Diksha Sundriyal
NBC’s ‘The Hunting Party’ follows a group of people who are tasked with catching the serial killers who have escaped a top-secret prison facility called the Pit. Each episode delves into a new case, giving us an insight into the inmates. More importantly, these cases also reveal new things about the Pit, and with each layer unpeeled, we get a glimpse into the true purpose of the facility. The story is presented through the eyes of Bex Henderson, who used to work as a profiler but quit her job when she was brought back into the fold by her ex, Oliver Odell, who serves as the warden of the Pit. It’s clear that Oliver is keeping a lot of things about the facility, but by the end of this episode, Bex gets him to spill some beans. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Curious Case of Arlo Brandt
The sixth episode of ‘The Hunting Party’ opens with a young man’s car breaking down after he hits the spikes set up in the middle of the road. He doesn’t notice the spikes, which is why he doesn’t realize that he is being set up. He walks to the nearest house to ask for help. His simple request is for the owner of the house to call the nearest towing service. He doesn’t want to step into the house or make the call himself. When the owner makes the call, he makes the young man come inside the house under the pretense of talking to the person on the other side of the phone. This proves to be a mistake, as the young man is brutally murdered.
This was years before Arlo Brandt was caught for killing a number of people because he couldn’t control his compulsion to own things. It started with him wanting to horde all kinds of material stuff, but it moved on to people, which turned him into a serial killer. In the Pit, he was put in solitary, and to rehabilitate him, a unique approach was taken. Slowly and steadily, he was told to rid himself of all his possessions, including his hair and his clothes, save his unmentionables. Each time he gave up something in his possession, he was rewarded for it with food. This continued for years until, eventually, Arlo did end up renouncing everything.
And then, the explosion happened, and Arlo escaped the pit with several other serial killers. It was one thing for him to control his urges in a prison cell, but being out and about in the world with too many things stimulating him, there was no way he couldn’t slip back into his ways. He does exactly that as Bex and her team get wind of a real estate agent who is left for dead by him. The man survives, while Arlo moves on to other victims. At first, it seems he is killing just like he used to before he was arrested. But Bex notices that a strange pattern has emerged in his killings.
Arlo Brandt Decides to Change the World the Way He Was Changed
The pattern in Arlo’s choice of victims emerges from the real estate agent, whom he landed in the hospital. It turns out that the serial killer is targeting his clients whom he showed around a house fairly recently. What’s more interesting is what he is doing with them. Previously, Bex believed that going back into the world would trigger Arlo’s past behavior, completely undoing whatever behavior had been inculcated in him at the Pit. However, it turns out that his new killings are entirely because of that conditioning.
Following his first victim, Arlo checks into a meditation center, where it seems that he is the kind of person who has truly renounced everything and has found the peace that people look for their entire lives. When Ben and her team question the man at the place, he talks about Arlo as if he is the sanest person he has ever met. At the same time, they also discover that the serial killer bought a bunch of clothes from the center, which shows that he has several victims on his kill list. Things become much clearer with the recordings from his sessions in the Pit, which leads Bex to realize that the man is not relapsing but building upon what he has learned in the Pit.
During his so-called rehabilitation, Arlo learned to give up all material things. He believes he was saved because of it, and he wants to do the same for other people. He is not killing his victims yet but is forcing them into cells and recreating what he had in the Pit so he can teach them to renounce material things and reach a higher level of being. Like he was forced to give up his hair and clothes, he forces them to do the same. Eventually, however, the Feds catch up to him, and he is brought back to the Pit.
Bex Confronts Oliver About Silo 12
When Bex is brought on board to help with the Pit, she discovers that a lot is being kept secret from her, especially about the circumstances surrounding the escape of the serial killers. What’s more, Oliver, who requested her to be made a part of the team, is one of the people hiding things from him. CIA agent Jacob Hassani, who is also looking for answers, helps her piece some things together, but in the end, all fingers point to Olive. Though Jacob warns her against trusting the warden, Bex decides to confront him in this episode. Without beating around the bush, she tells him that she knows about Silo 12, and if he wishes to continue trusting him, then he must come clean to her.
At the end of the episode, Oliver decides to tell Bex what he knows, or at least a part of it. During his time as the warden of the Pit, he figured out that inmates were being used for experimental treatments. The ones that showed promise were shifted to another facility. These buildings are connected to each other through the tunnels, especially the Pit and Silo 12. Oliver doesn’t know what’s in Silo 12, but he knows that on the day of the explosion, he got a call where he was notified about a breach in the location, and it was done by armed forces. He is convinced that the explosion in the Pit happened because of the breach in the silo, but this explanation only puts up more questions in front of him. Bex suggests that to get some answers, they must visit Silo 12.
Meanwhile, Shane Florence is dealing with problems of his own. At the beginning of the episode, he gets a call where he is told that his father, who has Alzheimer’s, is getting worse. Throughout the episode, Shane gets calls from the nurse, but he doesn’t pick them up. At the end of the episode, he visits his father and talks with the doctor, who tells him that his father’s condition has worsened, which means he requires better care. She suggests he put his father in a better facility in Colorado, but Shane wants him to stay close because he wants some answers.
When Shane leaves, a woman asks the doctor about his identity and is shocked to hear that Shane is calling himself the son of the man who is her father and does not have any sons. This means that Shane is lying and he is not the man’s father, which raises even more questions about his act and the answers he wants from the old man. Or, he really is the man’s son, but the woman is not aware of it, which, again, brings up so many more questions about Shane and his backstory.
