The purported savior of the Tomorrow People, Roger Price, is back in the new episode of the series set to air at 9PM tonight (April 21) on The CW. The episode is called “A Sort Of Homecoming,” and to promote it, we spoke with Jeffrey Pierce, the man who plays Roger Price, who also happens to be the uncle of Stephen Jameson (Robbie Amell) and brother to Jedikiah (Mark Pellegrino).
What does Mr. Pierce have to say about Mr. Price? Read on…
KSITETV’s CRAIG BYRNE: It’s no secret that in this week’s episode, Roger wakes up. How does it feel to play a Roger who is not part of a flashback or in a freezing tank?
JEFFREY PIERCE: It’s nice to be about of the freezing tank, without a doubt.
It’s great. They get me up and running very quickly, which is nice. It’s such a great bunch. It was a lot of fun. We had a great time, always, even when I was just in the freezing tank, but to be up and playing with those guys, running around playing superheroes, was a lot of fun.
Speaking of getting up pretty quickly, Roger fights really soon after surgery. How is that possible?
There’s a time lapse at the beginning. About a week has passed between the time that they brought him back and into consciousness. And, he’s really good at what he does. The skills have stayed sharp.
Where is Jedikiah when Roger comes to?
There are a lot of things going on between those two brothers that are unresolved. When they set John up to shoot Roger, there was a lot of chaos still going on between Roger and Jedikiah in terms of what ULTRA had become, and their individual complicity in that venture. They both saw Roger’s fake death as the one opportunity to escape the Founder and to subvert his plans. But that doesn’t resolve the things that happened at ULTRA that the two of them did not agree about, and Jedikiah’s complicity in a lot of really dark things that seemed like – I think to Jedikiah – he was doing for the greater good, but to Roger were absolutely unacceptable. So there are a lot of unresolved issues between the two of them. There’s a lot of love there, but there’s still a lot of conflict, and for Jedikiah, all of that guilt comes back with Roger being conscious again. It’s all real to him again. So, him being able to confront that, I think that’s why Jedikiah flees.
Luka has a particular reaction to Roger’s return. Can you talk about that?
Well, Luka was essentially, without any explanation, abandoned, and has not been reached out to and communicated with the way that Stephen has. I think to me, the younger of the two, and to suffer that abandonment and take it personally, I think a lot of people would respond the same way to a father who just sort of wandered back in out of the blue, regardless of why he did it. The greater good, for a kid whose parents have walked away from them in some way, shape, or form, the pain of that is going to trump a sense that the father might have done it for a greater thing, at least initially. So I think it is harder for Luka than it is for Stephen, who has been in contact and in communication with Roger.
Is Roger prepared to be the savior that the Tomorrow People expect him to be?
I think that the buildup to anyone who has been proposed as a sort of messianic figure, the reality of a person who has been built into that, it’s impossible to live up to that. There is a flaw to anyone who’s willing to take those responsibilities on their shoulders. There has to be some hubris to say, “You know what? I’m the person to save the world.” So, I think Roger is aware that he is not going to be able to live up to that, but he’s hopeful that he’ll be able to do the right thing, given the opportunity.
It’s tough to be the person with the weight of the world on your shoulders, because none of us are perfect. I’m glad that Phil [Klemmer] has created a world where none of his characters are perfect.
There’s some conflict between Cara and Roger. Can you talk about that?
She’s in a position of power that is not colored by a past relationship with Roger. They never knew each other. She broke out after he was already gone, when John was running the show. So, her connection to him is not personal – it’s strictly business – and the idea, I think, for her, that he’s going to take off and essentially walk away from what she thinks his primary responsibility is, which is to his surrogate family, the Tomorrow People, the children that are in the lair, is something that she has a real hard time with.
I think Roger is torn and conflicted by it too, but his responsibility to Marla and to Stephen and to Luka, for him, trumps that. But I understand where she is coming from. Rules exist for a reason, to try to protect all of them, and if Roger goes off and gets himself killed, what good is he to the Tomorrow People?
How does John react to Roger’s return?
It’s painful for John. Jedikiah and Roger were, I don’t think evil, but they were certainly tactical and clinical in their decision to make John the fall guy for murder. I think that Roger’s choice was “I can kill myself, or I can find a way to make the Founder think that I’m gone for good, and that takes me out of the crosshairs in terms of being put into the Machine and arming it.” The choices that Roger and Jedikiah made were not necessarily the ones that guys in white hats would wear, and I think that they both feel a lot of guilt about that.
John was convinced that he was a murderer for a long time, and I think that he tore himself apart inside about allowing himself to become that. Roger is a direct result and cause of this torment that John has gone through.
Can you talk about the Founder’s Machine and how that might affect Roger in his return?
I think that in many ways, the final three episodes are about transformation for all of the characters. I think that there’s a running theme. That machine is geared towards an attempt to transform the entire world in one fell swoop. And as each of the characters in the show, including Roger, face these moments of transformation, they all respond in different ways. I think the great thing about this run in a mythical level is the idea that in order to go forward, you have to change, and every single character has a massive shift in between now and the end of the season.
Do you have more to say about the final episodes of the season and a potential Season 2?
I think anybody who watches 20, 21, and 22 is going to be blown away. It is a phenomenal transformation of the show, and it puts it into a place that there are really no bounds for what can happen in Season 2. So, I would say don’t DVR it, watch all three of them live, and hopefully that will be all the energy we need to get picked up for another round.
Don’t miss The Tomorrow People at 9PM Monday, April 21 on The CW. You can read more about the series and see promo images for the episode here.
