Season 2 of Average Joe takes everything that made the first season unpredictable and raises the stakes. Picking up 67 days after the events of Season 1, the series sends Joe Washington and his crew from Pittsburgh to Cape Town, South Africa, where family secrets, dangerous criminals and fractured relationships force everyone to reconsider what they are willing to do to survive.
With the Season 2 finale now streaming on Paramount+, stars Deon Cole, Michael Trucco, Malcolm Barrett and Cynthia Kaye McWilliams reflect on a season that pushed their characters physically, emotionally and, in some cases, to the breaking point.
For Cole, Joe’s journey throughout Season 2 can be summed up in one word: Determination.
“Season two is all about determination, man,” Cole said. Joe is determined to get what belongs to him, even if that means making difficult choices along the way. But the deeper Joe gets into the chaos surrounding him, the more he realizes that some of the people he trusted may not have been as loyal as he believed.
“It’s a lot of twists and turns of people who were there for him, who he thought was there for him,” Cole explained. “They’re really not.”
That uncertainty extends beyond Joe. For Leon and Cathy Montgomery, played by Barrett and McWilliams, Season 2 becomes less about simply surviving together and more about determining whether they still want the same future.
Leon and Cathy Are Still Ride-or-Die—But They’re Heading in Different Directions
Barrett sees Leon as someone whose commitment to his wife and friends remains unwavering. Cathy, however, is equally committed—but increasingly focused on building a different kind of life.
“Leon is very much dedicated to his wife and friends,” Barrett said, while Cathy “seems very dedicated to making sure that she gets what she wants out of her life.”
That difference becomes increasingly difficult to ignore as the season progresses. Leon continues to imagine a future where they can eventually return home and reclaim some version of their old lives. Cathy has already accepted that the life they once knew may be gone for good.
McWilliams sees Cathy as someone who understood the situation almost immediately. Since the first season, Cathy has recognized that returning to normal may no longer be an option. After everything she and Leon have experienced, she believes they need to build something new rather than attempt to recreate the past.
“There is no going back,” McWilliams said. “We’ve murdered many people, sir.”
For Cathy, the choices have become increasingly clear: face the consequences, remain on the run or disappear with Leon and start over. Leon, meanwhile, is still holding onto the possibility of returning to the life they had before everything changed.
That fundamental disagreement becomes one of the season’s most important emotional conflicts.
“It’s that thing of two people who are dedicated to each other,” Barrett said, “finding out that, although they love each other, maybe their way to happiness is not the same path.”
Even with that divide, Barrett doesn’t see Leon as simply the person who constantly needs rescuing. He believes the relationship works because Leon and Cathy save each other in different ways.
“I think we rescued each other quite a bit,” Barrett said. “He might start the fire, but he is also going to put out the fire.”
Touch Finally Lets His Guard Down
While Leon and Cathy struggle with their future, Touch faces a more internal battle.
Trucco’s character spends much of the season maintaining the tough exterior that has defined him since Season 1. But Phyllis, played by Pearl Thusi, sees through that façade almost immediately.
“I did everything I could to push her away,” Trucco said. “She could see past the wall.”
Touch’s relationship with Phyllis gradually forces him to confront emotions he has spent years avoiding. Trucco said the character’s emotional breakdown around Episodes 4 and 5 became a major turning point.
“Purge all this tension that I’ve been holding for the last two seasons,” he said. “That was a hard day. But it was really rewarding.”
For Trucco, the storyline demonstrated how much more there was beneath Touch’s hardened exterior. It also showed how the South African cast elevated the performances around them.
Cape Town Changed the Scale of the Series
Season 2’s move to Cape Town wasn’t simply a change of scenery. The city became an important part of the show’s identity.
Barrett and McWilliams both pointed to the opportunity to film alongside South African performers and within a city shaped by multiple cultures, languages and communities. Rather than treating South Africa as a generic backdrop, the production embraced local talent and allowed the setting to influence the world of the series.
Cole was particularly impressed with the actors who joined the show, including Katlego Lebogang as Imani, Hakeem Kae-Kazim as crime boss Sipho and Pearl Thusi as Phyllis.
“They came in and just demolished those roles,” Cole said.
Trucco agreed, emphasizing that the performers brought another level to the production.
“I wouldn’t even limit it to Cape Town. These are just world-class actors,” he said.
Working alongside them, Trucco added, “elevated us as well.”
He also credited creator Robb Cullen’s scripts while noting that actors can bring dimensions to characters that aren’t necessarily visible on the page.
Regarding Thusi’s performance, Trucco said, “She put stuff that I didn’t see in the text, and then she just brings these scenes to life.”
The Action Is Bigger—and So Are the Stunts
The scale of Season 2 also extends to its action sequences.
The cast faced shootouts, explosions, fights, chase sequences, building jumps and elaborate stunt work throughout the season. Unlike the first season, when some physical sequences were learned and executed quickly, the second season required considerably more preparation and rehearsal with the stunt team.
The production’s commitment to practical action even put Trucco in a situation involving a real lion.
In one of the season’s most memorable sequences, Touch is tied to a chair while a lion circles him. Trucco confirmed that the animal was real.
The cast and crew worked behind protective cages while the lion interacted with a full-size 3D mannequin representing Trucco. The actor later took the mannequin’s place and used a monitor to follow the animal’s movements and match his reactions.
“That is not a CGI lion,” Trucco said. “That is the real deal.”
The experience also apparently changed Cole’s approach to future action sequences.
“If ever again, I’m going to use more stuntmen,” he joked.
Trucco had a similar change of heart. Earlier in his career, he was eager to perform as many of his own stunts as possible. After the physical demands of Average Joe, however, he has a different philosophy.
If a stunt performer wants to fly off a two-story building, he joked, “knock yourself out.”
Comedy Keeps the Chaos From Becoming Too Heavy
Despite the violence and increasingly dangerous circumstances, Average Joe continues to balance crime-thriller elements with comedy and character-driven moments.
Trucco credits Cole, Barrett and McWilliams with helping maintain that balance.
“Everybody goes, ‘Oh, Deon’s a comedian,’” Trucco said. “Deon has so much humanity.”
That humanity allows Joe to remain funny without becoming detached from the seriousness of what is happening around him. At the same time, Barrett and McWilliams bring their own comedic chemistry to Leon and Cathy, whose marriage becomes one of the show’s most unpredictable sources of humor and tension.
Cole, meanwhile, considers Barrett and McWilliams two of the show’s standouts.
A Season Built Around Loyalty
At its core, Season 2 continues to ask the same question that has followed these characters since the beginning: Who can you trust when survival changes everything?
Joe’s determination puts his relationships under pressure. Touch’s emotional walls begin to collapse. Leon and Cathy discover that loving each other doesn’t necessarily mean wanting the same future.
And surrounding all of them is a growing network of secrets involving Joe’s newly discovered sister, Imani, crime boss Sipho, Phyllis and the money and drugs at the center of the conflict.
The season ultimately brings those storylines together as the group finds itself trapped together with tensions reaching a breaking point.
None of the cast wanted to reveal what happens in the finale, but Trucco promised that it delivers resolution while leaving room for more story.
“It does not disappoint,” he said.
He also hinted that creator Robb Cullen has been thinking beyond the immediate season.
“I wouldn’t put anything past Robb Cullen,” Trucco said. “He has mapped this stuff out.”
Cole went a step further, teasing that one character has been quietly positioned throughout Season 2 in a way that could become particularly important if the series returns.
His advice to viewers? Go back and watch the season again.
Whether that setup ultimately leads to a third season remains to be seen, but Season 2 leaves Average Joe with plenty of unfinished business—and characters whose lives have changed far beyond anything resembling ordinary.
Average Joe Season 2 is streaming now on Paramount+.
Great read. This is one of my favorite shows. 🫶🏽✨