12 Monkeys: Review: Series 1 Episode 5: The Night Room

Various secrets are revealed as the parties converge on the Night Room…

Plenty more questions are thrown up by this episode, which sees the series back on track after last week’s backstory diversion. As the “previously on” montage reminds us, there are a lot of unpleasant characters in the TV version of 12 Monkeys – or at least, a lot of characters who will do what they need to do in order to achieve their goals. To a large extent, though, most haven’t been aware of the others’ foibles… until now.

You can guess from the way in which the 2043 group bond over a drink that things between them are about to implode, and Ramse’s discovery of secrets that Jones has kept hidden shows another side to her (and one that, to be honest, isn’t that much of a surprise). The links between that and the whole problem that Cole and co. are dealing with aren’t kept hidden for as long as I’d expected – I guessed that that would form the end of episode surprise, rather than showing up pretty much immediately.

Cole and Cassie’s relationship suffers some considerable buffeting as she learns how many deaths he is responsible for, and sees first-hand how callous he can be about the fates of individuals when he is trying to save everybody. Cole’s relationship with Jennifer Goines is as twisted as you might expect: her daddy issues are going to cause problems all the way down the line.

And then there’s Thomas Noonan’s highly unpleasant 12 Monkeys leader, casually torturing Cole not for information but for the sheer sadistic hell of it. Those scenes aren’t shied away from, nor are the deaths of others when the failsafe procedures are activated – by our apparent heroes.

Verdict: Not for the faint-hearted, 12 Monkeys continues to throw up surprises. 8/10

Paul Simpson