‘Walls Go Up’: Melissa Roxburgh on How Bex Hardens in ‘The Hunting Party’ Season 2 (Exclusive)
From 'survival mode' to shocking conspiracies, Melissa Roxburgh reveals Bex's dark Season 2 journey
When viewers first met FBI Special Agent and criminal profiler Rebecca “Bex” Henderson on NBC’s The Hunting Party, she wasn’t exactly thriving. Her introduction—alone, working security in a casino—telegraphed a character who had lost her footing long before the audience arrived. For Melissa Roxburgh, that moment was essential to understanding who Bex was at the start of the journey. “Obviously, that’s not the highest of spots in her life,” Roxburgh says. “She’s beaten, she’s confused, she’s kind of lost in what she’s doing in life.”
Season 1 became a process of rebuilding. Bex returns to the FBI team not because she has answers, but because she’s searching for… something. “She’s reestablishing her purpose,” Roxburgh explains. “She’s finding her place, she’s finding who to trust, she’s finding how she wants to go about this massive project that she’s been a part of.” That progress, however, comes at a cost—and Season 2, which airs on Thursday, January 8 at 10/9c, opens with the consequences.
Melissa Roxburgh on Bex’s Season 2 ‘survival mode’
The Hunting Party is a dark, serialized crime drama that blends procedural storytelling along the lines of Law & Order, Sheriff Country and NCIS and numerous others, with an overarching mythology, following a specialized task force tracking some of the most dangerous and unconventional serial killers imaginable. At the center is Bex, a skilled but emotionally guarded investigator drawn back into the fold after hitting a low point, who gradually reclaims her sense of purpose while navigating shifting alliances, moral ambiguity and escalating threats. What begins as a hunt for individual killers quickly reveals a much larger conspiracy involving secret programs, hidden power structures and the unsettling idea that monsters may be embedded within systems meant to stop them. The first season builds steadily toward this realization, ending on a tense cliffhanger in which team member Oliver is infected with a deadly virus, leaving his survival uncertain and forcing Bex to confront both personal loss and the emotional cost of her relentless pursuit. The finale reframes the series not just as a hunt for killers, but as a story about trust, control and how far institutions—and individuals—are willing to go in the name of justice. The cliffhanger leaves Bex emotionally raw, and Season 2 responds by hardening her rather than healing her.
“Going into Season 2, it kind of turns her into this workhorse in a way that nothing can stop her,” Roxburgh, whose credits include Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (2012), Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (2012), Star Trek: Beyond (2016) and the TV series Manifest (2018-2023), says. “Nothing can take her down. It’s survival mode—walls go up, not just professionally, but personally. I don’t even know if it’s gone a great way for her, and while the walls are up, only certain people are going to be able to break them back down and we do see both sides of that.”
And after prolonged exposure to violence and trauma, Bex is forced to reassess who she wants to be. “She’s dealt with such darkness,” the actress muses. “I think that we see her start to reevaluate who she wants to be, given all the chaos.”
The ‘yucky’ reality of filming a serial killer thriller
Working on a show centered on serial killers means living inside unsettling material—and Roxburgh doesn’t pretend that’s weightless. “If you actually stop and think about what you’re working with, someone out there in the world has dealt with this. Someone has had to actually go through a version of this. The writers must have truly alarming browser histories,” she quips. “They’re probably up to their ears in all the ways people can kill other people, so I worry about them.”
Season 2 leans into killers who are both inventive and disturbing. “We’re taking typical serial killers and then turning them on their heads,” she details. “There’s bunnies, there’s people being embalmed, there’s the Ed Gein kind of character.” But the humor fades when reality intrudes. “If I really stop and think about it, then obviously it becomes really yucky in your stomach. Knowing that I’m playing a part helps me sleep at night.”
What Melissa Roxburgh learned from playing an FBI profiler
Over time, Roxburgh has found herself learning from Bex—especially when it comes to emotional discipline. “She’s a lot more put together than I am,” Roxburgh says. “She’s really good at compartmentalizing. I’m not good at it at all. Bex keeps her world of mother, investigator and protector separate. She goes to work, she hunts bad guys and she doesn’t mix those worlds. What I’ve learned from her is just to be more bold.” She cites Bex blackmailing a powerful official early in the series. “That’s something I would never do. At the same time, when you really believe in something and you really want justice for something, then do what you need to do.”
While The Hunting Party delivers its share of dark cases, Roxburgh sees the mythology as the show’s real engine. “What keeps me engaged is wondering where The Pit storyline’s going,” she says. “Or how Lazarus plays into it. Or what’s going on with Hasani’s family. The fact that Lazarus has a barcode on the bottom of her foot and she’s in charge—she was a serial killer, but now she’s in charge. What does that mean? Does that mean that the President of the United States could be a serial killer? We don’t know. We’re realizing that there could be killers hiding in plain sight.”
When it comes to why The Hunting Party is worth watching, Roxburgh doesn’t oversell the show. “It’s not boring,” she suggests. “I’ll start there. If you like serial killers and you want to scratch that itch, you’ll scratch that itch, but you’ll have fun doing it. But what keeps viewers invested is the human element. It’s a team of friends who are on this ride together. With different characters and different dynamics that make that ride really fun.”
To watch the Season 2 premiere on January 8, 2026, tune in to NBC at 10/9c or stream it the following day on Peacock. Live streaming is also available via services like YouTube TV or Fubo.
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