Tex pulled out all the stops to charm Dr. Rachel Scott last season on "The Last Ship," but after she continually turned down his advances, he'll focus his attention on a lost love in season two.

"Tex had just planted that big smacker on Dr. Scott, kind of saying, 'This is what you've been missing baby. Too bad.' So the ball is in her court," John Pyper Ferguson, who plays the military contractor, tells Headlines & Global News in an exclusive interview. "The second season for Tex is really about the girl in the locket."

Dr. Scott (Rhona Mitra) found the keepsake on the military contractor when he volunteered to test the potential cure for the pandemic that has killed millions around the world in the post-apocalyptic TNT series that returns on Sunday.

"I think his intentions are shifting and he has to take care of some personal business this time around," the 51-year-old actor says. "He's really a different guy in season two. He gives a window into his heart and where he's been and what he's done in his life."

As Tex and the crew of the Nathan James disembarked to dispense their newfound cure in the first season finale, a very real health crisis was breaking out in western Africa that almost mimicked the fictional epidemic taking place on the show. Pyper-Ferguson believes a greater outbreak of the Ebola virus around the world would have killed the show's appeal.

"We would no longer be a fantasy to be sort of indulged with and made an adventure out of. Suddenly it's real and people probably aren't as interested," he says. "So I think the best thing that happened for the world and for our show is that it's under control."

The better comparison being made about the show is how it portrays the U.S. Navy and its attention to detail. Pyper-Ferguson and his co-stars have spoken with current and former Navy members who applaud the show for its attention to detail.

"They're really stoked about the way the show is representing the protocol, the structure and the system that the Navy works under," he says. "They also love that my character fights with the Navy. They're happy to see a civilian participate in being supportive of what the Navy wants to do."

The fans may praise the accuracy, but they also can spot the flaws and aren't afraid to point them out to the actors.

"Of course, they're ready to write the whole next season," Pyper-Ferguson says, laughing. "But that's part of the enjoyment of it."

The Australian native has befriended a few military members that he's met while shooting on location in San Diego, and their bonds go beyond a love for the show. A former Navy man gifted the actor a bracelet he wore while battling lymphoma that read, "No one fights alone," when he learned Pyper-Ferguson's sister had died of pancreatic cancer.

"It's one of those gifts that comes along afterward and you know the universe is reaching out pretty awesomely," he says of the gift he received from the man he met months earlier in a hotel bar. "I've built this strong relationship with a stranger on the basis of doing this show, and it opened up into different conversations."

"The Last Ship" splits its time between San Diego and filming interior shots in a Los Angeles studio. Since much of the show takes place on the open seas, some scenes are shot off the coast, which can pose a few challenges for the crew and the actors.

"The location department goes and finds an area where we can shoot in a direction where you can't see any land. Then you hope that there's not a lot of wind that day and the seas aren't too choppy because a lot of people we'll be feeling it," Pyper-Ferguson says.

Choppy currents will be the least of his worries as he enters the shark-infested waters of Pearson Specter Litt on the USA Network's "Suits." Pyper-Ferguson will join the law drama as Jack Soloff, the new head of the firm's Compensation Committee, who will stir the pot between Harvey (Gabriel Macht) and Louis (Rick Hoffman).

"Unlike 'The Last Ship,' where it's everybody gets along or we die, this is actually swimming with sharks," he says. "Everyone's out to get something from somebody else and kill somebody and get above them."

Pyper-Ferguson describes Soloff as a "man with a plan," always looking to move up and stopping at nothing to reach the top. "He's busted his ass every step along the way, and every time he's moved up the staircase there's someone trying to knock him down," he says.

Soloff will first appear in the fifth season premiere, which airs on Wednesday, June 24 at 9 p.m. on USA.

"It's a different world [than 'The Last Ship'], but getting my feet into those dress shoes instead of the combat boots has been a blast," Pyper-Ferguson says.

"The Last Ship" will premiere its second season on Sunday, June 21 at 9 p.m.