12 Monkeys Preview: “Mentally Divergent” [INTERVIEWS, VIDEO and PHOTOS] 

[Warning: General spoilers ahead.]

After a very successful premiere, this week’s 12 Monkeys introduces us to a key player in the whole “how did this happen” angle of the show. Jennifer Goines (vs. Brad Pitt’s Jeffrey Goines), played by Emily Hampshire, is locked up in a mental hospital, so Cole finds his way there to try to talk to her. Meanwhile, Cassie has a scary encounter of her own with a mystery man (Tom Noonan) who’s apparently already had a run-in with Cole, although Cole hasn’t actually met him yet. 

It’s a solid outing that sets the pace for what we can likely expect from the weekly episodes. And it’s nice to see Cole and Cassie try to figure out what they’re doing, and how they’ll work together, when so far, she really has no way to contact/summon him. It also starts the ball rolling on the idea that Cole shouldn’t keep contacting Cassie, and then she happens upon him anyway, so they’re destined to keep finding each other.

Friday’s episode is Noonan’ first, and when we chatted with Aaron Stanford and Amanda Schull last week, I asked them about working with him. Stanford was rattled a bit, but Schull got to spend some quality one-on-one time with him. “[He] absolutely inhabited the character…he plays a very, very frightening and imposing character and pretty much the entire time he was on set, he had the entire cast and crew terrified of him,” says Stanford. “I was terrified. He’s an imposing guy. [Every] once in a while he drops character, but…he’s a consummate Method actor.”

“I think I had a unique experience with him. [We] definitely had a few nights where, for whatever reason, Tom and I had downtime together while [Aaron was] working,” explains Schull. “[There] was one Friday that bled into a Saturday morning that Tom and I sat in our chairs until 7 o’clock in the morning and I just listened to him tell old acting war stories and just his life stories [had] me riveted. And then we’d go out and do 30 seconds of the scene, and then we’d come back and he’d go, ‘so where was I?’  And we’d pick up exactly where he had left off.  I just have such a soft spot for Tom. I adore that man.”

Looking ahead, both say they want the series to go for a while. “[There] are so many different possibilities [for Cole].  The only thing I care about is that the journey’s a long one. I’d like that,” admits Stanford. “[As] always, you…want to see your character stretched to extremes, [so] wherever Cole goes, I want it to be somewhere that is very, very far from where he began.  I want to see some kind of very, very fundamental change in who he is.”

“I agree with Aaron. [I] would like for it to be a very long journey. [It’s] really exciting for an actor to be able to change and [it’s] rewarding to be able to know the core of who this person is and where they came from and then have the gift of storyline over the course of a series, a season, even an episode,” explains Schull.

“[The] subject matter with time travel [allows me] to be different versions of this person, and be so affected by major events that it changes [her] on so many levels. [We have] this luxury of creativity but comfort within one person…one character…I think we’re spoiled in that regard. [Cassie goes to] some pretty fantastic places over the course of the first season, so I can only imagine that it’s going to get even more exciting if we’re lucky enough to have a second.”

Here’s a sneak peek of “Mentally Divergent” and what to expect this season, plus a couple of interview clips with Emily Hampshire from New York Comic-Con. 12 Monkeys airs Friday night at 9/8c on Syfy.