How ‘The Hunting Party’ Finale Set Up Potential Season 3
Spoiler Alert
What To Know
- The Season 2 finale of The Hunting Party ends with the team getting a shock about their future.
- The episode sets up potential storylines for Season 3.
Ahead of The Hunting Party Season 2 finale, executive producers JJ Bailey and Jake Coburn told TV Insider that the cliffhanger wouldn’t be the same as Season 1’s. That’s true. We know who’s dead at the end of the May 7 episode. But as Bailey noted, “We open things back up at the very end, sending our team in a new direction,” and Coburn added, “the dynamic of the show and the world of the show is going to shift a little.” That definitely just happened. Warning: Spoilers for The Hunting Party Season 2 finale ahead!
Bex (Melissa Roxburgh), Hassani (Patrick Sabongui), and Shane (Josh McKenzie) track down serial poisoner Xander Wax (John Corbett, who, like the show’s other killer guest stars, seems to have fun in this role) as he’s targeting investigative journalists who appear to be working on a story that would expose The Pit and everything/everyone involved. (Previously, his victims had been random, and he’d left neurotoxins on everyday objects like elevator buttons and sugar packets.) The theory is that Lazarus (Kari Matchett) sent him after them, which means she could’ve also alerted him to the team’s presence. When Bex talks to the victim’s colleague, she learns he was reading Deviations from the Normal by Philip Beaumont, the same book she’d found in Lazarus’ apartment. Beaumont ran a think tank, the Institute for Human Consciousness, which has hands in government projects like The Pit. He may have created the top-secret prison.
Ralph Bavaro/NBC
When the team captures Xander, they get him to talk by threatening to use his own neurotoxins against him. Ever since the blast, Lazarus had been looking for an exit strategy and cut a deal with a foreign government — but he doesn’t know which — for a safe harbor for herself and a handful of her “most prized” inmates she believes can become the next graduates. Bex comes up with a plan to hand Xander over to Mallory (Zabryna Guevara), not Lazarus … but she doesn’t know that Lazarus has already gotten to Mallory, who’s been badly beaten. When the team shows up to hand over Xander, they’re horrified to find that Mallory is dead and Lazarus takes control, throwing Bex and Hassani into cells alongside the inmates she’s been taking from the black site, including Amanda Weiss (Elizabeth Gillies) and Dr. Malak (Kevin Corrigan). Morales (Sara Garcia) overhears on comms and mobilizes a QRF team, convincing Peck (Luke Forbes) to help them get inside in exchange for letting him go.
Lazarus brings her son, Shane, to another room and tells him that the life she had pre-Pit, pre-Lazarus pales in comparison to the one she has now; she thinks that his does to what it could be, too. She wants them to have a future together, seeing herself as proof that the graduate program works. They wanted to erase that program, and she refused to allow it. She was the one to blow up the Pit, though she didn’t act alone.
Explosives are attached to the cells, with Lazarus, refusing to go back into a box, planning to make her escape with the inmates and Shane and leave Bex and Hassani behind. Shane fights back, and Morales, watching once Peck gives her access to the cameras, is able to open the cell doors. With the inmates free, a fight breaks out between them, the guards, and the team. Lazarus runs, and Bex follows.
During the ensuing gunfight, Bex goes down, and angry, Shane aims his gun at Lazarus. His mom refuses to go back into a box and encourages him to pull the trigger. He insists he’s not a killer like her. She brings up his military record, suggesting that killing comes naturally to him and it’s who he is. She thinks he’s thinking about killing her, hating her for taking his “sweet Bex.” But he fires into the air instead. Then, Bex reveals she’s alive, and when Lazarus picks up a gun, she shoots her. The QRF team enters and takes control of the scene.
Bex is going to be fine — she just got shot in the arm — and as the team waits to hear what’s next, she checks on how Shane’s doing. Ask him again tomorrow. Hassani, meanwhile, is distracted by the photo he took of a news article on the journalist’s wall when they found Xander in her home: Civil Health Fund Announces New Medical Supply Push. The photo, as is obvious from the moment he stares at it, is of his wife.
But then he quickly has to forget about that when Philip Beaumont enters the bar. The team sits down with him, and he tells them he’s been watching them and seeing where their allegiances lie. Now, he knows. He was the reporters’ source; he blew the whistle on himself. Leaking the story was a desperate attempt to do the right thing. He tried for years to have The Pit shut down, put an end to the secret experiments and graduate program, and now, with Lazarus gone, he can ensure they have everything they need to finish recapturing the remaining inmates — and with Lazarus and Mallory gone, Bex is the one in charge! They’re also going to be busy because it’s a long list. “The Pit wasn’t just treating serial killers,” Beaumont explains. “They were creating them.”
With that, we have to wait to see if there will be a Season 3 that dives into that, what could maybe develop between Bex and Shane, other parts of the program, and other loose threads.
So, for now, what did you think of The Hunting Party finale, both as a season and a potential series ender? Let us know in the comments section below.
The Hunting Party, Seasons 1-2, Streaming Now, Peacock
Conversation20 Comments
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C
I love The Hunting Party! DON'T end the series yet. Keeps me on the edge of my chair with my feet pulled up and freaked out for the whole episode! It's Awesome. Sometimes I cover my eyes, lol. Definitely holds my attention, I cannot predict where the episode is going to end up. I can't wait to get a Season 3!! HURRY UP WITH SEASON 3! gonna binge watch all episodes.
14
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T
Love this show ! Don’t end it ! Love the main characters and the twists of each week
7
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R
I love this tv show so much. I have hopes of a season 3 renewal with how much they have been posting them lately on their Instagram and Tik Tok. Really hoping to watch Shane and Bex fall in love and like the new setup for season 3 being at the pentagon. One of the best government conspiracy shows I’ve seen in awhile. PLEASE RENEW FOR SEASON 3
6
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D
I have to admit I record the show & watch it the next day because it gives me terrible nightmares but I love it & hope it gets a third season. This year was especially good with all the guest stars!
4
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K
I like the show a lot. I really hope there's a season 3. I want Becks and Shane to hook up. Glad Lazarus is dead!
3
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S
Love this show and they really got it going with Season 2. Phillip Beaumont is such a great twist at the end of the season, answering so many questions but also leaving a new set of challenges and questions to come. He had some serious security and can talk to Presidents and CEOs?!?! Who is he working for/with and how will that play out? His guard referred to him as his “Boss” which also made me wonder if he has an entire team that can support them in their hunt for this serial killers. I couldn’t believe they killed John Corbett but this show is never without surprises like that. Really hoping for a season 3.
3
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G
I love this show. It is exciting and scary at the same time, and really holds your interest . It is Much better than these reality shows that they are producing today. I think it will not be picked up by NBC and do not understand Why. Praying if it is dropped another Net Work will pick it up . It is worth saving. All actors are great
3
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C
I love this show . I wish they would just renew it already ..
2
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J
Love the Hunting Party. Please renew for season 3.
2
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J
I love the Hunting Party! Please renew!!
2
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W
I like the idea that they are going to get back to chasing crazy people. I thought the whole “secret army” of serial killers had sort of jumped the shark. Bring on season 3!
2
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J
One of the best shows on NBC. As luck would have it, NBC usually always cancels their good shows for whatever reason. Look at Manifest, Found, Grosse Pointe Garden Society were all great shows but got cut short. Wonder who's in charge of the line-up at NBC.
1
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M
I love this short. It’s not the same search and resolve each time. I like there’s more pieces to the mystery puzzle.
1
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S
One of the few shows my husband and I enjoy watching together. I'm really hoping for another season.
1
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J
Great show, bring on season 3
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R
One of the best shows out there period. Love it.
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G
You have to renew for season 3! Can’t wait to see what happens next. Love the show and love the characters!
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D
I have enjoyed this show a lot... Had a real Blacklist feel with all the weird bad guys and a FBI task force.. But not in its league.. I hope it continues but with all the NBC new shows planned, no room.
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G
I love this show. But I have a feeling that it's not going to return. They were going to end it last year, but they changed their minds. 😭
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E
I would like to see the Hunting Party get a 3rd season. I'm skeptical that it will though. If this was the last episode of the series. I guess it could have been worse.
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