Ask any 12 Monkeys fan if they’ve ever had an interaction with showrunner Terry Matalas, and chances are he’s answered a tweet, liked a Facebook comment, or even spoken to them directly. The show’s creator and executive producer is always ready to talk about his time travel show and tease details that are to come or give further explanation about what has already happened. Matalas spoke to us from an undisclosed wooded location while filming season 4. “There are a lot of horses, so I’ll say that,” he offered.
That’s a much older Cassie that comes out of the shadows during Cole’s conversation with himself in the 2163 Emerson Hotel. The scene between Ramse and his son was not originally so brutal. I’m going to give you an exclusive on this. How that scene played out isn’t actually how we scripted it. It was actually something that came up on the day. Sam was going to die, and basically with his dying breath, he was going to give this mission to Ramse: “You have to go be the Traveler again; you’re going to have to listen to Olivia — she knows who the Witness is.” Just keeping in mind where Ramse was going to go and how extreme it would have to be for him to be, “I’m going to betray my brother. I’m going to go back, and I’m going to put a bullet in the woman that my brother loves to try and save the world and my son…” it just seemed alright. So what we ended up doing is kind of just finding it on the day between these two actors. And Kirk brought it! Mallick pinned that note to the tree and staged the attack on Sam’s camp. That was left by Mallick. The attack on the camp was staged by Mallick and Olivia so that Ramse would have the drive to go after the Witness. That was always part of her Machiavellian plan. So the note, when she gets it, is, if this plan works, she’ll know exactly where and when to splinter to to be able to take Titan in her coup and be ready to kill the Witness. Olivia wasn’t lip-syncing Jennifer’s Word of the Witness history. That was a spot-on impression! That’s her! Originally the idea was we would shoot it, and then we were going to dub in [Emily Hampshire’s] voice. So I got in a room with Emily and [Alisen Down], and Emily did it how she would do it, and Alisen recorded it on her phone. Then on the day, when we saw what Alisen… I mean, she channeled Emily Hampshire! She was practically possessed. There was no reason to go in and dub Emily over because it was so brilliant what Alisen had done. It was really a great moment. (see clip below) Dr. Jones’ admission that whiskey-induced “hallucinations” helped her solve her initial time travel issues was not an idle comment. Jennifer’s vision, which included the ancient precursor corpse, the origin of the plague virus, was a reminder. Nothing is nothing in all of this; it’s all of a part. It’s also a way of telling the audience we haven’t forgotten. This all ties into this. Everything has meaning. It plays a part in this cycle. I don’t know if there’s any indication that she’s Primary, but she’s certainly connected. She’s definitely a part of it. There’s no shared responsibility for what the Witness did throughout time. She hasn’t done those things yet, but you’re going to see her do those things. And when you understand that point of view, too, Olivia has quite a journey left in her in that she resented this thing that she finds out was her. This promise of a Red Forest came from her. The orders she received through time were from herself. So she has hated herself for decades. And the other thing is – she’s not Primary. She doesn’t have a plan. So what is she going to do to be the Witness?
For the full audio of this interview with Terry Matalas, visit 12monkeyspodcast.com or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
