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Perception Season 2: Will Kate's Ex-Husband Come Between Her and Daniel?

The relationship between Perception's professor Daniel Pearce (Eric McCormack) and special agent Kate Moretti (Rachael Leigh Cook) is already complicated. So what happens when you add Kate's ex-husband into the mix?

robyn-ross.jpg
Robyn Ross

The relationship between Perception's professor Daniel Pearce (Eric McCormack) and special agent Kate Moretti (Rachael Leigh Cook) is already complicated. So what happens when you add Kate's ex-husband into the mix?
Returning summer shows: Where we left off

You get a very odd love triangle. During the show's freshman season, it became evident that Daniel, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, had some feelings for Kate — and that she perhaps felt the same way. Other than a kiss during one of Daniel's hallucinations, the two never actually addressed the romantic side of the relationship. When Season 2 begins (Tues, 10pm, TNT), however, Daniel will have his own burgeoning relationship, while Kate will be shocked to find that her ex Donnie Ryan (Scott Wolf) has transferred to her Chicago office.
Regardless, the connection between the two will come to the forefront in a very Daniel-like way.  "There's a really cool episode where Daniel says to Kate, 'Hey, I think you've got a thing for me and I can't really deal with that,'" Cook told TVGuide.com at the ATX Austin Television Festival. "He doesn't really say if he feels anything for her, and she's so shocked by the whole thing that she sort of says, 'What? Who the hell do you think you are? You don't know me!' So it stirs up a lot of trouble and Donnie also [contributes] a lot to that stirring." Adds newcomer Wolf: "At a certain point it occurs to Donnie that [Daniel and Kate] have pretty strong feelings towards each other and that he might be in the way of things."

First Look: Perception's Freudian slip

As for Kate and Donnie's relationship, it will be as contentious as Kate led on — and viewers will pick up on it right away. But underneath all the hatred, is Donnie really bad of a guy?  "Playing a character who is a little ambiguous in terms of being a good guy or not, where the audience has to work it out for themselves, is fun," Wolf said. "There's definitely an evolution ... and there are moments of redemption, but it takes a long time. I get kicked around quite a bit."

Wolf, who's best known for playing the responsible Salinger brother on Party of Five, welcomes the opportunity to portray a character who's not always the nice guy. "If you put someone in there who gives off di--ish energy all the time, it's like we know who that is," he says. "[With Donnie], over the course of the season you start to see different sides of him and maybe by the end you won't think he's a di--."

Perception returns on Tuesday at 10/9c on TNT.