Critic’s Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
4.5
Was that the most surprising case of the season?
If they wanted to combine emotions with twists and turns, The Hunting Party Season 1 Episode 7 delivered with a twist on the Ted Bundy case. This was an entertaining one!
We also have to discuss the Silo 12 mystery and Shane’s family drama.
(James Dittiger/NBC)
The Widower Case Was the Most Complex of the Season
The Hunting Party has featured some weird serial killers, but Mark Marsden, The Widower, was the most complex.
I loved planning my wedding day, so he seemed like every girl’s dream at first glance. He wrote his vows and decorated the honeymoon suite.
That’s why it seemed so cold that he murdered his bride on the wedding night. He never reacted to her dying from poisoned champagne and finished her off by drowning her in a massive tub.
Who plans something so cold and calculating?
Apparently, someone who’s so afraid of rejection that he would rather kill his wife before she became close enough to him to learn his flaws and reject him.
(David Astorga/NBC)
It was an interesting theory and one that stemmed from a teenage break-up.
However, almost everyone has experienced teenage heartbreak, and most of us have not become serial killers. You can’t blame everything on your past.
Mark Marsden seemed so devilishly charming that the cops believed the first two deaths were accidents. It wasn’t until his third bride died that he was arrested and sent to the Pit.
Naturally, he’s out again and wants a new bride, or has his plan changed?
The Case Exposed Why Women Were Attracted to Serial Killers
Mark Marsden’s next victim, Carol Miller, didn’t fit the profile of his other victims. She looked older, and the shocker was that Shane recognized her as a worker from the Pit.
(David Astorga/NBC)
Shortly after Carol’s husband died, she needed extra money. She helped with Mark’s treatment at the Pit, which involved exposure therapy. In his case, that meant re-enacting and getting married over 100 times.
That meant that, yet again, treatment at the Pit provided a serial killer their next victim.
However, those therapy tapes revealed something more disturbing. Carol had fallen in love with Mark Marsden.
She suffered from hybristophilia, a condition when women are obsessed with male serial killers.
Ted Bundy and Charles Manson received love letters and had groupies.
Carol Miller started a Reaper’s Digest forum dedicated to fans of serial killers.
(David Astorga/NBC)
I’m with Shane. How could she love that psycho, and what has this world come to?
Carol truly believed that Mark had changed and that their relationship was real. It was painful to watch how naive she was. She thought her love changed him, sort of like a savior complex.
Shane thought their relationship was like Bonnie and Clyde, but Carol wasn’t cunning like Bonnie, nor did she desire to commit crimes. She only wanted to be loved again and felt that she and Mark shared specific abandonment issues.
While I wanted to shake her and knock some sense into her, it was still heartbreaking to watch as she realized Mark still recited the same vows as before. She now knew she wasn’t unique; women never wanted to feel like that.
The Hunting Party Season 1 Episode 7 Allowed Josh McKenzie to Shine as the VIP
Josh McKenzie was never allowed to show his full potential on La Brea. He had a few shining moments, but it was an ensemble cast.
(James Dittiger/NBC)
On The Hunting Party, he’s shown layers with Shane right from the start, and “Mark Marsden” dug into Shane’s family history and with the Pit.
For the first several episodes, Shane is portrayed as the good guy who is safe and easy to confide in. Now, we’ve learned he has a shady past like everyone else.
Shane hasn’t known any of the serial killers that have appeared yet, but he recognized the latest victim — Carol Miller.
He seemed more concerned than usual about rescuing her, making me wonder if she was merely a worker in the Pit or if she was his family.
We haven’t begun to unpack his family drama. Shane visited Dr. Dulles to gather information, and he wasn’t related to him.
Nothing was confirmed, but saying it’s complicated doesn’t give me the best feeling.
(David Astorga/NBC)
That means that Sarah Dulles had the right to be suspicious, yet Shane obviously wanted to share something with her.
This mystery intrigues me, and Josh McKenzie’s acting has me guessing whether he’s a good guy, shady, or somewhere in between.
The Hunting Party Team Showcased Their Growth as Friends and Found Family
For viewers to stay invested, procedurals must be more than episodic cases. They need to care about the characters and their relationships.
The Hunting Party works because it’s a smaller team. Only three of them are in the field, while Oliver and Morales handle things from the base.
Bex, Shane, and Hassani have become like a family. They protect each other in battle and have learned to rely on each other.
(David Astorga/NBC)
Depending on the situation, they can be brutally honest or joke around with each other.
They generally only interact with Morales and Oliver over the phone, except for a few briefings until this episode, when the entire team worked together to discern how Mark Marsden knew Carol.
It was delightful watching Hassani’s reaction to the shorthand that Oliver and Morales have developed.
They work together so frequently and are pretty competitive about solving cases quickly that it only takes a few words to understand each other.
Shane seemed to understand their lingo, and he and Morales often answered questions simultaneously, making the others laugh.
This team often reminds me of the Time Team on Timeless, which also began as strangers. Three people were in the field, and a few others were on base. Yet, they also developed a close-knit bond.
(James Dittiger/NBC)
The Hunting Party team has the potential to become a close found family if the series has time to evolve, and hopefully, it will get that chance.
Oliver, Bex, and Hassani Formed an Uneasy Alliance to Investigate Silo 12
Poor Bex. She had her work cut out for her. Neither Oliver nor Hassani were enthusiastic about working together, but Bex insisted putting their collective minds together was for the greater good.
She sounded like a mom mediating new rival teenage boys and forcing them to play nice. Of course, she raised a teenager, so maybe she learned those skills from that.
She and Hassani have become so close that he knew he could trust her instincts, even if he couldn’t wholly trust Oliver.
(David Astorga/NBC)
Oliver held up his part of the bargain by getting the three of them the access code to Silo 12.
None of them were prepared for what they discovered. It opened up another can of worms and an entirely new mystery.
What kind of experiments had the government performed on these prisoners, and had they been leading them in and out of the Pit all along?
We’ve discussed that many of the Pit experiments have worsened the prisoners’ kill instincts instead of helping them.
After seeing the amount of blood in Silo 12, we’re convinced the Pit did them more harm than good.
(David Astorga/NBC)
We’re excited to learn the motivation behind these experiments and who released the prisoners.
We only have three episodes left of The Hunting Party Season 1, and we hope those answers get solved.
Over to you, The Hunting Party Fanatics. What was your favorite part of “Mark Marsden”?
Were you surprised that Carol was in love with him? What are your thoughts on those cliffhangers?
Let us know in the comments.
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