The Hunting Party Season 2 Episode 5 Review: Noah Cyrus

The Hunting Party Season 2 Episode 5, “Noah Cyrus,” marks the series’ return with a cult leader.

After a brief break, The Hunting Party picks up where it left off, with Bex trying to figure out whether or not she should tell Shane about Colonel Lazarus.

Simultaneously, the team is tracking down Noah Cyrus, a notorious cult leader and, of course, serial killer.

He used to claim to be a prophet with knowledge of the end times. Now, he’s made himself out to be a savior to his followers.

The episode follows the same standard formula, introducing a killer and showing the twisted “therapy” they underwent. The Pit held Noah in a sensory deprivation white room used as a form of psychological torture.

They also set out constantly reinforce Noah’s delusions over the years. Why they did this is unclear; it almost feels like the goal is to literally make him as awful as possible.

With previous inmates, the reasoning appears to be getting to the root of their motivation via unethical means that make the inmates worse as a side effect. But for Noah, it truly just feels like the main goal is to make him worse.

It’s interesting to watch, if not a little cartoonishly evil, of The Pit. It muddies their motivations to further establish them as irredeemably evil.

What this episode does well, however, is showcase the team’s personalities in a fun way. Oftentimes, the main cast takes a backseat to the plot, but here they had their fair share of entertaining lines and interactions.

Bex, particularly, is a lot funnier than expected this episode. Melissa Roxburgh played it very jaded to unexpected comedic effect in her interactions with the cultists.

Obviously, comedy isn’t the goal here, but there is still something very charming about how Bex is immediately exasperated by the cult members.

Beyond this, we also got to see a bit more of the team’s interpersonal relationships. Bex has a great dynamic with Shane, and the added tension of her knowing that Lazarus is his mother adds another layer for the audience.

Furthermore, we see how Hassani wants to look out for Shane. Where we last left off, Bex is keeping the truth about Shane’s mother a secret, but now she’s about ready to tell him.

Hassani, however, urges her not to, believing that knowing the truth will only cause him more problems. It’s sweet to see them looking out for each other, even if they might not actually know what’s best.

Unexpectedly, we also get to see a bit of chemistry between Jennifer and Johnathan Peck, Colonel Lazarus’s associate.

Hopefully, we get to see a bit more of them in the future, since building rapport has some interesting, potentially complicated implications.

In typical fashion for the series, it ends posing more questions than answers.

Shane decides that he doesn’t need to know about his mother, which is almost certainly going to come back and bite the team later. Then, at the very end of the episode, some unknown person shoots and kills Noah while he’s being transported.

We’re left wondering who killed him, why they killed him, and if the other recaptured prisoners were killed.

This is an interesting moment to end on, and it might tie into The Pit’s cover-up efforts. Season 2 of The Hunting Party has been slow to answer questions, but hopefully, we aren’t waiting on this one for too long.

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The Hunting Party airs Thursdays at 10/9c on NBC.

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