At the end of The Hunting Party season 1, we had a lot of questions. The two main ones involved Odell and the team. Would Odell survive, and how would the team end up back together after AG Mallory shut them down? Well, The Hunting Party season 2 premiere quickly answered the questions, while setting up a major threat for the new season.
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS from The Hunting Party season 2.
The episode wasted no time in getting the gang back together. We learned that Bex decided to leak the information about the silo to the public, and with more information in her back pocket, Bex was able to blackmail her way to getting the team back together.
However, it’s not the full team. Sadly, Odell didn’t make it after the events of The Hunting Party season 1 finale, dying from the poison. This is sure to have a knock-on effect for Bex as she figures out what to do next, but she has a serial killer to catch.
Ron Simms is out and threatening the dating world on The Hunting Party season 2 premiere
Each episode focuses on one serial killer to catch. The Hunting Party season 2 premiere opens with a snapshot of a killer from the past. We get to see how a young Ron Simms would pick his victims, working at the DMV and getting names and addresses from there. He would then inject them with a paralytic, where he would stay with his victims for days until their organs shut down from the drug.
He was caught, and he would eventually end up in The Pit. Videos from The Pit show the treatment that he was going through, which involved bunnies. No, Ron didn’t kill the bunnies. Instead, he found a comfort in them. This is a hint for what’s going on in the older Ron’s mind now that he’s escaped from The Pit.
It turns out that Ron didn’t really want to kill the women he would end up dating. He wanted to connect with them and open up to them, and so, it’s not surprising to find out that he’s back in the dating world now that he’s out of The Pit. He’s also back to paralyzing women, especially as they realize who he could be.
Of course, Bex and the team don’t want it getting out that Ron is really Ron. So, when there is a woman who survives, Bex shares that he’s a copycat killer, believing to be Ron Simms. It settles her mind a little, although that’s one hell of an ordeal for her to go through, especially with the videos about him that he forced her to watch.
Bex finds herself in danger on The Hunting Party
The team decides to use the speed dating app that Ron has been using to trick him into a meeting. However, Ron is a step ahead, and he’s able to capture Bex. He wants her to “tell the truth” about him, which is that he’s not a dangerous man.
Well, Bex can’t exactly do that convincingly, especially when she’s not even sure if the rest of her team will find her in time. She does manage to stall things long enough to be saved.
What is interesting is where Ron ends up. He has made a connection to bunnies, so he’s surrounded by them now that he’s escaped. That is his happy place, and now having a scene with Eric McCormack being surrounded by bunnies in The Hunting Party season 2 trailer makes a lot more sense!
There’s a new person in charge of the task force
We can’t end The Hunting Party season 2 premiere without a threat to the team, though. It’s not Mallory, either. Throughout the episode, Morales had been discussing with Mallory about what to do about the voice recognition search that she had been running. Shane wanted to know who the woman in the videos of his childhood therapy sessions was.
We know it’s Lazarus, and that’s exactly what Morales finds. Mallory doesn’t want Shane to know this, and she orders Morales not to tell him. After all, Morales works for her.
Could this change with the change to the regime? Mallory is out and now Lazarus is running the show, and this could change everything about what the task force is told to do. We know that Lazarus knew all about The Pit, but is she wanting to keep it covered up, or does she have some sort of ulterior motive?
The Hunting Party airs on Thursdays at 10/9c on NBC.
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