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Angus lives! The Ark’s Ryan Adams on His "Different," Darker Look in Season 2 [Exclusive]
You’re not just imagining it: Dancing with death has definitely added a new layer of cool to Angus’ whole geeky vibe.
Of all the characters on The Ark, no one embodies unabashed science fiction nerdiness in quite the same way as the hit SYFY show’s resident cute geeky couple. Ark One engineer Alicia Nevins (Stacey Read) and bashful green thumb Angus Medford (Ryan Adams) struck up the most endearingly awkward crew-member courtship last season… but alas, fate had to rudely intervene and threaten their entire spacefaring savior vessel with some devious schemes of its own.
As we’re rapidly learning early in The Ark’s second season, dancing with death seems to have taken an interesting toll on Angus especially. Impaled by glass and nearly killed in the bonkers explosion that wracked the Ark One at the end of last season, Angus begins to get his bearings in this week’s new episode, “Kill or be Killed” — and of course Alicia (who escaped the big blast unharmed) is right there by his side.
For more on The Ark:
What's Next on SYFY's The Ark? Christie Burke & Stacey Read Tease Season 2 Twists (EXCLUSIVE)
The Ark Creators on Why the Season 2 Premiere Killed Off *That* Critical Season 1 Character
The Ark's Christie Burke on Season 2's New Missions: "You Think You Know Garnet?"
The Ark's Ryan Adams on why Season 2 "can go a bit darker"
Though his screen time is poised to ramp up with next week’s third episode, we’ve already seen enough of Angus this season to know that something about him seems just a little bit… different. Maybe it’s that wild new mop of unkempt hair, or maybe it’s just that he’s far less high-strung than the youthfully nervous nerd who played it safe, down in the bowels of his plant-raising playground, all throughout Season 1.
And no, we’re positive that we're not just imaging it. “100 percent. Yeah. I felt like sometimes, coming back to do Season 2… like I was portraying a different character sometimes,” Adams recently shared with SYFY WIRE, noting how the whole near-death experience has affected his eminently likable good-guy character.
“He is very different,” Adams continued. “But then, you look at what he’s been through, and you think, ‘Oh, well of course he’s different. He’s just had two shards of glass nearly take him out forever!’ He was nearly so close to death — and who knows what that does to anyone, but let alone a kid, right? … I think it's good that I felt different playing Angus this season, because it's all about growth, and all about having a character arc.”
As upcoming episodes are sure to reveal, there’s a fresh sense of urgency in Season 2 of The Ark, as Captain Sharon Garnet (Christie Burke) and the rest of the crew have to think on the fly to escape the perils that lurk both inside and outside their ship.
“I feel like this season can go a bit darker than Season 1,” Adams teased. “And also, this season literally takes place, from beginning to end, I’m pretty sure, over two or three weeks or something like that. …You can expect to go through a bunch of life or death situations in a much shorter amount of time. And a lot of the time, these characters — I know for Angus — he thought all hope was lost; he thought he was going to die… [So] it’s all about regaining that hope, and focusing on why they're really doing it. It’s not just for them; it’s to rebuild humanity.”
Angus probably wouldn’t be alive without an unwelcome assist from the devious Kelly Fowler (Samantha Glassner), a complicated stowaway from the sinister Ark 15 sister ship. Kelly’s fresh off a criminal trial in this week's episode, after racking up a dastardly rap sheet — a list of offenses that includes not only multiple murders, but even the attempted murder of Angus himself.
But, in a recent neat story twist, it’s Kelly’s nanite-infused super-blood that delivers last-minute salvation to Angus while he's splayed out unconscious on the operating table. Once Angus wakens, he understandably feels conflicted, and just a little bit icky, knowing that there’s a permanent piece of Kelly pulsing through his every heartbeat.
After everything he’s been through, “I think you’d be naive to think, ‘Oh, Angus is back — and he’s the same guy!’” explained Adams. “I did want to change him, and I did want to push [the character] … I remember emailing in and just saying, ‘Can we do something else with [his] hair? Can we mess it up a bit more and make it more wild to reflect his mental state?’ — and they loved that idea. So I tried a lot of things to spice him up and just make him ‘older!’”
Will things ever seem normal again for Angus and Alicia, now that he's alive and thriving on the blood of the couple's worst nightmare? Even equipped with his newly-matured outlook, Angus might have yet more growing up left to do as Kelly's powers begin to manifest in strange new ways aboard the Ark One.
Catch new Season 2 episodes of The Ark on SYFY each Wednesday at 10/9c, and stream Season 1 on Peacock here.
