The Moment 12 Monkeys Introduced A Perfect New Location
Drifting through various decades? You need a home base.
One of the greatest tropes in sci-fi time travel narratives is seeing the same location in a totally different light. Arguably, H.G. Wells pioneered this idea in The Time Machine, since the titular machine and traveler are literally sitting in one spot while the centuries pass at a super-fast rate. The TV series version of 12 Monkeys made good use of this idea in its first season, showing us the Project Splinter facility at its inception, and also its present-tense 2040s status as the base of operations for all the show’s time travelers. But a decade ago, during the week of May 4, 2016, with the third episode of 12 Monkeys Season 2, the series introduced a secondary base of operations for the characters. This episode, “One Hundred Years,” would have huge implications for the rest of the show, and even influence the Star Trek canon nearly a decade later.
“One Hundred Years” is an episode from the golden period of 12 Monkeys, after the Season 2 finalesubtly rebooted the premise of the series, making it not just a time travel quest to undo a deadly global epidemic, but also a battle against the Army of the 12 Monkeys to protect time itself. “One Hundred Years” is a crucial episode in establishing that new direction, because when Cole (Aaron Stanford) and Cassie (Amanda Schull) try to figure out why enemy time travelers are murdering “Primaries” (people who can perceive the flow of time), Cole tosses off this comment about their enemies: “Maybe the plague is only part of their plan.”
It may seem like a small thing, but following the Season 2 opening narration from one of the stars of the original film, Madeleine Stowe, this slightly more complex premise becomes the basic ethos of the show from this point forward. The Army of the 12 Monkeys is trying to destabilize time itself and create a timeless status quo known as the “Red Forest.” And, as a result of this, Cole and Cassie are sent to track down assassins in 1944.
Cole and Cassie try to unravel the mystery of the Army of the 12 Monkeys in 1944.
This results in Cole purchasing a permanent room at a fictional hotel called the Hotel Emerson, which has a ripple effect throughout the show. In the previous episode, “Primary,” we learned that Cole and Jennifer already had a connection to this hotel in 2016, which, in “One Hundred Years,” is retroactively explained. Throughout various decades, this hotel has served as Team Splinter’s home base, but nobody really knows that quite yet.
The 1940s setting of “One Hundred Years” gives Cassie and Cole a kind of 2011 Captain America: The First Avenger vibe, which does the series a lot of favors, especially in recharging the slow-burning romance between the two time travelers. The photo of Cassie and Cole from 1944 was a brilliant seed planted in the previous episode, which doesn’t play out exactly the way we expected. The developers of the show, Terry Matalas and Travis Fickett — along with episode writer Michael Sussman, a Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise alum — weave a very charming Back to the Future feeling with this episode, which at the time represented the furthest back in time we’d see the characters travel.
The Emerson Hotel also came with the introduction of FBI agent Robert Gale, played by the excellent character actor Jay Karnes. From the 1950s to the 1960s, Gale would become one of the greatest allies of the show’s heroes, including some excellent criss-crossed timelines, in which Gale would have already met different versions of Cole and Cassie from future episodes. Like a Doctor Who companion who gets left behind, Gale created a likable everyman from the 20th century, which in turn, helped humanize the lead characters even more in their affection for him. Gale doesn’t start out as someone who wants to help them, but even later in this season, he becomes a huge ally.
Patrick Stewart as Picard and Jay Karnes as Wells, a character very close to Gale from 12 Monkeys.
Carnes returned to a Terry Matalas sci-fi in 2022’s Picard Season 2, playing a character named Wells, who was very similar to Gale in 12 Monkeys. And, just like in 12 Monkeys, Picard Season 2 retconned the concept of the bar “Ten Forward” as a physical place in Los Angeles, which exists in both the 24th and 21st centuries. This concept was taken even further when you consider there’s a holographic Ten Forward (not to be confused with the one on the Enterprise-D) that is recreated on the Titan-A in Picard Season 3.
Could any of this have happened without 12 Monkeys? Almost certainly not. With “One Hundred Years,” the series firmly put itself into a nostalgic Back to the Future mode, but created new traditions that would strengthen the show for the rest of its twisty run.
