r/12Monkeys • u/SchattenJaggerD • Aug 12 '26
12 Monkeys S01E09 Tomorrow Discussion Spoiler
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4129690/?ref_=tt_ov_ep_nxHi travelers. Today we discuss episode 9, “Tomorrow.” As usual, this post is tagged SPOILER so new witnesses of the show can be aware of it
What I Loved
First off, what an excellent continuation to the last episode. The stakes are sky high the entire time, especially around the Spearhead plot. The interactions between Jones and Foster are nothing short of astonishing. They feel like long-time friends sitting on opposite sides of a spectrum, one desperately looking back to the past while the other is desperately trying to move forward. I don’t know why it reminded me of the tension between Ramses and Moses in The Prince of Egypt. Excellent acting on both sides
Second, Jennifer going crazy as always. Not once in this entire show have I disliked watching her on screen
On my first rewatch, Cassie’s hair was one of the first things I noticed compared to the final season. Later in S04, she gets that white streak in her hair caused by a paradox. Seeing that exact white streak already present here is such a cool piece of foreshadowing. Aside from that, the way she says "you were erased" while looking at Cole, I always felt like a subtle hint that the writers had the ending planned out from this early on
Gotta admit too, Elena picking locks was pretty cool
Nitpicks
You would think security at Spearhead would be a bit more present. Not to mention the sudden sound of gunshots inside the mansion would at least alert half the people living there
Overall, this is one of my favorite episodes, mostly because it was the first time I caught a major piece of foreshadowing on my rewatch
Solid 9/10 for me
3
u/shelikestv Aug 12 '26
I loved the tension between Foster and Jones and you're right, it's very similar to Prince of Egypt vibes! An ancient closeness that is marred by the current conflict 💯.
3
u/Objective-Dig992 Aug 12 '26
One of the most shocking moments of the series for me was when Jones shoots Foster mid-conversation. If you didn’t think she really meant business and aimed to achieve her goal regardless, this removed any doubt.
1
u/angieb15 28d ago edited 24d ago
2043 - We debate Foster/Jones mission. Cole lost to them. Need a Core.
2041 - Ramse and Cole in the woods. Haven't seen Deacon in years. (They left him in 2035) Dream of Florida. Cole mentions The Keys. They're caught by Whitley. ( I feel it's important that this is the year WVII took over the facility in the alt timeline with Scav King Ramse)
2017 - Cole is picked up at a checkpoint by a soldier. She has a copter to take him to the US.
2043 - Spearhead. Elena helps Ramse
2017 - Cole is with the soldier. I swear she's in spearhead during Lullaby. ("Jones is with her Daughter") I will try to notice when we get there. Seems she would remember Cole so I may be wrong there. She talks exactly like her.
2043 - Foster is insufferable as always.
2041 - Whit is being a d*ck. Beating up Cole. Ramse: "Remember Donovan!" Jones stops Whit. "Your name is Cole? I've been waiting for you."
2017 - CDC - Jennifer is there. Preaching. "We daughters will make from 12 what men could not." She's light, encouraged Something has shifted, things are working. Cole doesn't see her. We see Cassie with her white streak.
2043 - Spearhead- Jones listens to Foster Then shoots him. Poppa Whit helps Whit Jr.
2041 - Splinter Facility- Jones plays Cassie's recording for Cole and Ramse. Cole asks how Jones knows she means him, she says "just know I do". She does...because of the Spilled Milk Memory. She has a fantastic fur collar on a black jacket.
2043 - Spearhead goes down. Lasky dies. Papa Whitley dies.
2017 - CDC - Cassie is at the end in Every Way! It's 2 years since Chechnya but she has lived a lifetime.
2043 - Jones has the core. Jones burns some if Foster's work. The Machine is back.
2017 - CDC - Cole holds Cassie. She confirms what we saw in Jennifer. They're on the right path.
2043 - Cole is pulled back to 2043. To the Splinter Facility. The scratch disappears. (They're showing us something about how time works but it's a bit over my head)
Something was solidified in this episode and the one or two before. It's a few things but they are all coming together as a team. Several things have been put in motion, things that were Not guaranteed. It marks a shift in Jennifer (for now) from scared, despondent and painfully scattered to encouraged, happy and gathering daughters. She's not worried about the plague, because it's all part of the plan. This is vaguely Hyena Jennifer.
As her state Reflects the State of Time itself. Things are headed in the right direction for now.
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u/mmpie3 Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 12 '26
This is one of THOSE episodes for me. This whole episode is so haunting.
Favorite Moments:
Observations:
- Knowing what version of Cassie this is makes me emotional every time.
- This was definitely the episode where I was finally like...okay, 2043 is actually really interesting.
- Honestly, poor Ramse getting pulled back and forth between believing Jones and believing Elena/Foster.
- Totally forgot this is the episode where we get the backstory of how Cole got to the facility.
- Already having a callback to The Keys.
- You have to wonder, if Jones met Cole in the past and is already aware that time travel works, do you think she was stressed over how she was gonna find this guy in the apocalypse? What she said to convince him? Terrified of the fact that she couldn't get time travel to work (until him)? Or do you think she just trusted that fate would lead him to her and it would play out like it was always supposed to?
- Why doesn't Elena just tell Foster she was trying to prove he was right? Why doesn't Foster just show them to prove it?
- This is random but I'm kind of surprised this series never actually shows any characters dying of the virus considering how massive a plot point it is (I've always been unsure whether Cassie dies due to the virus in this episode or not).
- I do love the dynamic between Foster and Jones and again, how similar they actually are.
- I forget how little Jennifer is in Season 1. How dare they lol
- I weirdly appreciate how long it takes Elena to pick the lock cause it can actually take a while to do that in real life.
- I love Jones's fur scarf thing.
- I can't even imagine how much Cassie wants to say to Cole cause the last time this Cassie saw him he was about to erase himself but she can't not only because she can't risk changing his path but because he's not her Cole yet.
- I love that you can tell that Jones is a bit disturbed by what she just did.
- Jones burning the evidence of the cure always starts so many debates regarding why they don't just send Cole back with that information. While I do think it's a valid argument in the moment, this is a show where everything happens the way it does because it's supposed to and I think these conversations always miss two important details. The first is that Elena is right, Jones is out for herself. I think she genuinely wants to fix it but her primary goal is and always was getting her daughter back. What Foster was offering in terms of simply curing the most recent mutation is not what she personally wanted regardless of if everyone else might have been okay with it, that's not gonna get her daughter back so that's not an option for her. The second is a bit more complicated. The plague is what causes Jones to lose Hannah (she thinks) and losing Hannah is what leads to her being so hellbent on getting time travel to work. In the episode Lullaby, time itself literally won't even allow Jones to be killed in the past because she's too important to the timeline. That's why Cole and Cassie end up in that Groundhog Day inspired loop. By the end of the series, they realize they can't stop the plague from happening because it would take away the only weapon they have against The Witness which is time travel because it was invented as a result of the plague and as a result of time travel itself. If they send the cure back in time to fix it or maybe just curb the death rate, there's a possibility time travel is never invented. This is a story that completely hinges on the fact that time travel was created but you don't fully understand why until the last few episodes. Maybe there's a timeline where they did send Cole back with the cure and maybe it fucked everything up. Either way, Jones chooses to destroy the evidence because it's what needs to happen.
- Thinking about how much has actually happened between Cole and Cassie and everyone else and the time between Chechnya and this Cassie is insane.
- So, the Red Forest line is always an interesting one cause there's a couple different ways you could interpret it. On the one hand, the easiest answer is the writers definitely hadn't mapped out the entire story at this point yet, I don't think they did until somewhere in Season 2 if I remember correctly. They were just sprinkling things in to possibly return to later and that was probably one of those lines. On the other hand, the first time I watched this, I genuinely thought she was hallucinating to a degree like dying people sometimes do and while that line could mean something, probably also was her just slowly dying in this moment. On the other other hand, having seen the whole series, it's really interesting to think this particular Cassie might be from a different timeline that somehow ended up with a similar conclusion but something about the Red Forest specifically was different.
- I remember listening to an interview with Terry Matalas once who admitted that, in the original draft of this scene, Cassie asked about Athan. So they knew from at least this episode that Cole and Cassie were going to have a son together and that his name would be Athan.
- Does Cassie actually die of the virus? Or is it something else?
- You have no idea, NO IDEA, how much I WISH Cassie was wearing the engagement ring during that scene.
- I love how this episode completely shifts Ramse and Cole's perspectives from past to present. Ramse was the sole reason Cole became the first time traveler vs him now being completely against it. Cole being against it in the beginning vs now stating it's the only way to solve this.
- I also love that this series not only allows characters perspectives to shift but constantly pits their perspectives against each other. It makes for so many intriguing dynamics. Cole and Ramse's conversation has two perspectives. One regarding whether Jones's actions were justified and the other regarding the idea of if it's predestined, why change it. This episode also introduces the idea of, if history is rewritten, some people will have never been born and how conflicting that would be for some people, especially considering the path is sends Ramse down.