12 Monkeys - The Witness?

I am in serious trouble.

"Cole" like serious trouble?

Pretty close.

I bet the house that Ramse would turn out to be "One Eyed Willy" also known as "The Remains."  Now with the preponderance of "witness" references and Cole's declaration as the episode closed, we find that Ramse is, in fact, "The Witness."

 The local mob will be on my doorstep soon.  They're sending "Rocco" (pictured above) to collect their debt.  Seriously, I bet everything and I can't pay.  I wonder what life will be like on the lam?  Just me and the dogs skipping from one seedy bus station to the next.  Surviving on liver treats.  They're happy.  I'm panicked.

So, as my final act I will endeavor to get this blog post out.

 As I mentioned, there was a preponderance of "Witness" references in this entry.  Believe me, after you watch it three times you say to yourself, "I get it already, Witness!"

Was it too much?  Too on the nose?  You know me, I see a red herring behind every door.  (On the lam mixed metaphor.)

I am 95% sure that Ramse is The Witness.  We can't argue with that can we?

Or Can We?

This exchange during the "amulet zapping ceremony" is what planted the seeds of doubt in my mind. 

(There was a lot of "generational" references in this episode also.  Fathers and daughter, mothers and daughters.  And they extended across the expanse of time too.)

But, the immediate reference above made me think that Ramse is a witness not The Witness.

I know, that is a lot to consider from someone who will soon be brushing his teeth in a bus stop mirror.  (Darn liver treats.)  But "The Striking Woman" didn't even look at Ramse when she said it.  It made me think Ramse was just an instrument to their design and the real "Witness," her father, was now on his way.

 I'm reaching aren't I?

Olivia did refer to Ramse as "The Traveler" on many different occasions. Not, "The Witness" so there is that. 

(BTW, should I not use my credit cards while I'm on the run or is that just a TV thing?)

Sigh, there's another factor that seems to confirms Ramse as the Witness.  Did you see that rot that was enveloping his hands?  In the above frame this is how we normally see the Witness.  Covered head to toe and with an old style gas mask on his face.

I guess if you are rotting away you'd want to make yourself presentable as possible.  Maybe the "Haz-mat" garb is the best way for Ramse to be seen in his deteriorated state.  It doesn't explain why you have to drink "the Tea" to see him but that's a crackpot theory for another day.

Here's another thing that bugs me about the Witness thing and Old Jennifer sending Ramse on track to the past.  Old Jennifer gave Ramse the amulet and told him he could still undo what she's done and what he's done.  As we saw in the amulet zapping ceremony things seemed to be pretty much on track for the Druze group (I guess that was them there.) The amulet was just what they needed so why would Jennifer give the amulet to Ramse if she wanted to change things?  Does she know something, and like the Druze, things have to play out before they can be altered? 

Generations

This seems like a good time to bring up the "generational" references we got from this episode.

(My bus is running late, I think they have to empty the rest room pot or something like that.)

I was amazed how inter-connected the families were across time.  Take the Goines' for instance.  Old Jennifer sets Ramse on his course to the past and Ramse lands where her father is 56 years ago.  And he does his part by sparing Ramse!  Amazing!  Fate or something else?

Old Jennifer rambled on to Ramse (last episode) about undoing what they've done and her younger self was going on about, "Everything's changing" and "We can do it."  It was like this younger version of Jen sensed a change in the time stream and she knew it wasn't too late to stop it.  56 years later she sets things in motion to do just that.  The dots seem to connect there however mysteriously.

I've spoken already about Olivia and her unknown father but we got another generational reference from Olivia.

 It seems Jennifer's mother is a player in our saga.  When Leland came to visit Jen in the sanatorium she went out of her way to distance herself from her in her father's eyes.  When Olivia came to visit Jen she invoked the memory of Jen's mother again.  Why is Mom so important?  She was "put away" also, did she have visions of the future much like young Jennifer did with her "everything's changing" rant?  Jen eventually becomes "committed" also.  It seems Leland sees the "visions" of both mother and daughter as insane babble.  When Leland said, "Not this again" I think he was not only referring to Jennifer's rants but those of her mother also.  Did Jen inherit her mother's talent for seeing across the expanse time?

So, Olivia's father is in play now as is Jennifer's mother.  Great!

It seems as though we saw the genesis of the "Daughters" movement in this exchange too.  Jen wants to be a daughter again and apparently names her movement after this idea.  56 years later she will attempt to undo this idea.

(I think I just heard my bus honking.  It was either that or someone using the restroom again.  It is pretty noisy here.)

Other Portents 

Spearhead reference!  Holy smokes not only did we learn the origin story of "The Daughters" it looks like we just witnessed the birth of "Operation Spearhead" and Aaron is on the ground floor of it!

Spearhead seems to be an effort that is still in the "think tank" stage wherein select portions of society are seperated from the rest to insure their survival given an impending apocalypse or something.

If there are any other dots that were connected in this episode maybe I should let Rocco crack my skull.  The info dump here is mind boggling.

The Striking Woman ties Aaron into fate by making sure he watches after Cassie.  Later, when she meets Ramse in the limo he tells her Cassie can't be killed.  This was a little confusing.  At first I thought Olivia was insuring Cassie's life by telling Aaron to watch over her.  She must be important to them alive.  If Cassie dies, I figure, that would set in motion a cure for the plague thanks to the research she conducted and experimented on herself.  (Right Jim?)  If Cassie become part of Spearhead she'll be separated from society insuring her survival keeping the plague plan intact.

The confusing part is when Ramse told Olivia Cassie had to live implying that Olivia wanted her dead.  Maybe that was just a blip and Olivia knows Cassie must survive in order for their plan to work.

Oops, that was my bus, I have to run.

Speaking of that limo conversation.  Ramse asked what was next and Olivia answered, "The Plague and the coming of the 12." 

The 12 could be the 12 Monkeys that were released after Peters finished his work in the container lab or they could be, as I theorized earlier, the 12 failed test subjects of the Splinter Project.  I'm hoping it is the test subjects from Jones so I don't lose any more money I don't have.

Okay, moving on.

Odds and Ends

 
 Did you notice how this episode was either cast in red or blue light?  Not everything, but a lot of things.  I normally associated Blue with Cole and Red with Ramse but there were times when Ramse had his blue moments too.

 When Ramse hit '87 we got this.

When Cole hit '87 we got this.

Sure, colors can be thematic.  Red for passion and Blue for indifference.  Why not color the scenes for dramatic import?

There could be another reason (There's always another reason if you spent all that time watching Lost.)

In Physics, there is the red shifting of light and the blue shifting of light.  So the production design using these colors may represent the blues of what appraoches you in physics and the red represents things that are moving away.  (Someone ask Terry.  I've used up my one question for the month I don't think he'll want to associate himself with someone that consorts with the mob like I do.)  So, red may mean going back in time and blue may mean going forward.  Ramse can only go back while Cole can move forward.

One of my earlier favorite scenes from 12 Monkeys was recast here in blue.

The amulet zapping ceremony was ablaze in blue.

After it was over though the leaves started to turn red.

Set Design

 


Globie! (That's for you Pee Wee Herman fans.)  The Globe returned and it is facing towards the Pacific.  Are we going to Hawaii soon or sinking into the depths of the watery deep?

 Note the red flowers on Cassie's divan pillows.  Darn Witness!

Other cool stuff

Jen draws a picture of a Lion much like Ramese's son does in the far future. Part of her pre-cognitive abilities?  It connects her with the fate of Ramse in past and the future.  (Just like Mom?)

They don't call her the Striking Woman for nothing.  So pretty!

I noticed she wore a dark outfit when she met with Goines at the Markridge investment meeting.  It sparkled with silver dots against the night sky.  The sleeve seen above contained even more sparkles against a dark background when she met with Jennifer.  It's like she is a denizen of the night beset with stars as she moves through the world.

Adler asked Jonsey about a prediction.  Cole's death and his last trip?  She then refers to herself as "The Clock."  Is everything set by her time?  How much does she know?

I think she knows more than she is telling.  I have my "String Theory" concerning Jones, (with the Hannah timeline variable) Jones may not have any pre-cognitive abilities like Jennifer but she may have more knowledge of the past than anyone knows and I think it came from all the "failed" test subjects that returned and imparted valuable information to her.

Jones is setting the clock based on that information to get to the timeline she prefers (Hannah).  So we have one group setting the time from the past and another doing the same from the future.  A Chrono-war of sorts.

My bus is ready to leave so I better get going.  Better to live my life on the lam than to rot in some mobsters basement.

Did I say rot?

Hold on now!  New theory!

Remember when I mentioned that rot that was infusing Ramse's hand?  Soon it will encompass his entire body and he'll have to wear that Haz-Mat outfit.  Who else do we know that is rotted to the core.

One Eyed Willy!

So, I'm thinking Ramse will be so rotted that his "Witness" role will eventually become one of that of the "The Remains."  Maybe Ramse is only instrumental to the Druze, or whomever, as the rotting "Traveler" and future carrier (and cure) of the disease.  His decomped husk will eventually hidden in the Himalayas for safekeeping only to be found by the Japanese mob.  (Somebody talked.)  Since Ramse can't return to the future via the machine he will be time shifted (like Cole was to 2015) to the past by the Splinter group.  1000 years to the past that is for safekeeping.  He's found and the loop begins anew.

Hold those brass knuckles Rocco!  I'm back baby!  Ha, ha, off the bus we go!  Loophole! 

It's not perfect but the mob will have to wait.

See you next week!  (Those liver treats were pretty nasty anyway.)