Cate Cameron/The CW Who were The Tomorrow People when they were just people?
That is the question the CW hit series will be tackling in its all-new episode tonight as viewers will finally learn Cara's (Peyton List) "heartbreaking" past, which made her the person she is today. "You don't really get this really serious, intense girl without there being something there to explain how she got that way," List told us her character's "dark" flashback reveal, which she admits "terrified" her the first time she read the script.
During out chat with List, she teased how tonight's episode sets the tone for series moving forward, Cara's complicated relationships with Stephen (Robbie Amell) and John (Luke Mitchell) and more...
I was a little intimidated by it, and I read it again, and the more I read it, the more I was like, this is gonna be good," List explained of her immediate reaction to Cara's "heartbreaking" story, adding that episode three will set the pace for The Tomorrow People moving forward.
"We found our way of how the show was gonna go, and how our storytelling goes. Once you've gotten the chance to sort of familiarize yourself with the characters, and then start to learn about their past and learn about why they make decisions the way that they do," she explained. "What was exciting about three is that...you get the impression that our show is not really afraid of going dark. They're willing to go there, which I think is really, really cool, and it is. It's a kind of heartbreaking episode, but there is also, as we move forward, the same sort of action and expanding the world and sort of bringing in different varieties of how to use the powers and what they're used for, and you know, our Tomorrow People versus Ultra versus Stephen's life, and it's all of it, all together."
In addition to a big flashback reveal, Cara's connection to Stephen will strengthen in the hour, much to her boyfriend and Tomorrow People leader John's chagrin.
The connection is sort of something that comes along with the powers. It's a sort of emotional connection. It's not necessarily that you have chemistry with somebody, but it's like you're in tune with how they feel, and you empathize with them, and the empathies are strong because you feel it yourself. She doesn't have that with John," List teases of where the love triangle is heading. "A lot of the dynamic that John and Cara have as a couple, they have so many things in common, but they also do things maybe not based on what's best for them as a couple, but what's best for the Tomorrow People in general, what will keep them alive. When the couple is second in priority, you're going to have friction in a relationship, whereas it's very simple with Stephen. She's just connected to him, and she feels for him, and he's a very positive person in the face of all these terrible things that are happening, and John's more of a realist."
Over the course of the next two episodes, viewers can expect to see the show transition to a breakneck pace, similar to executive producers Greg Berlanti and Julie Plec's other hit shows Arrow and The Vampire Diaries. And List says The Tomorrow People won't be slowing things down anytime soon.
"We're going pretty fast. It only gets faster and faster, but I think that's exciting. It's not to a pace that will lose people," she explains. "There are moments where you could settle in, and we do seem to sort of cue in drama of other people dealing with these situations, but those are rare moments, and it's sort of nice."
The Tomorrow People airs tonight at 9 p.m. on the CW.