‘The Head’: John Lynch, Katharine O’Donnelly and Moe Dunford Tease Details of Season 2 (Exclusive)

The Head premiered on HBO Max in February 2021 and was met with very good reviews. Now, the series is back for Season 2 and will provide fans with the same suspense and drama as Season 1. PopCulture.com spoke to The Head stars John Lynch, Katharine O’Donnelly and Moe Dunford, who teased what to expect from the series produced by The Mediapro Studio.

“It’s very different in feel and energy, but season one is more like a chamber piece in that it took place in a very contained situation and consisted of a lot of flashbacks,” Lynch exclusively told PopCulture. “It relied on the narrative of two of the protagonists, Maggie and Arthur. There were three truths really. There was Maggie’s truth, Arthur’s truth, and the truth itself. And that was what season one hinged on. Season 2 was twice the size of the cast. It has a huge cargo ship that’s in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the Pacific. And it’s a real-time action thriller in that it moves in real-time, as much real-time as you can have in a series. But it doesn’t rely as heavily on flashbacks. So, things are happening as they unfold and I suppose it’s much more savage and much more energetic because of that. I think that’s the main difference.”

At the end of the first season, it was discovered that Maggie (O’Donnelly) was the killer as she was getting revenge for what happened to her mother on Polaris V. But Arthur was accused of being the killer since he killed Maggie’s mother by mistake. Based on the trailer, Arthur is out of custody and working on a cargo ship in the ocean. And that can’t sit well with Maggie. 

“We meet a more honest version of who she actually is because she’s this very innocent posture,” O’Donnelly said about Maggie in Season 2. “But in Season 1 she has this very succinct plan and at the beginning of Season 2 it unravels. And I feel like that brings in a new energy to her. She’s not in control anymore.”

Maggie’s reveal at the end of Season 1 makes things interesting for Arthur. He was looked at as the main villain of the first season, so does that mean he’s now one of the good guys? “I think it’s important that after everything that’s happened in season one, I don’t think Arthur will ever be a good guy,” Lynch said. “I think he’s a manifestation of a lot of things that can happen and can go skew-whiff in the male ego. I think he’s a very twisted, ego-driven, brilliant guy, but I think he’s not 100 percent redeemable, but certainly by the end of one he is broken. That has been shattered. And I think a man like Arthur, his sense of self-worth rests on his reputation. And by then, by the end of one, even his reputation has gone. He’s considered guilty of these heinous crimes, he’s taken to prison, he spends a year in prison on remand, he’s broken, he’s shattered, he reassembles himself.”

Lynch and O’Donnelly are the only actors who were in the first season. Season 2 has a new set of characters, including Alec Kurtz (Dunford) who has been put in charge of the mission at sea. “But Alec, I suppose, only knows Arthur from what he’s heard about from Season 1,” Dunford said. “And he’s trusting Arthur, he’s giving him the benefit of the doubt, that here’s a man who was being changed by his experience in prison. And even with Arthur’s daughter Rachel, he confides in Rachel and he believes that there’s something to be forgiven or believed in Arthur.”

One big thing that makes The Head stand out is the diversity of the cast. “One weird thing that I do really love is I think every character at some point gets to speak in their native language,” O’Donnelly said. “And I think that means there’s 10 languages in the show, especially if a character’s on their own, they’re going to speak to themself in their own language. So, it’s just a wee thing about the show which I think is really special.” All six episodes of The Head Season 2 are now streaming on HBO Max.