Jayme Deerwester

USA TODAY

More than a decade after the final Matrix movie, Carrie-Anne Moss is back onscreen in a long coat and glasses.

But this time, instead of that iconic leather duster and Ray-Bans, the 49-year-old actress is sporting a white lab coat and specs as scientist Dr. Athena Morrow, a new character on AMC’s Humans, which returns for its second season Monday (10 ET/PT).

While the first season focused on the ethical dilemma of selling androids (or “synths”) for use as domestic or sex workers, new episodes take an in-depth look at the development of sentient artificial beings.

That’s where Morrow comes in: She's working on artificial intelligence and trying to keep her progress under wraps.

“She has a very personal reason for wanting to crack this idea of bringing consciousness into a machine,” Moss says. “She’s been through a lot in her life and she’s grappling with some grief." To cope, “she’s completely committed to what she’s doing. She lives and breathes that. She holds everything very tightly to her chest.”

Morrow claims she's uninterested in the prospect of working for smooth-talking tech billionaire Milo Khoury (Marshall Allman, True Blood) — until he reveals his team has produced a conscious synth. Then she's in.

“She can’t believe what she’s seeing," Moss says. "So the scientist in her wants to figure that out. But underneath all that is this mother trying to find her way.”

That’s not to say Morrow is ready to drink the corporate Kool-Aid.

“I don’t think she trusts (Khoury) at all,” Moss says, noting that the character remains wary of her new boss’ motives. “She’s not in it wholeheartedly. She’s on his team, but she’s totally playing by herself.”

Moss, however, is wholeheartedly invested in her new team at Humans. And though she admits to not having seen Humans before her agents approached her with the pitch, she quickly got hooked watching Season 1.

“As soon as I would feel like I had a favorite character, then I would fall in love with a different one and then another one,” she laughs. "I loved William Hurt (who played the late George), I loved the (Hawkins) family and how they portray the struggles and stresses of a modern family. I loved all the synths. I feel like the show gave every character so much.”

Morrow crosses paths with members of the runaway band of conscious synths later this season. But to Moss' chagrin, that does not include Mia (Gemma Chan), who served as a housekeeper in Season 1 and now works for a struggling restaurant owner (Sam Palladio, Nashville).

And judging from the way Moss talks about her scenes with the synths, maybe the Humans producers should have called her sooner.

“I just loved the way that they move," she gushes. "I would love to have played one. That would have been really fun."