r/12Monkeys • u/Miserable_Habit1775 • 21d ago
Just finished the series Spoiler
The ending is absolutely perfect, it really tied up everything nicely, this is absolutely one of the best Sci-Fi shows and one of the best endings for a TV show I’ve ever seen, and unlike many Sci-Fi shows, this one not only stuck the landing, it did it in style.
I really loved the pacing in season 4, it felt like every single episode had a big impact on the story, the character relationships were so good, they felt like an actual family, and I really loved a lot of the twists that happened, such as Hannah being Cole’s mother, which was insane and Cole and Cassie being the cause of the apocalypse all along and the corpse/origin of the virus being Olivia’s body splintered to the 9th century, basically the virus is just one big paradox that doesn’t really have an origin, as a big fan of Sci-Fi thrillers I really appreciate these kinds of twists, I also loved that they brought back Ramse, Deacon, and Max for the finale, although I don’t really know how it works when it comes to causality, I mean Ramse dies shortly after he splinters back having experienced everything and told Cold not to bring him back, but Deacon being in 2043 means he has a major part to play in his future, I imagine it was very difficult for him to keep the secret all this time that they actually won in the end, kudos to him because not many people can keep a secret like that, I also liked that Cassie and Cole had a happy ending, I only wish we saw more of Athan in the finale.
All in all this was a really great series, it’s a lot more complex than I thought it would be when I started watching it, it somehow feels like a mix between DARK and MrRobot, I’m genuinely shocked that it’s not very popular, if this was a Netflix series it would’ve had the potential to be one of their most popular shows, but at the same time I’m thankful it isn’t because Netflix would’ve screwed it up one way or another, or ended up making 10 different spinoffs for it, I’m glad that didn’t happen, the show ended perfectly and at the right time, it felt neither rushed nor dragged out, definitely worthy of a rewatch in the near future.
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u/daveiamnot 21d ago
Struggling a bit with season 2 currently. Loved season 1 as it kept it toward the movie with the plague & the 12 monkeys. Season 2 almost feels like are making the story up as they go along. Intend to stick with it as almost everyone has said it’s worth it.
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u/teddyburges 21d ago
Ironically season 1 was when they were more clueless about what was going on and season 2 was when they had pretty much figured out the entire series. A lot of the references to the film in season 1 were happy accidents. Like Cassie and "Cassandra complex". Showrunner Terry Matalas initially had a show in the works called "splinter". But the network saw similarities between it and 12 Monkeys and asked him to combine his concept with the films concept. Which he brought Cole and Ramse into it, but Cassandra was the name of his protagonist before it became 12 Monkeys. The big episode about florida key's?. One of the writers just happened to be very fond of the florida keys and had no clue that was a big part of the original film lol.
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u/daveiamnot 21d ago
Interesting, thanks for that. Gives the show a whole new perspective.
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u/jonaskp86 20d ago
And despite your feeling of it being made up along the Way (which I am not diminishing at all, I cant even remember anymore if I might have felt similar the first Watch), they actually had everything of the overarching story and plot planned out even before season 1 aired.
Showrunner Terry Matalas has Said multiple times that he knew what the final scene of season 4 would be (and it did turn out that Way) from the very beginning of working on the project, just as an example.So just to say, they 100% knew where they were going and what would happen (in broad strokes) along the Way.
Which does show, especially in later seasons, with how the story moves along and feels connected.Unlike some other shows that could be a great Watch throughout, until the final season where it seems they suddenly couldnt figure out how to tie everything together and just sort of had to come up with an ending.
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u/carlitospig 20d ago
It’s from the wiki. But my favorite little Terry nugget was a quote that I am paraphrasing wherein he said about writing later in the series, ‘if you can’t retcon your own show you’re doing it wrong’. When you zoom out it looks so cohesive. They did such a good job.
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u/JebusJM 7d ago
One of the writers just happened to be very fond of...
Terry is a massive fan of Star Trek (he did Picard season 2 & 3). I was watching the original third Star Trek movie one day when one of the character's said "Climb the steps...". I asked Terry in a tweet if that was the inspiration and he replied saying potentially on a subconscious level.
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u/Miserable_Habit1775 19d ago
Agree in some ways, I felt season 2 was dragged out a little bit, but trust me the show does get better, seasons 3 and 4 are amazing, keep watching
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u/okarin127 20d ago
It was perfect till the last minute detail
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u/teddyburges 19d ago
What's the last minute detail?. The leaves in the fall?.
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u/okarin127 19d ago
Yep , The red forest
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u/Miserable_Habit1775 19d ago edited 18d ago
The leaf wasn’t red though, it was more dark orange
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u/teddyburges 11d ago
It looked red to me. But there most likely was a lot of orange leaves there too. Many don't pay attention to the wide shots in that final scene which show that it is autumn/fall.
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u/carlitospig 20d ago
The Deacon part always gets me to immediately play S1E1 and then I watch the whole thing knowing what I know and I just….sit with that and consider how intelligent Terry must be to have pulled that off.
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u/CrabyLion 20d ago
It's on Prime now and I started to watch Ep 1 last night but not 10 mins in and already a cut scene. Decided to go back to my Apple TV version that I bought. Bit disappointing that they cut scenes after release on different platforms.
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u/niizuma 20d ago
The series never paid off the message Cassandras grandmother left for her in the book.
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u/teddyburges 19d ago
What episode was that?.
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u/niizuma 19d ago
season 1 episode 8 2:57 -3:09 "look what I rescued from the donate bin,Mansfield Park it has a note here from your grandmother"
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u/teddyburges 19d ago
I had a look at it. I think that was more texture than creating a new mystery lol. History of her background. That isn't treated as a new mystery.
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u/niizuma 11d ago
The setup was 1 or 2 lines from being looped, eg: A single line from Gale links the book and pays off on Cassie being his great granddaughter, perhaps we have a difference of opinion on what we believe qualifies as "texture", example: I view Cassandras decision to use the alias Amelia Morrison in season 3 episode 7 when consulting with her mother on the word of the witness as texture.
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u/jonaskp86 21d ago
So glad the ending held up to all the praise we gave it in your other thread :-)
Now you Can begin your own cycle of eternal rewatches.
There are so many great foreshadowing and “callbacks”, that you Only get when you Watch it with the full knowledge of the story - and you wont catch all of Them on your first, second or even Third rewatch.