We can confidently say that The Hunting Party Season 1, Episode 5 ‘Roy Barber‘ was the show’s best thus far. It gave us twists and turns when it came to solving Barber’s motives for his crimes. We appreciated being kept on our toes when watching the team solve this case. Especially when Oliver, Bex, and Hassani are trying to pretend everything is normal between them. We were waiting for the shoe to drop on different occasions. Nothing’s dropped yet but we could tell we’re close to watching things fall apart.
Bex’s frustrations, although she tries to hide them, are getting the best of her when it comes to Oliver. If there were a scale between good and bad, we all know he’s scaling along the middle line right now. She knows it. And as much as she wants to figure out why he’s hiding information about The Pit, there’s the relationship that Oliver has with her daughter Sam that tugs at her heart.
On the other hand, Hassani is digging himself into a hole that we aren’t sure he will be able to dig himself out of on his own. We had a suspicion after The Hunting Party Season 1 Episode 3 ‘Lowe‘ that he’s entering dangerous territory by investigating Oliver. We were right. If he doesn’t tread carefully, he’s going to get reprimanded. Or worse. That’s a difficult pill to swallow because we know Hassani won’t back down.
Roy Barber
Roy Barber was an interesting character. We’d say he was more complex than we realized at first. Why? The women he “targeted” in his dual killings as the Couple Killer weren’t actually dead as the police suspected. He had fooled everybody into believing he was killing both the man and woman at his crime scenes. Bex had figured out that Barber had been hired by the women to kill their abusive partners.
It was something we didn’t see coming. And we loved the shift of the story as a result. Barber had found connection and purpose in helping women escape their abusive situations because he couldn’t save his mother who was killed by his father. Now that he was out of The Pit, Barber had found the list of women he helped and visited them. The two women he reunited with were now happily married behaving as trophy wives to their seemingly wealthy husbands. They didn’t need him anymore which troubled him. In the beginning, we could sympathize with him and the women forced into these decisions to free themselves. Even if it’s an awful thing to do.
He couldn’t grasp the fact that the women he saved had used his willingness to “pull the trigger” on ending someone’s life to their advantage. They wouldn’t be able to kill their husbands, either because of their morals or fear of failing, and used Barber as their personal hitman. He didn’t have a heart or a conscience to cling to if he agreed to commit murder that quickly. In that sense, that’s the one difference between Barber and Oliver in The Hunting Party Season 1 Episode 5 ‘Roy Barber’. However, their parallels are worth pointing out.
The Inside Man
Roy Barber had worked as a police sketch artist in the same precinct of officers who were trying to find him. It’s how he stayed off their radar for over ten years. He had worked right under their nose. We hate to say it, but it was a clever way of staying undetected. There was a reason why the murders he committed were unsolved for so many years even while in The Pit. Barber was the perfect employee and inmate. Shane had even remembered the nickname that the guards in The Pit gave Barber: “Happy Camper”.
He was willing to follow along with society when eyes were on him. And we weren’t the only ones who caught the implications of Oliver being the one to summarize Barber’s story to the team. Hassani was right there with us. It’s true that we don’t know the whole story or explanation as to why Oliver is part of a scheme to hide secrets from The Pit. We can’t justify his actions just yet. Not like we were able to do with Barber.
However, we do know that they’re similar. Oliver is working as an inside man in everyday life. He’s treating the military and the team as two separate areas of importance. While the team is trying to find out as much information as they can on those in The Pit, the military wants them to only focus on finding the surviving inmates. As their boss, Oliver has the team’s respect. The military knows this. They don’t want his team digging into the information that doesn’t make sense. Oliver is playing both sides, especially with putting on a front with the team, but sounds more attached in wanting approval from the military.
He’s more willing to lie and keep secrets from the others. Which is interesting to acknowledge when it comes to how he talks to Bex. He’ll bend the truth but ultimately, he’ll speak from the heart when it comes to her. She’s his weak spot.
MORE: Read our interview with Melissa Roxburgh and Patrick Sabongui on what makes Bex and Hassani work so well together!
“This Is What You’re Good At”
Oliver has a way with words. He knows how to get through to Bex. Just as she does when she’s talking to suspects and killers. Which is interesting, to say the least. If we’re right, he’s her weak spot as well. We believe this to be true when it comes to discussing family or their past together. Bex will believe what he says if he mentions either to her.
We saw the soft glances, smiles, and breaking of hard exteriors between them in The Hunting Party Season 1 Episode 4 ‘Doctor Ezekiel Malak‘. We know enough to be reluctant to find Oliver’s behavior endearing. He’s hiding something big that’ll make the team believe he’s a bad guy. Trust us, it’s something we have to keep reminding ourselves to keep in mind since The Hunting Party Season 1 Episode 1 ‘Richard Harris’. It’s getting difficult, but we’ll give the show that satisfaction.
Oliver had given Bex advice on how to manage telling her daughter Sam the truth about working with the FBI again. He confessed that Sam still sends him a birthday card every year. Bex caught him in the lie of where he kept his belongings. She knew that he had a storage unit to hide his personal things. He had nothing at an apartment in the city. But he doesn’t know that she, like Hassani, is beginning to uncover his secrets. Which adds an underlying feeling of tension to an otherwise sweet moment between them.
It’s hard to see just how much Oliver cares about Bex. We’re trying not to get attached to what could be between them. Bex is walking a dangerous line with him, and we can’t necessarily blame her. He told her, with a softness only she brings out of him, that she’s where she belongs in the FBI. Oliver finds her passion for the job to be admirable. He knows how good she is at what she does. Bex needed the reminder, and his compliment pushed her to reconnect with Sam.
While this was happening, Hassani continued to press the wrong buttons when it came to dealing with the attorney general and the secret she was withholding from him.
MORE: Read our review of The Hunting Party Season 1 Episode 2 ‘Clayton Jessup‘!
The Circle of Trust Just Got Smaller
After watching The Hunting Party Season 1 Episode 5 ‘Roy Barber’, the circle of trust between the team and those they interact with have gotten smaller. We believe it only extends between Hassani, Bex, Florence, and Morales. We’re a bit on the fence about Florence in the long run. His dad worked in The Pit, and he has a military background that Oliver’s partner could use to her advantage. Regardless, it’s still a small group of those with no past ties to The Pit going against stronger forces.
Oliver’s mysterious caller and partner was revealed to be a military-ranked officer. A woman who doesn’t want anybody to know about Silo 12 in The Pit. Hassani found out that Silo 12 is a hidden part of the prison that the military is actively trying to erase from existence. All thanks to the coordinates Oliver had left in his storage unit when he investigated it with Bex in the last episode.
Now’s the time to feel unsettled. The military officer is also working with the attorney general to try and stop Hassani from digging further. She warned him to stop but we all know he isn’t going to. He’s stubborn and determined to piece this mystery together. However, with Oliver and the attorney general in this officer’s back pocket, we know they’ll go to any lengths to keep Hassani away if he forces their hand.
He may have a newfound passion to uncover the top-secret reason why Silo 12 is so important to erase, but the trio of antagonists are higher ranked and more powerful than Hassani. This piece of data is too important to play nice over. This leaves us with one question. Who is the one that’s going to get hurt, emotionally and physically, during the investigation?
What did you think about The Hunting Party Season 1, Episode 5 ‘Roy Barber’? If you have any thoughts about the show, leave your own review/rating in our The Hunting Party hub!
The Hunting Party airs on Mondays at 10 pm ET on NBC.
