‘The Hunting Party’ Bosses Tease Michael Stahl-David’s Killer Role: ‘His Thirst for Violence Can’t Be Quenched’
Preview
What To Know
- In the January 22 episode of The Hunting Party, the team pursues serial killer Zack Lang, whose Pit therapy involved something like a rage room.
- Executive producers JJ Bailey and Jake Coburn preview the episode and discuss why Michael Stahl-David was perfect for the role.
Since its beginning, this thriller series has shown what an asset FBI profiler Rebecca “Bex” Henderson (Melissa Roxburgh) is to the team who tracks down the worst serial killers. (All of their deaths were faked after an explosion set the wheels in motion for an escape from the Pit, a secret government facility.) But it’s not just Bex’s smarts that viewers will see on display in the Thursday, January 21, episode of The Hunting Party.
“This episode will have one of our most intense physical confrontations between Bex and a killer,” teases exec producer Jake Coburn. “Melissa goes all out!”
In “Zack Lang,” Bex, the CIA’s Jacob Hassani (Patrick Sabongui), and former prison guard Shane Florence (Josh McKenzie) are after the titular serial killer, played by Michael Stahl-David. Zack is obsessed with class and bludgeoned wealthy New Yorkers. But Bex notices something very different between his past and present victims, and the team must look into his unresolved trauma to stop him.
“Michael has an unassuming demeanor that makes him all the more scary as an insidious and cunning serial killer like Zack. He’s the kind of guy you’d trust to watch your bag at the airport,” explains exec producer JJ Bailey, praising Stahl-David’s portrayal. “He really brought it in the creepier and more action-packed moments of the episode — he’s definitely not so unassuming when covered in blood and sipping some top shelf whiskey.”
Don’t be fooled, though. Coburn says that Zack’s therapy in the Pit involved something similar to a rage room, warning, “When he gets out, his thirst for violence can’t be quenched.”
Elsewhere in the episode, Bailey teases, “Bex will learn a lot more about the backstory of Colonel Lazarus [Kari Matchett] and we’ll be on the cusp of Bex’s discovery that she’s Shane’s biological mother.” But the big question is: When will Shane realize that he’s been working alongside his mom since the Season 2 premiere?
The Hunting Party, Thursdays, 10/9c, NBC
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