[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Season 2 of The Hunting Party.]

In Season 2 of the NBC series The Hunting Party, Bex Henderson (Melissa Roxburgh) gets the team reinstated so they can continue capturing the most dangerous killers from the top-secret prison known as The Pit, but now they must do so under the command of Lazarus (Kari Matchett). At the same time, Shane (Josh McKenzie) is still in the dark about his own personal connection to their new boss while questions swirl around Hassani (Patrick Sabongui) and what things are like for him outside of work. And while Bex is reeling from the loss of her old partner, the secrets everyone else is keeping seem to be piling up.

During this one-on-one interview with Collider, Roxburgh discussed whether we should really trust the fate of Oliver Odell (Nick Wechsler), what it will be like to have Lazarus in charge, how the team will have to come together for each other, having the audience know more about Shane than Shane knows about himself, this season’s stellar guest cast, and how often the team will have to face darkness and choose how to handle it.

Collider: After everything that happened by the end of the finale of Season 1, what were you most surprised about when it came to where you’d be taking things in Season 2?

MELISSA ROXBURGH: Season 2 feels a bit elevated in the sense that they’ve taken the same kind of killers that we had in Season 1, but they’ve given them weirder storylines. It’s just a little odder, which makes it more fun. We’re on a bit more of a ride in Season 2. And then, obviously, the cliffhangers that we left in Season 1, coming into Season 2, those were shocking to me. I was not expecting them. The writers really went for it.

Both Melissa Roxburgh and Her ‘The Hunting Party’ Character Bex Are Devastated About the Loss of Oliver Odell

“I loved working with Nick [Wechsler] and I loved his character.”

I’m a bit torn with this series telling me that Oliver Odell (Nick Wechsler) died because this series also tells me not to trust anyone. Is he actually gone? What were you told about what that storyline would be? How do you feel about how all of that is playing out?

ROXBURGH: I have not been told any side secrets. As far as we know, that character died, and Bex and Melissa are devastated about it. I loved working with Nick and I loved his character. To your point, you can’t trust anyone, so I don’t even trust the writers. I don’t know if, at the end of this season or midway through the season, they’re going to be like, “He never actually died. He’s been doing a side mission.” I have no idea. I hope that’s what happens because I don’t want to believe it.

This is the perfect show to have a reveal for why they had to fake his death.

ROXBURGH: A hundred percent. We’ve got a lot of plot twists, which makes it fun for us because we don’t really know what’s going to happen. And this could be one of them.

How will the events of last season and the shakeups of this season affect the team and the dynamics you guys built together, especially since some of you know certain things about your co-workers while others don’t?

ROXBURGH: That’s been the name of the game since Season 1. Some of us know stuff, some of us don’t. We’re all trading information. Going into Season 2, we still have the Shane-Hassani-Bex trio that confronts everything in the field, and we still have Morales in the command center, but we do actually get a couple new faces that will be with us for the season. And then, you have Lazarus come in at the end of episode one in Season 2 and that shakes things up. It makes things way more complicated because we don’t think Lazarus is a good person. And so, now what happens now? What happens when the bad guy is in charge of us? Season 2 is going to be fun.

Lazarus has been an interesting and mysterious character from the beginning. It just feels like we don’t know anything about her. When we find something out, we don’t’ know what to make of it. What sort of leader will she be?

ROXBURGH: We don’t know. We’re going into episode nine, filming wise, now and storyline wise, as far as I can say, the team is in it. We are very much in the pot and we’re figuring it out, but I don’t even know how that ends.

Bex and the Team Will Continue to Be Suspicious of Lazarus and Her True Motives

“They only trust themselves.”

Are there times when the team feels like Lazarus is behind them, or are they always suspicious of her?

ROXBURGH: I think that they’re always going to be suspicious of her. Given how they handled AG Mallory, I think that they’re really only trusting themselves fully and going off their knowledge versus why the higher-ups are doing what they’re doing. They’re also trying to figure out The Pit mystery themselves, and I feel like they keep getting thwarted in that. The information that they’re getting is wrong or secret or they get curveballs thrown at them, so they only trust themselves.

As the audience, we know a little bit more about some things than the characters do. We know that Lazarus is Shane’s mother. We also know that she used to be an inmate at The Pit, but that’s not widely known among all the characters on the show. Will that make things interesting as more of that gets uncovered and revealed?

ROXBURGH: For sure, and I think it makes such an interesting dynamic for the team because it puts Shane in a weird position. He doesn’t know, so what happens if he finds out? If he is the son of a serial killer, what is he? Is he good? Is he bad? Does he have the same genetic makeup that she does? And I think for Bex, given that she’s a profiler and given that she does have such strong feelings team-wise, friend-wise, and maybe more, it puts her in a position of now what do I do? Now that I have this information, where does that leave us?

I found episode two’s case with victims trapped in resin particularly creepy. How did you find exploring that case? What was it like working with Niecy Nash-Betts’ character? How creepy was it seeing people frozen in resin?

ROXBURGH: To be quite honest, creating those resin figures was challenging because it’s not a common storyline. It was fascinating seeing special effects bring these resin people to life—real actors standing there looking lifeless behind walls was dark for me.This storyline has genuinely impacted me.

This season features many recognizable faces including Eric McCormack and Kelsey Grammer. What has it been like working with such guest stars?

ROXBURGH: Yeah! In Season 1 we had talented actors too but Season 2 brings notable names with established fan bases. It’s exciting seeing familiar faces take on darker roles—it’s unexpected yet enjoyable.I’ve had fun reuniting with actors I’ve worked with before.

Each Character in ‘The Hunting Party’ Faces Their Own Demons in Season 2

“What becomes of us?”

The second episode features an intriguing moment when Niecy Nash’s character warns Bex about darkness creeping in. Shane suggests turning on your own light when darkness appears—will this theme play out throughout Season 2?

ROXBURGH: Absolutely! Each character grapples with their own demons—Shane being related to a serial killer while Hassani carries secrets about his wife’s death from last season.
Bex also has her own trauma from catching a serial killer as a child while dealing with her loss.
If she allows darkness to consume her—what becomes of them all?

I feel like I should keep my eye on all characters this season.

ROXBURGH: Morales seems pretty safe so far—she appears stable—but beyond her no one’s safe.