According to Entertainment Weekly, Madeleine Stowe is heading back to the world of 12 Monkeys. Stowe, who originally played Dr. Railly in the 1995 movie that the Syfy series is based on, will guest-star in the show’s second season finale later this year. Obviously, she isn’t pulling a Sarah Michelle Gellar here—Amanda Schull has already been busy playing her original role throughout the show’s first season. Instead, Stowe will be switching gears entirely, playing Lillian, a 1950s mental asylum patient, instead of the always level-headed doctor. “It’s her switching roles from what she did in the film,” 12 Monkeys executive producer Terry Matalas said. “Madeleine has always been really supportive of the show ever since she saw the pilot,” Matalas added. “We always knew we wanted her to be involved in the show, but if we had the right role and if it was something profound and meaningful to our characters and mythology.”
Even though Stowe won’t appear until the season finale, her voice will be featured on the show much earlier: She’ll narrate the opening montage of the second season premiere. “She’s the one telling the story about how the world ends,” Matalas explained. “The season finale opens very much like our season opener does with the story of the end of the world, only now we’ll understand it all and she will play a part.” Lillian will have a major influence on Cole’s (Aaron Stanford) journey this season. “When Cole meets her, he’s in a very different place in his life than we’ve ever seen him. She’s going to deliver some very bad news, but she’s also going to give him some sage advice that our time traveler will desperately need,” Matalas told EW. “She’s like 12 Monkeys’ Obi-Wan Kenobi, but far more insidious.”
An evil Obi-Wan Kenobi sounds right up Stowe’s alley—most recently, she played the very evil, sabotage-loving Queen Victoria Grayson of the Hamptons on ABC’s Revenge, which ended last year. 12 Monkeys returns to Syfy—and Stowe’s booming voice returns to television—on Monday, April 18.