The Hunting Party Season 2: Melissa Roxburgh On Odell's Death & Bex's Grief

Warning: SPOILERS lie ahead for The Hunting Party season 2, episode 1, "Ron Simms"!After leaving viewers with bated breath as to their fate, The Hunting Party season 2 premiere has confirmed a major character's death, and Melissa Roxburgh is "devastated" by their departure. The Manifest alum leads the NBC thriller's cast as FBI profiler Bex Henderson who, along with a team of CIA and FBI agents, Army Intelligence and prison officers, is brought in to investigate the explosion at a hidden prison known as The Pit, in which the country's most vicious killers were kept, and have since escaped.

As the group got closer to learning the truth of The Pit and its experiments on the prisoners, the Hunting Party season 1 finale saw Bex and the team chasing down Eliza Coupe's Jenna Wells, better known as "The Killer Chemist" who, after the experiments, was left empathetic to the point of taking on her victims' identities upon killing them. Notably, the episode ended with Nick Wechsler's Odell left poisoned by Wells, with his fate being kept in the balance.

Now, The Hunting Party season 2 has confirmed Odell is dead, with Bex left saddened by the loss of her former partner. In honor of the show's return, ScreenRant's Grant Hermanns interviewed Melissa Roxburgh, during which the star was asked about the season kicking off with the major death.

Roxburgh began by expressing she "was devastated" to learn that Odell was officially dead, recalling her time working with Weschler on season 1 as being "awesome" and praising the star as "an amazing person" and "such a good actor." She then went on to express being surprised at the decision to kill him off, citing first the fact "he was one of our series regulars," and as such expected "it's just a fake" and that he would survive:

Melissa Roxburgh: And he might, actually. Going with how our show has been playing out, there's a chance that he's not actually dead. It's all one big conspiracy theory. But if he is actually dead, which it seems so far, yeah, we lost a teammate. We lost an amazing actor to our show, and I'm really sad about it.

In looking at how Bex is processing the death, Roxburgh said that her character is "really good at compartmentalizing" and building "her [emotional] walls" for things such as Odell's passing. Chuckling as she points out Bex has "a daughter that she's put in college" even amid the darkness of her investigations, the star further opined that "she stuffs things down" and is curious if she'll "explode at any point in the season."

That being said, Roxburgh does denote that "we do see a bit of her grief" in the Hunting Party season 2's premiere, in which she's seen visiting Odell's grave and mournfully spending time in his empty office. Describing it as "unavoidable," the star teased that Bex "channels most of her anger and pain into the job," even pointing out the moment in which she attacks Eric McCormack's Ron Simms in the premiere after being taken hostage and "unleashes a little bit of that anger."

Bex & Shane's Dynamic Will Still Be Quite Complicated This Season

ScreenRant: So, on that mention of Shane, the first season really felt like it was maybe playing a little bit of a slow burn romance between your characters. Now that Odell's not around, it feels like, in a way, that complication's been removed, given Odell and Bex's history. What can you share about how that dynamic might evolve going forward this season?

Melissa Roxburgh: I don't think it becomes less complicated because, end of season 1, we find out that Lazarus is a serial killer, and he has ties to her. So, I think that's kind of the new triangle — not romantically. But, we do see Bex and Shane kind of start to gravitate towards each other. I think that Bex has so much pain and heaviness in her that she hides very well, but Shane is the light. We get to see a conversation where she asks him about that. She goes, "What do you think about the darkness?" And he tells her, "To let the light in." I think, unbeknownst to her at that time, he is that for her. And yet, it still becomes a push-pull over their job, over how much she lets people in, and then over the fact that there's this whole secret storyline that is yet to play out.

ScreenRant: Seems like it must be hard in their line of work, not only to develop a relationship, but especially when there are so many twists and turns coming on any given day.

Melissa Roxburgh: They see a lot of dead people too, so not really romantic. [Laughs]

ScreenRant: Now you mentioned Lazarus, and that was one thing that I was also quite surprised about in these early episodes was that she is taking over control of the team. Given what we now know about her, what can you share about how her control is going to sort of affect the way the team looks for both graduates and escapees?

Melissa Roxburgh: Yeah, I think that's a big plot twist, because we're not just dealing with known killers, we're dealing with people that could be hiding in plain sight, and we don't know what positions they're in. Is the President of the United States, in this world that they're in, a graduate? So, I think that they don't trust anyone at all. I think Lazarus coming in to take over control provides a whole bunch of roadblocks for them. She may end up helping them. We're only on episode 9 right now, and so far, it's been a lot of mistrust towards her. I'm here for the ride. I actually don't know how it ends.

Be sure to dive into some of our other Hunting Party season 2 coverage with:

• Melissa Roxburgh reflecting on season 1 of the NBC thriller debuting to a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes
• Roxburgh offering a tease of The Hunting Party season 2's twists and major guest stars
• Roxburgh offering an encouraging update on Manifest's 2026 return
• Roxburgh addressing Dory's future on Tracker after Jensen Ackles returned for season 3 as her on-screen sibling

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  Release Date January 19, 2025

  Directors Thor Freudenthal, Glen Winter, James Bamford, Nicole Rubio, Rod Hardy, Shana Stein, Blackhorse Lowe, Marcus Stokes, Kristin Windell

  Writers David Loong, JJ Bailey, Jake Coburn, Keto Shimizu, Michael Jones-Morales, Paula Sabbaga, Rebecca Bellotto, Vinny Ferris

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    Melissa Roxburgh

    Rebecca 'Bex' Henderson

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