The Hunting Party Season 2, Episode 8 ‘Elliot Carr’ gave us Bex chasing a killer with a complicated moral compass that we hadn’t really seen on the show yet. We believe that Carr felt sympathy for the victims he killed, and that was new to watch unfold as we battled feeling somewhat sorry for him.
Josh Dallas, who once played Melissa Roxburgh’s on-screen brother in Manifest, guest starred as Elliot Carr. A successful shoemaker who used the skin of his victims to make shoes for himself. Once found and taken to The Pit, the prison conditioned him repeatedly to fear for his life. As a result, Carr was left painfully aware of the pain he’s caused the families of his victims. What followed after his escape was a twisted search for justice as he found new victims to heal himself. As he began making shoes out of his own skin to send them apology gifts.
Dallas did a great job setting an eerie mood to every scene he was in. He made us feel the weight of the choices he made, and his sorrow felt real in confrontation scenes. If you didn’t feel like he sincere when Bex was getting him to stand down…then we might be built different. Because Roxburgh and Dallas’s chemistry had us glued to the screen and felt natural. We felt the urgency and emotion in Bex’s voice to save the victim Carr held hostage as he struggled to do what was truly right.
Additionally, we also saw Shane and Lazarus grow closer. Much to our displeasure. She invited him over for dinner, and although the team warned him to remain wary, his guard went down the moment she got vulnerable. We’re certain that Shane is bound to get hurt if he continues to get close to mother with his heart on his sleeve. The Hunting Party Season 2, Episode 8 ‘Elliot Carr’ had an interesting killer, but we’re more focused on this mother and son relationship.
MORE: Just starting Season 2? Read our The Hunting Party Season 2, Episode 1 ‘Ron Simms’ Review here!
Tattoos and Short Conversations
In an attempt to try and catch Carr in the act of kidnapping victims in a stolen paramedic truck, Bex staged a dispatch call pretending Shane was injured. While amusing to see the main trio go back and forth on what tattoos they had to fill the waiting time, the sweet moment was cut short. Because Shane, while on the floor looking up at the sky in child-like wonder, was thinking about his mother after the laughter fell quiet.
As frustrating as it was to see Shane wanting to know more about Lazarus, it was also melancholic and sad. Because we, along with Shane and the team, know what she’s capable of and what she’s done in life. She isn’t a typical model of a caring or loving woman. We as viewers know she’s a criminal manipulator with a history of murder. Season 2, Episode 7 ‘Sidney Fairfax’ told us that Shane has known his mother was in The Pit since he was a teenager. Her evil has been a shadow over him for years but in this moment, it didn’t bother him. Shane wasn’t even thinking of her being a terrible person here. He was thinking of wanting to know more about his mother.
If we took away our viewing glasses of logic for a second, his emotions are simple to understand. Shane had a fun fact to tell his friends and wondered if his mother who he knows nothing about would have any to share with him. It was sad to hear how low his voice was when he wondered aloud in thinking if she had a tattoo. As if he was afraid Bex would judge him for thinking something so mundane and soft about a woman they know is trouble. We knew she wouldn’t and we could tell that freedom to express himself mattered to him.
Shane knows the hard truth about his mother but unfortunately for him in ‘Elliot Carr,’ it didn’t stop him from letting her get close to him. She may be evil to everyone else but for Shane, she’s evil and his mother. It’s different for him, and we don’t think he should’ve accepted the dinner invite alone.
Shane Offering a Hand to Lazarus
‘Elliot Carr’ is one of those episodes where personal storylines mattered more than catching the killer. And we had no problem with it. Because we’d argue that Shane and Lazarus’s new and obviously awkward relationship as mother and son is now the focal point of the season.
While Lazarus’s overall plans of destruction are unknown, we know they can’t be good at all. Hassani found out that she’s rehousing former escaped inmates from The Pit without telling the government where she put them. Which could only mean trouble and danger if they’re just like her. Apathetic, smart, and extreme narcissistic. She’d hiding and waiting for the right moment to cause mayhem and we’re anticipating the worst is yet to come.
Which makes her interactions with Shane in this episode so worrisome. Because walking into a room to meet someone you know close to nothing about leaves space to fill. There’s opportunity to shift any conversation from professional to personal. Especially in these circumstances where Lazarus is trying to appeal to Shane as his mother. Not an employee. She took the chance to appeal to the similarity they share in wanting to belong. Shane found his belonging with the team if Bex’s relentless to save him in the last episode was any proof. And once Lazarus told him how she felt supported in The Pit, he was bound to listen.
After watching ‘Elliot Carr,’ we think Shane’s first attempt at meeting with Lazarus was a failure. A failure in the sense that he wasn’t pretending to feel for her sob story to get close to her. As Lazarus was explaining how isolated she felt throughout her life as society called her names, he was hung on to every word. He didn’t stop her when she said The Pit “fixed” her. Shane listened to her and held her hand when she finished her speech. And that’s what we’re worried about.
MORE: Have you read our interview with Melissa Roxburgh and Patrick Sabongui teasing Season 2? If not, read HERE!
Final Thoughts
In our eyes Lazarus has already chosen not to divide her professional and personal relationship to Shane. He’s her son and she’ll appeal to him as such. And that’s dangerous because Shane ultimately struggled with that division here. No matter how much he tried convincing Bex and Hassani he could be objective with Lazarus. We won’t say that Shane has to distance himself because it’s almost impossible given that she is his boss. But he needs to separate Lazarus, his boss with a bloody past who is hiding something, and Lazarus, his mother.
He needed to set a firm boundary from the beginning of the dinner. And he didn’t do that and we think it’ll come back to haunt him. The Hunting Party Season 2, Episode 8 ‘Elliot Carr’ further drove home the sentiment that Shane will care about Lazarus even if he hesitated to console her. As a matter of fact, we think he’s already there. He cares about her and that won’t mean anything good for the rest of the season.
NBC‘s The Hunting Party airs Thursday at 10 pm EST.
