The Hunting Party Cast on Their Final "Dizzying" Foe Ahead of the Season 1 Finale
Actors Patrick Sabongui and Sara Garcia unpack this week's difficult capture.
This story contains spoilers for The Hunting Party Season 1, Episode 9, "Tom Beecher."
In "Tom Beecher," the penultimate episode of NBC's new serial killer thriller The Hunting Party, it's an all-hands kind of case that pushes Agent Rebecca “Bex” Henderson (Melissa Roxburgh), CIA agent Jacob Hassani (Patrick Sabongui), former Pit prison guard Shane Florence (Josh McKenzie), and HQ intel officer Jennifer Morales (Sara Garcia) into the field to achieve their re-capture.
Tom Beecher is a truly depraved adversary, possessing an intellect so keen that he's able to set up multiple traps to torment his prey, including the team pursuing him. Played by Jay Paulson (Killers of the Flower Moon), Beecher is a massive test for this still-fledgling recovery team to overcome as they move toward their season finale next week.
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In this week's NBC Insider exclusive episode postmortem, Sabongui and Garcia discuss Morales' first case as a baby profiler and the evolution of Hassani's protective instincts with Bex all season long.
Tom Beecher is a diabolical foe for the whole team
"What I love about this episode is the mind-bending psychology behind this killer," Sabongui shared with us. "Every week, there's an interesting, unique logic that these killers live by. But this one was truly dizzying. Even while we were shooting it, trying to decipher it was like, 'Wait, what do we know? What does he know? And how can we anticipate his next step?'
"My hat really goes off to the writers because it's impossible to stay out ahead of it," Sanongui said. "He's just a really smart, dizzying intellect that we have to try to follow."
Hassani has another side mission: Protect Bex
As Bex, Hassani, and Shane have gone on mission after mission while navigating former Pit warden Oliver Odell's (Nick Wechsler) mysterious machinations, Sabongui said he really latched onto the moments in various scripts where his character took point in making sure Bex wasn't being manipulated or made unnecessarily vulnerable.
"There's this paternal/familial bond that he feels a responsibility to protect her from Odell," Sabongui said. "This mistrust between Hassani and Odell is almost more personal. The fact that Bex kind of gets stuck in between is a bit of a sore spot. It's not like [a] love triangle, vying for her. It's 'What is best for her and what is safest for her?' That's something that I really enjoy digging into and developing."
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In fact, Sabongui said Hassani's inherent distrust in everyone is actually a positive resource for all of their safety.
"I think once you've seen the underbelly of humanity and what people are capable of, your predator radar is always up, and that's one thing that he'll never let his guard down in that regard," he explained. "He's only going to trust his folks as far as he can still protect himself and the people that he's taking in his charge, and I think Bex falls into that sphere of people he feels the need to protect."
Morales gets it done out in the field for the first time
As alluded to in our previous interview, actress Sara Garcia loved the "Tom Beecher" episode because it allowed Morales to get into the outside world and use her skills in a whole new way.
"She gets to go out of the bullpen and really showcase her chops," she said with pride. "Leading up to Episode 9, we get these glimmers that maybe she's interested in profiling, herself. She's learning and watching and asking questions to Bex and Odell, and she gets to see them tag-team in an earlier episode. And then she gets to go out and do her thing in Episode 9. Plus, it has wonderful guest star Jay Paulson. He's terrifying!"
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Sabongui also loved that Morales was a new source of intel to get the job done because Beecher was beyond challenging to get ahead of as a villain.
"I gotta admit, I love it when Hassani doesn't have all the answers. I love when his ignorance is exposed," Sabongui said, laughing. "We each play our part in that team, and Hassani isn't always going to solve things or understand things. There's a lot going on in that episode where he's like, 'What? How does that work?' And then Morales is like, 'Oh, it's like this...' You see his wheels turning, and he still doesn't quite get it.
"But then he's like, 'Bex, do you get it? Is there someone I can shoot?'" he joked. "I love that we each play our part in the team dynamic."
Catch new episodes of The Hunting Party when they premiere on Monday on NBC at 10/9c. Episodes are available to stream on Peacock the next day.
