This 12 Monkeys Time-Loop Episode Has Never Been Topped
Was this the most heartbreaking, and somehow, uplifting time loop of all time?
At a glance, the 2015 SyFy reboot of 12 Monkeys is a dark, depressing series. In the 2040s, most of the world’s population has been wiped out by a plague, and in Season 2, our various heroes are either constantly betraying each other or bickering about which time travel mission is the right one to pursue. But, for those who know and love the show, the truth is 12 Monkeys is actually filled with a ton of hope. And as the series goes along, several of the bigger arcs tend to play out along similar lines: Something that seemed deeply sad could contain an optimistic twist.
Ten years ago, on June 6, 2016, 12 Monkeys dropped its eighth episode in Season 2, titled “Lullaby.” Written by future Star Trek: Picard Season 3 writer Sean Tretta, “Lullaby” is a bittersweet, clever time-loop story that, even for sci-fi fans who have never seen 12 Monkeys, is essential viewing. This episode contains the best of Doctor Who and Star Trek, with its own quirky 12 Monkeys magic. Here’s why 10 years later it's worth your time, and is not a bad introduction to 12 Monkeys as a whole.
Spoilers ahead.
Under the guidance of showrunner Terry Matalas — the maestro behind Picard Season 3 in 2023, and Marvel’s Vision Quest, coming later in 2026 — 12 Monkeys Season 2 was full of subtle reboots, all of which expanded the scope of the show, without making it seem like anything had been drastically changed. Instead of just trying to prevent a massive plague via time travel, Season 2 also made it clear that the villains of the show were trying to unravel time itself. Complete with a new location from which to launch various missions, 12 Monkeys Season 2 was on a run of incredible episodes by the time it got to Episode 8. The premise of this was fairly simple: Dr. Katarina Jones (Barbara Sukowa) is so depressed by everything that’s happened that she wants to send Cassie (Amanda Schull) back to 2020, to prevent time travel from being invented in the first place. In order to do this, Jones wants Cassie to murder her younger self.
Already, the audience knows that there’s probably no way the episode is just going to end with Cassie accomplishing her mission: If Jones is murdered in the past, that would mean that time travel couldn’t exist in the future...meaning Cassie could never be sent back in the first place. Along with Cole (Aaron Stanford), we’re back in 2020, at the Spearhead facility, where Jones lost her very young daughter to what she believed, at the time, was the plague. Jones is shot by Cassie, and then...time resets itself.
As Cassie and Cole learn, thanks to a contemporary version of Jennifer Goines (Emily Hampshire), the flow of spacetime seems like “Jones the way she is,” hence the time loop. Murdering Jones to prevent time travel from getting invented is not an option, and a paradox that simply results in putting Cole and Cassie in a loop. Jones has to lose her daughter, Hannah, and in that grief, has to invent time travel and put everything back on track.
Unless, of course, Jones only has to believe that she lost her daughter. During the various loops, Cassie realizes that Hannah does not have the dreaded plague and has a treatable illness. And so, Cole and Cassie rescue Hannah and bring the child to live with Jennifer and her kooky nomad “Daughters,” who, in the future, are allies of Project Splinter and a well-armed militia, fighting against the Army of the 12 Monkeys. In the present, Jones is reunited with the adult Hannah (Brooke Williams), whom Jennifer had named “Zeit” in the intervening years.
Cole and Cassie go through several time loops to get it right.
The twist is both heartbreaking and brilliant, and represents the unique brand of optimism that runs through 12 Monkeys. While not initially apparent, 12 Monkeys is actually an intergenerational family epic, but with a timey-wimey spin. While not fully revealed yet, Season 2 eventually reveals the identity of the Witness, the architect of the time-travel schemes and the plague, and in that revelation, it appears, at first, that there’s a family connection. Revealing that Jones’ daughter is alive and well in the present also gives one of the primary heroes of the show much-needed hope in the face of constant setbacks and defeats. And, this detail also sets up an even bigger family twist in Season 4.
But even outside of the tapestry of the show’s complex crisscrossing timelines, “Lullaby” is simply a perfect time-loop sci-fi story. The reasons for the time loop are small, character-based, and realistic. The time loop isn’t played for laughs, and discovering a way out of the loop is devoid of cynicism or any cheating on the part of the writing. It’s a life-affirming twist, which elevates the show’s stakes and lets the audience know that no matter what happens, the biggest surprises are sometimes the most hopeful ones.
