The Hunting Party 1×01 “Richard Harris” exceeded our expectations in ways we hadn’t seen coming. We went into this believing that if the pilot episode was titled after the first serial killer confirmed missing by The Pit’s guards this would be the beginning of a long journey of cat and mouse between him and Rebecca Henderson’s team. If done right, it would have been good to see him intertwined in the overall narrative—but we’re glad to have been wrong.
There was a nice balance of the things we look for in good procedural writing such as driven plot and interesting characters. Still, most of all, the writers didn’t back away from giving insight into some of the reasons that make the people working the law human. The small sprinkles of family life and personal history in conversations between Bex, Florence, and Hassani were important to give us. And they provided a strong start in connecting with the team.
Most of the hour was full of action as Bex’s team engaged in a non-stop pursuit of Harris, a choice we weren’t bothered by. We enjoyed The Hunting Party‘s premiere for what it gave us—a reason to stay wary of the one person Bex can’t get herself to trust yet (or ever again if that trauma flashback told us anything.)
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Oliver Odell
It’s Oliver’s voice that we hear ringing in Bex’s ears as she struggles to raise her gun to shoot at Harris during their first encounter. It’s undeniable from the moment he ruined their partnership in her memory that Bex doesn’t want to be associated with him anymore. And yet he haunts her. We know there’s history there just by the hardened face and stern look Bex gave the attorney general.
He’s a sore subject for her. Someone she’s tried to forget about from the moment he locked her outside a suspect’s house and chose to kill the man who abducted a young girl in cold blood. By isolating her from missions, Oliver hurt her because he didn’t treat her like an equal.
The Hunting Party did a good job of presenting him as a sort of antagonist in being The Warden. It gives his relationship with Bex more substance as they butt heads in the future as work partners rather than partners. There’s a difference. It’ll be difficult to trust him to work with a team again because of his violent nature.
The show needs to make it a long journey for him to be forgiven by Bex because, of course, that’s what makes great television. But for now, there’s another element of storytelling that had us on the edge of our seats when it happened, about fifty minutes in.
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The Sunflower Plot Twist
We aren’t going to lie, we thought the way Richard Harris’s story ended was lacking something. Could they have added more violence? More stakes? Could they have had Bex and Hassani pursue him only to have him escape at the last minute so that he could look smart instead of predictable? We certainly would’ve liked to see more drama in his final stand-off with the team. It fell flat and had us going, is that it?
To our surprise, that something missing was the feeling of fear for Bex’s life as we discover that Harris’s victim he had attempted to kill the night prior was his long-time lover named Nicole Westin who taught him how to kill and torture his victims. Losing Harris had pushed her over the edge. The subtle change of expression from a smile to a dangerous smirk on Nicole’s face as she stared Bex down in her kitchen had us glued to the screen.
The plot-twist reveal of Nicole being the evil mastermind controlling Harris was a clever trick for the audience to watch unfold if you were one of the people wanting more to the story.
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Team Dynamics
There’s always one person that hates to show a little heart on their sleeve and for this trio, the honor goes to Ryan Hassani. His reluctance to connect with his teammates comes to a head when Bex has to profile him and ask about his family to get him to open up. He keeps his children separated from the job and we understand why as he’s stubborn in preventing any intel about The Pit from reaching the public. That’s a burden he doesn’t need to take home.
Throughout the episode, Bex can sympathize and find common ground with every victim or witness she comes across whether it’s with a diner waitress or Nicole when she worries about missing a first date. She isn’t afraid to smile in hard times or crack a little joke to ease tension. She also doesn’t hold back in a fight and it’s something we admire.
Shane Florence behaves as a tag-along to cases—at least right now because Hassani and Bex were partners before they met him and would’ve solved the case on their own if he hadn’t forced himself onto it. However, it happened to be a good turn of events in hindsight. His vulnerability with Bex and the strength that comes from being in a war, an experience he shares with Hassani, and surviving The Pit evens out the group, which makes them able to work well together.
The Hunting Party will return on Monday, February 10th at 10 pm ET on NBC.
What did you think about The Hunting Party? Let us know in the comments below!
Just read your article and I loved it!!
It’ll be canceled soon