‘The Hunting Party’: Josh McKenzie Says Shane & Lazarus Conversation ‘Changes a Lot’

The Hunting Party may have just set up the conversation we’ve been needing to see Shane (Josh McKenzie) have since the Season 1 finale. We know that Lazarus (Kari Matchett), a serial killer who “graduated” from the program of which The Pit is a part, is his mom, but he doesn’t … yet.

At the end of the March 5 episode, after snooping around Bex’s (Melissa Roxburgh) apartment, Lazarus showed up at Shane’s. Their conversation will come in the March 12 episode titled “Sidney Fairfax.” The serial killer for that one is a twisted neuroscientist (David Rasche) who mutilates the brains of his victims — and kidnaps Shane!

Below, Josh McKenzie tees up that Shane and Lazarus conversation and previews just what Sidney Fairfax means for his character.

Lazarus just shows up at Shane’s door. What’s he thinking when he sees her? Does he have any idea what she could have to say to him?

Josh McKenzie: When he sees her initially, I think he’s like, “Oh, f**k, I’m in trouble.” The principal’s at the door, so he immediately is like, “Uh-oh, she’s found out that we’re looking for her and I’m going to get in trouble because effectively I am an employee of her, and I’m the one who worked at the Pit.” So there’s that connection where he’s like, “Ah, everyone else’s outsiders, Hassani [Patrick Sabongui] and Bex are taken in from different roles to do this, but I’m the one who was actually working in there.” So, I think he’s a little nervous that he’s going to possibly lose his job or God knows what. That’s his initial instinct.

What can you preview about the conversation to come in next week’s episode? Is this the conversation we’ve been waiting for?

I mean, you’ll have to wait and see. I can say that it’s a conversation that’s going to change a lot of things.

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What’s his approach to it? Is it just pure reaction?

Just pure reaction. It’s one of those confrontations, which I know the audience — the audience is one step ahead of Shane, and so they’ve all been waiting for it, so they have the ability to project a lot of things onto how that might go down, or what might happen, or what she might even say. Is she going to lie to him? Is she going to tell him the truth? What the hell is this woman capable of? So, for Shane, he’s a very reactive character. He doesn’t really plan his encounters with people out. He’s not a manipulative person, put it that way. So, yeah, he takes everything as it comes and reacts in real time. He’s also not really afraid to wear his feelings on his sleeves when it comes to it. So, yeah, whatever happens with that confrontation, it’s going to be interesting, I think. I hope audiences are along for the ride with Shane.

Given what Shane knows about Lazarus at the end of this episode, should he now find out that she’s his mom, how do you think that would change his feelings towards her?

Look, if that happens, I think — and this is something that, without knowing whether he will ever find out, my approach to Shane, that’s the biggest question I’ve had the whole Season 1, Season 2. What would happen when he finds that out, if he finds that out? And that’s a really interesting thing to grapple with. I know people close to me who found out later in their lives, their parents weren’t their parents, that someone else was their dad, and how that shifted everything, and you rewrite your own history with this new piece of context. So, it was just so overwhelming to consider that, that you can’t really plan anything. You just have to take it as it comes. And I never had a plan. I never went into it being like — I’m sure Shane, we’ve asked ourselves that question, me and Shane, “me and Shane,” constantly. But when push comes to shove, you have no idea how it’s going to make you feel. It’s just such a strange thing.

Should he find out from Lazarus and not from Bex — and find out that Bex knew — how would he feel? Because he’s also the one who told Bex that he was going to stop looking.

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Yes, yes. I had a big conversation with the writers about that declaration because Shane has spent his entire life looking for this woman. He’s made a lot of career choices and decisions about his life in search and pursuit of that information. So, to me, it wasn’t as simple as being like, “I’m done looking.” It was more, in that moment, and this is what I’m saying about Shane, he’s a very of the moment kind of person, he doesn’t plan things out, but he feels this connection to Bex and Hassani and Morales [Sara Garcia], this little found family that he felt safe enough to be like, “I can let go of a little bit of this now.” I don’t think he meant literally he’s done. I think in that moment with Bex, he wasn’t lying to her or manipulating her or misleading her. I think he just felt that way in that moment because he felt safe, and this is my family, which is really sweet.

But also, I think he still has that itch and still does want to know. But for now, he’s happy to just put it down and enjoy the company of Bex and Hassani and Morales and enjoy his job, which he feels like a real sense of duty about putting these killers away. It gives him purpose.

And this is coming as we’re seeing him and Bex growing closer and closer to each other, even on that phone call right before Lazarus shows up.

Yeah. Yeah, I thought that was really well placed. That was a nice moment to go from that to that. You kind of see — oh, that’s the cool thing about this show is it’s just like [a rollercoaster]. “Oh, there’s hope,” and then it’s just something comes in to tear the fabric of that.

But then we have the preview for next week’s episode that shows that Shane gets in some serious trouble, captured by a killer who removes people’s brains. What can you preview about that, and how he’s going to be handling that? We haven’t really seen him in that position.

I mean, the last time he was put in a position like that was Season 1, I think, with the Jessup episode, where he was tied up and gassed in the basement. So, yeah, it was only the second time he’s been captured, which I think frustrates him. He doesn’t like that. He’s normally pretty vigilant and aware of his surroundings. It’s definitely one of those episodes that is a Shane episode, I’d say, and it goes into his psychology. It really probes into what he is in the sense of, mother a serial killer, he’s trying to be good, raised by good people and surrounded by Bex and Hassani. It really needles into who Shane is, what he’s capable of, what he’s done. He’s a military guy. He’s [a former] Marine, he’s killed people. So, it’s, what makes him different from a serial killer? Is it the justification of those kills? What is it? So that’s the interesting thing to me about this episode and what Sidney Fairfax, the killer, really starts to push Shane’s buttons with. You see him tied up there in the preview. Fairfax is starting to flick a few of those questions Shane has about himself, so, it’s a psychological warfare.

The description for the episode also teases that the serial killer may be the key to the larger mystery surrounding The Pit and we still have all these questions about it. What can you tease about that?

He’s definitely a very key figure in the conspiracy of what The Pit is about. Last season, we had Whitmore with the empathy drug and all that kind of stuff. And Sidney Fairfax is the key to another wing, I suppose, of what the Pit was doing with the experimentation. He’ll unlock a few answers, but also more questions that later on, the web will come together and we’ll get a clear picture of, holy s**t, this is what has been happening, which I think will be satisfying for a lot of viewers because there’s a lot of theorists out there in our audience, which is awesome to see people coming up with their own ideas of what’s going on. And some people, even using the current news cycle and reflecting things, it’s fun. So, I hope they’ll be satisfied with what comes to fruition.

The Hunting Party, Thursdays, 10/9c, NBC

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