If you recently started watching the crime thriller Absentia on Netflix and did a double-take at Agent Nick Durand in Season 2, you are not alone. Played by actor Patrick Heusinger, Nick returns for the show’s second season looking noticeably different—cleaner, heavier, and more polished than his disheveled Season 1 self. This was not a simple wardrobe change or an actor’s personal choice, but a deliberate visual transformation tied directly to the character’s emotional journey and the actor’s real-life career.
A Visual Transformation: From Messy to Managed
In Season 1, Nick Durand is a man drowning in personal chaos. His wife, FBI agent Emily Byrne, was missing and presumed dead for six years. During that time, Nick mourned, moved on, and remarried. Emily’s sudden and traumatic return throws his entire world into disarray, forcing him to navigate an impossible situation between the wife he thought he lost and the new family he built.
His appearance reflected this inner turmoil. Viewers saw him with a full beard, slightly longer, messy hair, and often dressed in casual clothes like hoodies. The look was intentionally unkempt, mirroring a character who was emotionally blocked, stressed, and struggling to communicate.
When Season 2 begins, months have passed since the dramatic events of the Season 1 finale. The Nick Durand who appears is almost visually reinvented. He is clean-shaven or with very light stubble, his hair is shorter and neater, and he has traded his hoodies for tailored suits and blazers. The actor also appears to have gained some weight, giving Nick a fuller, more solid presence.
The Reason Behind the Change: Nick’s Emotional Reset
This physical change is first and foremost a storytelling device. The creators of Absentia used Nick’s new look to show that his character has undergone a significant internal shift.
“The writers gave me a man who’s introverted and didn’t understand how to navigate complicated emotional waters… He was deeply traumatized,” Patrick Heusinger explained about his character’s Season 1 mindset.
By Season 2, Nick has begun to process that trauma. The chaotic fallout of Emily’s return has settled into a painful but manageable new normal. His polished, professional appearance signals that he is striving for control, maturity, and stability after a period of recklessness and emotional paralysis. The suit symbolizes him stepping more firmly into his role as an FBI agent, ready to lead a new investigation into a terrorist attack, while leaving his more flawed, reactive self behind.
The Real-World Factor: An Actor Between Projects
Beyond the story, there was also a practical reason for the change in Heusinger’s physique. Between filming the first and second seasons of Absentia, the actor was cast in a major film role.
Heusinger landed the part of the villain in the 2016 movie Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, starring Tom Cruise. For that role, the film studio wanted him to maintain a specific, lean physique. In an interview, Heusinger noted that Paramount Pictures wanted to keep him around 180 pounds and instructed him not to get “too muscle-y”.
Once his work on the Jack Reacher film was complete, Heusinger no longer needed to maintain that exact weight for Absentia. This natural fluctuation in his weight between professional commitments contributed to Nick’s slightly fuller, less rigid appearance in the show’s second season. It was a coincidence that worked perfectly for the narrative, subtly emphasizing the passage of time for the character.
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Where the Cast of Absentia Is Now
Absentia ran for three seasons on Prime Video, concluding in 2020. Its recent addition to Netflix has introduced the series to a massive new audience, where it quickly climbed into the Netflix Top 10 chart. Patrick Heusinger celebrated this resurgence on social media, posting “#2 babyyy we comin for ya” on his Instagram Story.
Since the show ended, the cast has moved on to various projects:
- Stana Katic (Emily Byrne) has focused on voice work, playing Wonder Woman in animated Justice League films, and made a guest appearance on Murder in a Small Town in 2024.
- Patrick Heusinger (Nick Durand) has appeared in shows like Corporate, Law & Order, and Parish. In 2025, he was cast in a stage adaptation of the Paranormal Activity franchise.
- Cara Theobold (Alice Durand) has appeared in British series like Death in Paradise, Manhunt, and Boarders.
- Ralph Ineson (Agent Radford), who was in Season 1, was recently cast as the villain Galactus in Marvel’s upcoming The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
The change in Nick Durand’s look from one season to the next is a great example of how television uses visual clues to tell a deeper story about a character’s growth, making the transformation in Absentia both intentional and meaningful.
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