Kyle XY Returns with Big Answers, and More Questions

In the first season of ABC Family's Kyle XY, the question was, "Who is Kyle?" When the second season debuts on June 11, we find out — but the answer only deepens the show's mystery. Viewers may be befuddled, but producers promise they're not jerking us around.

"We wanted to make sure we didn't dangle unanswerable questions for too long," says writer and producer Julie Plec. "Everything's been leading up to [what] we learn in the first episode of the second season, and explaining precisely who Kyle XY is and where he came from."

Last summer we met Kyle (Matt Dallas), the weird, wide-eyed teen who awoke in the forest buck naked and covered in pink goo, with no memory and no navel. After Kyle was taken to a juvenile hall, Nicole Trager (Marguerite MacIntyre), the psychologist assigned to his case, brought him home to her family, who were baffled by Kyle's peculiar behavior. At first he barely spoke, had no concept of time and no understanding of feelings like hunger and thirst. What he did have was an encyclopedic brain, an instant aptitude for foreign languages, and superhuman athletic ability.

This season Kyle "will continue to physically develop," Plec says. "Last year when he tried to use his superhearing, it actually [gave him] a seizure. A lot of this season will be about him trying to figure out how he can expand his abilities without causing physical damage."

There are also threats to Kyle's adopted family. "We bring the danger and mystery of Kyle through the front door of the Tragers' house," says the 24-year-old Dallas, taking a break in the late-spring sunshine on the show's Vancouver set. Dallas, dressed entirely in burglar black, just finished a scene in which he breaks into the offices of a sinister secret organization to find out who's been stalking him. "Everybody gets caught up in it, and we start to see the relationships and dynamics of the family really be affected by these people who are after Kyle. Stories get heavier, plots get thicker, relationships strengthen. [But] he still has that Kyle-ism about him. The world is still new to him."

Also new to him is Jessi XX, who appears much the way Kyle did — naked, goo-covered, but with a not-so-friendly mission. Jaimie Alexander, 23, who plays Jessi, can't reveal much, but does confirm, "I'm definitely going to be shaking things up. Jessi is the dark cloud hanging over the show, but in a good way."

Jessi shares some of the same unearthly powers and features of her XY counterpart, including no navel, and Alexander says she's more than happy to bare her belly to curious fans. "If that makes people smile, I'll do it."

Even on ABC Family, XX sells.

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