In the pounding final moments of Sense8’s second season, good guy Will (Brian J. Smith) tells an unconscious, bloodied Whispers (Terrence Mann), who’s been trying to round up the telepaths known as “sensates,” that he and his sensate brethren will “give [him] a war”—but it’s Riley (Tuppence Middleton) who has assembled the army.

Riley and Will’s linked cluster of eight pile into a van, having pulled off an ingenious heist to capture the man who’s hunting them, and throwing themselves into battle with the mysterious and alliance-shifting organization B.P.O. Season 1 ended with a similar showdown in the freezing mountains of Iceland, one in which the members of the sensate cluster were still physically separated. But as they hurtle toward anarchy at the end of this season, the sensates are finally all together—and Riley is the one who got them to this point.

“It's a lovely moment when they all finally come together in the flesh,” Middleton says via email. “It almost feels more surreal than visiting each other from thousands of miles away.”

It also marks a moment of real evolution for Riley herself. In Season 1, Middleton’s character was relatively [word is missing] until the end, when her past trauma—she lost her husband and daughter in a tragic accident—came rushing out in a series of harrowing flashbacks. She was a platinum-haired D.J. from Iceland; the other members of her cluster, complete strangers who can telepathically visit and feel each other’s intimate feelings, are police officers and biochemists and martial arts experts. What could Riley possibly do to protect them from those who want to kill them due to their exceptional abilities?

But Season 2 sees Riley become both a lover and a fighter, standing on the front line as the sensates face new, more widespread threats. Riley was the one being rescued at the end of Season 1—but now she’s investigating, risking her life to dig up vital leads and past atrocities that get the cluster to the brink of war. She’s the one standing at a large show to attract B.P.O. agents, making a show of both unity and defiance: “I see you, I believe in you. As long as we’re together, I know there’s nothing we can’t do.”

It’s a declaration of war, an act of power that would have been unexpected for Riley in Season 1—but one that makes sense now. In Season 2, Riley moves into the role previously occupied by Angelica (Daryl Hannah), the allegorical ‘mother’ of the cluster who protects and unites them all, driving the action and gathering the information that ultimately brings them together. “I have always thought Riley to be like a mother to the sensates,” Middleton says. “She is diplomatic and caring and always tries to keep the others happy. She feels their pain very deeply and is always there to listen. She has the ability to unite people and put herself in another's shoes, which is something that should never be underestimated.”