Reacher Season 2: Why Karla Dixon Looks So Familiar

Contains spoilers for "Reacher" Season 2, Episode 1

Season 1 of Amazon Prime Video's "Reacher" starts with stakes that are just about as high as they can get. Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson) finds out that his brother Joe (Christopher Russell) has been murdered and starts collaborating with the last honest cops in Margrave, Georgia to investigate the conspiracy behind the bloodshed. It may be easy to assume that the show can't possibly make things any more personal for Reacher after that — and yet, the sophomore season finds a way. 

The protagonist's past once again rears its head on "Reacher" Season 2, which brings his old Special Investigations team front and center. After the mysterious death of former team member Calvin Franz (Luke Bilyk), Reacher is pulled from his nomadic life into a new investigation that revolves around his old unit. Season 1 veteran and successful private investigator Neagley (Maria Sten) is obviously in the mix, but the viewer also meets other faces from Reacher's military past. Among the most prominent of these is Karla Dixon (Serinda Swan), a former team member who seems to have a certain amount of chemistry with Reacher — something that doesn't go unnoticed by the others. 

If Dixon seems familiar, there's a good reason for that. After all, there's a good chance that you've already seen Swan in one of her many roles before she joined the cast of "Reacher." Here's a look at some of her best-known work. 

Fans of The CW's "Smallville" may remember Serinda Swan's appearances as Zatanna Zatara, the glamorous, top hat-wearing magic user who first appears in the Season 8 episode "Hex." She portrays the character in three episodes over the course of the show's final three seasons, establishing Zatanna as a powerful — but extremely mischievous — ally to Clark Kent (Tom Welling) and Oliver Queen (Justin Hartley).  

Zatanna might not be the best-known superhero out there, but "Smallville" fans certainly knew her and appreciated Swan's take on the character. "When I flew into Vancouver for the holidays, there were people at the airport with Zatanna pictures, being like, 'Can you sign it?'" Swan told IGN. "People were yelling 'Zatanna' as opposed to Serinda! I was like, 'Oh, wow ... OK! Alright. I see who's the real celebrity here! It's Zatanna! I bow down to her.' It was really neat."

Funnily enough, "Reacher" star Alan Ritchson also has three episodes of "Smallville" under his belt, having portrayed the recurring character Arthur "Aquaman" Curry from Season 5 to Season 8. Unfortunately, he doesn't appear in the same episodes as Swan. 

From 2013 to 2015, Serinda Swan was part of the main cast on USA Network's agent drama "Graceland." Her character, Paige Arkin, is a DEA agent who's stationed in the same luxurious property as several other undercover officers from various agencies. The show combines spy show elements and procedural antics with shared-living drama, and Paige plays a major role on all fronts — up to and including a lengthy will-they-won't-they arc with FBI agent Mike Warren (Aaron Tveit) that takes some seriously dramatic turns. 

Paige's actions over the course of the series fluctuate pretty wildly, and in an interview with TV Line, Swan discussed the need to trust "Graceland" creator Jeff Eastin's instincts during the more controversial parts of her character's path. "You know, that's when the faith of who created the show and the writer comes into play," she said. "You look at it and say, 'OK, you know what you're doing and I trust you.'"

Serinda Swan's "Graceland" tenure didn't stop her from visiting the One Chicago franchise to briefly shake "Chicago Fire" fans' world. Her character, Brittany Baker, turns up in Kelly Severide's (Taylor Kinney) life in the form of a surprise Las Vegas wedding shortly after a chance meeting at a casino. The Season 3 story arc lasts just four episodes, but it seems to be building toward a serious romance ... that is, right up until Brittany calls things off. 

On Looper's ranking of every couple on "Chicago Fire," the fiery relationship fares surprisingly well despite its brevity. Likewise, Swan seems to have enjoyed the role. In a 2021 interview with TV Line, she discussed her short time in the show and noted that it had a lot to do with her busy schedule. 

"[I] had to exit so fast, because I had to go off to the next season of 'Graceland', that not everything was tied up properly," she said. "So I kept getting all these messages being like, 'When do you come back? We know you come back. You guys are still married,' and I was like, 'I actually don't think I'm ever coming back because I'm about to go shoot something for seven months. I don't think this is happening.'" Despite this skepticism, she expressed interest in revisiting the One Chicago universe at some point down the line. 

Having already played Zatanna on "Smallville," Serinda Swan joined the ranks of actors who have played both DC and Marvel characters in 2017 when she played Medusa on ABC's "Inhumans." The Marvel show only ran for one season, but the role of the queen of Attilan gave Swan a unique opportunity to learn a highly specific method of acting. Medusa's mane of prehensile hair is one of the show's trickier special effects, especially since the character uses it in many different situations, including combat. While the audience's mileage may vary on how well the hair works onscreen, Swan certainly put in the work to make things seem as realistic as possible from an acting standpoint ... which was a bit of a challenge due to a lack of precedent. 

"Yeah, I missed that day in acting class where it was the 'Magical Hair Day!'" Swan told CBR. I didn't find that, so I had to do it by myself. I looked crazy for a while in front of mirrors. I'd be like, 'Angry hair day, sad hair day.' But it was just figuring out the comfortability. Like, I'm holding something right now and I'm not thinking about it and it's not something that is really conscious. And that was with her hair — I had to figure out what was conscious movement, what was defending movement, what was unconscious movement and then figure out how the physicality would follow that."

The roles above are just scratching the surface of Serinda Swan's acting résumé. She's been a major presence on several shows, from a memorable 2017 turn as Chloe on HBO's sports comedy-drama "Ballers" and two separate guest star stints on "Supernatural" to a main role as bounty hunter Erica Reed on A&E's two-season prison escape drama "Breakout Kings." She also stars as Dr. Jenny Cooper on CBS' Canadian police procedural "Coroner." Though much of her work is on the small screen, Swan has also appeared in movies that have ranged from 2010's "Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief" and "Tron: Legacy" to the 2011 horror movie "Creature."

In a 2011 interview with Collider, Swan reflected on her professional opportunities in projects like "Smallville" and "Tron: Legacy." "It's really amazing," she said about her career. "It's where I've always wanted to be, and now I'm there. I have a huge journey ahead of me and I'm really excited for it. I find that every day is not about where I'll be tomorrow, but it's about what I'm doing today and staying in the moment. By doing that, I'm truly enjoying all of my todays." Judging by all the roles she's landed since then, Swan's todays and tomorrows have certainly continued to shine bright.