NYCC 2015: 12 Monkeys Stars on Rebuilding Cole and Ramse's Friendship

NYCC 2015 and 12 Monkeys: what the stars said about season 2

New York Comic Con 2015 gave 12 Monkeys fans a second look at season 2, a few months after the show's panel at San Diego Comic-Con. Syfy's time-travel drama, which premiered on January 16, 2015, had finished a 13-episode first season, and the New York panel brought together showrunner Terry Matalas and a large part of the cast, including Aaron Stanford, Amanda Schull, Kirk Acevedo, Emily Hampshire, Barbara Sukowa and Todd Stashwick. Syfy posted the full panel on its site afterward.

The panel showed early footage from season 2, with scenes set in the 1940s and a tense standoff between Cole and Cassie. At a press roundtable around the convention, Stanford and Acevedo talked in more detail about the part of the story that matters most to the show's emotional core: the friendship between Cole and Ramse, which ended season 1 in a state of repair and doubt.

The series is based on the 1995 film 12 Monkeys, directed by Terry Gilliam, and follows James Cole (Stanford), a man from a ruined future who is sent back in time to stop a plague. Ramse (Acevedo) is his friend and fellow survivor, and the two clash in season 1 over loyalty and fate. Season 2 would run 13 episodes, like the first, and the series eventually ended on July 6, 2018 after four seasons and 47 episodes.

Where Cole and Ramse stand at the start of season 2

Stanford described the relationship as being in a nebulous place. At the end of season 1, the two men were at odds, and the conflict climaxed in a shootout in which Cole chose to go against his fate and his destiny in order to save his friend. They decided that their relationship mattered more than their differences and called each other brothers. At the beginning of season 2, Stanford said, they are together, but they remain of two separate minds, still trying to find a way forward.

Acevedo added that the two of them agree to disagree, which he compared to being a little burnt, like toast. The bond between them is strong enough that you let things slide. Stanford pushed the family comparison further: you do not choose your family, he said, and Cole and Ramse are family, with turmoil and tension that could blow up into something very ugly, even murder, as real-life situations sometimes do.

Will the friendship follow a pattern?

A reporter pointed out that the first season had a circular structure, in which events seemed to happen all at once and the viewer only understood the pattern week by week. The question was whether Cole and Ramse are bound for the same outcome whatever time does. Acevedo said he thought they would always reach the same loggerhead, because the two men have different agendas that pull in opposite directions, and he could not see how it would not come to a head somehow.

That answer fits the way the show works. In 12 Monkeys, the characters move through time, but their choices do not change as easily as their location does. A friendship that is built on loyalty and tested by competing goals is a natural fit for a story about fate.

Stanford's answer to the same question was gentler. He did not rule out a repeat of the pattern, but he framed the friendship as something strong enough to survive disagreement.

Cole and Cassandra trade places

The most significant change for season 2, according to Stanford, is a shift of power between Cole and Cassandra Railly, played by Amanda Schull. Now it is Cassie who can travel through time and Cole who is stuck. She goes to the future and sees Cole's world, the apocalypse, and how low humanity can sink, and it hardens her. Cole, meanwhile, is in her time and has seen a different side of people than he ever had before. He values human life more than he did, and he becomes more careful with his morality while she becomes a bit more ruthless.

It is a neat reversal. In season 1, Cole was the one who was out of place in a time that was not his. In season 2, the position changes, and the effect on the two characters is the engine of their arcs.

Time-travel side effects and a note on Ramse's hands

Acevedo was asked about a shot from season 1 in which his hands were peeling. He explained that one of the side effects of going back in time is aging, if you stay for long periods, like years, and that his character spent about 30 or 40 years in the past. The effect was done with his hands, he said, and not with three hours of prosthetics on his face. It is a small detail, but it shows the production thinking about the physical cost of time travel, an idea the show keeps returning to.

Fan theories: the infected corpse and the Pallid Man

The roundtable closed with two fan theories. The first was that Cole is the infected corpse that the series has teased. Stanford said he could neither confirm nor deny it, and that he might have an idea about it but could not tell. The second was that Ramse's son Sam is the Pallid Man, the show's enigmatic villain, played by Tom Noonan. Acevedo said that was something he had tweeted about, partly because he had called the character his father, and that other people had brought it up too. He did not know whether the two were related, and said you never know with the mind of the show's creator.

The season 2 build-up around the panel

The New York session was one stop in a busy run-up. At San Diego Comic-Con that summer, the producers announced that Todd Stashwick, Emily Hampshire and Barbara Sukowa had been upped to series regulars, and that Michael Hogan, known for playing Colonel Tigh on Battlestar Galactica, would join the cast for a four-episode arc. By the time of the New York panel, season 2 was in production in Toronto, with Matalas and Fickett stepping up as showrunners.

That context explains why the roundtable questions were so focused on relationships. The show had expanded its cast and its calendar of eras, and the viewers' main worry was whether the original pairings would survive the growth. The answers from Stanford and Acevedo were reassuring in one sense, since the friendship would remain central, and honest in another, since it would stay strained.

12 Monkeys season 2 at a glance

• Network: Syfy. Season 1 premiered January 16, 2015; season 2 premiered April 18, 2016.
• Showrunners for season 2: Terry Matalas and Travis Fickett, who took over from Natalie Chaidez.
• Main cast: Aaron Stanford (Cole), Amanda Schull (Cassandra Railly), Kirk Acevedo (Ramse), Barbara Sukowa (Jones), Tom Noonan (the Pallid Man).
• Episodes: 13 in each of the first two seasons; 47 across four seasons.
• Series finale: July 6, 2018.

What the roundtable told viewers

The tone of the conversation is notable. Both actors talk about their characters as people who are connected and conflicted at once, not as pieces of a time-travel puzzle. That focus on character is what made 12 Monkeys an unusual entry in a crowded genre, a series that took a famously dark film and made its core a friendship.

For viewers waiting for April 2016, the takeaways were clear. Cole and Ramse would be allies, but not entirely on the same page, and the dynamic between them would be tested by their very different relationships to the people around them. Cassie would be harder. The mysteries around the Pallid Man and the infected corpse would stay open.

Looking back at the NYCC 2015 session today, the most useful thing it shows is the show's confidence. The actors answered questions about fate and circularity without hedging, and they treated the friendship at the center of the series as the thing the audience should care about most.

It is also worth remembering how unusual it is for a genre series to put two male leads' friendship at the center of its marketing. Most time-travel shows lead with the mechanics. This one led with a bond, and the panel's questions suggest viewers had followed it there.

Sources

• 12 Monkeys (TV series), Wikipedia — cast, season 2 details and air dates