‘FBI: Most Wanted’ Star Julian McMahon on Jess…Falling in Love? It Could Happen! (PHOTO)

We’ve Hunted Down the News for You

For exclusive news and updates, subscribe to our FBI: Most Wanted Newsletter:

Whether or not Supervisory Special Agent (and widower) Jess LaCroix (Julian McMahon) is ready for love, it may find him in FBI: Most Wanted Season 2.

Recurring guest star Jen Landon (Yellowstone) debuts in the March 2 episode as his daughter Tali’s (YaYa Gosselin) horseback riding instructor, Sarah Allen — and Jess is smitten! TV Insider has an exclusive first look at the two together, which you can check out in the full photo below.

Related

Which Are the Largest Current Shared Universes in Primetime TV?

Jess’ father, Byron (Terry O’Quinn) suggested he give love another chance, but McMahon isn’t sure if it’s the right time for his character.

“I’m still figuring out those scenes. We had a couple at the end of Season 1 and what I did with Jess then is he’s really awkward,” he tells TV Insider. “I don’t think Jess has ever been the social butterfly. He’s a lot more serious and likes to have his alone time. His work is really important to him. It’s probably what makes his blood pump.”

But Jess, he adds, is ready to grow. “I want to make it something interesting; as with the relationship with his father, [something that] goes against the grain of who we thought Jess was.”

The March 2 episode also features the return of Amy Carlson as bounty hunter Jackie Ward. As we saw in her first appearance, she and Jess have a bit of a history, as do the actors, who worked together on Another World in 1993.

“There’s this love-hate relationship between her and Jess,” McMahon says of Jackie. “They’ve been working together and against each other for a bit. [In her next episode], you can see a little more of that relationship. There’s a really cool, funny moment between him, Jackie, and a psychic.”

Mark Schäfer/CBS

Jackie’s appearance also ties back to Sarah. “That moment between Jackie and the psychic and Jess permeates what happens with Sarah and Jess’ decisions and his movement forward quite significantly,” McMahon teases.

He’s having fun working with Carlson again, and his wife, he says, names Jackie as her new favorite FBI: Most Wanted character. “I think a lot of people probably feel the same way,” he says. “That’s Amy. She’s just got such a jazzy personality. She’s a talent but she’s also a force. That’s what this character is.”

FBI: Most Wanted, Tuesdays, 10/9c, CBS