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Review of 12 Monkeys 3.1-4

"The Smart Ones Do"

By Paul LevinsonPublished 7 years ago 1 min read
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12 Monkeys returned Friday night with the first four episodes of its third season, and they were superb indeed -- in fact, I'd say the best episodes in the series so far.

As usual, Jennifer has the best lines. In response to the impresario in 1920s Paris who advises Jennifer that "no one understands time travel," an explanation for the dwindling audience for her time-travel performances on stage, Jennifer replies that "the smart ones do".

And although this is self-serving -- for me, you, Jennifer, everyone who understands and enjoys time travel (not to mention writes it) -- her statement is true indeed, and amply applies to 12 Monkeys. Jennifer is the very embodiment of that old truth that in crazy environments, the crazy person might be the most sane -- which Robert De Niro's character in The Deer Hunter also exemplified -- and Jennifer's one step ahead in just about all the crucial junctures in 12 Monkeys.

Which is why she senses that Olivia is up to something no good -- or deadly, for the people Jennifer cares about -- when Olivia spits out a plan to kill the Witness, after being locked up in a room with rats as per Ramse's instruction.

Jennifer, of course, can't literally see into the future -- her correct sense of foreboding of what Olivia and Ramse are planning is just that, foreboding, and based on her unerring instinct and often razor-sharp logic. So Jennifer can't literally see what Ramse is putting into motion.

And I gotta say, about Ramse, that although his motives were understandable, I didn't like what he had become, anyway. I know he's tortured about having to kill his son -- but he shouldn't have killed him. And he kills an innocent doctor in his attempt to kill Cassie, and would have killed her, too. Cole had no choice but to kill him. It was a sad scene, but Ramse for the most part deserved it.

And it was good to see Cole and Cassie together at the end. I'm with Jones and the way she was smiling when she saw that. Four fine episodes, and I'll be back with a review of what's up on the screen later tomorrow.

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About the Creator

Paul Levinson

Novels The Silk Code & The Plot To Save Socrates; LPs Twice Upon A Rhyme & Welcome Up; nonfiction The Soft Edge & Digital McLuhan, translated into 15 languages. Best-known short story: The Chronology Protection Case; Prof, Fordham Univ.

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