Warning: SPOILERS forThe Hunting Partyseason 1, episode 10, “Jenna Wells.”
The first season ofThe Hunting Partyhas finally come to a close, but several mysteries remain to be explored in season 2. As of the first season finale,The Hunting Partyseason 2has yet to be confirmed. It doesn’t help much that the show’s been received extremely poorly by critics. On the brighter side of things, audience scores tend to rate much higher, and ratings have been relatively consistent.
Naturally,The Hunting Party’s negative reviewsare still cause for some degree of concern. The series will have many faults it needs to address if it’s granted renewal, butnone of the issues withThe Hunting Partyrequire huge changes to fix. The series mostly needs to give its characters a bit more focus and play around with its sometimes predictable procedural format. Luckily, the season 1 finale raises so many questions that NBC is practically backed into a corner to renew the show if they ever wish to see these questions answered.
5Is Oliver Going To Die?
The Hunting Party’s Finale Leaves His Fate Uncertain
For a guy who started the show as a suspected antagonist, not to mention a guy who canonically murdered someone by setting them on fire, Oliver Odell’s become increasingly likable over the past few episodes. That’s what makes it so upsetting thatJenna Wells appears to have killed Odell with one of her mystery drug patches. She did say there’s an antidote, but it’s also time-sensitive. And the episode waffles a bit on whether the patches contain cyanide or some other unnamed neurotoxin, which complicates things even further.
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Even worse is the fact that Jenna managed to kill two hundred people in what looked like mere seconds just by adding some blood pressure medication to their drinks.Odell surviving a neurotoxin after hundreds of people were killed by ACE inhibitors or beta blockers simply isn’t believable, even if it might feel like an inevitability. But the biggest twist is thatThe Hunting Partycast didn’t know about Odell’s potential death, which makes it even more unpredictable whether the writers will make it stick or not.
4When Will Shane Meet His Mother?
A Major Reveal Needs To Be Paid Off
It was already a major reveal when Shane explained that Dulles wasn’t his actual father, but rather he was the one man who could identify Shane’s mother. That storyline has developed to the point thatShane and Sarah seem like they might be bordering on a romance, although Shane’s also had some moments with Bex that leave his romantic possibilities wide open. Either way, both Sarah and Morales just learned the truth about Shane’s mother at the exact same time.
Her villainous role might put her on that path in a most unfortunate way.
While Sarah was hearing the truth from Dulles after Shane decided not to visit him during his brief coma awakening, Morales was tracing the voice on one of Dulles’ tapes to learn thatShane’s mother is Colonel Eve Lazarus, one of the show’s potential main villains. It previously appeared the main villain was James Whitmore, but he’s officially dead whereas Lazarus seems to have a strange desire to see all escapees killed. She’s been wanting to meet her son for a long time. Her villainous role might put her on that path in a most unfortunate way.
3Have Other Inmates Graduated From The Pit?
Lazarus Raises A Major Question
As if it wasn’t a big enough twist that Lazarus is Shane’s mother, it’s also revealed that she graduated from The Pit. This one reveal opens up more questions than the splitting of the atom. The show’s premise already establishes that countless fugitives are running around, butthe fact that Lazarus left The Pit and became a high-ranking government official means there might be other killers hiding in plain sight. This could lead to some very different kinds of investigations inThe Hunting Partyseason 2.
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In fact,The Hunting Party’s season 2 setupbegan much earlier when Bex found that whiteboard full of coordinates, many of which remain unexplained. There may be other Pits that involved experiments besides Whitmore’s empathy drug, andit’s possible some killers graduated from these other potential Pits as well. Eve’s reveal creates so many possibilities that it would be sincerely upsetting if the show were to end before getting the chance to explore any of them.
2How Did Hassani’s Wife Die?
Major Reveals Require Major Answers
Before Odell’s nose leak, it seemed like the major death cliffhanger of the episode was going to be Hassani. After getting shot by Whitmore’s security, he made it very clear that the doctors were not allowed to take off his wedding ring. This naturally led to Melissa calling Morales with the hope of getting a message to Ryan’s wife, only to learn thatHassani’s wife has been dead for the past two years. Raising his children alone is the only reason Ryan’s been primarily operating stateside for the CIA.
Since Morales already knew this info, it’s presumable that other characters might have known it as well. Morales seems to have better relationships with Shane and Odell than anybody else, so it wouldn’t be shocking to learn that they know anything she knows. However,Morales doesn’t actually tell Bex how Hassani’s wife died, and the fact that he’s kept it secret from Bex suggests there might be an unresolved mystery there. He definitely responded to Bex’s story about knowing a serial killer. Perhaps Hassani has a similar story that hasn’t been explored yet.
1How Will The Team Get Back Together?
They Can’t Stay Shut Down Forever
Mallory technically shut down the team before they dispatched Jenna Wells, which complicates their situation even further. There’s an argument to be made that taking down Wells should renew the attorney general’s faith in the team, butthe fact that they were no longer on active duty means that Wells’ death should legally be considered murder. And since the team’s been theoretically operating in secret this whole time, Mallory might not appreciate the body count they’ve been racking up.
Justifying the reunification of this team is going to be one of the biggest challenges this show’s writers have faced.
It seems obvious thatThe Hunting Partycan’t continue without its main team. The core three have developed great rapport in these past ten episodes, but the series also needs Morales and Odell to maintain full appeal. However, Mallory going so far as dismantling the entire command center while she replaces Bex, Shane, and Hassani suggests that she isn’t playing around. Justifying the reunification of this team is going to be one of the biggest challenges this show’s writers have faced. Thankfully, their story crafting thus far suggests they’re than up to the challenge.
The Hunting Party
Cast
The Hunting Party is a crime procedural series released in 2025, centering on a specialized team of investigators tasked with apprehending notorious killers who have escaped from a secretive and non-existent prison facility.
