The Tomorrow People type TV Show genre Sci-fi

So far, the second half of The Tomorrow People‘s first season has been all about new enemies, more action, and even more danger. Continuing with that theme, in this week’s episode, Stephen leaves the city to go on a family camping trip, where he’s left all alone to face his mother’s new boyfriend, Peter. However, Stephen isn’t the only one at risk. Back in the city, new Ultra agent Hillary has discovered Astrid’s knowledge about Stephen’s abilities. As a result, Astrid finds herself in Ultra’s line of fire. And when John steps in to protect Stephen’s friend, he becomes the wounded victim of the week (or one of them, at least).

We caught up with John himself, Luke Mitchell, to talk about the rest of the season, a potential romance between John and Astrid, and what’s next for Julian:

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So far, the second half of the season is feeling much more confrontational and action-packed. Someone’s life is always in danger. Are you all going to continue to keep up this tone and pace moving forward?

LUKE MITCHELL: We certainly are. I just recently read 117, [and] I had to double-check the number of the episode because it read like a season finale. I was like, “I don’t know where we’re going from here.” It felt like a season finale. It was so epic. We just seem to keep upping the stakes every episode.

This week, Stephen heads out on a family camping trip, and John finds himself protecting Astrid. In the promo, we see John get shot, so how worried should I be about this gunshot wound?

You should be pretty worried. Stephen is really concerned about his mom’s new boyfriend, and the boyfriend’s taking them all on a camping trip, so he feels like he has to be there to protect his family. In the same token, he’s really concerned about Astrid. And so I say, “Hey I’ll keep an eye on Astrid, you look after your family.” At the end of the last episode, we see that Hillary, Stephen’s new frenemy at Ultra, has seen that Astrid is privy to the fact that Stephen’s a Tomorrow Person, and so basically Astrid becomes a target for Ultra essentially. It’s kind of fun to play out because Astrid and John are so different, from completely different worlds. They have a really interesting almost introduction scene. They’ve met before but not properly. And then Astrid’s on the verge of being killed and John comes in and tries to save her and is literally shot. They have quite a few scenes together where Astrid has to try and help John because John can’t teleport because he’s too weak, so we delve into that.

Am I going to start shipping Astrid and John?

I don’t know. [Laughs] You may. I feel like a lot of fans do kind of want something to happen there, and what I’d say to those people is, they won’t be disappointed by this episode. There are quite a few scenes with John and Astrid together. The characters don’t know each other all that well but they’re forced into a situation where they have to get to know each other pretty quickly to work together, otherwise they’re both going to die. That’s just the circumstances. I think people are going to like that storyline and the interactions that they have.

One of the things Phil Klemmer mentioned when I spoke with him is the idea of an upcoming friendship between Stephen and John. Is this episode the start of that?

Yeah, in a sense it is, because John goes out on a limb to help Stephen and to protect his friend. That’s a first sign that things are improving between them I guess. But it opens up a lot more in 113 due to various circumstances, which I can’t talk about, but something happens in 113 and then Stephen makes a decision that helps things along. In this episode, this is like John reaching out to patch things up between them, and then Stephen extends his hand very soon. I don’t think they’re ever going to be best friends, but they definitely get to a point where they’re not yelling at each other or fighting each other all the time.

Does their friendship further complicate the love triangle, or do you feel like it simplifies it?

I think it’s probably pretty weird for Cara. [Laughs] But I feel like the storyline moves a little bit further away from the love triangle. It’s always there, it’s always hinted at and felt through the tone of the story, but there’s lots of deaths at stake, and so that’s where the focus shifts later in the series.

Speaking of which, we know that Julian is still out there. How big of a threat is he going to be down the line?

The fact that Julian is still out there definitely poses a huge threat. I don’t know how much I can say about that, but yes, if you thought Julian was a big threat in this episode, then you haven’t seen anything yet.

The Tomorrow People airs tonight at 9 p.m. on The CW.