12 Monkeys at the Paley Center for Media

Back on June 29, the cast and one of the executive producers of the Syfy series 12 Monkeys participated in a special moderated panel at the Paley Center for Media that featured a sneak peek at the final two episodes of the show’s current, second season, which will come to a close tomorrow night.

Given that we were getting an exclusive look at how the fan favorite series was closing out the season, the entire audience was asked to not spoil the ending for everyone else; and that is exactly what I have done, waiting until the day before the season finale to “talk” about their appearance at the Paley.

The cast that was in attendance included Amanda Schull (Cassie), Aaron Stanford (Cole), Emily Hampshire (Jennifer), Kirk Acevedo (Ramse) and Todd Stashwick (Deacon) as well as executive producer Terry Matalas.

Without touching too much on spoilers for the season finale, I can share that the Amanda talked about the transformation for which her character Cassie underwent from season one to season. She shared that “Cassie went dark this year, living in a world she (had) only heard about from James.” She also stated that Cassie has an “overwhelming desperate need to save the world…(and) she knows what she wants, (she knows) how to live (in that world) but (she believes) that if she doesn’t do this [save the world], no one else will.”

Aaron then shared that Cole “has been a step behind the monkeys (this season), and he sees things differently than Cassie, and at the beginning of the season they (seemingly) switched places. But (over the course of the season), he begins to get the sense of the larger picture.”

Emily talked about what it was like being transformed into ‘old Jennifer’ sharing that it took four hours in the hair and make-up chair and she said that “seeing myself like that helped make me feel super confident.” In fact, Emily joked that she wants to play more of old Jennifer, but we all know that isn’t possible. And where old Jennifer’s death is concerned, Emily shared that “the anticipation was way harder than doing (the death scene). It’s all in the writing, it’s really profound.”

Kirk and Amanda were then asked about the unusual bond formed between their characters, with Amanda joking “unfortunately” they learned they have more in common than expected. Amanda shared that “Railly is out to save humanity, but Ramse only found (his) humanity because of his son.”

For those who have seen the penultimate episode that aired last Monday, viewers saw that Cassie and Cole ended up at the house from the red forest dreams. Aaron shared that filming that scene was “completely different than anything we’d done before; (it was) very rewarding.” He also shared that it was “amazing to work with Madeleine Stowe” – who will be seen in the season finale (and was teased in the clips for the final episode).

A good portion of the panel discussed the unexpected and twisty events of the season finale so I won’t spoil those for the fans who are anticipating the final episode tomorrow night so make sure to watch 12 Monkeys on Syfy at 9/8c to find out how things come to a close.

And you will be happy to know that the show will be returning for a third season on Syfy.

Photo Credit: Rueben