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[Warning: The below contains spoilers from The Ark Season 2 Premiere.]
With Proxima B turned to fiery dust, the question leading into Season 2 of The Ark was who of our planetary heroes were left aboard a severely damaged Ark One. Along with now Captain Sharon Garnet (Christie Burke), Lt. Spencer Lane (Reece Ritchie), Lt. James Brice (Richard Fleeshman), and Alicia Nevins (Stacey Read), there were others who managed to survive the blast. Among them were Brice’s main squeeze Eva Markovi (Tiana Upcheva), and Felix Strickland.
Sadly, for William Trust (Paul Murray) and the team Dr. Cat Brandice (Christina Wolfe) was not so lucky. It was seemingly dire for Dr. Sanjivni Kabir (Shalini Peiris), who was saved by Kelly Fowler (Samantha Glassner) of all people. The murderous daughter of Evelyn Maddox (Jelena Stupljanin), who by the way, has a plastic-gel (explosive) failsafe inside her body, implanted by her own mother.
Things also looked fatal for Angus Medford (Ryan Adams) until a last-ditch effort was made where Fowler gave some of her blood to save him. The transfusion seemingly worked, but given Medford’s state, it may come with some possible side effects and ramifications. We caught up with Read and Adams to talk about their fan-favorite couple and what’s next.
Aleksandar Letic/Ark TV Holdings, Inc./SYFY)
At what point did you feel there would be a romantic interest between your characters?
Stacey Read: Honestly, when I auditioned role.
Ryan Adams: Okay! Okay!
Stacey: No, not like that. I remember reading the script and seeing their interaction. I thought, “I wonder if there is anything between these two characters.”
Ryan: The fans saw it as well early on in Season 1. I think definitely at the end of Season 1 when they have that scene on the stairs of the observation deck. It was like, “Okay, I think they will try to make a go for this.”
There is playfulness and innocence in their journey early on, but we see them coming of age through having to go through this harrowing experience together.
Ryan: We felt connected when we first met in Season 1. This was our first good go at acting. We were sort of on each other’s teams from the very beginning. We had each other through that whole shooting experience. Same with this season. We just carry it on. I’m very comfortable being in scenes with Stacey. I don’t know. Do you agree, Stacey?
Stacey: No, I hate you [laughs]. No, I agree. I think we can find parallels between ourselves and our characters. They are young and this is all new to them. For us, we’re still pretty young. This is a new job for us. So we leaned into those parallels and that comfort with each other. We support each other. It has been lovely doing scenes with him.
Ryan, was there any worry you weren’t going to survive? I mean [showrunners] Dean Devlin and Jonathan Glassner have been shown they’re not above killing off characters.
Ryan: No clue, mate. When I got that first episode through I did not know how long I would last. Reading the script for the first episode I thought, “Am I going to make it to the end here?” Then when you read the directions and describe the state Angus was in, it’s really bad. He is in bad shape. It’s not something the average person survives, especially a kid of his size. Literally, he only survives because of Kelly’s blood. We’ll see how long he lasts.
What can you tease about what the blood does to him? There seems to be a change in mentality. Angus without glasses brings a different vibe.
Ryan: It was almost like playing a different character at different times this season. I think that’s good because it means we’re doing our job right. It shows the character is progressing and growing up. Let’s not forget he is very young. When you are that age, you change a lot very quickly. Obviously, he is going through a lot more than the average kid would. Yeah, it was nice to see a different Angus this season. To the point, I’d have scenes with other actors, and they’d be like, “Who is this guy? Are you playing someone else right now?” The last time they may have had a scene with me was way early on in Season 1. It was really cool.
Aleksandar Letic/Ark TV Holdings, Inc./SYFY)
Stacey, how was it for you to see Alicia grow in confidence? She is also willing to do whatever it takes to protect Angus.
Stacey: I really loved that. We’ve already had some character growth in Season 1. So now it’s about what my character can find this season in herself. How can she grow more? It was nice discovering these new bits to Alicia. She is becoming more confident and mature, She is standing up for herself and the people she cares about more. That was nice to do.
With this almost new Angus, is there still more from this love triangle between Alicia and Kelly? I mean Kelly did in fact save his life.
Ryan: We had that love triangle a bit in Season 1. All I’ll say in terms of the blood is there is a part of Kelly living inside Angus now. That does something to someone. Having your worst enemy’s blood running through your veins. I play with the imagery of trying to get out of your own skin. I’ll leave it at that.
We’ve seen some new characters coming to the forefront between Ark 15 and Ark One. What can you tease about the dynamic of the crew with these latest developments as they work to find a new place to colonize?
Stacey: It was really good having new people come in. Not only on the show but the cast as well. In the first season, you form all these relationships. You pretty much become a family unit, so having new people come into that. That leads to the question of are you going to become part of the family or do I have to keep my eye on you. It’s interesting to see how they navigate that.
What are you looking forward to viewers seeing as the season unfolds? I’m hoping we get even more backstory from yours and other characters on what they were like before they went on this crazy adventure.
Ryan: For sure! Absolutely. One thing this season does very well is flesh these characters out a lot more. It makes you care about them a lot more so when the really bad stuff happens, it really does feel like a dagger to the heart or a glass shard to the heart maybe. I don’t know, but that’s all I’ll say on that.
Stacey: There are interesting stories that happen on our adventures. There were some episodes we did where I was like, “Oh wow. This is so cool. It’s so sci-fi.” I’m excited for fans to see that. Also, the character growth and relationships this season will be fun.
The Ark, Wednesdays, 10/9c, Syfy