"Bodies of Water" didn't feature the time-traveling madness of some of 12 Monkeys' more insane (and fun!) episodes, but it dipped into the crazy by telling two separate stories focused on two of its craziest characters: primary lunatic Jennifer Goines and heartless ass-kicker Deacon. And it's a good thing 12 Monkeys took the time to give both of these characters more screentime since they're becoming more integral parts of the show this season. In Season 1, Jennifer wasn't used to her fullest—which was totally forgivable because there was enough story around her that needed telling—and Deacon was more of an obstacle for Cole and Ramse in the future than he was a real human being.
But showrunners Terry Matalas and Travis Fickett clearly had bigger plans for both of them. One thing that makes 12 Monkeys one of the best science-fiction shows currently on television is that even though it jumps off the high-dive board into a pool of theoretical time travel and all the questions that spring from that, it also knows that it is a TV show and plot is only one part of a show's backbone. I come for the time travel, but I stay for the characters. And though both Jennifer and Deacon have played much bigger roles this season, this was the first episode that really showcased them. Well, Jennifer got a good effective chunk of "Primary," but we learned so much more about her in "Bodies of Water."
The episode was divided early on, with Cassie getting the call—from 2044 Jennifer, no less—to go back in time to see 2016 Jennifer Goines and get more information on the other primaries that the Messengers might go after, and Cole, Ramse, and Deacon out on a BROad trip to take care of business and share some feelings. And it worked well to get to know these two characters and change their relationships with the others.
We'll start with Jennifer and Cassie, one of my favorite pairings on the show because they're just two girls who plain don't like each other. Following Cole's recommendation that she sort her s*** out and find a purpose, Jennifer was feeling it, taking her pills, shutting out the voices, shopping, meeting the ladies for cocktails... and stalking her favorite time traveler at the bar he shows up in once every four decades or so. Seeing this crazy-free (in a relative sense) side of Jennifer was spectacular, as she strove for normalcy despite her sordid past. So of course Cassie was going to show up and mess that up.
From Cassie's point of view, Jennifer was just a tool for the good fight, someone to give her the next step in her mission. So her insistence that Jennifer lay off the meds and get triggered with some reminders of haunting childhood trauma continued her cold streak of mission first, individual humans second. But Jennifer's trauma—her mother, also mentally ill, tried to drown her as a child—was so horrifying that even Cassie saw the damaged person beneath the crazy eyes, flailing fingers, and toothy grin. It helped that Emily Hampshire was phenomenal with this side of Jennifer; it's one thing to play insane, it's another thing to wrap another believable layer around that crazy and make it the same character.
This totally changed Cassie's—and hopefully the fans'—view of Jennifer so that a young and awkward friendship formed between the two of them. I'm not going to lie, I'm going to miss Cassie and Jennifer's antagonistic relationship, particularly gems like, "Maybe every version of me thinks you are kind of a bitch." But realistically, these guys are all part of the same team. How long could these two hate each other for? (A little while longer for my enjoyment.)
Deacon took a similar path with Cole and Ramse, albeit in a much more macho way. He killed a guy who may have been a traitor, which Cole and Ramse took exception to, causing a philosophical debate between the two parties. Cole and Ramse didn't want a loose cannon firing off head shots in the halls of the headquarters (wussies), and Deacon wanted to do things his way, which usually ended up in blood somewhere. Through the magic of television, the three of them just so happened to go after the Foreman, a bad dude in the wastelands of the outside who wanted Deacon dead.
When they finally arrived to see the Foreman, it turned out that Cole and Ramse set Deacon up to be captured by the Foreman, a pretty cold and heartless move on their part. So imagine their faces when they returned to Project Splinter and Deacon walked through the door covered in the blood of his enemies and his face half swollen shut. Ha ha, that Deacon. But Deacon found new respect for Cole and Ramse because of their treachery, and basically toasted them for running a play out of his own playbook. Or maybe he was just acting totally insane because Deacon is totally insane, and he's going to come back at them twice as hard.
Both Deacon and Jennifer came out of this up a tier in the series' hierarchy, and taking an episode to do this at this point of the season—Episode 5—seemed like a good decision. Like I said before, this will be a time-traveling team, and they can't be filled with total hatred for each other if the future of time and space depend on it.
As for the confusing details of the episode, well, they're still confusing! Cassie took a trip with Olivia to the Red Forest and the Witness' cabin via a red Kool-Aid bath where she saw a vision of Aaron! Pallid Man made moves to be the person in charge of this cycle when Olivia was stabbed, but probably not killed, by Jennifer! Jennifer saw the Word of the Witness scroll, which was basically a very complicated time chart of important things, including the date of Jennifer's death (September 23, 2044)! And we know we're headed to 1975 to take on the next primary, a man who appeared to be a little more dangerous than the others.
We seem to be reaching a point where the slow trickle of details isn't paying off as big as it could to make the mind wrestling we're doing feel totally worth it. This is likely a feeling shared by some of the viewers out there and not everyone, but at some point we need clear answers (and I'm sure they're coming). And maybe it's my fault for pulling back on combing through all the details to make sense of it all, or maybe it's simply difficult to write such an intricate show where pulling one Jenga block out collapses the entire thing too soon. But what I'd like to see from these next few episodes of 12 Monkeys are shorter finish lines to cross with satisfying reveals, instead of the red haze we find ourselves in currently.
The good news is that "Bodies of Water" wasn't a detail-oriented episode, instead it was catching Jennifer and Deacon up with the rest of the cast, and it did that particularly well. And 12 Monkeys has plenty of things going right on an episode-to-episode basis—the characters and their relationship, the humor, the time travel—to make it a fun watch no matter what.
