THE TOMORROW PEOPLE Season 1 Finale: Phil Klemmer Teases Blowing Things Up, Stephen's Darkness, Deaths, a Possible Season 2, and More - Give Me My Remote : Give Me My Remote

THE TOMORROW PEOPLE Season 1 Finale: Phil Klemmer Teases Blowing Things Up, Stephen’s Darkness, Deaths, a Possible Season 2, and More

May 5, 2014 by  

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THE TOMORROW PEOPLE’s season 1 finale is here!

For months, the cast and the creative team have teased that the final hour will be “epic” and “massive,” with “crazy cliffhangers,” and now that it is finally upon us, I chatted with THE TOMORROW PEOPLE boss Phil Klemmer about the scope of the hour, the high stakes drama, the chances for a second season, and more…

You teased the finale vaguely a couple of months ago, but now that it’s actually here, what can you say about what’s in store for the final hour of the season?
Phil Klemmer: Just from a production standpoint, it’s almost akin to our pilot, the scale of our production. And dramatically, it’s the equivalent of a neutron bomb being dropped in the center of our world. We’re totally intending on blowing things up in a way that in 2×01, we will not be returning to the way things were.

And that’s really exciting, because especially the second half of the season, so many things were tightly serialized, this movement towards a gigantic reckoning. And just forcing Stephen, who in the beginning of the season, his story was very personal and trying to figure out what was going on with him, and then it expanded to include his family. And now by the time we’ve gotten to the finale, his family is gone. It’s been a seamless transition from a coming of age story, to a kid turning into being a hero.

When you say that you’ll be blowing things up, do you mean that literally, especially now that Jedikiah seems to be having fun with his new powers?
PK: [Laughs] I will say, there’s not going to be a lot of fun for Jedikiah in the finale. I think him getting powers is going to fall under the category of being careful what you wish for. Jedikiah’s going to have a rough ride.

I think the last shot of episode 21 is going to be the last time we’ll see him smile for a long time. And it won’t be long until we see him reduced to truly heartbreaking tears.

Do the tears have to do with Jedikiah’s brother, Roger?
PK: They have to do with a guy who — I fully sympathize with everything Jedikiah has done. I think as we’ve peeled back the layers of him throughout the season, I think all of his dastardly deeds have been proven justifiable. And he’s uncompromising in how he sets out to maintain [his] principles. But I see him as a totally tragic figure. And yeah, in the finale, he’ll run out of rope.

How do Roger, the machine, and the Founder’s plans play out in the finale?
PK: Well, they will come to pass. [Laughs] It’s not a fake-out. It’s not something that’s going to be resolved before the commercial break before the finale.

In a lot of ways, the bad guys have won. The Tomorrow People are essentially fractured because the Founder is really offering them a world, all of their own. And all season we’ve seen them persecuted and hunted, and like humans and stripped of their powers. And the Mutineers, the ones who turned Roger in, clearly they’re bad for turning Stephen’s father in, but in a way, I think they’re doing what everyone would do; it’s their chance at salvation: following the Founder. And that means bad things for us humans, but that’s the way it goes.

Stephen seems very grief-stricken in the finale trailer, and often people in that mindset do reckless things. What can you tease about how he’ll be reacting to his situation?
PK: Yes! Well, I wanted to take him to a really dark place.  His mom and brother have fled, and his father is in captivity, and the Tomorrow People have turned on themselves, and so — the pilot was all about finding this secret community and finding he belonged, and there was a huge comfort in that. This is the flip side of that, where he’s been robbed of everyone who ever meant anything. And that’s a dangerous person; that’s a man with nothing left to lose. The finale is really whether he’s going to be a hero or an antihero. I think it’s much more interesting when there’s an equal case in going each direction.

And how does that impact the various emotional relationships that have formed between John, Cara, Astrid, and Stephen?
PK: All four of those people — and both of their respective species — will be looking at the abyss, they’ll be staring into oblivion. Main characters will die in the finale.

In a lot of ways, episode 22 — remember the scene in ALMOST FAMOUS when the plane is going down and everybody starts shouting out their darkest secrets of who they slept with and who is gay? — it’s kind of what the finale is like. When you’re looking down the barrel of the end of the world or the end of your life, there’s no reason to die with any secrets in your heart. Dramatically, it’s the most fun, because everybody gets to sort of come clean.

What is the scope of time for the finale? Does it take place over the couple of hours John hinted they had in that trailer?
PK: Yep. It’s definitely a total pulling out all the stops, wild ride. And I will say, at the very end of the season, we will get a brief glimpse of what the future looks like. And now that we’ve been considering season 2, there’s the chance that season 2 will pick up a good bit after that. In a lot of ways, 2×01 will be a pilot.

You’ve mentioned season 2 and the season 2 premiere a few times. As of now, are you confident the series will return next season?
PK: I do know that The CW and Mark Pedowitz — the president [of the network,] in particular — they adore this show. They have been champions of it since the pilot. We pitched [season 2] to them [last Wednesday], and they’re going to do everything they can to fight on our behalf so we can get to continue telling our story.

I do feel like we have a very devoted, but modest, audience. There are people we could still invite to the party, and the trick to doing that is to reinvent the show. It’s a really exciting challenge. All the building blocks we introduced in the pilot, we used [in season 1]. I don’t want to belabor these characters or the mythology, so that’s why getting to start over with new building blocks in season 2 — even if we weren’t on the bubble, creatively, that’s probably the best way to keep the show interesting.


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

Related:

THE TOMORROW PEOPLE: Peyton List Previews Cara’s Struggles, and the ‘Epic’ Season Finale
THE TOMORROW PEOPLE: Mark Pellegrino on Jedikiah’s Decline, Strained Relationships, and More
THE TOMORROW PEOPLE: Luke Mitchell Previews Monday’s Big Episode, John’s Decision, and More

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