Which just flies in the face of everything Ramse ever accused him of, and was incapable of doing himself... Cole sacrificed his child and Cassie and his happiness in order for the world to survive. THE OPPOSITE OF RAMSE. Granted, it was an easier decision for him because the red skies had made it to 1957, so they were all going to die anyway, but still.
I like the idea that you can't destroy love, or whatever, and that's why Cassie was able to remember everything that happened between them, and how she can be pregnant, even though in this timeline, technically, she and Cole haven't even slept together. But I also have to give it the side eye. If that's true, wouldn't there be PLENTY of people in the world who would remember their alternate timelines, and be randomly pregnant, etc.? It's not like Cole and Cassie have an exclusive on love.
We've definitely gotten to the point in the show where you just have to take their reasoning and logic as "fact" or else you have to just not watch it at all. I'm willing to suspend my disbelief. Cassie's pregnant because an alternate timeline of her slept with Cole. Sure.
Okay now, as to the identity of The Witness. It's kind of cool and yet disappointing to have called it. :)) I was sort of hoping it would still be an awesome reveal without it being something we guessed because it just seemed like one of the more impactful answers. I feel like there are two options here: 1) Either The Witness isn't as evil as we've always thought, which could be possible, but I'm not sure how that would work. They seem hell bent on destroying time; or 2) Cole and Cassie have spawned a demon child. Which I really don't want to be the case, obviously, because you don't want your OTP to have evil children. It's sort of one of the guiding principles of shipping, I think. Also, if they did, it would definitely drive them apart -- I mean, you don't really get over creating the evil being who destroyed the world.
Jade points out that it's possible the whole point of this could be that The Witness was raised by this cult, and thus warped him... and the solution is for him to be raised by his parents in a home filled with love. Awww. Now doesn't that sound like a nice story? I hope they are aiming in this direction!
Jade and I both really like the idea that the child is integrally involved with the time aspect, which is of course the entire premise the show is based on. I respect and love the idea of a being so determined to survive that it will do whatever it has to to make that happen, but I don't like the idea of it being Cassie and Cole's evil child. I don't understand the logic of how the child even came to be The Witness; if it hadn't been trying to destroy the world, Cole and Cassie would have never met. And if they never met, then it wouldn't be around to destroy the world, so...? There are several closed-loop contradictions like that in the show, and I don't know if they're there deliberately and will be addressed later, or if they're like, yeah just go with it.
In the more immediate term, what's Cassie's reaction going to be to this? Is she going to want to self abort or something? Or will she get all ultra-protect mommy bear on her demon spawn and refuse to let Cole or anyone else kill it? Obviously, the show will need Cole and Cassie to be at odds, so I'm thinking one will have to take one side while the other takes the other. But they can't be TOO at odds if they want them to end up together (WHICH THEY SO DO), because I don't know how you can forgive your partner for being okay about destroying the world as long as your kid lives (I mean, that would make them RAMSE, ugh)/killing your own child. It's quite the pickle they find themselves in! Can't wait for S3!
I also feel it is worth mentioning that the final two episodes were utterly brilliant in terms of writing. They had so much fun having Madeleine Stowe guest star, and quoting from 12 Monkeys, not to mention Lord of the Rings, Braveheart, Independence Day, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, and maybe some others that I've forgotten. Thank goodness I'm notakscully, or most of those references to popular culture would have gone right over my head! :))))))
And there is one character/actress who I have not really spoken about at length yet, and it's really remiss of me because she's super awesome... and that is Jennifer Goines, played by Emily Hampshire. She's just as brilliant as Brad Pitt was in the (male) version of the role, and that's saying something. He should have won an Oscar for Supporting Actor in that role, seriously. Anyway, she is brilliant and wonderful and [insert all the superlatives here]. I have to admit, I like her despite wanting to dislike her, because she has such an obvious and cute crush on Cole, and initially part of me was afraid they were going to try and pair them together, which angered me the way it angered Cassie when it seemed like Cole had chosen Jennifer over her. :)) But it is now evolved into a best friend/sibling type relationship, and I hope it continues in this vein or I will really have to hate the showrunners.
I've read a couple of stories on AO3, but unfortunately it doesn't seem like there's really all that much out there... which is no surprise since the show has very low ratings. :/ The stories weren't bad, but neither did they blow my mind.
There are a couple of decent vids, though they use similar material out of necessity.
The coloring on this one is really well done:
I like how this one was put together, even if they use an old and overplayed fanvid song:
Why do I always like the shows that are cult hits but have really poor ratings so that I always have to be afraid of them being canceled? Why???
Subject line quote: Jennifer Goines from 12 Monkeys.
It's especially how I roll when I'm into a TV show and I've just finished watching what's aired so far.
Well.
I really should have saved some of my energy from ranting and raving after ep 10, but how was I to know?
Things can change very quickly on this show, but unlike other shows, it has a built-in premise that allows it to do so in a way that makes sense, so it doesn't bother me. Basically, in the space of 3 episodes, we go from "there is NO WE" to "what are we going to do about our demon baby?" Ahem.
Jade and I have speculated for a long time about the identity of The Witness. For the longest time, we thought that my initial theory -- that The Witness was his mother -- was the correct one, because she's mentioned but never shown, she was said to have known about the 12 Monkeys, and TV shows just love to bring a mother back into a child's life to tear them apart (see: Alias; Prison Break). However, a number of episodes ago, they started to use the pronoun "he." We still weren't sure if that meant for sure The Witness was male; after all, we call God "he" but we don't actually fucking know. Maybe it was just shorthand for them, or maybe the Army was convinced of his gender but was erroneous... I mean, all they ever got were words scrawled on the wall of a house. Still, it led us to expand our speculation, and almost right away, we wondered whether The Witness could be Cole and Cassie's child. It seemed possible, but improbable, if only because THEY HADN'T EVEN KISSED YET... but with the time travel element, that didn't matter. It only mattered that they could potentially create a child sometime down the road. Still, it wasn't a theory we particularly thought fit with all the puzzle pieces; it was just all we had.
Enter the final episode of S2. Cole and Cassie FINALLY, AT LONG LAST, kiss. And much, much more. Thank goodness I didn't go looking for Cole/Cassie vids or anything like that because they are naturally full of those scenes (from both of the final two episodes, actually), and I would have been like, WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT *HEAD EXPLODES*
OK, let's be honest, I was still like that, only it was all within the context of an episode, so it was awesome. In fact, let's recap using IMs between me and Jade.
The part where Cole and Ramse are arguing, and Ramse, stupid, selfish prick that he is, says something about how Cole can't understand because Cole's never been a father:
Sarea: he's going to be a father before the show ends
just to make ramse's words ironic
Jade: yes
that line was a gun on the table
Sarea: yes yes it was
The part where Cole has gone to 1957 to stop the messenger, and Cassie has followed him there after getting out of Ramse's truck all dramatic like:
Sarea: i almost want to say THE END
Jade: :)))))))
yes, that was an excellent series we watched where it ends with Cole and Cassie living happily in 1957
while everyone in the future dies the end
Sarea: and then they kissed, and the world still ended, but as long as they get to live a long and fruitful life together in 1957, who cares
The part where Cole and Cassie have failed to stop the assassination of the last (or whatever) primary, thus failing to save the world and dooming them to live out the rest of their lives in 1957, when the reverberation of the paradox has left Cassie comatose and Cole leaving her in the hospital after kissing her on the forehead:
Sarea: couldn't they have fucking even KISSED ONCE before breaking up forever
HONESTLY
Jade: lololol
no because i'ts NOT LIKE THAT
that's all they ever say
when it is SO LIKE THAT
Sarea: WHAT THE FUCK DOES ANY OF THIS MEAN
JUST TELL US
The part where Cassie has woken from the coma, discovers where Cole is, and goes looking for him:
Jade: he's noah from the notebook
Sarea: LOL
Jade: and this whole thing was about how he was building their house
I WROTE TO YOU EVERY DAY FOR A YEAR
Sarea: LOLOL
it's not over. it'll never be over!
shit, listen, it's nice to catch up, but i'm bleeding out here. no really i feel a little faint
Jade: :)))
Sarea: yeah they failed and there's no machine, so...
Jade: yeah they CAN'T do anything
Sarea: go row a boat through some birds now
The part where Cole and Cassie have built a life in 1959, are happy and in love, and never mind that it is completely fleeting and they are inevitably doomed for the moment, they are exchanging Christmas gifts, and Cole has given Cassie a beautiful butterfly hair ornament or something. Cassie's gift was a razor blade, to try and get him to shave, which he refuses, but then she says she has something else for him, and goes to a drawer and pulls out an envelope...:
Sarea: omg
Jade: omg
Sarea: omg
omg
Jade: omg
Sarea: omg
OMG
Jade: notice how we have both seen fiction before
so we understand
what is coming instantly
Sarea: yes LOLOL
omg
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
oh god that terrible terrible things are coming
such terrible things
Jade: their baby is the witness isn't it.
Sarea: AS LONG AS IT GETS TO LIVE
Jade :))))))))))
yes suddenly we've switched sides
Okay, so yeah, CASSIE IS NOW PREGNANT WITH COLE'S BABY. AND IT'S THE WITNESS. WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!!!
Let's first address the pregnancy and the stuff that led up to the pregnancy. Even though they had to rush us through their whole "relationship," it was still pretty good. I mean, it helps that if you watch this show, you'd be crazy not to ship them, so right away you pretty much accept everything they're giving you. They've been through SO MUCH, they deserve a little happiness.
It was hard, really hard, to see Cole give all that up to save the world. Of course, this not being my first TV show or my first time travel story, it was inevitable that he would have to make that choice. Which just flies in the face of everything Ramse ever accused him of, and was incapable of doing himself... Cole sacrificed his child and Cassie and his happiness in order for the world to survive. THE OPPOSITE OF RAMSE. Granted, it was an easier decision for him because the red skies had made it to 1957, so they were all going to die anyway, but still.
I like the idea that you can't destroy love, or whatever, and that's why Cassie was able to remember everything that happened between them, and how she can be pregnant, even though in this timeline, technically, she and Cole haven't even slept together. But I also have to give it the side eye. If that's true, wouldn't there be PLENTY of people in the world who would remember their alternate timelines, and be randomly pregnant, etc.? It's not like Cole and Cassie have an exclusive on love.
We've definitely gotten to the point in the show where you just have to take their reasoning and logic as "fact" or else you have to just not watch it at all. I'm willing to suspend my disbelief. Cassie's pregnant because an alternate timeline of her slept with Cole. Sure.
Okay now, as to the identity of The Witness. It's kind of cool and yet disappointing to have called it. :)) I was sort of hoping it would still be an awesome reveal without it being something we guessed because it just seemed like one of the more impactful answers. I feel like there are two options here: 1) Either The Witness isn't as evil as we've always thought, which could be possible, but I'm not sure how that would work. They seem hell bent on destroying time; or 2) Cole and Cassie have spawned a demon child. Which I really don't want to be the case, obviously, because you don't want your OTP to have evil children. It's sort of one of the guiding principles of shipping, I think. Also, if they did, it would definitely drive them apart -- I mean, you don't really get over creating the evil being who destroyed the world.
Jade points out that it's possible the whole point of this could be that The Witness was raised by this cult, and thus warped him... and the solution is for him to be raised by his parents in a home filled with love. Awww. Now doesn't that sound like a nice story? I hope they are aiming in this direction!
Jade and I both really like the idea that the child is integrally involved with the time aspect, which is of course the entire premise the show is based on. I respect and love the idea of a being so determined to survive that it will do whatever it has to to make that happen, but I don't like the idea of it being Cassie and Cole's evil child. I don't understand the logic of how the child even came to be The Witness; if it hadn't been trying to destroy the world, Cole and Cassie would have never met. And if they never met, then it wouldn't be around to destroy the world, so...? There are several closed-loop contradictions like that in the show, and I don't know if they're there deliberately and will be addressed later, or if they're like, yeah just go with it.
In the more immediate term, what's Cassie's reaction going to be to this? Is she going to want to self abort or something? Or will she get all ultra-protect mommy bear on her demon spawn and refuse to let Cole or anyone else kill it? Obviously, the show will need Cole and Cassie to be at odds, so I'm thinking one will have to take one side while the other takes the other. But they can't be TOO at odds if they want them to end up together (WHICH THEY SO DO), because I don't know how you can forgive your partner for being okay about destroying the world as long as your kid lives (I mean, that would make them RAMSE, ugh)/killing your own child. It's quite the pickle they find themselves in! Can't wait for S3!
I also feel it is worth mentioning that the final two episodes were utterly brilliant in terms of writing. They had so much fun having Madeleine Stowe guest star, and quoting from 12 Monkeys, not to mention Lord of the Rings, Braveheart, Independence Day, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, and maybe some others that I've forgotten. Thank goodness I'm not
akscully, or most of those references to popular culture would have gone right over my head! :))))))And there is one character/actress who I have not really spoken about at length yet, and it's really remiss of me because she's super awesome... and that is Jennifer Goines, played by Emily Hampshire. She's just as brilliant as Brad Pitt was in the (male) version of the role, and that's saying something. He should have won an Oscar for Supporting Actor in that role, seriously. Anyway, she is brilliant and wonderful and [insert all the superlatives here]. I have to admit, I like her despite wanting to dislike her, because she has such an obvious and cute crush on Cole, and initially part of me was afraid they were going to try and pair them together, which angered me the way it angered Cassie when it seemed like Cole had chosen Jennifer over her. :)) But it is now evolved into a best friend/sibling type relationship, and I hope it continues in this vein or I will really have to hate the showrunners.
I've read a couple of stories on AO3, but unfortunately it doesn't seem like there's really all that much out there... which is no surprise since the show has very low ratings. :/ The stories weren't bad, but neither did they blow my mind.
There are a couple of decent vids, though they use similar material out of necessity.
The coloring on this one is really well done:
I like how this one was put together, even if they use an old and overplayed fanvid song:
Why do I always like the shows that are cult hits but have really poor ratings so that I always have to be afraid of them being canceled? Why???
Subject line quote: Jennifer Goines from 12 Monkeys.
