Tomorrow, the series Z Nation returns to Syfy for its second season. The series takes place in a virus-caused zombie apocalypse and follows a group of survivors as they transport Murphy (Keith Allan), the only survivor of a zombie bite who did not turn, to a lab in California to try to save the human race.

In preparation, actress Pisay Pao, who stars as Cassandra, a member of the group transporting Murphy, recently talked to Jamie Ruby of SciFi Vision in an exclusive interview about the series.

At the end of the first season, much of the group was separated. According to Pao, howevever, fans won't have to wait long before finding out where the characters are headed. "We really hit the ground running, and even though the group is separated at the end of episode thirteen...you're not going to have to wait long to figure out who's with who, you know, if they have found each other, and who has found each other, and where are they headed at this point. I think all of those questions get answered right away within the first two episodes."

When we last saw Cassandra, she had been bitten by Murphy, who developed a sort of immunity to the zombie virus - he's alive after being bit, albeit decaying. When he bit Cassandra, it turned her into something 'other.' "Cassandra's big arc for season two is that she's basically a human-zombie hybrid. She's not quite like Murphy, because he was injected with the virus directly, and he was fully alive when he was bit, whereas she's getting a different version of that virus, because it's through Murphy and mixed in with his blood now. And she was basically on her death bed before he bit her. [She's] a little bit more progressed, I would say, and very different from Murphy.

"I think the big question for season two is where is Cassandra going? How far progressed is she? Is she more zombie than human? What does it mean to be a hybrid? Do they eat? Sleep? What do they eat? You know, what is her state of mind?

"There were just so many questions that I got to ask myself and that I got to play when I picked up the script for season two that I'm really excited for the audience to see. I think that all of the questions will definitely get answered in season two as the show and episodes progress, but that's sort of the big reveal of the season, where Cassandra is going."

Because of the bite, Cassandra and Murphy are closer this season. "I think the fun thing about season two, is that the audience will get to see [their relationship], and it may not be what they expected. Cassandra's really unpredictable. I don't know if Murphy really even knows what he's created. It's kind of like the doctor who created Frankenstein: it's alive, but what is it exactly?

"So what's really fun, and what's going to be fun to reveal for season two, is [they're relationship is] different than before. But what does that relationship mean? How does Murphy feel about Cassandra? Because I think that they feel differently about each other."

The actress talked about Murphy making the decision to save her and therefore turn her, without her knowledge. "Karl Schaefer asked during a table read of ours, "Who's better off, the dead or the living?" And it kind of really hit me, because they both have it really rough. I think that in terms of episode thirteen, at the very end, I don't think that Cassandra realized what Murphy was doing. I mean, I wasn't thinking that as I was Cassandra laying there staring up at him. I think that she thought that maybe he was just coming to say goodbye, and that she was finally getting to see a bit of tenderness, and that is sort of her last memory of Murphy, this sort of tender moment between the two of them.

"I can't tell you why Murphy did what he did; I think that that’s a Keith question. I have an idea of what he would say; I don't want to speak for him, but I think that there's more tenderness to Murphy than we sometimes give him credit for, because he does such stupid ridiculous shit. I think because he does that, it's sometimes hard to remember, 'oh there was a time that he saved the group and brought us food,' albeit he did steal it from a family and let them die. I guess I would argue that he's the one making the really tough decisions. So I don't think that she really had time to think about that, but she is conflicted in season two about who she is. She is definitely conflicted and confused.

"It's so exciting; I've never played such a complex, fun, unpredictable, purely instinctual character, and I hope the audience really digs her, because I totally do."

Pao was really excited when she first found out Cassandra's fate. "That was so awesome and phenomenal. I was having a bit of an acting rut, I will admit. I was frustrated and uncertain of what Cassandra's purpose was and where she was going, and I think that I've heard that from the audience members as well.

"And I remember sitting down with my acting coach, and she said, "What do you want from Cassandra? What do you want to happen?" And this was before any episodes were written, before I knew anything about what was going to happen...I said, "I can't control whether she lives or dies, that's up to Karl and up to where the storyline goes. I really always want to service the story, but no matter what happens, I want her to go out with a fight, because I believe in Cassandra. I believe that she is a very strong, very willful woman, human being, and that I want her to go out fighting.

"And again I didn't know what was happening, and I don't know if the writers knew what was happening. I actually heard that they were going to kill her in season one, but they thankfully wanted to go a different route, and it was almost like there was a fly on the wall when I said that, because literally after I said it, a couple of weeks later, I got the script where I think, 'oh my God, Cassandra's dying; they're going to leave her.'

"And then she comes back and saves the group, and she kicks these other zombies' asses.

"Like I said, it was like a fly was on the wall when I was talking, or there was a microphone somewhere and Karl was listening in, because they gave me exactly what I had asked for and ten-fold, because she is still alive and well and strong in season two.

"...I was shocked on many different levels: shocked that I couldn't believe that what I had said was coming true, shocked that they were actually doing it, shocked that I was going to play the first zombie hybrid. I can just go on and on and on about how excited and surprised and elated I was about the whole thing."

Playing a hybrid, the actress has a lot of time in the makeup chair, though not as much as some of the other actors. "I get to look forward to everyday sitting in the makeup chair for two hours, which I shouldn't really complain about at all, because I know that some people get four or five hours. Patient Zero had I think eight or ten hours in the makeup chair.

"What's exciting about this season, is we are bringing back a lot more different types of zombies, and those guys are sitting in the makeup chair for four, five, six plus hours, so I really shouldn't complain, but it is hard to sit there for that long. It takes about an hour and a half or so to do my makeup and my hair, and then a couple more minutes to get into my very sexy, but very uncomfortable, unbreathable costume. Gold lame just doesn't breathe very well in this summer heat, I'm not going to lie, but when I'm getting my makeup done, it's a great time to get into character and to do some meditating and just relax, because it's like the apocalypse once we get on set. We just hit the ground running, and we're moving all the time, and sometimes we're shooting more than one location a day, and sometimes it rains or it hails, or, you know, we had three days a couple episodes ago where three out of the six days there was thunder and lightning, so we had to shut production down. It's crazy to have to have that kind of energy on set, but it's also what we're actually shooting."

Pao talked about her inspiration for the new version of Cassandra. "The thing that comes to mind the most is Michelle Pfeiffer in Batman Returns. I remember when I first watched that years ago, and I remember her character so much. She was so amazing and feral in that. That's the first thing that comes to mind.

"And the other thing is, I just watched a lot of animal videos, because Cassandra is so instinctual. And I still watch animal videos. There's something so amazing about the way they move and how quickly they attack. I'm not trying to give anything away, but I'm just saying, like she is very instinctual and very feral, but she's many things. She's not just catlike, sometimes she's spider-like. Sometimes shes unexplainable, just this crazy thing [where] I don't know where she's coming from, which is part of the fun of playing her. Every day on set I get to be completely unpredictable and throw out ideas that thankfully the writers and directors love and appreciate. Even if I don't always get to do all of my ideas, they're always very supportive of them."

The actress also talked about Cassandra's relationship with 10K (Nat Zang). "Their relationship is really interesting. I can say this, because Nat and I have spoken about it quite a bit, again I hate to speak for others, but from the very beginning when we were reading the script, he and I both felt that they had some kind of connection, that they had some kind of relationship. It made complete sense to me in that they're the last two to join the group. They're sort of the odd men out; everyone else is sort of coupled up, including Doc (Russell Hodgkinson) and Murphy, who are sort of coupled up as like an odd couple. So now, who do you really have? You've got 10K and Cassandra who both are the last to join the group, both really quiet. They're both really mysterious; we don't know a lot about them; they don't say a lot, and they both have sort of their own special skills, 10K with his slingshot and Cassandra with her spidey senses. And so he and I originally thought there was something going on.

"Karl Schaefer had different ideas, he said, "No, no, no, no; they're not romantically linked. They're just brother and sister," and we were like, "What?!" These things that would come up in the scripts that we would get were like '10K's looking at Cassandra' or 'Cassandra goes to hug 10K.' I mean we were just so confused he and I about the relationship. It's fair that the fans are confused.

"We do get into the relationship a little bit more in season two, and Nat and I sat down and had a conversation about it even more, and I came to this conclusion, because I was really frustrated, because obviously I want to give Karl what he wants, how he envisioned it, and so what I learned, is this: we all know somebody or have ourselves been in a relationship with somebody of the opposite sex that we just have a connection with, on whatever level it may be, we just have a really deep connection with. And we get along with them really well, but for whatever reason, it's not necessarily sexual or romantic right away. And everyone, all of your friends and all of your fans on Facebook and Twitter are like, "Are you guys together? Because you guys are so cute, and you get along, and blah, blah, blah," and it’s kind of like that relationship, where the people who are in it don't realize that they have chemistry maybe. And there isn't something going on, and something romantic between them, because one, first and foremost, because they're friends, and they're connected in that way, and secondly, in the case of 10K and Cassandra, they're in a freaking apocalypse.

"The romance is going to be a lot different than in any other situation. They're not thinking about long walks on the beach and romantic dinners and leaving each other soliloquies. They're just thinking about surviving. And I think what people are reading, is that Nat and I are close off set. And I love that that's sort of naturally built in instinctually in our relationship, that when we show up to set, we don't have to really work on that with our characters. We truly are friends, and we really do have a good connection. I know his parents; we've had tons of dinners together and hikes and stuff, so i think what the audience might be seeing is that natural connection there that we don't have to play at. It's wonderful. It's a complicated relationship. Is it romantic? I don't think that they realize that it is. It doesn't mean that it isn't, I just think they just don't realize that it is, because like I said, we all know that couple that's like, "Oh my gosh, you guys are so great together; you guys are so cute, why aren't you guys together?" And for whatever reason it just isn't, because the friendship and the bond come first. It's just not on their radar, but they are close, and there's no denying it, and I think that we're really going to get to see that in season two, just how close they are in their relationship."

Pao is excited for the new season and teased a bit about what fans can expect. "We've got some crazy kills this season. The writers are just geniuses. We've got also different kinds of zombies. We've found some new ways to kill zombies that may involve cheese, and there're definitely some more zombie animals to add to the zombie kingdom. Everything that you saw in season one, we're taking it even further. So the audience can expect all the different aspects that they love are coming back times two."