THE TOMORROW PEOPLE: Mark Pellegrino Teases Jedikiah’s Complicated Relationships

THE TOMORROW PEOPLE had a considerable edge over Ultra in last week’s episode when they accidentally captured Jedikiah and had him in their underground lair. Unfortunately, for them, John’s tie to Jedikiah led to him being unable to pull the trigger — and while he was willing to let his former boss go, Jedikiah took the opportunity to capture his former protege. (Though, to be fair, he did firmly instruct that John was to be taken to Ultra alive.)

To find out what comes next, I spoke with Mark Pellegrino (Jedikiah) about the complicated relationships Jedikiah has with John, Jack, Stephen, and Morgan, and more…

What can you tease about where tonight’s episode picks up?
Mark Pellegrino: John has been captured and The Founder is looking over my shoulder. And Jedikiah gets caught between Ultra and the Tomorrow People, and they use Morgan as a bargaining chip in this Russian Roulette they’re going to play.

He seems to care about this woman, but does he care enough about her to risk everything?
MP: Well, I will leave you to be the judge of that when you see episode 9, but his feelings for Morgan are very, very deep. They’re not a lie.

And with John being captured, where do you feel he and Jedikiah stand at this moment?
MP: Well, you know, John claims to hate me, but he couldn’t kill me. I think there’s more to his feelings for me than meets the eye or that he’s consciously aware of. Even though he says I’m like a father figure to him and I’m the only father he’s known, he’s kind of disowned that. But I think he loves me. And I think I love him, too, as a son. It complicates things when he’s in the clutches of Ultra and in control of the Founder, who takes over the interrogation process and pushes me out of the picture…we’re going to have to figure something out.

John is in this situation because he was unable to bring himself to kill Jedikiah. Do you think that if push came to shove, Jedikiah would be able to kill John?
MP: You know, he had the opportunity, I think, at the club, when all the Tomorrow People had the party. I feel like he “missed” him, too. He delayed just long enough to give him a chance to escape at that stairwell. I think Jedikiah has the capacity to do something John can’t, and that’s to act for something that is bigger than his own feelings. And Jedikiah has done that all of his life, doing things for the greater good, even if it had to do with things that were not right in the moment. And I think that gives him a bit more of an edge if it were to come to push comes to shove between him and John.

Fair. The show is fairly heavily implying that Jedikiah’s brother is really alive. What do you think he’d do if the duo came face-to-face after all of these years?
MP: [Laughs] Well, if I told you, that might be giving away future episodes!

It could be a hypothetical answer!
MP: I think Jedikiah’s feelings for his brother are very deep, very profound, and very complicated. I think he loves his brother very much. I think he also envies his brother very much, and feels a great deal of shame that somehow this genetic gift passed him over. So it made a love-hate kind of dynamic within him, that makes a meeting between the two of them very interesting, that’s for sure. [Laughs] Emotionally complicated.

Jedikiah’s relationship with Stephen is also complicated, because viewers know Stephen is a double-agent, but Jedikiah is, as of now, unaware. Do you think Jedikiah trusts Stephen enough at this point to give him the truly important tasks?
MP: That’s a complicated question because Ultra is a complicated place and there are a lot of complicated dynamics.

I think I trust him insofar as he’s efficient and very capable. I also know he’s like his father: he’s going to do what he’s going to do, regardless of what kind rules I try and put on him. So he always has to be watched, he always has to be reigned in, and I always have to be suspicious of him.

But it’s suspicion tempered with paternal concern as well.

The family dynamics are complicated on this show!
MP: Very, very complicated. Very complicated. And I like that I took away his power in one episode and I slapped him with a suppression cuff. Like, you want to use your powers for stupid things like winning basketball games? You think that’s important? Try that on for size. It was a very fatherly thing to do.

Of course. Aside from the midseason finale, are there big episodes for Jedikiah coming up?
MP: I thought [last week’s episode] was pretty big. Going to the lair and having psychological warfare with the Tomorrow People. That was pretty big.

But there’s some stuff coming up, even beyond the midseason finale which is very interesting. [Laughs] We haven’t really shot it yet, but I can’t wait to see how it turns out. There are some twists and turns that I think are going to surprise people — they surprised me — about Jedikiah.

You’ve always felt that Jedikiah was a better man than some people may give him credit for — have any of these revelations changed your opinion of him and what kind of man he is?
MP: No, if anything, I think the waters are getting deeper. The more I dive into Jedikiah, the more I see…like Morgan’s character says, “You need me inside that tangly head of yours.” He’s got a lot of complications. The more I dive into him, the more I see he’s a very, very conflicted person. He’s got a lot of conflicted loyalties. And I wonder if there’s a part of him that feels like he may have thrown his hat in with the wrong crew. You know how you start something and it takes on a life of its own? I think Jedikiah is in that mode where something has taken on a life of its own and now he’s trying to negotiate that territory.

Is there any way he could change sides going forward?
MP: I don’t know. At this point they’re digging at one another. They each feel the other is out to kill them just because of who they are. So at this point, we’ve seen rather shifty alliances between the two to take care of some bad Tomorrow People, but they’d have to break down some massive barriers. And that’s why Stephen is there: he’s there to bridge the gap between these two groups. We’ll see if he’s able to do it. So far he hasn’t been able to.

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THE TOMORROW PEOPLE airs Wednesdays at 9 PM on The CW.

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