The first half of the season spends a lot of time laying groundwork. Whereas the first season was more character-driven, often choosing several characters per episode to focus on, now the show takes on a more plot-driven, serialized structure. There’s a trickle of information about Stormfront, and the side hustle she may be running to import supervillains into the country. There’s also a comic-relief arc running between episodes with The Deep (Chace Crawford), who has accidentally joined a sort of Scientology-like cult in Ohio.