This week’s killer in The Hunting Party Season 2, Episode 7 ‘Sidney Fairfax’ was connected to Shane’s past in The Pit, and we’re feeling emotional about it.
This was an hour where tensions grew high quickly within the team as secrets that divided them were confessed. Bex and Hassani learned about Shane’s research with Sarah Dulles, while Shane learned they kept Lazarus a secret from him. The argument was straining, but the anger between the characters didn’t last long. Because Shane getting kidnapped by Fairfax would put things into perspective.
As people who love Shane as the man he grew to be, learning about his childhood in flashbacks to his time in The Pit was depressing. Because Doctor Dulles and Fairfax experimented on him as a child to see if he had evil lingering from within. His tests were disguised as games, and all we wanted to do was give Shane the biggest hug because he had no idea what he was doing.
In the present, Shane was having the worst possible day he could imagine, as it started with feeling isolated by his friends and ended with getting kidnapped by a doctor who wanted his brain to study. The Hunting Party Season 2, Episode 7 ‘Sidney Fairfax’ was intense and dark at times. But also solidified that Shane is nothing like his mother and how much he deserves the family he’s building with the team.
MORE: Did you miss last week’s episode? Read our Season 2, Episode 6 ‘Lou Kaplan’ Review HERE!
Biology vs. Environment
We’ve seen multiple flashbacks of experiments on serial killers from The Pit in The Hunting Party. The one Fairfax conducts in “Sidney Fairfax” where he messes with people’s brains, is dizzying. Unsurprisingly, the experiments are always awful, invasive, and change killers for the worst under the hands of Doctor Fairfax and Dulles.
When thinking about experiments gone wrong, we think of Tom Beecher in Season 1, Episode 9, who had his long-term memory taken away from him. So, while such horrific acts are being done to people who have committed murder, it’s hard to watch sometimes. Because we’re only human.
While Dulles believed the environment shaped the brain to be good or evil, it was Fairfax who thought inheritance of traits through biology was inevitable. It was impossible for Shane not to turn out like his mother in his mind. And throughout the hour, Shane became living proof that he’s wrong in “Sidney Fairfax”.
Overall, Dulles may be someone we’re glad is dead, but we think he’s the one who is right here. Shane never remembered his mother. As a matter of fact, their connection was so non-existent that he couldn’t even tell him and Lazarus looked like each other. Even when they had been working together for weeks. She had to be the one to tell him that she knew he was her son because they had the same eyes.
Growing up in a foster family and eventually joining the military to fight for justice, Shane thrived in an environment where being good and moral was important to him. And that’s why he’ll never be like Lazarus.
The Trio’s First Fight
We won’t lie and say it didn’t hurt to hear Bex and Hassani question Shane’s loyalty to the team in “Sidney Fairfax”. Because it did hurt to watch the people closest to Shane believe he was hiding his ties to Dulles and his daughter on purpose. Sure, we’ve been waiting for the rug to fall out from under the team once they shared their secrets. We knew it was going to be ugly and painful, and it was. As our hearts were torn, the second Shane realized he was backed up against the wall by the friends he never thought he’d have.
Understandably, we get both Shane and Bex/Hassani’s sides in this argument. Bex and the rest of the team had no idea Dulles had a daughter. So, when Shane suddenly admitted that he knew her and where her apartment was, they had to assume the worst. Bex and Hassani are two of the most logical people on the team. Their first thought, that Shane was helping keep enemy files quiet, made sense.
However, they let their shock overwhelm them in “Sidney Fairfax”. Because they know how Shane is better than anyone else in his life. They know how much he cares about them. The person he is with them is the person he hides away from everyone else. A man with a good heart who always tries to do the right thing. He’s a protector who cares about saving lives and keeping people safe. As we saw in this hour, he’ll only use his gun when he absolutely has to take someone down. Personally, Bex and Hassani should’ve known from the moment they found out about Dulles and Shane that there was more to the story.
He’s never been selfish before this instance of keeping Dulles’s files to himself. So, we wished we could hug him when he said that his only goal in using Dulles was to find out who his mother was. The way his voice went soft and broken when he confessed to it is something we’re still thinking about.
MORE: Did you miss what Melissa Roxburgh and Patrick Sabongui told us about what to expect in Season 2? Read our interview with them HERE!
Having Something to Lose
The Hunting Party always does action and suspense well when the team confronts the killer. Shane getting rescued after being kidnapped in “Sidney Fairfax” was no exception. It was emotionally driven and hit us right in the feels. Because Shane had to listen to Fairfax discourage his efforts to be a good man who knew right from wrong. He tried to tell Shane that killing people, even for justice, is evidence of his mother’s behavior. Even if he was unbothered by Fairfax’s speech, Shane was still being told that turning into his mother was inevitable.
Being good or evil isn’t inherited. It’s a choice to make when life puts you down or lifts you up. And Shane never let the knowledge that his mother was evil influence him negatively. It only motivated him to be better than her. Even if it meant shutting people out and thriving alone. Eventually, he became so self-aware of his heart that he never wanted to let anybody close enough to care for him.
By the end of the hour, Bex was the one to stand toe to toe with Fairfax. And she made sure that Shane heard just how good a man he was from an outside perspective. She told him that he was kind, humble, brave, and caring toward everyone he met. It was something Shane needed to hear. Not because he was struggling to believe it. Because he deserved to know that he has people who see him as a light in their lives. He doesn’t need to fit into a box or shut off anymore.
We were definitely close to tears when everyone apologized to each other. Shane said that he hadn’t had people to be afraid of losing before he met Bex and Hassani. How could we not be when Shane feels free from burden for the first time ever?
Shane Florence deserves the world. But we’ll settle for him getting a family who’ll do anything to save his life because he matters to them.
NBC‘s The Hunting Party returns on April 2nd, 2026, at 10 pm EST.
