Episode Recap: Witness

Present Day, gang. It doesn’t happen very often, but Jennifer Goines turns out to be in London, in 2017. Some adorable kids fresh from school go looking in an old mausoleum for a witch they've heard about, which of COURSE is Jennifer Goines. She owns the place and has been waiting here a while, for the dying man she’s been drawing all season. But is she too late or too early? Hard to tell. So, instead, let's go back to 1897, where Athan and his parents are having  their face off in the church. Cassie and Cole try to reason with him that the red forest and his job as The Witness is not salvation and that he can change. But he’s angry at time for taking Eliza from him, and is unconvinced. So Cassie and Cole get super clever, sync their splinter suits to his, and off they all go.

They jump through a bunch of different times in London. Things get tense when Athan outsmarts his parents and tells Cole he can either follow him, or save Cassie. And then he presses her self-destruct suit button and splinters away. Cole and Cassie think fast and after a good deal of trickery, catch up to Athan AGAIN, decommission his splinter suit and take him to…the house of cedar and pine. Where they lived in 1959. The origin of The Witness.

Back in 2046, Jones and the team have been tracking all these splinter suit jumps. Olivia tells Jones that The Witness' conception is a moment that takes place out of time and while she can give them the location of where they are – the exact “when” is something she’ll need help with. And, it’s tricky how this works, but basically Olivia drinks that red tea and travels along her timeline to find Athan in the house of cedar and pine. He knows she’s there, but Cassie and Cole do not. She asks Athan to help her (in code), and learns that they’re located on December 26th, 1959 at around 7pm. Meanwhile, Cassie and Cole try again to convince Athan that they love him and they've searched to try and help him. But Athan, The Witness, says his mind is made up to return to Titan and the only way to stop him is to kill him. Oh, and by the way, while Olivia was jumping along the timeline, she saw something. She saw The Witness, standing behind her. When she turned around, The Witness took off the mask. And Olivia was shocked and terrified – but what did she see?!

No matter, the time has come to shut down Athan and Cassie and Cole for good, so Jones and Deacon take Hannah and a team back to 1959. They leave Olivia behind, and there’s a standoff between the family Cole and Jones and The Daughters. Somehow, Deacon hasn’t caught up to them. And then, the amazing happens. Titan appears. Giant crazy Titan appears in the field in 1959 at the house of cedar and pine! What follows is another crazy firefight standoff. Jones and Hannah realize that the only way they'll ever stop The Witness is by taking him out before he can get to Titan. Rushing into the house, they find Cassie and Cole trying to protect him. His parents put the splinter suit on Athan just as Jones SHOOTS HIM, and he is splintered away. What happened? Where’d he go? Is he dead?

Knowing they’re trapped, Jones sends Hannah back to 2046. That bald man who seemed to have “helped” Cassie escape takes Cassie, Cole, and Jones to Titan. They're shocked to learn that they weren't supposed to save The Witness; they were just supposed to find him. And then the biggest shock of all  Olivia is here, and she's just killed The Pallid Man.  It turns out the whole thing was a con. See, when she was betrayed by the Army of 12 Monkeys and all those years ago, Olivia developed a plan and has been orchestrating just about everything lately: Ramse's death, all of the chasing down of Cassie and Cole and The Witness. Bent on revenge for being used by the Army, she got all these people to chase Athan down and kill him. She wanted The Witness dead. And now, safely back on Titan, Olivia has Cassie and Cole and Jones. Olivia thanks Jones for killing The Witness and tells her followers that The Witness will never return.  And then, Olivia stabs Jones in the stomach.

But let’s not count Athan out yet. Shot and bleeding, he ends up in, yes, London in 2017. With Jennifer Goines. In the mausoleum, where Eliza is buried! ATHAN was the dying man she saw in her visions! She helps nurse him back to health, and learns that the symbols she's been drawing have some purpose yet. She may not know what they are, but she will. And now, Athan is ready to return to Titan. And he does, mere seconds after Olivia’s rant to Cassie and Cole. And does some serious damage to the Army of the 12 Monkeys. Athan saves his parents and Jones! After a devastating firefight, Athan gets his parents and Jones off of Titan with a splinter suit!

Thing is, though, there is one final surprise. It turns out, he's NOT The Witness. This whole time, that person we've seen stalking everyone in the mask and giving orders  it's been Olivia. This is just the moment where she learned it. And now, to keep causality intact, she's doomed to go back and do all of those steps. This is where SHE learned her fate. Olivia, newly crowned as The Witness, murders Athan.

Back at the house of cedar and pine, Deacon and Hannah come to rescue the team and take them back to 2046. A final flashback, though. With Little Cole before the outbreak. His father reads him a book and a poem falls out. On it, a drawing of the snake Jennifer's been drawing. When little Cole asks who left it there, his father answers: "Your mother." More to tell…see you soon, Monkeys.