The Hunting Party Season 2, Episode 2 ‘Adrian Gallo’ was an easy watch with an explosive last fifteen minutes that had us questioning everything we just watched. And it was a great feeling. The show has rarely surprised us like this before, so we applaud Nicey Nash-Betts, who guest-starred as detective Erica Burke. She was a woman with personal ties and secrets connecting to this week’s killer, Adrian Gallo.
Ultimately, Nash-Betts was the one who made this an episode to remember. She was meant to shine, and she did just that. This was the first time the show dropped a plot twist we didn’t see coming, and they succeeded in throwing us off until the end.
Admittedly, the show does follow an easy formula, so it’s not hard to look away from the screen and follow the story when you want to. So, it wasn’t a surprise to see that Gallo was just as bad, twisted, and sick as most of the killers we’ve met so far.
Notably, what was worth remembering in this episode was how the writing was clever enough to keep us on edge until everything clicked together. And of course, the shocking reveal of Burke being Gallo’s copycat killer. The Hunting Party Season 2, Episode 2 ‘Adrian Gallo’ showed us how just the idea of grieving someone can push someone to the extreme when they’re all you have.
MORE: Fangirlish got to sit down with Eric and Finn McCormack to talk about how it was guest-starring in Season 2, Episode 1 ‘Ron Simms’. Read HERE!
Grief Is Like a Wound That Never Closes
Honestly, we were close to calling the hour a filler for solely focusing on an awful killer. As the episode went on, we realized personal plots were on the back burner. Shane’s search for his mother’s identity didn’t move forward. And we didn’t see any characters really talk about anything other than the case. It was a problem we didn’t mind by the end because Erica being revealed as a killer alongside Gallo was intense and engaging.
Before the secret was uncovered, we really appreciated seeing Erica and Bex sit down to discuss losing their partners. While it can be easy to dismiss Oliver’s death as unimportant, as someone only here for a season, that’s not what we’re doing. And it’s not how Bex feels either.
We had him for a few months; she had him for years in this fictional world. So, we understand why his loss gets her choked up when realizing he isn’t there in his office anymore. Oliver was her old partner, and his absence hurts like a wound that lingers and hurts when you remember it’s there.
Sitting with Erica, who understood how the world shifts when you lose a loved one, made Bex realize that her feelings weren’t unique. Because Erica had gone through what she had gone through and survived. Which prompted Bex to talk about Oliver for the first time in the past tense. Like she accepted he was gone for the first time with another person. Bex needed this sit-down in The Hunting Party Season 2, Episode 2 ‘Adrian Gallo’ and we’re glad she got it.
Bex Has People Who Care About Her
The Hunting Party Season 2, Episode 2 ‘Adrian Gallo’ had a way of showing us how easy to become unrecognizable after losing somebody you love. Especially when life after loss looks empty and lonesome. In a twisted way, we understood Erica Burke’s killer origin story. Nash-Betts played her well and convincingly as a justice seeker who looked innocent until Bex proved she wasn’t.
Arguably, it’s true that Erica was innocent and harmless until she experienced loss for the first time. She was so frantic to hold onto her partner when he had told her he wanted to retire. Because leaving the job meant leaving her alone in the only place she felt purpose in. In her mind, just the thought of his absence had pushed her to be impulsive. Erica was not going to grieve this man; she was going to make him stay with her. Which meant killing and preserving his body just like Adrian Gallo had done with his victims.
She couldn’t handle the thought of letting go of someone she loved, which propelled her into darkness. Erica was now a changed woman who killed her partner because she hated the idea of change, distance, and loss. While grief made Erica into a killer consumed by dark thoughts, we don’t know what it’ll do to Bex in the long run. She’s freshly grieving Oliver and at the starting line of two paths in front of her that’ll determine how she moves forward.
MORE: Fangirlish got to sit down to interview Melissa Roxburgh and Patrick Sabongui to discuss Season 2! Read HERE!
“The Light Always Wins”
The path of darkness is one like Erica’s, where the feeling of loneliness is overwhelming and impossible to control. She was so troubled that she found release in causing harm to others. Then, there’s a path of light. Where someone’s off and sad days are uplifted and supported by people who love you and don’t make you feel alone.
Unlike Erica, Bex had no control over Oliver’s death. She couldn’t make him stay, and it’s a helplessness that weighs on her. In these first two episodes, Bex has actively been fighting against the darkness that consumed Erica so easily. Here is where they’re different, just on first glance. Bex has multiple people who care about her. So, while Shane didn’t ask what her light was, we know the answer. It’s Hassani, Shane, and Morales.
Bex’s team would do anything in their power to stop anyone from hurting her. Even if that person is herself, like how we saw in Season 2, Episode 1 ‘Ron Simms’. Shane’s encouragement that the light will always win against the dark when you put up a fight was comforting. Because he’s right, even if it’s not so simple. Letting people who care about you inside your walls to help you navigate through the heaviness is what matters. And she needed to hear that after closing Gallo and Burke’s cases.
The Hunting Party Season 2, Episode 2 ‘Adrian Gallo’ focused a lot on the motives to two killers to do what they did. But the hour also gave us these two moments that showed us how two women handle vulnerability when it’s scary.
Other Thoughts
- Another week, another horrible way to die that I get to have nightmares about.
- Bex trying to investigate Lazarus undercover is honestly adorable.
- This may end badly for the team, but I need answers about her NOW.
- Hi, new guy who doesn’t like to pay attention!
- “This is so disturbing, yet I can’t look away.” That’s me every week.
- I take it back.
- The audacity of the new guy to stop Bex from leaving to ask for updates when the meeting just finished?
- “We’re not so different after all.” Now what does that mean?
- “Not sure what you are, but I like i.t”
- Same Erica, I also don’t know what to do when Shane is on screen.
- “Have you ever heard the phrase see something, say something?”
- Bex’s face killed me there. What a funny scene amidst the chaos.
- WAIT WHAT!
- WHY IS ERICA SO DISTANT NOW?
- OH. OH. OH?
- Okay. I didn’t see that coming. Good job, writers. I’m shocked over here.
- Niecy Nash-Betts with a shotgun. Wow.
- For the second week in a row, Shane is doing trick shots to get the bad guy. And I’m so here for it. That take down was AWESOME.
What did you think about The Hunting Party Season 2, Episode 2 ‘Adrian Gallo’? If you have any thoughts about the show, leave your own review/rating in our The Hunting Party hub!
NBC‘s The Hunting Party airs Thursdays at 10 pm EST.
