The Hunting Party season 2 is here, and there are already new mysteries to solve. The biggest is all about Lazarus, but that mystery doesn’t take from the cases of the week, and CIA Agent Jacob Hassani continues to do his best to keep the public safe.
We chatted with Patrick Sabongui to see where Hassani is this season, especially with some of the devastation that the team has faced this season. We also wanted to get into his personal life a little more and find out whether we’ll see any of that play out on screen during The Hunting Party season 2.
Precinct TV: Where are we finding Hassani as we get into this new season, especially as he wasn’t all that close to Odell? I feel like we’re three episodes in and don’t really know his mindset yet.
Patrick Sabongui: I think that’s partially by design. I don’t think that Hassani is comfortable being very forthcoming with his inner life and his perspective on things. He’s recovered from being shot at the end of last season, so there’s definitely a sense of relief of overcoming that adversity and being reunited with his team. That recovery operation gives all our lives meaning, so I think we find him relieved to be back with the team.
Regarding Odell, not to be harsh or cruel, but Hassani is an operator. The mission comes first. He didn’t wish Odell harm, but he’s lost people before, which we kind of discussed in the show. I think that’s just collateral loss that’s to be expected when you’re operating in this world.
He has the most field experience. Bex is the profiler, but Hassani has that field experience that helps a lot. We also know he’s in touch with his CIA buddies to look into Lazarus, so where is he with that? Can you tease what Hassani is finding and feeling?
He keeps hitting these walls. First it was AG Mallory, and then the table gets flipped, and now it’s Lazarus — this formidable powerhouse with all this influence. He just can’t win with her, so you get to see him banging his head against the wall trying to affect change.
Lazarus has the power in whatever federal deep state operation she’s got going on, and he is no match for that, so I think that brings us as a team together more closely.
I have enjoyed watching Shane, Hassani, Bex, and Morales together, trying to figure things out. They’ve formed a bit of a family, but he doesn’t trust all that easily. How does he decide who to trust?
The fun thing for me is that Hassani’s default is not to trust. People gained his trust despite him. It’s a lot easier to operate in this world just looking out for yourself and the mission. Outside of that, everybody’s expendable.
But this is a different thing. This is a long-term operation, and they’ve got their vulnerabilities. Shane has his vulnerabilities, and Bex, as you said, is the profiling expert, but he feels a responsibility for her out in the field, so there’s something about that family dynamic that erodes those barriers that he puts up for himself. I don’t think he chooses to trust anybody.
He also has some of the best humor, like “What if we want a coffee?” I love it.
Thanks! What’s great, too, is that, speaking of trust, is that the writers and the showrunners, JJ and Jake, we’ve all started to gain this trust in each other, so we can play around a little more. Some of those lines are ad-libs and improvised. Some of it is, “What if he did this?” and so we jam off the moment and then try stuff.
Some of it ends up on the cutting room floor, but that ad-lib just kind of stuck. It happened because the camera lingered on me, and it was just impulse, and it works.
You know your own characters so well.
Yeah, and if I color outside the lines, they’ll rein it in.
We’ve only got tidbits on Hassani’s personal life on The Hunting Party. I feel like we know so much more about Bex and Shane, so could we see something of Hassani’s personal life this season?
I would love to see more of his personal life. I think that’s part of his survival mechanism, though. He keeps his work and his personal life separate, and I think that’s part of the charm. We get to hear a little bit more, but I think keeping work and his personal life separate are pretty effective.
And it’s probably smart considering his job.
Yeah, it’s a hard job. If we were to go into his family life and see his kids or his parents, the dissonance of that might be really interesting, but also nerve-wracking. You want to keep your kids away from that. So, it’d be interesting to see where it goes.
The serial killers are so wild this season. Can you tease anything that you’re excited for people to see.
I love getting the new episodes, because I’m like, “What is this going to be?” We opened with Eric McCormack in this obsession with bunnies, and then we’ve gone to a guy who freezes people in resin. It’s just such a mind-bender.
There are a couple of episodes that I think are cool, making a social commentary. We had the guy fixated on the division between the haves and have-nots, and then down the road, we’ll have someone engaged with social media and how that affects people and what it can turn them into. I really like those killers that are forcing us to look at ourselves as a society.
I really like how we get different sides of a debate. Shane is all “I feel bad for the killers,” and Hassani is just, “No, we can’t feel for them.” There is a morality and a grey line there, so what’s that like for you to play?
I love that each of us have our own takes on how we react to these killers, and what we learn about them. I love that Bex is just curious and fascinated, and she’s almost digging it. Hassani always just shakes his head, like, “this is what people do in the world?” Shane has this big porous heart that gets affected by things. I just love the dynamic of playing off each other that way.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
The Hunting Party airs on Thursdays at 10/9c on NBC.