TV - 12 Monkeys Season 1, Episode 2

Steve Taylor-Bryant checks into the clinic to see if he is Mentally Divergent...

“How did you find me?”

“The North Koreans called”

Cole and Ramse return to the past in search of information on The Army of the 12 Monkeys but find the file they need is missing. After preventing an attack they return to their time to do more research. Having been scolded about how time could have been changed by Cole’s interaction with Railly, Cole is told he is going to a mental institution to see what information he can gain from/about Jennifer. Railly, meanwhile, needs help and reaches out to ex-fiancé Aaron Marker. He picks her up from a gas station and takes her to an abandoned shop, owned by her grandparents and registered in her mother’s maiden name to avoid authorities for a while. Marker still thinks there is something wrong with Railly and that Cole has some kind of hold on her but Cole has problems of his own. He was supposed to splinter back to Philadelphia to join the mental institution but arrives in 2006 in North Korea. Panic ensues back at base as they try to find Cole who is currently being slapped about by the North Korean army, who are very surprised when he disappears right in front of them.

After finding his coordinates they finally manage to get Cole to the right place and with some violence and spitting Cole manages to be admitted to J.B. People's Hospital where he meets up with Jennifer Goines. His first meeting with Goines' daughter doesn’t go well though as she evades his questions before hitting an alarm and having Coles dragged away. Goines' therapist asks her to talk about what the man could have wanted and, when she is finished and goes off for her medication, the good doctor shows he’s not so good after all with a shady phone call.

Desperate for help, Railly comes out of hiding to seek Jeremy. When she arrives at his house she finds him dead, covered in flowers to mask the stench and a strange man in the room. Pallid Man explains he killed Jeremy as he was asking too many questions and whilst he never raises his voice, he threatens Railly with the same fate. When he believes she doesn’t know where Cole is. He calmly lets her leave. Back at her hiding place Railly is visited by Marker again who has checked into the supposed cover-up and believes that Railly was arrested and that the truth is hidden. He is insistent though that Cole is bad news and shows Railly the photos from the C.I.A. of Cole in North Korea and the address of the mental hospital he had on him.

Cole wakes up restrained to his bed and with Jennifer standing over him with a knife. He convinces Goines that he knows the Monkeys are real and she starts to explain about the work she used to do at Markridge, or rather the work that was done to her and the strange men that visited, including Pallid Man, who wanted to know about her father’s Night Room, an off-site laboratory where he kept some secrets. Pallid Man slaughters all Jennifer’s doctors which kick started her insanity and explains that he is part of The Army of the 12 Monkeys and he wanted to know what she knew. He left leaving her mentally unstable and gripping the murder weapon so her father had no choice but to have her committed. As Jennifer is discovered in Cole’s room the doctor decides to transfer him back to county jail when in steps bespectacled Dr. Cassie Railly. Railly fabricates a lie about an infection and hands over some bogus paperwork taking custody of Cole.

Before Cole and Railly can leave they spot Pallid Man absconding with Jennifer and Cole gives chase. After catching them in the basement, Pallid Man is upset to realise Cole doesn’t recognise him yet and Cole takes another beating as the man and his goons leave with Jennifer. Railly and Cole return to her home and go through Jennifer’s file (the one Cole was looking for at the very beginning in his own time) and they realise that another of her doctors fled the murder scene and may not have been found by The Army of the 12 Monkeys. Before they can formulate a plan though Cole is splintered back to his time and a confrontation with Jones about his selfishness, before they agree there needs to be a level of trust between them. Back in 2015 Jennifer is given a drink by Pallid Man and starts a hallucination.

I should really have titled this review ‘The New Rules for Television’ and it should just be...

Aaron Stanford has to be in everything.

Terry Matalas is now the only person allowed to create shows (with assistance from Luther creator Neil Cross on occasion).

Emily Hampshire is the only star allowed to play nutjobs as her performance of Jennifer is the most convincing on screen since, well, Brad Pitt in Twelve Monkeys.

I cannot write anymore, just read the above and watch the show.

Image - SyFy.