The Hunting Party Season 2 Episode 7 Review: Sidney Fairfax

The Hunting Party Season 2 Episode 7, “Sidney Fairfax,” brings us the Pit’s very own brain-obsessed mad scientist.

Episode 6 ends on a cliffhanger where Colonel Lazerus finally reveals herself to Shane. This episode picks up that momentum in a major way.

This episode does a much better job at connecting its killer to the overall plot, making for a much denser story than usual.

With Lazerus’s reveal creating tension among the team in addition to Sidney’s direct involvement with the Pit’s experiments, there’s a lot to unpack in this episode.

Sidney Fairfax is definitely one of the more compelling killers this season. Sidney is a neuroscientist and former college professor. He mainly studies serial killer brains.

He just so happens to be digging around in the brains of extremely unwilling test subjects.

Sidney is interesting because he is so far from any of the other killers we’ve seen so far. Before he could be arrested, The Pit faked his death, and unlike all the other prisoners, there is no record of him receiving any therapy.

They never intended to conduct any experiments on him. Instead, he’s one of the experimenters.

Sidney, being both an inmate and a scientist, is another interesting way to establish how twisted they were. Unlike Lazarus, who claims to be “cured,” Sidney never underwent rehabilitation.

David Rashe’s performance as Sidney Fairfax is also worth praising. He did a fantastic job of making the character feel like both a goofy, passionate college professor and an absolute maniac.

The theme of this episode revolves around the nature-versus-nurture debate. Unlike Doctor Dulles, Sidney believes more in the side of nature.

In turn, Shane is both of their perfect subject. Fairfax’s motivation isn’t a noble one; he doesn’t want to help anyone. Fairfax simply wants to be right.

Shane’s newfound discovery of Lazarus’ identity, as expected, brought in some major tension with the team. When Bex and Hasani call out Shane for keeping secrets regarding Dulles, he also discovers they’ve known who his mother is this whole time.

Obviously, this forms a rift, albeit a short-lived one. It’s a little anticlimactic how quickly they patch things up; however, with Bex’s clear distrust of Lazarus, there’s a solid chance this will come back in a future episode.

On a more positive note, the episode also builds on the budding chemistry between Morales and Peck.

It’s not a focal point of the episode by any means, but they do have a fun dynamic. It’s a nice break from the tension, even if it’s hard to tell where Peck stands alignment-wise at the moment.

Per usual, the episode concludes with the team getting the bad guy right on time. This time, it’s Shane who they needed to save at the last second.

The episode asks whether Shane could end up like his mom, but never quite answers that question directly.

Based on how Lazarus spoke to Bex at the end of the episode, they truly seem nothing alike. She claims to be cured, but Bex isn’t buying it.

Lazarus is still much a threat at this point, but at least, she clearly cares deeply for Shane in some capacity. It’s safe to assume she’ll play a bigger role in these upcoming episodes.

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

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