Warning! This story contains spoilers for The Hunting Party Season 2, Episode 1, “Ron Simms.”
NBC’s serial killer thriller The Hunting Party returned for its sophomore season on January 8, and it quickly became clear that the team who chases them down is more solid than ever. That said, it looks a little different now.
The season premiere, “Ron Simms,” begins with some major personnel updates: The former trio has become a quartet. Agent Rebecca “Bex” Henderson (Melissa Roxburgh), CIA agent Jacob Hassani (Patrick Sabongui) and former Pit prison guard Shane Florence (Josh McKenzie) have gained HQ intel officer Jennifer Morales (Sara Garcia) as their permanent “woman on the screens” supporting their field operations.
But, shockingly, we also learn that Oliver Odell (Nick Wechsler) has died after being poisoned in the Season 1 finale.
RELATED: Meet The Hunting Party Season 2 Cast & the “Killer” New Season 2 Guest Stars
In an exclusive interview with NBC Insider, Roxburgh shared that Morales’ expanded role on the team was inspired by the audience response to Season 1. “What was really working in Season 1 is the fact that we had a great dynamic as a cast, and I think that shows a lot,” Roxburgh said. “And that’s why people liked watching this trio and Morales take down these bad guys. So they really leaned into that going into Season 2.”
The Season 1 finale of The Hunting Party left audiences with a cliffhanger about Odell’s survival. We now know that Bex’s former mentor and “it’s complicated” relationship didn’t survive, and she’s still feeling that loss three months later in “Ron Simms.”
RELATED: Eric McCormack & Son Finnigan Talk Playing the Same Character on The Hunting Party
RELATED: Where Is The Hunting Party Filmed? What We Learned Visiting the Season 2 Set
Melissa Roxburgh on Odell’s surprise death, and the show’s unique serial killers
“I think she takes the fact that [Odell] died as ammunition for this season,” Roxburgh said of how Bex is processing the loss. “I know it was an issue being honest about how she feels for him, with the whole Malak aspect with the truth serum. But I think we realized by the end of Season 1 that she really does care about this person, which makes his death even harder.”
However, it’s clear that Bex is more galvanized than ever to retrieve the murderers who’ve escaped The Pit, and Roxburgh said that’s in large part because of Odell. “Going into Season 2, [the question] is she going to unravel, or is she going to go the other way? We do see her unravel a little bit, but then she lights the fire and keeps going. I think the fact that this person is in her past is more like another bullet in her gun.”
RELATED: The Hunting Party Team Talks Those Big Finale Cliffhangers, Season 2 Hopes: “A Long Arc”
That seems to be clear as the trio chase down Ron Simms, a serial killer traumatized as a child by his mother’s abuse. As a young man he then stalked, drugged and lived with his victims until they died. In The Pit, Ron became the research subject of Dr. Charles, who used rabbits to gain a breakthrough with his psyche. But now that he’s free as an adult, Simms’ deadly patterns are back.
Roxburgh said Simms continues their show’s unique rogues’ gallery of threats.
“We realized what was special about our show, or different about our show, is that they could really lean into the quirkiness of some of these killers. In Season 2, you get to see a little bit more of that,” she laughed. “In ‘Ron Simms,’ we have bunny rabbits and a man obsessed with them. I’ve never seen that on TV, and when I read it, I was like, ‘What the heck is happening?'”
“But then it’s realizing, that’s our superpower — we have some weird, weird killers,” Roxburgh admitted.