Lullaby

"" is the eighth episode of Season 2 of 12 Monkeys and the twenty-first episode overall. It first aired at 9:00 p.m. on June 6, 2016 on Syfy.

Synopsis
Jones comes to the disheartening realization that time travel is humanity's true enemy and that as its architect she needs to be stopped, and so she sends Railly back to the year 2020 with orders to undo all of it.

Plot
It’s the year 2020 and a younger Katarina Jones is hanging by the bedside of her daughter, Hannah, who lay dying. Suddenly, Cassie is standing at her side, probably to comfort her... but why does she have a gun? Why is she pointing it right at Katarina? What the hell is going on?

Remember how Katarina told Cassie she would find a way to undo all the bad that time travel has caused? Well, back in 2044, apparently Jones’ plan is to send Cassie back in time to kill Katarina before she has the chance to invent time travel. Cole soon discovers this plot and heads back to 2020 to stop it all from happening.

In order to complete her mission Cassie has to get herself into Spearhead, the hospital that Kat is in, which is under the command of Lt. Foster (we’ve met him before, in an earlier episode but later in time when he’s Colonel Foster, former friend of Jones, who she shoots and kills in Season 1). Cassie makes it to Foster and as soon as Hannah passes away, she manages to slip away and find the mourning Kat and take her out. Mission accomplished, right? Well... not quite.

Technically, Cass did accomplish her mission, but if that’s the case, then why is she back where she started? And why is Cole here? Cole doesn’t believe that Cass killed Katarina because if that were the case, they wouldn’t be here. To prove it, they make their way back up to Spearhead, but no one remembers her from the day before. Instead of getting through to Foster, Cassie and Cole are sent to lockup where they find Jennifer Goines who explains that they are stuck in a time loop. They will keep repeating the same day until they figure out what they need to do, and arguably: what Time itself needs them to do.

Before they have a chance to formulate a plan, along comes Foster who wants to put the two of them to death for sneaking onto a military base under false pretenses. According to Foster, there is no way Cass and Cole can be who they say they are — since Cassie of 2020 is dead and the Cole of 2020 is an 11 year old boy. But there’s no time to explain and a fight breaks out where Cassie gets shot. Cole can’t let her die so he finds Katarina and shoots her so that time resets. For the next round (3 if you’re counting), Cassie and Cole split up. Cole wants to find out why this is happening to them. Jennifer wonders if maybe Time doesn’t want to stop the invention of time travel. Meanwhile, Cassie goes through to carry out the mission again, but this time she notices something very strange about Hannah’s illness. Ultimately though, she kills Kat and time resets... again.

Cassie decides to try something different for round 4. Instead of killing Katarina, what if she tries to save Hannah? The discovery she made during round 3 is that there’s no way Hannah is dying of the virus, but instead is dying of meningitis! Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. Cassie does save Hannah’s life, but time reboots anyway. Before the reboot, Jennifer makes the observation, ”Time likes Jones just the way she is.” What does that even mean?

Since killing Kat and saving Hannah didn’t work, for round 5, Cassie and Cole decide to do nothing. Just wait out the day. That night, by the warmth of a fire, the two share all kinds of feels and Cole let it slip that the only future worth a damn is one with Cassie in it. This tender moment is cut short though when time reboots and they both wind up coughing up blood.

This time around, Cole goes straight to lockup where after a brief chat with Jennifer he thinks he knows what he needs to do. Not change Katarina, but change Katarina... cause that makes sense. He needs a second to chat with Katarina before going through with the plan, so he gets to her by confessing that Kat, Cass, Jennifer and he are there to commit treason. As they are being led to a firing squad, Cole asks Kat, ”Is a little bit of happiness better than a lifetime of anything else?” She says yes. And then they all get shot by a firing squad. What could he be planning?

And now it’s back to 2044. But what did they do differently to get themselves out of the time loop? Just as bothered by the course of events is Katarina who doesn’t believe that their plan didn’t work because Time needed something from them. So, to prove it to her, Cass and Cole lead Katarina to Jennifer Goines where they explain what happened back in 2020. Cole decided that in order to change Katarina they had to save Hannah. But in order to not change her, she couldn’t know Hannah was still alive. So Cassie went in and made Katarina think that Hannah was dead, but as soon as Kat left the room she went to work on her and found a way to save the girl’s life. They then brought Hannah to be raised by Jennifer Goines and The Daughters which means that Hannah is now alive in 2044! Mother and daughter are reunited and feelings abound.

Speaking of feels, Cassie and Cole share one more moment of tenderness. It looks as if maybe it’s finally going to happen for these two crazy kids. That is, until, Cassie pulls away. There’s still too much hardship ahead for her to be able fall in love again. Cassie retires to her room to work out her feelings in solitude but she’s not alone! Ramse is back with a gun and he blames Cassie for what happened to Sam. Things look pretty bleak until Cassie tells Ramse that when The Witness was in her head, she saw into his and she knows where to find him. She asks Ramse to go with her to find The Witness and kill him.