Paradox

*This article is about the episode. For the temporal event, see Paradox (event).*

## Cast Information

"**Paradox**" is the twelfth episode of Season 1 of *12 Monkeys*. It first aired at 9:00 p.m. on April 3, 2015 on Syfy.

## Synopsis

With Cole dying from the effects of time-travel, Railly must find the one person who can save him.

## Plot

It’s 2043 and Jones and Dr. Adler are discussing Cole’s final splinter. She knows that he made it to 2015 successfully but since the tether is lost, he’s now a part of the past and they can no longer reach him. They know the jump was physically hard on him; Cole barely survived the previous jump to 1987.

In 2015, a younger Jones sits across from her father in a cafe in New York City. They are discussing her decision to move to the states and work in a lab instead of staying in Berlin and trying to heal people, something Jones has no interest in. We learn that she was rather accomplished physicist and that she is divorced, regretting marrying her ex-husband. Even 40 years earlier, Jones had little bedside manner. As Jones is dropped off in front of her house, Cassie emerges from behind some bushes and tells her that their mutual friend, James Cole, is very sick and needs her help. Jones has no idea who he is but Cassie forces her to listen at gunpoint.

As Cole lays sick on a cot in Cassie’s place, he has a nightmare which Aaron awakes him from. As they talk, Cole begins to shake and eventually passes out. Aaron calls Cassie and she instructs him how to give him an injection to pull him out of cardiac arrest. Side note, anyone else think Aaron had poisoned Cole trying to kill him? Anyhow, Jones returns with a knife and confronts Cassie; she doesn’t understand how she got her work and Cassie pleads with Jones to help her. After Cole comes to, Cassie explains that the address that she gave Cole in 2017 that was super important was Jones’s. Wow! She knew the whole time! This is crazy! As Jones heads upstairs to begin to analyze Cole’s blood, we learn that Cole has given up but Cassie hasn’t. They also have different feelings about what is fate and what isn’t. Meanwhile, also in 2015, Jennifer Goines storms the Markridge board meeting and initiates a hostile takeover of the company.

Jones breaks the news to Cassie that Cole is, in fact, dying. They talk for a minute and break down the concept of a paradox and decide that they might be able to regenerate adult Cole if they have access to the blood of six-year-old Cole.

Cassie still has a very sensitive Aaron to deal with. She follows him outside and he’s fed up. He’s also freaked out about her safety. Remember what Olivia asked him about keeping Cassie safe? — but Cassie isn’t hearing it. She goes back inside and Aaron makes a call: he wants to make a deal. Next, he meets with Olivia in her office. She won’t reveal details of the deal but he agrees to work with her on the condition that he and Cassie will be safe.

Jones and Cassie are driving to find young Cole. On their way, Jones gets sick and throws up. She’s pregnant (baby Hannah!) but has an appointment to terminate the pregnancy, still reeling from her husband leaving her six days into their marriage. They arrive at the garage looking for Matthew Cole, James Cole’s father but they find someone else, Anderson, who tells them that Matthew Cole disappeared months ago. They find James outside swinging on a swing and go back inside. That whole Anderson thing was a lie and they find Matthew Cole to be a kind and loving father so Cassie decides to tell him the truth. Bad move! But, Cassie keeps talking and once she says, ”The Army of the 12 Monkeys” Matthew reacts. Apparently his wife, Marion, told him he needed to protect James from a monkey army. Cassie pleads with him to come look at the adult Cole and try to see for himself that she’s telling the truth. He does and they meet. It’s a match!

In 2043, Jones still has a handful of scientists to work with her and they rebuild the wall that Ramse set on fire. Jones goes through some of her things from her previous life and finds a business card for an auto garage. Later, she calls for Dr. Adler after she finds something lying on the top of the machine. It’s red ivy of some kind.

Back in 2015, Cassie takes young James’s blood and Cole stumbles into the kitchen causing both of them to get bad headaches. Matthew helps grown up Cole back to his cot and they have a father/son heart to heart. They talk about his mother and how she left pretty quickly after they met but returned to ask him to protect their son. Cole tells his dad that he’s trying to make up for the bad things that he’s done in his life. As Cole falls back asleep, Matthew walks outside to take a minute. Cassie follows him and as they talk, Aaron calls and tells her to walk around to the back parking lot. She does and he tries to force her into the car but she hits him and gets away. As she runs back to her door, she sees The Pallid Man drive by. Cassie grabs the young James and she, Jones and Matthew run while adult James stays behind with the syringe. Matthew stays back and shoots at The Pallid Man but he’s hit and ultimately shot by him as young James watches from the back of the car.

The Pallid Man finds Cole in the apartment just before Cole injects himself with the young blood causing a huge paradox and blowing the windows out. He wakes up, naked and regenerated and he and Cassie make a break for it. Later, Jones and Cassie drop the young Cole with social services and Jones tells Cassie that she’s going to keep her baby. She says goodbye to Cole by telling him that the paradox has caused him to be unable to splinter and that he lives in 2015 now. After Jones leaves, Cassie asks Cole if he’s sure they should leave his younger self there and he assures her that it’s alright, that he’ll make friends. So, knowing what he knows and after the huge brawl he has with Ramse, why doesn’t older Cole kill young Ramse? It seems like that would end their problems right there, right?

Back in 2043, Adler and Jones discuss the red ivy growing on the splinter machine. Adler reveals that the plant is not from their time. Suddenly, an alarm sounds and they find Whitley at the gate holding a severed head. We learn that there are a bunch of mud covered guys who are killing people and Deacon is with them. They need to get inside the facility because there is something very important to them in there. Deacon assures them that he can get them in.

## Timeline

### 2015

Coming home from a meeting with her father, the Jones of 2015 is accosted at gunpoint by Cassandra, who found her thanks to the address Cole received from her in 2017. Cassandra demands that Jones help save Cole from the lethal effects of splintering. At Cassandra's bookstore, a dying Cole goes into cardiac arrest, but is revived by Aaron. After Cassandra shows her copies of her own future research, Jones is persuaded to see Cole. She suggests that Cole can be cured by injecting him with DNA from his younger, 2015 self. Aaron argues with Cassandra, saying that saving the world from the plague is not his fight, and that his fight is to save her. He leaves.

Jennifer interrupts a Markridge Group board meeting. She announces that she has been released from the mental institution and that she is instigating a hostile takeover of Markridge. She removes the CEO and installs herself as the new CEO.

Jones and Cassandra go looking for Cole's father, Matthew. When they arrive at Matthew's garage, the man there claims he is not Matthew Cole. However, Cassandra recognizes young Cole playing outside. Railly explains her story to the man in the garage, now revealed to be Matthew, after which he tries to drive her off at gunpoint. When she mentions the Army of the 12 Monkeys, he lowers his gun and says that Cole's mother, Marian, claimed the Army was after her. He goes with them. When he lays eyes on the adult Cole, father and son instantly recognize each other, and they have a happy reunion while Cassandra takes a blood sample from the young Cole.

Aaron goes to meet Olivia, hoping to cut a deal to ensure his and Cassandra's safety. He has reservations about helping them, but she claims that the plague is merely a form of natural selection, and that it is only natural for him to want to protect himself and Cassandra.

Cassandra gets a call from Aaron and meets him. He asks her to get in a car and drive away with him for her protection, but she refuses and hits him. Running back to the store, she grabs the young Cole and she, Jones, and Matthew flee as the Pallid Man and his troops attack the store. As the others escape, Matthew stays behind to defend young Cole, but he is shot dead by the Pallid Man.

Adult Cole remains in the store to confront the Pallid Man. He injects himself with the blood sample from young Cole, causing a temporal paradox that results in a massive explosion, defeating the Army. The injection also cures Cole's illness. Later, Cole, Jones, and Cassandra drop young Cole off in foster care. Jones says goodbye to him and Cassandra after informing him that the cure has removed his ability to travel through time. The two watch, hand in hand, as young Cole makes a new friend--young Ramse.

### 2043

Jones attempts to rebuild Project Splinter, ordering her team to search through their archives for further historical clues about the Army of the 12 Monkeys. She finds a strange red plant growing on the time machine, and asks Dr. Adler to analyze it. He informs her that it is English ivy, but from a totally different geological era when there was much more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. An alarm sounds, and they open the door to find a terrified Whitley holding a severed human head. Outside, a group of blue-skinned men prepare to invade the Temporal Facility. They are being guided by Deacon.

## Clues

Cole's mother, Marion, was afraid of the Army of the 12 Monkeys and feared she couldn't protect Cole

## Quotes

* **Matthew Cole:** *The only failure is giving up.*