While the case of the week in The Hunting Party Season 2, Episode 9 ‘Colette Akins’ was unsettling, that’s not what we’ll remember from this episode.
Notably, Piper Perabo’s guest appearance as the killer who kept her victims in coffins was depressing. The moments where she’d cry out to hear her father’s song hit us in the feels. And she played Akins with a disorientation and desperation to be comforted by her dead father’s voice that hurt to watch. Doctors in The Pit, and eventually Bex, would use this to their advantage. And they’d torture her with AI-like voices of her dead family to comply to their questions.
First, we liked how Bex questioned if she went too far by pretending to be Akin’s sister to save a life. She felt icky, terrible, and like she crossed a line. Unlike those in The Pit, like Doctor Fairfax, who knowingly used her father’s voice to trick her into obedience. That’s the difference between our team and The Pit. We know, and see time and time again, just how much they care about saving lives. They have hearts, morals, and feelings about doing anything that feels wrong. Does it stop them from acting out if that’s what they need to do? No, but reflecting is important.
Reflecting also shows a person’s humanity, and Bex is one of the best examples of someone who understands tough emotions. Maybe it’s because she’s a top FBI profiler. Or because she trusts and cares deeply for her team. But Bex was present and lent an ear to Shane and Hassani when they needed her to listen most. Even if they clashed heads at some points. And that’s what we want to talk about after watching The Hunting Party Season 2, Episode 9 ‘Colette Akins.’ Because we got some of the most tense and emotional scenes of the season thus far as a result.
MORE: Missed last week’s episode? Watch and then read our Season 2, Episode 8 ‘Elliot Carr’ review HERE!
Tension Brewing
We knew from the moment Shane held his mother’s hand in last week’s episode that we’d end up here in ‘Colette Akins.’ He cares about Lazarus enough now to argue back and forth with Bex and Hassani over her innocence. And we think the worst part about their whole conversation at the bar was that Shane doesn’t really think she’s evil anymore. Just misunderstood and punished for a “mistake” she made as a teenager. Which made us question everything and roll our eyes. Because this just proves how Shane shouldn’t have gone to see Lazarus alone. She tapped into his empathy and got into his heart.
If the mistake was anything but murder, we would be more inclined to believe him. We could sympathize with a woman who felt so bullied by girls in school that she wanted to put a firm end to their torture. If we gave Lazarus grace, just like Shane has done, then we could see how she got herself out of a bad situation by doing the unthinkable. But that’s where we’ll stop. Because Shane is thinking of his mother as a teenager who had it tough and only targeted her bullies.
Where we, along with Bex and Hasani, are thinking of Lazarus as an adult. The grown woman who mastered the apathy drug in prison and wants to use it on other people. Lazarus, who helped blow up The Pit and has a team targeting inmates that the team re-captured. The woman who killed Dr. Dulles and is secretly housing inmates from The Pit without telling anyone.
MORE: Wanna rewatch from the beginning of Season 2 now that it’s almost over? Re-read our Season 2, Episode 1 ‘Ron Simms’ review HERE!
Bex Will Listen Even If It Hurts
Understandably, we get why Shane wants to believe his mother isn’t dangerous in ‘Colette Akins.’ The answer is really simple.
He wants to trust that she wouldn’t hurt anyone if they didn’t deserve it. Deep down, Shane wants at least some part of her to be good if they’re related to each other. Because Shane is good and won’t resort to killing anyone unless it’s the only and last option. For example, he tackled Colette Akins to the ground after she threatened to kill a hostage at the end of the episode. And when she struggled, he was the one to tell her to calm down so nobody got hurt.
While Shane is usually kind and controlled, he knows how to hit where it hurts. Especially when he’s cornered by Bex and Hassani and it seems like they’re teaming up against him. We saw how he made them feel bad for hiding Lazarus’s identity from him in Season 2, Episode 7 ‘Doctor Fairfax’. And when he felt attacked by his partners again here, he snapped at Bex. Shane brought up the fact that Oliver Odell and Lazarus were hiding secrets after the explosion. Implying that Bex had experience getting close to somebody nobody else really liked in the beginning just like he had.
This was a moment where Bex could’ve lost her composure or tried to turn the conversation back to Lazarus being different. Because Oliver died protecting her and he wasn’t responsible for any deaths after the explosion. However, she didn’t do that even if his words hurt her. Yes, her face fell in surprise and despair as he spoke. But she didn’t stop him from saying what was on his mind. And we think that’s important because it shows how genuine their friendship has become.
She’ll listen to him no matter what, even if she’s the target of his frustration. So, we found it extra sweet when the episode ended on Shane and Bex singing Cyndi Lauper’s “Time after Time” together during karaoke. They forgave each other and didn’t let a moment of weakness get between them.
Bex, Hassani, And Confiding in Each Other
It’s worth it to us to talk about Bex and Hassani’s heartfelt scene at the karaoke bar while they waited for Akins to arrive. These two are similar, often different sides of the same coin, which means they’re aware of everything the other person does. When Hassani was nervously twirling his wedding ring around on his hand, Bex noticed. He was looking around as if he was anxious and had nobody to talk to about his inner turmoil.
That’s the thing about two lone wolves finding each other in life. One will always want to help when the other is in danger once they bond and get close. Bex took this opportunity to ask what he was worried about, and Hassani’s answer almost had us in tears. He said karaoke was where he took his wife on their first date.
When Hassani got shot in Season 1, Episode 13 ‘Jenna Wells,’ he had told doctors at the hospital that his wife had died and wasn’t available to contact. It was a confession he didn’t remember telling anybody. Rightfully so as he was bleeding out. But Bex remembered and didn’t bring it up to him until he felt comfortable telling her about his wife. She was patient and understood the pain he was in when reminiscing about her. Bex knows what it’s like to feel guilty and how it feels to lose someone close to you. As lost her best friend in a horrific way as a teenager.
MORE: Did you read our interview with Melissa Roxburgh and Josh Dallas where they discussed his Season 2 guest appearance? If not, read HERE!
Final Thoughts
It was revealed in ‘Colette Akins’ that Hassani was working halfway across the world when his wife died surrounded by family. And it’s something that must haunt him daily if the tears in his eyes as he spoke were any indication.
This entire interaction here between Bex and Hassani felt raw, intense, and emotional. As this was probably one of the first times Hassani has felt comfortable to share his wife’s memory with someone since she died. And he did it in a room full of strangers because Bex is the only person he cared about connecting with. Because of how much she made him feel safe to do so.
Hassani even felt comfortable enough to ask Bex if they should continue to trust Shane with the information they find on Lazarus. Yes, his fears are valid here because Shane is somewhat blinded by a new emotional attachment to his mother. But here’s where their friendship proved to be solid and unwavering. Bex told him with certainty that she trusts him, and Hassani who also kept his story a secret, a hundred percent. She trusts her guys no matter what at the end of the day because some secrets were worth keeping close to the chest. So, he should extend the same faith to her and Shane, and we like to believe that Hassani will do just that. At least for now after sharing such a soft moment with her.
Bex understands there’s power and purpose in keeping secrets. She understood from the moment Hassani confessed the truth about his wife while in pain. And the moment where Shane croaked out that he kept Dulles a secret so he could find his mother. They were alone before they met her, but they aren’t anymore.
So, we hope for her sake, that neither give her a terrible reason someday to doubt their loyalties because it’ll break our hearts.
NBC‘s The Hunting Party airs Thursday at 10 pm EST.
