"In 2043, Jones sends Ramse and Whitley to Spearhead, a military colony, to ask for help stabilizing the time machine's energy core. It is revealed that Jones and Whitley once lived at Spearhead, but left after its current leader, Colonel Foster, took power in a violent coup. Foster declines Jones' request, saying he needs the resources to work on a cure for the plague. Ramse encounters Elena, an old flame, and discovers he is the father of her son, Sam. When a failed attempt to retrieve Cole destroys the energy core altogether, Jones personally comes to Spearhead to request the use of their core. After a heated discussion, Foster agrees on the condition that Jones permanently return to Spearhead to work on the cure. Ramse suggests accepting Foster's offer, but Jones remains convinced that the virus is incurable and resolves to obtain Spearhead's energy core by any means necessary. In 2015, Railly travels to the site of the airstrike to determine if Cole is truly gone. She sees nothing there and concludes that Cole has been erased from the timeline and the plague has been averted. It is revealed that Cole is alive, but stranded in 2017, where the plague is well underway."
Interesting episode. Like I figured, Cole didn't die in the bombing though that is not surprising. I did like the twist of him waking up in the rubble two years later, 2017. That was a good way of making it look to Cassy like he dead while still leaving him stranded in the past. A past where the plague has already started. He needs to talk to the Cassy of 2017, she might have some new insights that would be useful to herself two years earlier.
Likewise the Colonel in the future who found a cure for a past version of the plague. Jones needs to get that info from him and send it back to Cassy. That cure is no good to them in the future, but it could help, and maybe even stop the virus in its tracks in the past.