Warning: SPOILERS forThe Hunting Partyseason 1, episode 4, “Doctor Ezekiel Malak.”
Although the future of the show remains currently unclear,The Hunting Partyepisode 4 just laid the perfect groundwork for a possible season renewal. The series got off to an extremely rocky start, with zero positive critical reviews at the time of the series premiere. Most ofThe Hunting Party’s negative reviewscame from critics who simply weren’t impressed by the premise of FBI agents hunting down serial killers following their escape from a top-secret prison called The Pit. Some found the basic story promising but still balked at its execution.
Episode 4, “Doctor Ezekiel Malak,” changes the game with one of the most disturbing villains yet to appear in the series. Meanwhile,Agent Hassani’s investigation into Odell’s role in the prison break leads him and Bex to a storage unit kept under his name. It first appears to be a normal unit containing personal items such as correspondence with Bex’s adopted daughter Sam. But further inspection leads to a reveal that could set upThe Hunting Partyseason 2in a big way.
The Hunting Party Episode 4 Suggests There May Be More Than One Pit
Odell’s Secret Coordinates Hint At A Much Larger Conspiracy
As they make their way to the back of Odell’s storage unit, Melissa Roxburgh’s Bex and Patrick Sabongui’s Hassani discover that Odell has been keeping documentation on the FBI’s secret panopticon, The Pit.Odell’s documents include schematics of The Pit’s design, something that would come in handy if he were indeed behind the explosion that led to the inmates’ escape. But the even bigger revelation is something that only Hassani immediately recognizes for what it is.
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On a board hanging above the schematics, Odell has written six strings of coordinates in three different colors. Four are black, one is green, and one is blue.Hassani recognizes the blue code as the satellite coordinates for The Pit, although he doesn’t know what the other five coordinates might designate. One plausible scenario is that the FBI is hiding five additional prisons, with the colors indicating what sort of experiments are being performed on the inmates there. If so, this reveal could lead into the second season while also solving one of the series’ main problems.
More Pits Set Up The Stories For The Hunting Party Season 2
Another Prison Break Would Make Sense For The Show’s Format
One basic aspect ofThe Hunting Partythat makes less sense with each passing episode is that every killer seems to go on a killing spree immediately upon their escape. However, since the titular three-person hunting party can’t track down all prisoners at once, a couple of episodes (such as episode 4) have had to justify why the killer hadn’t resurfaced earlier. Answering this question would only get harder going into a second season, but multiple prisons could set the stage for a second breakout and reset the clock on the entire issue.
Differently colored coordinates could signal different prisons, different forms of experimentation, or even different doctors overseeing the experiments at each facility (with one clearly outranking the others).
The color coding on the coordinates could also launch a mystery worth exploring. Differently colored coordinates could signal different prisons, different forms of experimentation, or even different doctors overseeing the experiments at each facility (with one clearly outranking the others). This would also add a layer of meaning to the bar codes on the inmates’ feet, which would be unnecessary if the FBI truly thought the prison inescapable but would make sense if the inmates were at risk of being transferred. Either way,showrunner JJ Baileyhas promised a deeper dive into The Pit’s backgroundshould season 2 get confirmed.
Will NBC Renew The Hunting Party For Season 2?
The Show’s Improved Since Its Rocky Start
Despite premiering to a critics’ score of 0% onRotten Tomatoes,The Hunting Partyhas risen to 18% as of episode 4. This may not seem like a very large rise, but it’s enough to indicate that at least some critics are warming up to the series as its storylines begin to improve. More importantly,The Hunting Party’s 72% audience score has remained fairly consistent. This could be a much stronger indication of whether the series stands a chance at renewal, even if better critical reviews wouldn’t exactly hurt.
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Even with the best reviews in the world, NBC won’t renew a show that nobody’s watching. However,The Hunting Partymay stand a chance in that regard as well. Its strongest competitor by far in the Monday 10 PM ET timeslot isNCIS: Origins. And whileOriginsgenerally seems to fare better in terms of viewership, the margin isn’t as wide as might be expected when up against a spinoff from such a long-running and beloved franchise asNCIS. Taken on its own merit, NBC’s newest series just may last another season as long as the ratings stay largely consistent.
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.
