‘The Hunting Party’ Bosses & Melissa Roxburgh Talk [Spoiler’s] Death and Bex & Shane’s Connection

In order to bring Amanda (Elizabeth Gillies) in and rescue the woman she’s kidnapped almost as a replacement sister, Bex takes on the persona of an inmate that Amanda’s psychiatrist created as part of her Pit therapy. She’s ultimately successful. Then, Bex realizes, after Shane (Josh McKenzie) reveals the voice he had Morales (Sara Garcia) analyze is his mom’s, realize Lazarus is his mom but doesn’t tell him —as Lazarus is busy herself, killing one of the Pit’s former scientists, Dulles (Matt Frewer).

Below, in separate interviews, Melissa Roxburgh and executive producers JJ Bailey and Jake Coburn break down Bex’s approach to Amanda, that Bex and Shane conversation, and more.

I can see why you told me that Bex tried something a bit different with Amanda and left it at that when we talked about this before because that twist of her playing Alice was fun. So how was switching gears a bit to do that and working with Elizabeth on those scenes?

Melissa Roxburgh: It was hard actually because me as Melissa, I’m an actress, I could pretend to be whoever. But Bex is not an actress. She’s an FBI agent. So I was trying to figure out how to play a role without acting so different that it would be bizarre for a normal person to play pretend, but it was fun. I got to just step outside of FBI girl for a second and Liz Gillies is just so down to earth and awesome that scenes with her were fun and we had great conversations when the cameras weren’t rolling. And so it was just like there was this ease. But yeah, honestly, I felt like that was probably the most challenging episode for me because I’m playing with catching her, trying to get her to trust me, trying to play a role. Yeah, it was a very confusing one.

Then keeping in mind, there’s also an innocent person here I have to save and then, oh, she’s no longer there.

Roxburgh: Yeah. Yeah. So I tried to actually put my profiling hat on that time.

Loved the stuff that you did with Amanda and with Bex and that dynamic. But then Hassani (Patrick Sabongui) mentions that Amanda won’t be happy with Bex when she finds out that she lied to her. Is that a concern going forward? Is that something that will come up again?

JJ Bailey: You mean Amanda specifically?

Yeah.

Jake Coburn: I mean, if we could get Liz Gillies to come back, we might address it. [Laughs]

Bailey: Liz is another one of those actors, if we could have people come back, Liz will be on a list. It’s just so fun. But I think for me, at least in that moment, it’s more along the lines of a wink that Bex sort of adopted the strategy of the Pit a little bit, and is that weird? Are you comfortable with that? And what are you going to do with that, Bex? And I think in that moment, she’s like, look, for right now, the ends justify the means. We can talk about the bigger picture later, but for right now, getting Amanda in custody.

Coburn: Deescalating the situation is the most important thing. And I think when Bex does lie, you understand she’s lying to deescalate it and in some sense so that she doesn’t have to kill Amanda.

Are we going to see Bex maybe changing how she’s going about dealing with these killers because of what she did in this episode with Amanda and because those things from the Pit?

Bailey: I think Bex is very pragmatic. I think she approaches the situation and finds exactly what this particular killer needs or what the situation calls for in order to deescalate. I think she avoids trying to kill these inmates, but I think she approaches it on an individual basis. And I’m not too concerned with her morality slippage because I think she’s going to be our true north and I think the three of them particularly together in the field can keep each other heading in the right direction. Even if there are moments in the season where we see maybe somebody drifting this way or that way or making a decision that doesn’t necessarily line up with that, I think ultimately the cohesive nature of our team will keep them ultimately going the right direction.

Amanda is going to the new facility, it’s said at the end of the episode. Is that different from the black site?

Bailey: No, it’s the same.

Then we get that scene at the end and now Bex knows Shane’s mom is Lazarus, but he doesn’t, just as they’re toasting to new beginnings and he’s saying he’ll never lie to her again. And here she is keeping something from him. So how does she feel about keeping that from him? And does she fully trust him because he did open up or is there part of her wondering, he kept this for a bit of time, he did lie earlier…

Roxburgh: No, I think the Shane-Bex storyline is interesting because by all means she shouldn’t trust anyone because everyone is capable of bad and good. And I think that’s why she has her walls up because she knows it could go one way or the other. But with Shane, I think because he does become her safe place, so to speak, she does trust him and especially given the amount of time that they’ve worked together now. So when she finds out about Lazarus being his mom, I think it’s more fear. I think it’s more fear that there is something in him that even he doesn’t know, or that there’s a person now in his life that’s capable of manipulation and horrible things that she’s not sure how that plays out. She’s not sure what happens when he finds out, if he finds out that she’s his mom, because does that ruin everything he’s worked on? Does that destroy him? Does that send him into a spiral? So I think she almost becomes protective. And I think in regards to her lying to him, that’s the thing that she’s wrestling with. Do I tell him and open the can of worms that who knows what happens or do I let this play out a little longer to see what the right move is?

Coburn: She doesn’t feel great about keeping it from him, but it’s not as simple as just like, oh, I should just tell somebody something. And you’ll see in [Episodes] 5 and 6 and 7, this is something that they really wrestle with.

Bailey: Yeah. I mean, I think in that moment in the bar, it sort of dropped on her and it’s like she has this realization and when you learn that massive of a thing about somebody you care for, you don’t just want to dump it on them. I think you want to [think], how am I supposed to tell them this? Should I tell them this? And all those types of questions. And I think we’ll see in the subsequent episodes, as Jake said, it’s not just Bex. I mean, the team wrestles with this and how are we going to navigate this now? And I think people are going to enjoy how it all comes out and how our team deals with it.

Because that conversation could be a turning point to, because there’s this potential romance there and the whole, I’ll never lie to you again. So what are we going to see from that possible romance going forward after this?

Bailey: I mean, I think the push and pull exists for a while. I think there are other secrets that Shane is keeping — the whole Dulles situation, the Sarah Dulles [Siobhan Williams] and all that. And we definitely wanted to get all cards on the table this season, so we go on that journey and it does impact things. I think what we’ll see over the course of the season is a group of people working through those things and coming out the other side in a really good place. And I think as far specifically the romance, we’re not going to see them hooking up this season, but I think we’re going to still love the two of them and want them to be together. And I think they’re still on that —

Coburn: They’re on that path.

Bailey: For sure.

Lazarus tells Dulles she’ll keep a promise. What exactly is that promise and why did he have to die?

Bailey: Well, I don’t know if we can tell you what the promise is yet, but in my mind, she had to kill him because he was sort of a loose end in — She knows Bex is snooping around. She knows that her real identity has been found and really the only person who can confirm all this stuff, even if his mind is gone, he has moments of lucidity, it’s Dulles. And hopefully what you take from the moment is, OK, she’s been aware of Dulles in the situation for a long time. She’s been keeping tabs on him just like Shane, and here she is showing up to cut off that loose end. It’s a self-preservation thing for her.

So is there anyone keeping tabs on her who will be like, “Well, you killed this guy. Have you really graduated from this program?”

Bailey: Ultimately, she’s pretty autonomous. And especially after the blast at the Pit, I think something you’ll discover as the season goes on is that there’s a big apparatus and the destruction of the pit really did a number on it and there’s a little bit of a power sort of struggle and Lazarus is rising to the top. So ultimately, I think she’s working autonomously at the moment.

But does she think she still has successfully graduated or is she going to stat questioning, am I slipping?

Bailey: No, she thinks she’s a success.

Coburn: She’s pretty self-confident.

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

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