The Hunting Party Season 2, Episode 12 ‘Nancy Albright’ gave us yet another example of how evil The Pit was as an institution. It was a prison where evil faced evil daily, and learning more about their practices is messing with our emotions.
At first glance, experimenting with a drug that’ll cure addiction for criminals sounds okay and moral. But there is nothing to applaud about why Lazarus or The Pit used the drug on Jamie Chung’s Albright in this hour. Because they didn’t care about what it would do to her. Or about the reasons she was dependent on drugs or loved the high enough to kill. They just wanted to control her body, which is awful to think about.
It was this realization that made Bex, Shane, and Hassani have some tough and heartfelt conversations in ‘Nancy Albright’, conversations about loss, hope, and facing hard truths you don’t want to believe. Overall, the hour had a lot to digest through as we also saw the team interrogating Peck on Lazarus’s plans. While it might’ve taken a while to get here, we finally have answers. And we’ll admit that it wasn’t that shocking of a reveal.
MORE: Missed last week’s episode? Watch then read our Season 2, Episode 11 ‘Dylan Miles’ Review HERE!
Albright Didn’t Ask for This
Chung’s performance reminded us of Elizabeth Gillies in Season 2, Episode 4 ‘Amanda Weiss‘. She was seductive, demanding in presence, and had this charm when interacting with on-screen victims that felt eerie. You never felt sure if you’d survive if you were in her victims’ shoes because of how easy it looked to fall into her trap. She was the total package of a perfect killer. Attractive, lethal, and able to slip through noticeable cracks.
She was introduced as an addict who got high with her victims before killing them. We won’t lie and say she wasn’t evil in the beginning, before experiencing The Pit. Because she was. She would encourage men to use, particularly if they had never had before, which is wrong and horrible to do. Nobody should be forced to do something they don’t want to do. Once they were both high, she blindsided them for the kill.
Previously, we’ve said before that doctors in this prison should’ve never gotten their licenses, and we still firmly believe that. Even more so after watching this episode. Because Albright’s case was similar to other women we’ve met before, like Jenna Wells and Lazarus.
These women were unique in being the test subjects of experimental drugs to control emotions. Or in this case, control chemical reactions. It was now impossible for Albright to get high because the drug blocked her body’s receptors to feel the effects. So, she has a real reason to fear and hate authority. No matter if Bex had good intentions or not.
This Is Making Us Question Our Morals
First off, Albright is a bad person who killed innocent people, so she doesn’t deserve total sympathy here. Of course, she didn’t deserve to be experimented on, as no human being does. However, she was deserving of being behind bars in jail as a result of her actions.
So, when we see the doctor talk with a pleading Albright who wants to feel that euphoric high again, things almost look normal. Like this is going to be a conversation where the therapist is patient and willing to understand where Albright’s mind for killing came from. She was willing to cooperate if it meant she’d get her drugs back. Undeniably, getting to the bottom of inner trauma that influenced actions or emotional outbursts would’ve been what a good doctor would’ve done if they truly wanted to fix or heal Albright as a person. But doctors in The Pit aren’t good or normal.
They gave her a drug that would block her receptors so she couldn’t feel high again in response to her pleading. So, they didn’t even care how withdrawal would impact her as they left her out to dry to find new ways to cope with her instability. Moreover, they got what they wanted in a successful test subject: an increased passion for killing.
Personally, we can’t help but agree with her rant at the end of the hour. Before getting caught, she moved in silence for her own pleasure. Now, she had no problem bringing other people into her kills. Or draining her victim’s blood to get a fix.
Doctors in The Pit were sadistic in practice and only viewed their patients as subjects to be played with. And if experiments ended in death, then they tossed people aside like nothing. In the end, ‘Nancy Albright’ was further proof for Shane that his mother was truly heartless if she was the head of these operations.
We Love This Trio
Honestly, it makes sense that one of the main trio’s most heartwarming scenes together would happen on a stakeout in ‘Nancy Albright’. They rarely have time to breathe if they’re not chasing after killers. So, it was really nice to see them get a chance to sit together and talk about their feelings about Albright and Lazarus.
To begin, the team had to deal with keeping Peck in interrogation as he turned cold and teasing. He admitted to following Lazarus’s command to kill Cyrus and the soldiers who initially transported him. This gave Shane a horrible taste in his mouth right off the bat. He was a soldier once and feels a kinship to the job. He didn’t want to believe his mother, who is currently in the military herself, would do that to her own people.
His emotions worsened when learning about Albright’s story because what happened to her was just as terrible. So, Shane called himself an idiot for clinging to hope that his mother had good in her for so long. Being proven wrong time and time again has left him hurting, as it finally clicked for Shane that destruction and harm are who his mother is. There are no big misunderstandings or weird coincidences to comb through for the truth. This was it. Therefore, while we’re inclined to lovingly agree with him, we don’t think that’s fair in the end.
Because we get why he’s struggled for so long to come to terms with the truth. As someone with values and a big heart, he wanted to believe whoever he came from would share some of his qualities. Which breaks us a little because he’s so deserving of a love that’s just as gentle as he is inside. He deserves the friends he’s found in Bex and Hassani. So, we found it sweet how fast they jumped in to lift Shane’s spirit when he felt bad about himself.
MORE: Did you miss when we talked to Patrick Sabongui about Season 2? Read our interview about what to expect from Hassani and the trio HERE!
Love and Pain Are Two Sides of the Same Coin
Sure, hope may be a dangerous emotion in a cruel world. But it doesn’t make someone idiotic. It’s representative of optimism and having a good outlook on life and people. Bex reminded Shane of this in a soft admission, and we loved it. She never fails to offer a shoulder to lean on or an ear to listen.
When it came time for Hassani to offer his hand, we saw his soft and somber side, who speaks with his heart rather than his head. He opened up further about losing his wife and how he still wears his ring. He hasn’t taken off since she died because it feels like she’s still with him and alive somehow.
Immediately, Shane tried to apologize for initiating a conversation about letting go of family when their situations are different. But we don’t think he needed to apologize. Their pain over letting go of someone is valid and real. Even if Hassani loved his wife, and Shane never knew his mother.
The Hunting Party Season 2, Episode 12 ‘Nancy Albright’ ended with the trio promising to be there for each other as they navigate the sad realities of their lives. And with a cliffhanger on Peck’s confession about Lazarus’s plans. She has been secretly transporting previous inmates from The Pit into a new lab in which she plans to re-create the prison and weaponize serial killers to turn them into a military army.
Admittedly, it was easy to put the pieces together once we learned Lazarus had control of transporting killers. So, what ended up rattling us the most? Watching Peck confess her plans as if he were recounting the weather. He sounded unbothered, like he didn’t believe the team would be able to stop her. Which does scare us more than we’d like to admit, even if we have confidence in them.
NBC‘s The Hunting Party airs Thursday at 10 pm EST.
What did you think about The Hunting Party Season 2, Episode 12 ‘Nancy Albright’? If you have any thoughts about the show, leave your own review/rating in our The Hunting Party hub!
