In the four seasons of Syfy’s “12 Monkeys,” the heroes at the center of the series faced off against all sorts of different time-traveling baddies. In Season 3, Waddingham portrayed a character named Magdalena, one of the more memorable antagonists confronted by James Cole (Aaron Stanford) and Dr. Cassandra “Cassie” Railly (Amanda Schull) (via IMDb).
In Season 3, Episode 1 (“Mother”), Magdalena is introduced as an emissary of the Witness, a mythical character in “12 Monkeys” lore who is prophesied to freeze time in place and is believed to be the child of James and Cassie. In her first episode, Magdalena recaps her life story to a pregnant Cassie, explaining that she has lived her entire life for the opportunity to raise the Witness to adulthood. In response, Cassie promises to keep her child away from the religious zealot at all costs, even going so far as to attempt suicide in order to prevent the prophecy from coming true.
To prevent harm to the Witness, Magdalena simply travels back in time and warns her past self of the coming danger. In order to preserve the integrity of the timeline, however, Magdalena is forced to incinerate herself with her time-travel suit after each use. Each time she does this, the past version of the character bids her farewell by saying, “Thank you for your sacrifice.” In Season 3, Episode 7 (“Nurture”), Cassie unexpectedly triggers the incineration feature of Magdalena’s time travel suit, killing the only living version of the character.
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
