The Hunting Party Bosses & Melissa Roxburgh Explain Major Niecy Nash-Betts Twist

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers forThe Hunting Party Season 2 Episode 2 “Adrian Gallo.”]

“Truth is, Bex, we do this job long enough, the job will leave its mark,” Erica (Niecy Nash-Betts), a detective who worked the original case involving one of the Pit’s escaped serial killers, tells Melissa Roxburgh‘s character in the Thursday, January 15, episode ofThe Hunting Party. Is she right?

Well, that’s certainly the case when it comes to Erica. A it turns out,she was the one to kill her partner and others, attributed to Adrian Gallo (Edoardo Ballerini), who preserved his victims in acrylic resin, and she kept killing, hiding the bodies in the walls of her home. As for Bex, when she asks Shane (Josh McKenzie) if he thinks Erica was right about the darkness leaving its mark, he says no and that you can just turn a light on. Bex laughs. Shane explains, the light always wins, and the trick is finding something that keeps it on, like, for example, her, Hassani (Patrick Sabongui), Morales (Sara Garcia), and being part of this — and Red Vines.

Below, Melissa Roxburgh and executive producers JJ Bailey and Jake Coburn unpack that twist.

That twist with Erica being the copycat was so good. Talk about introducing that and having that this early in the season, too.

JJ Bailey: I remember when we came up with that. It was really fun to try to think of — It’s hard for our show to involve other people present day in the investigation because we’re keeping the secret. We’re always trying to find ways to involve people so that we can change the dynamic of the team or change the dynamic of the investigation. And I remember we were in an airport together, and we were standing in line, and we were bouncing this like, “How do we do this? Can we make this happen?” The cop who’s also a killer who comes alongside our team, and it was just we wanted to early in the season break format a little bit just to show we’ve got a lot of legs with this show.

Ralph Bavaro/NBC

Jake Coburn: And I think we like the idea of you spend enough time staring at pictures and studying what somebody else is doing. If you spend years and years and years, eventually you might get to a place where you’re like, “You know what? I wonder what that is like.” The way in which the darkness can touch you, as she says, I think, is interesting to us. And also just having an actress like Niecy who is willing to come and play and that sort of speech she gives where she explains what happened to her, I think, is so fun because she’s got that sort of ferociousness in her. And the moment she comes out as a serial killer, you’re like, “Oh, I see that in you. I get it.” But yeah, she has that line about once I got a taste. And that moment, I was like, “Oh, you’re nailing it.”

What was your reaction to the Erica twist?

Melissa Roxburgh: I think it’s fun. We had a bit of that in Season 1 Episode 1 where it was a switcheroo in a way, but this is a real switcheroo. We really were wrong about this one. And I think what I personally have thought of looking at Bex is this is what it would look like if she did let all of that darkness in. This is what happens when you focus on it too much. I think it’s a bit of a warning for her because she focuses so much on these killers and understanding them and getting their minds and hunting them down that it became a bit of an obsession, but this is literally what happens when someone becomes obsessed with what they’re working on.

There had to be a twist because once Erica knew that there’s a killer alive out there, it’s like you have to keep that secret. It has to continue.

Roxburgh: Either way, she was getting arrested because she knows too much. [Laughs]

Bex does wonder about what Erica said, that the job and its darkness will even mark. How much will we see that weighing on Bex this season?

Bailey: I think it’s something our entire team sort of wrestles with to a degree. Obviously, with Shane, with his identity, as the season goes on and he does learn a little bit more about who he is, I think he’s going to be wrestling with that a bit. We actually are dealing with an episode right now where he makes a pretty dark decision just spur of the moment and having to wrestle with that. And I think the end of the episode, where Shane talks to Bex about it, that’s ultimately the core of our team. They’re going to keep each other from that darkness, but it is a question you got to wrestle with when you’re immersed in this world.

How worried is Bex about how this job can be affecting her in the long run? Because we know she’ll never get to the point where she turns out to be like Erica, but still, she’s been through so much already, going back to her childhood. That’s all adding up in a way.

Roxburgh: Yeah, for sure. I think we can’t totally see her collapse because then the bad guys don’t get caught. But I do think that she’s shoved so much down, so much down. And we haven’t finished this season, so I’m curious to see if she does have a little break, but so far she’s managing to hold it all together somehow. And I think that is thanks to Shane and Hassani and the fact that she does have that support and a mission. She’s got a mission to focus on, but I do. I think if I were in her shoes, I’d be bawling in a corner right now.

I like Shane’s response when Bex brings it up because it’s like a mix of sweet and serious and just comedic. Is that what Bex needed to hear at that moment?

Roxburgh: 100%. I think Bex takes life a little too seriously sometimes. She’s all work, no play to a degree. I think we see her soft sides and her happy sides and all that stuff, but when it comes to life, I don’t think she knows anything other than work. And so the Shane character to her is sort of this relief. He lightens her load, he makes her laugh. And so I think that response is perfect in the sense that it doesn’t dismiss her. He’s not not acknowledging it, but he’s also going, “Look, this is what it is, and I want you to smile.”

And also, that’s not something that you’re going to really just unpack after a case on the jet on the way home.

Roxburgh: Yeah. And I think Shane also knows that Bex isn’t really wanting to unpack it. I don’t think that she wants to have deep conversations about how she’s feeling because it takes a lot to get into her. And I think Shane knows that, OK, I’m just going to give her a bit of relief and acknowledge her. And I think the fun thing is seeing how that dynamic between those two characters gets to soften her this season as well.

This episode made me wonder, will we ever see two serial killers in one episode, either targeting each other or both operating in the same location?

Coburn: Hope so.

Bailey: Yeah, that’s our plan.

Ron (Eric McCormack in the Season 2 premiere) is at the same black site as the others. Will we see that black site this season?

Bailey: Possibly. We’re working on something for the end, and possibly.

Jonathan (Luke Forbes) helps the team, claims his only job is to help, but he works for Lazarus (Kari Matchett), so of course, can we trust this guy? But how honest is he being? Because he can be honest with this, but then still be hiding things.

Coburn: You know how when you know someone, and they’re not a great person, but they think they’re a good person, most people that are bad people don’t think, “I’m a bad person.” I think he’s a guy who is a good person in a sense and thinks he’s a good person, but may also be making some bad decisions. So he’s dangerous.

Bailey: I also say, I think when you make a bad decision in the name of something you believe is good, I think you justify that bad decision. I think that’s sort of the space ultimately we’ll discover that he sort of exists in.

The Hunting Party, Thursdays, 10/9c, NBC