All you need to know about Lioness Season 2

Lioness Season 1 ended with a fun Hugo family activity: burying daddy’s corpse in the backyard on a stormy night. 

Alas, the death of cowardly fraudster and runaway death-faker Adrian Hugo (Jacques Bessenger) in the Lioness Season 1 finale isn’t the end of the trouble he’s made for his long-suffering widow, Samantha (Shannon Esra). While she believes that her and Adrian’s son Liam (Joshua Eady) pulled the trigger, Liam might not have been holding the smoking gun. Adrian’s brother Jason (Frank Rautenbach) – the guy who secretly came up with the original plot to have Adrian fake his death – was also on the rooftop that night with a gun in hand. And, unseen by both Liam and Jason, Adrian’s ex-PA Yvette Rudolf (Ilana Cilliers) was there with her own gun to confront Adrian for hoodwinking and abandoning her. 

With the past turning the present into a maze of deception for the Hugo family, we’ve rounded up the most important points to know going into Season 2.

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Lioness Season 1 in 5 easy steps

1. Jason, Sifiso (Terrence Ngwila), the CFO of Adrian’s investment company (who believed that Sam was aware of Adrian’s frauds), and Hawks officer Anton (Gerald Steyn) helped Adrian to fake his death.

2. Jason loaned Adrian more than R50 million to cover up a string of frauds, in exchange for Adrian making Jason the sole beneficiary of his insurance policy to cover the loan.

3. Yvette framed Sam for all Adrian’s dodgy deals, including a new account he’d opened to syphon money into his “escape” fund. 

4. When Sam found out what Adrian had done, she agreed to flee with him for the sake of their children, unaware of the plot to fake his death. Instead, she spent eight years in prison for Adrian’s crimes while Jason and his wife Megan (Natasha Sutherland) raised her kids.

5. Sam found out that Adrian was still alive and kidnapped him to answer to his kids, but when he was shot, three people were holding guns: Liam, Yvette and Jason. 

Samantha’s Season 2 struggles

Adrian’s first (faked) death set off a series of revelations that sent Sam to jail for eight years when she was framed for his financial crimes, so she is determined to bury any further harm he could cause her family. And Sam can be sure that “uncle” Jason will be only too happy to help her … for reasons. 

Sam will also be back at war with Jason’s wife Megan (Natasha Sutherland), who was the foster mom to her kids while Sam was in jail. Megan spent the whole of Season 1 fighting off Sam’s attempts to reunite with her three kids, Liam, daddy’s girl Miranda (Jazzara Jaslyn), and Megan’s favourite, spoiled little Caitlyn (Avianah Abrahams). She’s not stopping now. 

And then there’s all the new trouble the Hugos are making for themselves as Sam takes on Miranda’s abusive husband, Brian Sutton (Evan Hengst).

The Scar in the Hugo pride

High court judge Jason Hugo puts up a convincing front as a loving family man, faithful husband, ethical man of the law, and successful businessman. Every one of those is a lie. 

Lioness Season 1 slowly peeled back Jason’s layers of lies and emotional manipulation. 

At the end of Season 1, ambitious Jason told his politically influential wife Megan that he let Sam go to jail so that Megan could have the child she longed for, Sam’s daughter Caitlyn, who was just four years old when she came to them as a foster child. Behind Megan’s back, though, Jason also kissed Sam and told her that he loved her. And when he finally came clean about his role in helping Adrian to fake his death, he told Sam that he only did it so that Adrian couldn’t drag Sam and her children down with him.

Why let Adrian drag down the kids, when Jason wants all that fun for himself? Jason will now use Liam’s belief – that Jason buried his own brother and covered up his murder just to protect Liam – to get loyal “son” Liam to do his dirty work, with a comforting hand on his shoulder. 

In Season 2, Jason will become even more dangerous as he’s backed into a corner financially, thanks to a confession from Sam’s ex-lover, Anton, which sees Jason having to kiss Adrian’s hefty insurance payout goodbye. There are no limits to what Jason will do to claw his way back to the top. And as long as he wants Sam, too, he can’t afford to have her find out what he’s up to.

Meet the new pride

Oh, so there aren’t enough complications on Sam’s plate? Let’s add four more!

Bianca: Adrian created a new family while he was playing dead in Botswana, and they’re not going to let the Earth swallow him without a trace. Thirty-year-old nursery school teacher Bianca Curtis (Carla Classen), aka “the wife in Botswana”, married Andrew Curtis (really Adrian Hugo) despite her family’s misgivings. She and their two children now live with her icy queen mother Vera Warren (Vinette Ebrahim) in Roodepoort. When Bianca crosses paths with Yvette, she catches hold of the thread that’ll unravel the Hugos’ web of lies. 

Max: Bianca’s half-brother Max Warren (Carl Beukes) returns to South Africa for the first time in over 29 years to help her to find her missing husband. There’s an instant soul-deep connection between this troubled action man and lone wolf, and the lioness, Sam. But when Max’s investigation sets him on Jason’s trail, the hunter becomes the hunted.

Kevin: Like Sam, Kevin Lucas (Ayden Croy) has spent time in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, after his mom’s abusive ex-boyfriend framed him as a drug dealer. Liam hires him to falsely testify in a case that his uncle Jason is presiding over as a judge. Sparks fly between the two, but bisexual Liam is still trapped in the closet thanks to dad Adrian’s constant belittling of his sensitive son. And there’s that whole secret vigilante life Liam will be leading on the side with Sam’s old prison buddy, Bonolo (Pulane Rampoana).

Thomas: While Sam was behind bars, Caitlyn learned to lie, manipulate and lash out to get her own way from “mommy” Megan. Imagine Sam’s killer instincts, combined with Adrian’s tendency to be a weasel. So when the naive 14-year-old sets her sights on her English teacher Thomas Fletcher (Theo Landey), who’s actually making heart-eyes at Megan, Caitlyn’s jealous response to his rejection places Thomas in Sam’s crosshairs. 

With all this wild wildlife hunting and feasting, it’s safari time on Showmax! 

Binge Lioness Season 1-2 now.