The Hunting Party Stars on Building Trust & Making a Killer Less Sympathetic
Melissa Roxburgh and Patrick Sabongui explain how their characters are beginning to evolve together.
This story contains spoilers for The Hunting Party Season 1, Episode 3, "Lowe."
In this week's new episode of NBC's procedural The Hunting Party, the serial killer recovery mission is all about getting a prolific female killer out of the wild and back into custody.
Brenda Lowe is a lone wolf killer with actual love for a pack of wolves who live and hunt on her property. Special Agent Rebecca "Bex" Henderson (Melissa Roxburgh), CIA agent Jacob Hassani (Patrick Sanbongui), and recent Pit prison guard Shane Florence (Josh McKenzie) are sent out to find her and determine why she's changing her reason for killing now that she's outside again.
For NBC Insider's exclusive look inside the making of Episode 3, "Lowe," Roxburgh and Sabongui shared some interesting production details about this week's serial killer, and then revealed why their characters are starting to trust one another.
The challenge of making Brenda less sympathetic
While Brenda Lowe's body count is beyond unconscionable, her inclination in this episode to retaliate on those who hurt her or her wolves engenders some sympathy for her killing ways; a first for the show.
Roxburgh told NBC Insider that they ended up doing several different reshoots for this episode to get the balance of her story right.
"What was interesting at first was that all of us in the cast were, like, 'I kind of take her side,'" the actress shared. "What was challenging [about] this character specifically is that she manipulates, but we're not sure if she is manipulating why she's doing what she's doing. To use her wolves and bring them in and to be fighting for her wolves, that sounds fine...minus the murders. [So, it's] not knowing if that really is her true intention.
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"And then when we get to that last scene where Bex tells her, 'That's not why you did it. You just like killing, I think there was some psychological confusion for me getting into talking to Brenda, which was interesting," she added of the ultimate outcome.
Agents Henderson and Hassani are inching toward trust
In the investigation of this case, Hassani finally opens up to Bex about his background as a CIA agent, which goes a long way in creating more of a persuasive thaw between the newly partnered investigators.
Sabongui said that he finds Hassani's constant "inner turmoil" interesting to play and sometimes figure out.
"He's holding the team together, withholding secrets, while also trying to uncover the truth," he said of the juggling act his character is trying to keep going. "Not that he has shifting allegiances, but [he's] figuring out who he can trust."
In the scene where they get real and share a drink, Sabongui said he appreciated their characters getting more time to relax in each other's company: "I think they've revealed just enough about each other's personal lives that there's an affinity there, and we're rooting for each other and developing this personal bond."
"But then again, I don't even know if I can trust Hassani," he added, laughing. "Like, everybody in this world is duplicitous. Who can you actually trust? What can you take at face value? And so, I really cherish those moments where the chase is done, and we can let the guard down for just a second and be real with each other before the walls have to come back up."
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Roxburgh agreed and said that, in that moment, "I think that [Bex is] really good at managing everyone, but not actually letting anyone in.
"I think Hassani, over the course of the season, does actually become her go-to in [confidence]. I feel like, as Melissa, I built that with Patrick as well. [Often], I was like, 'What do you think?' and I'd be getting advice from him," she added. "It's nice to see all of the characters slowly come out of their bubbles."
New episodes of The Hunting Party air on Mondays at 10/9c on NBC and stream next day on Peacock.
