Quantico Season 2 and the art of being a badass

Update: Quantico is no longer on Showmax. Find your next binge in the full series catalogue here.

In the world of Quantico, there is no place for the stereotypical damsel-in-distress type of female character. From Priyanka Chopra’s Alex Parrish to Shelby Wyatt to Miranda Shaw to Raina Amin, the women of Quantico are not the kind who need saving. They kick butt and they dominate, even in the presence of alpha males.

It is this league of women – smart, fearless, badass and fabulous – that South African actress Pearl Thusi joined in Quantico Season 2.

Staying true to its complicated storytelling technique that may have made some of us scratch our heads back in Season 1, the second season of Quantico cuts back and forth between past and present timelines. In the present, our favourite heroine Alex, jumping to save the day as usual, finds herself caught in the middle of a series of bombings in New York City and a hostage situation at the G20 Summit orchestrated by a terrorist group known as the Citizens’ Liberation Front.

Get this, the terrorists’ language of choice seems to be Swahili. Allow me to digress for a second, but that Swahili really threw me. Really, Quantico? Really?

Before we can actually wrap our ends around this mayhem in New York, we are teleported back to the past, where we get our first glimpse of Pearl Thusi receiving a mysterious blue note. We find out later that this is how she was recruited into the CIA, and that she went on to train alongside other recruits at a mysterious CIA facility known as The Farm. Of course, the newbies are joined by our resident “it’s complicated” lovebirds Alex and Ryan, because what even is Quantico without its relationship baggage?

Thusi plays Dayana Mampasi, a top-notch human rights lawyer who graduated top of her class at Harvard, and who’s originally from Zimbabwe (could have just been South Africa, but okay).

Series creator Joshua Safran says of Thusi’s role, “…she’s an incredibly accomplished businesswoman who is now here in the CIA, which is not a world she thought she’d be in.”

When asked about her role in a previous interview, Thusi said, “Dayana is a girl with a confused history, she doesn’t want to acknowledge her past, and chooses to shove everything about growing up aside and rather focuses on her future. She was adopted and moved to the States but there are traces of lies that Ryan soon catches her out on, based on her accent. She is very confrontational and defensive; but later in the season you see her slowly open up.”

Adding to its already diverse line-up, Thusi is one of the new characters who joined Quantico’s second season alongside Blair Underwood (Madea’s Family Reunion, Sex and the City), Mexican telenovela heartthrob Aaron Diaz, Nigerian-British actress Tracy Ifeachor, among other fresh faces with new lies to tell as they navigate their dangerous espionage world.

Stream Quantico Seasons 1-2 on Showmax.

Start watching now »

Want more badass women?

Let’s not forget the indomitable Alicia Florrick, who evolved right in front of our eyes from that timid housewife defined by the mistakes of her cheating husband into an independent woman and a high-powered attorney. The Good Wife S1-7, the full boxset, is now available on Showmax. Watch now »