The Black-Out
Episode 7 of Hunters begins with Travis phoning Millie Morris and telling her to look outside her door, where an envelope holding information about Meyer is located. It’s an urgent opening to this episode, one that produces a breathless hour of tension and character drama. Travis wishes her Merry Christmas and hangs up the phone while sucking on a red, white and blue lolly. With the envelope in her possession, Millie immediately visits Chief Harry and pleads with him to let her go after Meyer. Eventually, he agrees to let her do just that. In 1968 we see Jonah and Ruth together, where an animated tale plays out as she puts him to bed. Kissing him goodnight, the camera pans over to a picture next to his bedside table of Ruth, which allows us to jump back to the present where we see Jonah contemplating his familial ties. Joe and Lonny leave him behind in the car though, following a lead regarding Timothy Randall which brings them to a counselling session for veterans. They eventually track down the files they need and find out where Randall lives, leading them to spy on a woman named Una from afar. They wait for her to leave before heading into the house and looking for The Ghost. Creeping through the house with guns at the ready, they eventually find him hooked up to a life support machine. As they contemplate what to do, downstairs Una returns home with her child as Joe and Lonny race after her thanks to Jonah fumbling with his gun. In Mindy and Murray’s basement, Moritz struggles to break free while the couple contemplate what to do and how to go about killing him. They eventually descend to the basement with a plan, and a glass of water and food, but find themselves frozen at the doorway. Back at Meyer’s, Jonah presents the music box and together the group begin to decipher what it all means. Given the morse code only revealed dates, the music box is much more exact, showing coordinates to several different areas across the city, including Grand Central Station. With this information, they deduce that they could be looking at a biological weapon being released, which matches up to what they found at The Ghost’s house. Before they can act on this intel, Millie and other FBI agents arrive with a warrant to search the house. Within one of the rooms Millie finds the remnants of the fire that broke out earlier in the show. Sensing he’s not being wholly truthful, Millie arrests him for the murder of Heinz Richter, prompting Jonah to hurry over to Murray and Mindy’s, who continue to struggle with Moritz and letting them know what’s happening. With the attack imminent, Joe visits Roxy and tells her to leave the city while Millie begins interrogating Meyer. Eventually she breaks her own facade and shows him Operation Paperclip, going on to tell him she’s building a case and wants his help. This is when Meyer opens up and tells her that the Nazis are communicating with one another and they plan to attack New York. After abusing his position in power, Biff has an assassination attempt against him, with Dottie killed in cold blood. However, he gets the upper-hand and beats the assassin to a bloody pulp before fleeing. Day turns to night, and the group converge at the station, where Jonah finds Travis walking casually down the stairs. He hurries after him, keeping an eye from afar while the other half of the group follow clues to the second location, which leads them to a utility plant. Una meets an untimely demise despite her attempts at ambushing Joe, thanks to Sister Harriet arriving and saving the day with a cliched final word and a gunshot to the brain. Back in the train station, Travis slips past Jonah and Murray, but not past Lonny who follows him from afar. However, Travis doesn’t have his bag with him, having left it on the train. Inside the bag happens to be a bomb and as Murray tries to diffuse it, he begs Jonah to move everyone out of the train car while he stays behind. He fails to diffuse it though and as the countdown ends, the utility plant blows sky high. Murray experiences a touching moment involving his son appearing before him, and as he reaches out, the train carriage detonates and Jonah flies through the air. The inferno engulfs Murray, killing him instantly. The ensuing blast causes Lonny to become momentarily distracted, and it’s enough time for Travis to turn around and plunge a knife into the man’s stomach. As he collapses on the floor, gasping for air, Jonah awakens and sees the wreckage first-hand as the city itself is plunged into darkness. With the Nazis now turning the screw and bringing their dastardly plan to fruition, Hunters doubles down with a really tense episode. The explosions are a shocking crescendo to this chapter and the various different plot lines all appear to be converging together now for the final push to stop The Colonel. While some of the dialogue is a little ham-fisted (especially Sister Harriet’s “Shalom Motherf*cker” line just before shooting Una), the show does enough to pepper in some genuine stakes as Murray meets a shocking end and with Lonny appearing to be the worse for wear too after being stabbed. The ominous ending leaves things wide open though and this is one episode you’ll certainly be sure to race through to find out what happens.
