Summary
The Hunting Party steps things up a gear in Episode 3, realizing that the prison plot is easily the most interesting thing about this show.
On balance, Episode 3 of The Hunting Party is the best one yet, in large part because it seems to understand that everything involving the Pit and its secrets is significantly more interesting than the actual case-of-the-week plotting. But even that is a bit improved in “Brenda Lowe”, which plays with expectations somewhat and puts Bex and the team in more direct opposition to the higher-ups who are clearly lying to and manipulating them.
This is exactly what we needed to get us more on-side with the gang. The reason I’ve been moaning about the neglect of the Pit since way back in the premiere is because that high-concept premise is a fascinating one to build on. Aside from some hints in the margins, this is the first episode that, to me, felt like it was doing any building.
Things begin by using the formula established in the second episode to take the viewer by surprise, revealing that the woman who seemed to have been picked up by a dangerous killer was, in fact, the titular Brenda Lowe, one of the most prolific and violent killers in American history. It’s a simple tweak, but it works in its execution and gives the story a more fresh-feeling vibe.
It helps that Brenda is utterly bonkers. She’s a wildlife conservationist who took threats to her land and wolves murderously seriously, having trained her animals to attack and kill people – especially hunters. There’s a germ of righteous justification to Brenda that feels a bit like it’s playing for sympathy, but she goes way too far with it and it becomes increasingly clear that her stay in the Pit hasn’t really done much in the way of rehabilitation.
This, of course, is the point. But it takes a while to get there. Since the particulars of Brenda’s therapy while incarcerated were above Shane’s paygrade, he doesn’t have his typical utility, so he reveals a tracking ability he picked up in Afghanistan to make him integral to the search for Brenda through the Montana wilderness. The team eventually realizes that Brenda is returning to her land and her wolves, which thanks to regular letters from her lawyer she believes has been turned into a safe conservation area, as per her wishes.
Josh McKenzie, Melissa Roxburgh, and Patrick Sabongui in The Hunting Party | Image via NBC
The “twist” in The Hunting Party Episode 3 is that the reason Brenda believes this is because the staff at The Pit told her it was true. As part of a revolutionary and obviously deeply unethical form of therapy, the Pit perpetuated a fantasy that Brenda could buy into, hoping that it would help to rehabilitate her. If you squint a little you can sort of see the logic behind this, but it naturally overlooked the possibility of Brenda escaping and returning to the land to discover it had been sold off and all her wolves were dead and buried.
This puts Bex on a collision course with Oliver and the Attorney General, who is quick to threaten her job when Bex demands to know what’s really going on so she can catch Brenda before she kills anyone else. This is a much more interesting vibe. Bex hunting criminals with only partial information while the higher-ups try to give away just enough to help her while keeping the darker secrets under wraps feels more in line with what most of us imagined when we first heard this show’s premise, and I, for one, am happy it seems to be going in that direction.
And what’s up with Oliver? Hassani is still convinced that he was involved in the breakout from the Pit and has pretty compelling evidence to prove it – CCTV showing him shifting a whole bunch of files and racing to the exit immediately after receiving a tip-off call. For some reason, despite her relationship with the man having broken down when he set someone on fire, Bex has a hard time believing this. A final scene in which we see Oliver hand off the flash drive containing the files seems to prove his complicity, but he also seems a little reluctant, so there’s likely more to the story.
Either way, for the first time, I’m pretty interested in seeing where that story goes, so you can consider The Hunting Party Episode 3 something of a success.
