“The Irrational” Season 2 premiere wasted no time addressing the massive cliffhanger from its first season finale earlier this year, launching into an eventful installment that explored revenge.
Tuesday’s hour, titled “Collateral Damage,” picked up with Alec Mercer (Jesse L. Martin) leading the investigation into the disappearance of his new girlfriend Rose (Karen David). The crisis PR agent — and undercover British intelligence agent — was kidnapped in the final moments of the Season 1 premiere. It didn’t take long for Alec to notice Rose’s absence was out of the ordinary and enlist the FBI’s help to track her down.
When the investigation pointed them to an associate of one of Rose’s old cases seeking revenge, Alec found a way to get his attention and got himself kidnapped too, to reunite with Rose and save her.
“You always want to kick off [the season] with something exciting and get everybody super invested,” series creator Arika Mittman told TheWrap. “We wanted the premiere to feel like a rocket out of the gate… and we all really wanted to do an episode about revenge.”
The hour certainly served as a high-stakes reintroduction to the world of Alec Mercer, professor of behavioral psychology and FBI consultant helping solve crimes by analyzing human irrationality. Though he was not able to convince the kidnapper to let go of his revenge mission — as the show repeatedly pointed out it being nearly impossible to achieve — Alec was able to sway him off the plans enough to give police time to find him and Rose. After being rescued, Alec hoped to help Rose through processing the trauma of her kidnapping.
Rose, claiming she’s been numbed to trauma through her work undercover, chose to pack her bags and move on to her next mission. Mittman said that there’s “a lot more of Rose” on the way to build on her new relationship with Alec, as the professor also navigates his dynamic with sister Kylie (Travina Springer) and his blossoming friendship with ex-wife and FBI agent Marisa Clark (Maahra Hil).
“Rose will not be gone for long,” Mittman said. “I really like the idea of telling these really adult relationship stories, like ‘How can you be friends with your ex? How do you start a new relationship when you’ve just gotten out of a 15-year one.’”
Season 2 also opens the door for the show to welcome new faces, given Phoebe’s (Molly Kunz) finale decision to leave Alec’s team to prioritize her mental health. Though she still had a presence in the premiere and will play a key role this season, Mittman teased that the arrival of a new research assistant will impact relationships across the board, along with wilder cases to come.
“We love telling these close-ended stories and all of them being different. It’s like we do a different movie every week,” Mittman said.
“The Irrational” airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on NBC and streams the next day on Peacock.
