The Hunting Party’s Patrick Sabongui on the Trio’s Secrets, Command Changes, and Exciting Fight Scenes

The Hunting Party has excelled to new levels in its second season.

Since The Hunting Party Season 2 began, the series has showcased quirkier killers and more personal character arcs of the main cast, beginning with Col. Lazarus taking over command and the team investigating her.

It’s only a matter of time before the team learns she’s connected to Shane, and no one likes having her in charge since they don’t trust her.

TV Fanatic chatted with Patrick Sabongui about how Hassani is dealing with the changes at the command setter, and how the secrets the trio are keeping from one another will affect their dynamics.

He also chimed in about the entertaining fight and stunt scenes they’ve done. Check out our interview below.

Things have changed at the base this season. How is Hassani dealing with the change in command, and how will they learn the truth about Col. Lazarus?

That’s a great question. Hassani takes his responsibilities seriously, and his priority has always been the mission, his colleagues, and caring for everyone. So, the change in command is very destabilizing, and Hassani can’t stand it.

I think what’s fun for me is that there’s this inner turmoil for Hassani: he wants to set things right and achieve clarity, stability, and operational control. This is like a constant area of friction for him.

I bet. How are they going to learn more about Col. Lazarus now that she’s in charge?

Nobody likes that. We’re going to keep digging. I love that Bex, Shane, Hassani, and Morales have this quiet conspiracy between them to uncover the truth, and they’re just not going to stop pulling at the thread.

They’re just not going to stop digging. They’re going to do what they have to do to get to the truth, which is really almost impossible in this world because every time you uncover something, you can’t really trust it.

So, all we can do is keep searching. Keep hunting, if you will.

Absolutely. Happy Hunting. It seems like everyone on the team has secrets. How will that affect the team’s dynamics when Hassani and Bex learn that Lazarus and Shane are related?

It’s fascinating because, as much as the team is there to catch all the bad guys, they’ve developed a tight, trusting relationship between them. I think this definitely puts a strain on that when the secrets start to get uncovered.

It always comes back to trust. Hassani is somebody who’s survived as long as he has in this world because he has trouble trusting people. When you’re in this nefarious world and dealing with Narcos terrorists, and God knows what bad guys he’s faced down before.

You’ve got to put this armor up. Once you let people in behind that armor, there’s an emotional investment. As we start to uncover secrets about each other, it’s likely to strain the trust we’ve built between us.

Yes, I know Hassani has secrets too, because no one knows that his wife died, though Bex learned about that in the finale. How is that going to affect the team, and is Shane going to learn about that, too?

Hasani doesn’t know it, but that secret is out. That’s one thing I share with Hassani, like, my personal life is my personal life. I know it affects people around him. Bex cares deeply about him, Morales, and Shane, but I think he’d rather keep his secrets to himself.

When that comes out, I think it makes him very uncomfortable. I think it’s a level of intimacy he’s not comfortable with or used to, especially in a professional environment. So, it starts to fray at the edges.

And on that note, are we going to see Hasani in his personal environment? Are we going to see him with his kids or at home?

I hope so. We haven’t gotten that far into the season. There’s still stuff that, as an actor, I’m not privy to. That’s my honest answer. I hope so.

Yes, I know a lot of the fans are hoping that we will get to see you as a single dad with your kids, because that’s one thing we haven’t seen yet.

That would be interesting. It’s such a dark and horrifying world he moves into, and the juxtaposition of his family life and his home life in this storytelling could be really destabilizing. I don’t know how that would go over.

Back to the job. The serial killers seem quirkier this season. Who has been your favorite?

That’s hard to say, and picking a favorite is hard. I love that each one of them is so unique, from Eric McCormack and his obsession with bunnies, which was totally out of left field, to a cult leader coming back from the dead.

Each one has its really unique qualities. The serial killer in The Hunting Party Season 2 Episode 3 challenged some of our contemporary notions about technology and the distinction between classes and the haves and have-nots.

Each one of them is so unique and so interesting. And I love what we get to explore about our own world through the lens of these psycho killers.

Yes, I heard he was compared to a modern world Robin Hood.

It’s The Hunting Party, so everything’s twisted on its head. It’s almost a reverse Robin Hood. It’s definitely right at the intersection of the haves and the have-nots, and in their twisted minds, how they try to reconcile those things.

Sounds Interesting. Have you done any exciting fight or stunt scenes during Season 2?

I mix it up a little bit. I get to do a little driving, which is always fun for me—screaming around corners and sliding to stops. There’s a lot of, like, tactical maneuvers through houses and stuff.

Somebody is dumb enough to try to come at Hassani with a knife, and that doesn’t go too well for him.

What’s exciting for me as an observer is that Bex and Shane get a lot more physical this season, and they get to mix it up and have some really cool fight sequences coming up.

Oh, well, we can’t wait to see that. So, what can you tease that your fans will love to see you in for the rest of the season?

I love the power struggle. You know, we started off talking about the chain of command and how Hassani’s going to react to Lazarus inserting herself into the operation and taking control.

Concerning how he navigates that for his team, you get to see Hassani flex his authority a little bit and push back in the face of injustice.

The Hunting Party airs at 10/9c on Thursdays on NBC, then the next day on Peacock.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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