Episode Recap: The End

"There was once a serpent who only traveled one direction. Always forward. Never backward." Thus begins this last chapter in the saga of James Cole, Cassie Railly, Doctor Katarina Jones and all of their time travel splintering friends. Team Splinter, call them what you will. But first! A trip into the WAY back. In a forest way back in time, a group of Primaries are gathered around a fire and a guy with a sword rides up with a knight in a mask similar to The Witness' and they're all set on fire. Meanwhile, miles away, a young girl is handed a circular device and told to take it into the future. She's also told a name: James Cole.

Back in 2046, Doctor Jones recovers from the gunshot wound she got in the shoot out with Cassie and Cole. But she's barely hanging on. Remember when Jones THOUGHT that Athan was The Witness? Turns out, they were swindled all along and The Witness is actually Olivia. She's been manipulating everyone from her safe position aboard Titan, the time traveling city she runs. Though why is it so big? What's the purpose of that? Anyway, the team tries to plot their next move, but Olivia wastes no time and splinters right next to Jones' facility in the year 2046. As Olivia's Army rushes into the facility, The Daughters and Marcus hold them off. Jones wakes up just long enough to suggest their only hope: splintering away the entire facility with devices that she's kept in storage. Even though they're not quite ready, the devices are the gang's only hope.

While Deacon creates a distraction to buy them all some time, Jones risks her life to fix the core. While doing so, she exposes herself to massive radiation. And all the while, the rest of the gang continue fighting off Olivia's Army. It's too late for some, as Marcus goes down in a firefight. Jones is devastated to lose him, he's been such a force for good around these parts and she's going to miss him.

Everyone's hard work pays off and the machine is fired up and splinters the gang away. The process takes MOST of the facility with it, including the splinter machine, Jones, Cassie, Cole, Hannah, many of The Daughters, but NOT Deacon. Left behind, despite Cassie's attempt to save him, it seems Deacon has been lost to the gang for good.

Interestingly, the machine calculated that they should jump some distance away: to the Emerson Hotel. It's sometime after the plague started, but it's hard to figure out exactly when. As Cole and Cassie search their old room for clues, Cole comes across the drawing of that snake eating its own tail. He remembers a moment from his childhood. His father reading a story that began: "There once was a serpent who only traveled one direction. Always forward. Never backward." As Team Splinter realizes they're stuck here unless they can get a new core for the splinter machine, Cole rallies the troops to go back to the facility in this time and steal one. The others are not having it though. As Cassie says, "There's no mission. The mission is over."

Meanwhile, in 2018, while the plague ravages on, Jennifer Goines sneaks into a museum in Prague to steal that circular device the little girl was handed at the start of the episode. Whatever it is, Jennifer has a job to do and she's doing it with the help of her imaginary friend: a purple-haired Jennifer Goines. Real life Jennifer knows the device was for her, she just doesn't know what she's supposed to do with it.

Later, as Cole nearly reaches the site of the old facility, he realizes that Hannah's been following him. As they come over the ridge, they see two people they recognize: Cole and Ramse. How is it possible? Well, while they thought they were in 2046, it turns out they splintered to 2043. The beginning, where it all began.