The Hunting Party Star on Tackling Bex's Dark Origin Story: "It's the Thing That Haunts Her"
Two creepy killers help shine a light on Bex's complicated backstory in the latest The Hunting Party episode.
This story contains spoilers for The Hunting Party Season 1, Episode 2, "Clayton Jessup."
What a difference a week and an official HQ make when chasing escaped serial killers on NBC's new procedural thriller The Hunting Party.
In Episode 2, "Clayton Jessup," the dust has (literally) settled after the massive explosion at the secret, black-site prison known as The Pit, from which some of the worst serial killers in history escaped in the premiere episode. But now there's an official Task Force that includes FBI Profiler Special Agent Rebecca "Bex" Henderson (Melissa Roxburgh), CIA agent Jacob Hassani (Patrick Sanbongui), Army Intelligence officer Jennifer Morales (Sara Garcia), and recent Pit prison guard Shane Florence (Josh McKenzie), all of whom are working to get these dangerous criminals back into custody.
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For NBC Insider's exclusive look at "Clayton Jessup," Roxburgh joined us again to unpack Bex's new team, the story behind the case that defined her character's career path, and if her former partner and current warden of the Pit, Oliver Odell (Nick Wechsler), is going to cause her more trouble.
The Hunting Party team comes together
This week's episode is about good, old-fashioned, bootstraps investigation in the field, as the team tracks down Clayton Jessup, a man obsessed with targeting perfect families for grim carbon monoxide poisoning murders.
Roxburgh said this episode allowed each new team member a moment to shine as they worked through Jessup's unconventional obsessions. It all comes down to a basement where Jessup has collected the original actors from an old educational video his twisted brain has convinced him are a real family that he wants to take out.
Along the way, Roxburgh said the team members and how they function together is getting clearer.
"Jacob Hassani is a CIA officer, and what I love about his character is he is kind of the dad, or the leader of what we're doing," she said of Bex's new boss. "Because we're undercover, he has different covers for us every single episode, so he's pulling out different badges for this and for that. He's definitely the more serious character."
Meanwhile, she said Shane is an ex-military guy who "goes with the flow" when they're out investigating. "He's cracking jokes and offering food and saying the wrong thing at the wrong time," she said, laughing. "He's a super fun character."
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By the episode's end, their rapport is starting to take shape as they decompress together at a local restaurant.
"The dynamic between the three of us really plays well," Roxburgh assessed of that moment. "We have a serious character, we have the jokester, and then we have my character, who's kind of in between. It was just really fun working with those two. They're awesome, awesome humans."
All about Eli Johnson: The killer who made Bex Henderson a profiler
As the episode unfolds, we get a better look into Bex's past. In particular, we learn more about Eli Johnson, a serial killer Bex was entangled with as a teen. Concerned that Johnson was also held in the Pit, she asks Shane if he ever saw him in the cells before the explosion. However, it's Odell who reveals Johnson is alive and still in custody. He sets up a meeting between the two.
"We get to discover how Rebecca became what she became, and why she does the job she does," Roxburgh said of the case that changed her character's life. "We get to actually meet this guy. I think for anyone in her shoes who went through what she went through, I think it's a no brainer why she's a profiler. It's the thing that haunts her throughout the show, and I think it's what drives her to get these guy. It's like, 'If I can just stop this one, then maybe the past will be healed.' She doesn't take any of it lightly."
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As it turns out, Johnson and Odell are the only people who know what really happened when this serial killer was turned in by his daughter. Instead of standing by her best friend's side, Bex ran, and to this day, she feels responsible for her friend's terrible fate.
That's certainly vulnerable information for Odell to have power over, yet he seems to be entirely on Bex's side. Can that be trusted?
"They're strangers again when we meet them," Roxburgh said of Bex and Oliver's relationship. "It's been a long time, and they haven't talked in a long time. Can the past be healed? Well, he killed someone. He cost her her job. But, she loved him and seeing who he is as a human, everything got completely changed for her. Can that be redeemed? We'll find out."
New episodes of The Hunting Party air on Mondays at 10/9c on NBC and stream next day on Peacock.
