Cloak & Dagger Season 2 will be Mayhem.

When Detective Brigid O'Reilly clawed her way out of a swamp with superhuman speed and yellow eyes in the Season 1 finale, the show promised the rise of a new anti-hero. During a set visit attended by CBR, showrunner Joe Pokaski and star Emma Lahana offered a preview of what's the come when O'Reilly and her deadly alter-ego resurface on the show.

The character is "definitely grounded emotionally, but there are some irresistible elements in Mayhem we couldn't help but check out. I mean, even when you look at the first shot of Emma [Lahana] in the first season, we're on her fingernails, and fingernails are going to be a big deal and we had a lot of fun kind of working it out with Emma as to how her fingernails reflected what kind of mood she was in," Pokaski teased.

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"We always want our villains relatable. Again, I really liked what they did with Killmonger. I think Marvel villains, in a lot of interesting ways, are great because they're identifiable at certain points," he explained. "At certain points, I thought Michael B. Jordan did such a great job and I was like, 'He's right! He's right. You should listen to him.' We want to keep our villains as human beings as well. I think it just makes it more interesting, and then the arguments feel real instead of, 'Let's destroy the city' vs. 'Let's not destroy the city.'"

"In general, what we try to do is make sure we're leaning into the strengths of the story we're telling. We're leaning into the strengths of the actors we have. I cannot speak highly enough about what Emma Lahana can do," he said of the Mayhem actor. "I'm just -- every time -- the same can be told with, you know, Aubrey [Joseph], Olivia [Holt] and Gloria [Reuben], but every time we say, 'Now we're going to kill your boyfriend in a fridge and you're going to freak out and cry and not talk the whole episode and then get beat up and we're struggling to root for you,' she does it, so I think all I can say is that we've got high hopes for Mayhem and we keep setting these crazy bars and she keeps leaping over them. A lot of the things that the Mayhem character does are going to surprise the crap out of you."

NEXT PAGE: Expect the Unexpected When It Comes to Mayhem

Lahana herself dove a bit deeper into the complexity of playing Brigid after Detective Connors shot her in the Season 1 finale. "Obviously, we've seen that Brigid has gone through a bit of a rough time in Season 1, so we kind of pick up with Brigid where we left off and she's now a shooting victim," she explained. "A lot of the time, I don't think of that, because she's a highly trained detective, but at the end of the day, she's a shooting victim, so now she's dealing with PTSD."

"She's not really coping with it the best way. She's using pills. She's very shaky and jumpy, which doesn't make for a very effective cop," she continued. "So she's kind of got that going on, and then she's kind of got this duality as well and this kind of darker side that she can't really ignore anymore that's maybe taking over certain aspects of her life."

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Of course, "she's not always totally 'let's play 100% by the books,' because she understands that the system is corrupt and that you're not necessarily going to get justice if you do that, but she still likes to try and do things the right way as per the book. Now she's challenged on another side: 'Is that the way to get justice?' And it kind of poses this interesting question as well of 'Where do you draw the line of what is right and what is just?'" she mused. "And if you go, 'Hey, that's a bad guy, you do deserve to die' -- like, who gets to decide that? And then do you think about the consequences afterwards? Do you think about how the ripple effect of that? So it kind of poses that question, I think, if we're talking about vigilante action."

Asked if she is playing Mayhem as a villain, she added, "I think that it would be your definition of villain. When you're talking about the vigilante aspect and where your line lays on what you think is justified, which I think is an interesting take. It's like, you know, Black Panther... Killmonger was so interesting, because you're like, 'I understand what you're doing and I'm kind of glad you're there doing it because I wouldn't do it.' But then again, you have to think of the ripple effect and everything else and is it fair and is it justified and, like, maybe that's why regular humans shouldn't be involved in the law like that, because our emotions get involved and that's not necessarily a good thing."

"We were very, very careful... and wanted to make sure there was nothing that was really hokey and over the top. You know, everything still needs to be grounded and your intention needs to be real or it's just kind of lame," she said. "So we were very careful in making sure things don't go over the top and are completely unbelievable because if it's grounded, again, I think it's just more entertaining to watch. It's more interesting. It's easy to be invested. It's also, I think, easier to hold your attention."

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As such, don't expect Mayhem's story to follow her comic book origin to the letter. Lahana promises there are some surprises in store. "There's always like little hints as well, things that aren't necessarily going to be really in in-your-face about it because, you know, it is a comic that is old and we're bringing it into 2019," she explained. "So there's definitely nods to it. Yeah, there is. You will see things in the show that you've read in the comics."

"I think [fans] are going to be watching it and they're going to be like, 'Oh! Okay. Oh, okay. Oooh, okay.' Like it's going to keep twisting and turning into what they don't expect," she teased. "Where we're going to lead them to think things are going, then we're going to shift this way and turn that way and just like mess with you all."

NEXT PAGE: How O'Reilly's Evolution Affects Ty & Tandy

Cloak and Dagger

Brigid's evolution will also impact her relationship with Tandy Bowen and Ty Johnson, the series protagonists. "Through Season 1, we saw that Brigid takes Tyrone under her wing and she's obviously kind of the only person on his side in the police system and she understands that what he's talking about is true and that it is something that happens," Lahana said. "But now Brigid is in a much different place. She's a lot more vulnerable. She's not really in a position necessarily to take that role on anymore, so in a way you kind of see the roles reverse."

"For Brigid, it's really frustrating, because she wants to be the protector type," she shared. "She wants to be the person that is there for the people aren't being seen or heard and the most vulnerable and when she's kind of in a position where she's become that, it's frustrating. It's like all of the rage kind of went out of her and went somewhere else and it's kind of something that she needs to function but it's missing from her right now."

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"And then with Tandy... you know the duality when we were talking about Brigid with the lightness and the darkness, which one is Tandy more drawn to?" she added.

"Because of what happened in episode 10, which they keep telling me about -- something called Mayhem or something like that -- you know, Brigid is a little kind of freaked out and she kind of loses her intensity as Brigid," agreed Aubrey Joseph, who plays Tyrone. "We kind of see Tyrone go from this kid who was, you know, kind of backseat to Tandy sometimes because she has a strong personality and he's so shy and just really cares for other people. He kind of takes on this role of a protector and really has to man up and mature and kind of protect O'Reilly and Tandy. So it's going to be cool to see that relationship with O'Reilly, the roles reversing with them."


Returning April 4 on Freeform, Cloak & Dagger stars Olivia Holt as Tandy Bowen/Dagger and Aubrey Joseph as Tyrone Johnson/Cloak, as well as Emma Lahana as Brigid O'Reilly/Mayhem, Andrea Roth as Tandy’s mother Melissa Bowen, Gloria Reuben as Tyrone’s mother Adina Johnson, Miles Mussenden as Tyrone’s father Michael Johnson, Carl Lundstedt as Liam, James Saito as Dr. Bernard Sanjo and J.D. Evermore as Detective Connors.