.
- Previously on "The Hunting Party"...
- It's called the Pit.
It's home to the most dangerous and violent
criminals in history, all of whom the world
believes are dead.
Or at least it was, until the blast hit.
[dramatic music]
- How many inmates got out?
- You're here, Agent Henderson,
to help us catch them.
- Can you run vocal recognition on an audio recording for me?
I need this done quietly.
- Evelyn Lazarus doesn't exist.
- Apparently she could run a sub five-minute mile.
- So if she's running anywhere close to that,
there's gotta be a record of her competing,
and that is how we are gonna find her real name.
I got you, Caitlin Taylor.
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
- Close your eyes.
[inhales deeply] Deep breath in.
And...[exhales sharply] Release.
Good.
You're a little tighter than usual.
- Mm-hmm.
- Have you been doing those exercises I showed you?
- I'm trying.
- Because it's important to take time to relax,
to release the tension.
And sorry again for canceling last week so last minute.
It's just that, uh-- - It's fine.
- It's just my sister's been sick for a while.
Well, longer than a while,
and she--
she actually just passed.
- Sorry, do you mind if we don't talk?
- Oh. Sure.
- Great, thanks.
[sinister music]
♪ ♪
Amanda, what's going on?
♪ ♪
Where did you go?
♪ ♪
- Deep breath in.
- Ow.
[bones crunch]
- That's it.
- That's Colonel Lazarus?
- That is Caitlin Taylor
the day before she apparently died by suicide.
But look who else is in the photo.
Dr. Dulles.
[suspenseful music]
- If Colonel Lazarus is Caitlin Taylor,
that means an inmate from the Pit
is a colonel in the U.S. military.
How is that even possible?
Inmates don't leave the Pit, let alone
breeze through West Point. - Unless they do.
- Who else knows about this?
- Just you and me right now.
That's the way I want it to be until I get more proof,
and you are the only person who can help me with that.
- [exhales deeply]
There's one more thing.
- Okay.
- A few weeks ago, Shane gave me an audio file,
asked if I could voice match it to anyone.
I ran it, came back as Colonel Lazarus.
- Okay.
What was he working on?
- I don't know.
- And when you told him that it was Colonel Lazarus's voice,
what did he say?
- I didn't.
I was going to, but then Oliver died.
- So does Shane know that she's an inmate?
- He might.
But why wouldn't he say anything?
[phone buzzes]
We got a hit.
♪ ♪
- What do we got?
- Morning.
- Homicide, Covington, Kentucky.
Rick Howell of 144 Elm Way.
Social worker did a wellness check this morning.
Found his body had been there at least two weeks.
Bruises on the neck and torso indicate
a physical altercation.
Local PD found nothing missing except the victim's
red Nissan Sentra. I already have a BOLO out.
Digital prints match Pit inmate Amanda Weiss.
both: The Masseuse.
- Y'all both know her?
- It's a little to forget when it's a woman.
- Let me guess, you wrote a paper on her at Quantico.
- And then I didn't get a massage for three years.
- Amanda Weiss was the product of a physically
and psychologically abusive mother
and showed classic early indicators of psychopathy--
shallow affect, manipulative charm,
a tendency for calculated violence.
But she also had a sister, Lucy.
She was in and out of drug rehabs all through her teens.
- Amanda acted as Lucy's shield.
The sisterly bond they forged came from unfortunate
circumstances, but she grounded Amanda,
preventing her from pursuing her violent fantasies.
- Because she knew if she got locked up,
nobody would be there for Lucy.
- Which is why when Lucy OD'd on fentanyl, Amanda snapped.
She murdered six clients in the span of one week.
She broke their necks at C4 and C5, killing them instantly.
- So she's a spree killer. That's rare, right?
- Oh, yeah, very.
When the loss of her sister destabilized Amanda,
she felt abandoned.
- What does that have to do with some random guy
in Kentucky?
[wind blowing]
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
- Why? Where are you sitting?
- I don't know.
[TV playing indistinctly]
- You don't know?
- Um, I don't carry Coach, and I don't fly coach.
♪ ♪
It's a small plane.
You're never gonna get first class at this point.
- Uh-huh?
- They went to the wrong gate.
- I'm on 19A.
Hopefully I'm sitting by you.
- [chokes, gasps]
- I'll be the last one to get off the plane.
♪ ♪
[mellow upbeat music]
♪ ♪
- Amanda, I was hoping we might try this again today.
- [whistling tune]
- Tell me about your desires.
♪ ♪
Patient unresponsive.
♪ ♪
What is the effect of this silence, Amanda?
Patient unresponsive.
You know, I wonder, what kind of enjoyment
do you draw from this? [beep]
- Wow, that is like watching paint refusing to dry.
- Amanda stonewalled the first two shrinks
the Pit threw at her, so they brought in a heavy hitter,
Dr. Celia Erikson,
a leader in post-Lacanian psychoanalytic theory.
- Looked like Amanda sent their heavy hitter
back to the benches without breaking a sweat.
- I've read some of Dr. Erikson's stuff.
Her questions are a little unconventional,
but they're specifically designed
to identify a patient's psychic map and ethical framework.
- And what does that mean exactly?
- It means how a patient responds,
the form and the grammar of the answers
is more important than the words they choose.
- And, um, what does that mean exactly?
- Okay, when we speak, we decide what we wanna say,
the words we wanna use.
But very rarely do we pre-select the grammar
in those sentences.
And it's those choices that reveal our unconscious.
- Unless they don't talk.
- In a sense, yes,
but even Amanda not answering
is in itself an answer.
- All right, so how does a shrink get a subject to talk
when they don't want to?
- Listen to this.
According to Dr. Erikson's notes, in order for Amanda's
therapy to be successful, Amanda would have to form
a similar emotional attachment to her.
- Okay, that's a little naive.
I mean, given Amanda's psychopathy,
there's no way she was gonna form
an emotional connection with Dr. Erikson,
especially with her defenses up.
Erikson's deluding herself.
- Yep, and it shows.
Watch this.
- Amanda, at this point, I think it's fairly obvious
that you're not gaining anything from these sessions,
and quite frankly, neither am I.
Flying in here every week, it's a waste of my time.
So I'm terminating treatment.
Goodbye, Amanda.
[suspenseful music]
- Wait, she just quit?
- Yeah, I mean, she wasn't getting anywhere.
- No, I mean, she just threw in the towel.
I wasn't expecting that.
- Morales, we just got a hit on that missing red Nissan.
- Where? - Lexington, Kentucky.
Outside a house belonging to a Tiffany Blair,
who was MIA at work this morning.
[suspenseful music]
- I'll go around back. - Yep.
♪ ♪
Front room's clear. Going upstairs.
[TV playing indistinctly]
- Where's Tiffany?
♪ ♪
- [breathing heavily]
[crying]
Hey.
Hey, can you hear me?
Help!
Please!
Please help!
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
.
[suspenseful music]
- There's no blood anywhere.
- And noodles so old, even I wouldn't eat them.
[TV playing indistinctly]
- Okay, well, whatever happened here
didn't happen today.
- No sign of them upstairs.
Found a key tray with no keys in it.
Morales, find out what kind of car Tiffany was driving.
Maybe Weiss took off in it.
- I'll check the Nissan.
♪ ♪
- So what are you thinking?
- If this wasn't Amanda Weiss, I'd say this was an abduction.
- Yeah, but she doesn't do abductions.
- Before the Pit, Amanda would always leave
her victims in their homes.
- So why would she take Tiffany?
- Hey.
- Anything in the car?
- A food delivery bag, some ramen menus, and this.
I think Amanda was working for a delivery service.
- Bingo.
- You think Weiss and Tiffany crossed paths in an NA meeting?
- Amanda wasn't an addict.
- No, but her sister Lucy was.
She's her anchor, her whole world.
- Oh, creepy. They look a lot alike.
♪ ♪
- None of this was random.
Amanda was looking for another Lucy,
and she knew exactly where to go to find one.
- NA meetings.
- I bet she targeted Tiffany for days.
She sat right out there in her car watching,
deciding if she was gonna take her.
Then she studied her patterns and used
the food delivery to drug her.
- Bex? - Hey. What's up?
- We might have a situation.
The guy Amanda killed two weeks ago,
the Covington victim, Rick Howell,
we were searching for any kind of connection to Amanda,
and his home used to be owned
by Dr. Celia Erikson,
Amanda's therapist from the Pit.
- Amanda went there looking for Erikson.
- And when she didn't find her, things must have escalated.
- Maybe Tiffany's not the only person Amanda's grabbed.
Morales, was Dr. Erikson at the Pit
on the day of the blast?
- Nope.
She was at her university in Indiana.
You think Amanda Weiss kidnapped Dr. Erikson?
- Where is Dr. Erikson right now?
♪ ♪
- [whimpering]
- Hey. Hey. It's okay. It's okay.
I'm here. Hey.
You're not alone, okay?
Here, let me help you.
- [gasps, breathing heavily]
What's going on?
Who are you?
[indistinct chatter]
[phone vibrates, rings]
- Uh, sorry, one second.
Hey, Morales.
- Bex, just got confirmation from our team,
Dr. Erikson is safe and en route to the field office.
- Yeah, we told them that we're tracking a killer,
and the doctor's the consultant.
That's the story.
- That's pretty close to the truth.
- Where was she?
- In the middle of a lecture.
She wasn't thrilled, but our guys
didn't give her much choice.
- Well, hopefully, Dr. Erikson
can provide some insight.
Can you switch to a private line?
- Sure thing.
[phone beeps]
Done. What's up?
- That thing that we talked about earlier,
any new insight?
- Uh, I haven't had much time to dig.
It's been hard to find a moment when no one's watching.
But so far, zero hits on Caitlin Taylor.
- If she was an inmate, there has to be
some kind of record somewhere about her.
- Yeah, I know.
Did you talk to Shane
about the audio files?
- No, not yet, but I gotta go, okay?
[phone beeps]
- [exhales deeply]
♪ ♪
- Hey, what was that audio file you had Morales
looking into a few weeks back?
- Audio file?
- Yeah.
- Um, that was--
that was a lead I was following up
on the Jenna Wells case.
Turns out it was a dead end, so.
Did Morales tell you about that?
- No, no, I just saw her running it,
and I was gonna ask you about it.
But she didn't tell me what it was about.
- Okay.
It was nothing.
- Hey.
Erikson just landed.
- All right.
Looks like you're up. - I'm up.
[elevator dings]
Dr. Erikson, my name is
Special Agent Rebecca Henderson.
Um, please, right this way.
- I know who you are and what happened to you.
- Right, well, the reason for my suspension from the FBI
is not the topic of conversation for today.
- I was referring to the reasons you joined the FBI.
I remember reading the Eli Johnson case.
You were just a girl.
But I shouldn't be surprised you wound up here.
Trauma is cyclical.
- Let's talk about Amanda Weiss.
♪ ♪
Cameras are off.
It's just you and me.
Can I grab you a coffee?
- Black.
Amanda is still alive then?
And I assume you and your friends must be
part of the recovery effort.
- We are the recovery effort,
which is why we need your help.
Let's talk about your sessions at the Pit with Amanda.
- I was told I would never have to answer questions
for the work I did down there.
- Unfortunately, that was before the blast
and before Amanda decided to kill someone
at 144 Elm Way in Covington.
- Rick Howell?
Well, that's very unfortunate.
- There's another innocent life at stake too.
We believe Amanda abducted her.
Remind you of anyone in Amanda's life?
- Hmm.
Transference. It's the most powerful
psychological tool in the human psyche.
How did Amanda do it?
- I think the better question is how Amanda
had your home address in her back pocket.
- I don't know.
Google?
- You know, I saw your last session with Amanda.
You quit.
- I was frustrated.
So much work, and Amanda still wasn't responding.
- Dr. Erikson, you were summa cum laude at Harvard.
You finished your PhD at Oxford four years later.
You have over 212 academic papers published.
You don't quit. You don't lose.
I don't even think you know how.
You're enjoying this.
You're antagonizing me.
- Why do you think that is?
- 'Cause I don't think that you stopped treating Amanda.
I think you switched tactics.
- It was clear that Amanda would never trust me,
an authority figure, much like her mother.
So I tried something
out of the box.
- How's that feel?
Is that better?
- A new theoretical protocol called mutual
stress-related attachment.
- Well, isn't that just a fancy way
of saying trauma bonding?
- Call it what you want.
It worked.
.
[suspenseful music]
- The only person Amanda ever found
a true emotional attachment to was her sister, Lucy.
So we took an inmate just like Lucy
and got her to lure Amanda out of her shell.
- I'm sorry, you let her interact with another inmate?
- Her name was Alice.
She was a serial killer,
much like Belle Gunness,
but also an addict.
Alice was the only person that we knew Amanda could bond with,
especially given the traumatic circumstances of the Pit.
So we put Alice in the cell next to Amanda.
- How did they communicate?
- Wall tapping.
It's common amongst inmates. You know...
[tapping on wall]
We discovered Amanda had learned it
before she was transferred to the Pit.
Within days, they were fluent with each other.
♪ ♪
Amanda shared everything with Alice.
She was the key to unlocking Amanda's psychology.
- Except that Alice didn't exist, did she?
You played that part.
Amanda never laid eyes on Alice
because you were the one knocking on the other side
of the wall, weren't you?
That's how she had your home address in Covington.
You used parts of your real life to create Alice, no?
- Yeah.
The truth is always the easiest to remember.
- Except that the truth just killed an innocent man,
and when Amanda couldn't find Alice,
she decided to recreate the situation
by kidnapping another woman.
As you said, trauma is cyclical, right?
- She wasn't supposed to escape.
- The man who took us, did you see him?
- I saw his face.
I fought back when he grabbed me.
- I didn't even see him. I just woke up here.
- Oh. - [sobbing]
- I'm so sorry you're going through this.
But I'm happy I'm not alone.
♪ ♪
- Very impressive, Agent Henderson.
You're smarter than you look. - Thank you. I get that a lot.
So since you know Amanda so well, where might she be?
- Well, if she's still looking for Alice,
I imagine she'd go to the Cumberland Mountains.
- Why is that?
- Amanda and Alice daydreamed about escaping together
and retreating up to one of the many cabins in that area.
It's peaceful, idyllic.
Alice's family summered there when she was a child.
- No, actually, your family summered there.
Which cabin?
- Is he going to kill us?
When is he going to come back?
- I've been here for days.
I know how it goes.
Trust me.
- What's he like?
- He doesn't like it when you fight back,
so it's best to keep quiet.
- [sobbing]
- Hey, hey, come here.
Come here. It's okay. We have each other.
We're not alone.
- There's a nail coming out of the floorboard.
- What?
- If I can get it, I can get us out of here.
- No, no, no, I don't think we should be doing this.
What if he sees?
- If we stay here, we'll die.
- Don't--
- [breathing heavily]
- Where are you going?
- I see a road.
If we can get there, then we can flag somebody down.
- No, no, no, no. What if it's him?
If we run towards the wrong car, we're done.
We have to stay together out here somewhere.
- Hey, hey, it's all right.
We're gonna make it.
We have to try.
Just come on, I'm not gonna leave you.
[tense music]
What is it?
- You weren't supposed to leave the cabin.
- [breathing heavily]
[groans]
- [inhales deeply]
- [strained] I can't breathe.
♪ ♪
- Guys, the Cumberland Mountains
cover thousands of acres of remote wilderness,
and there are hundreds of cabins.
- Erikson's family rented dozens
of cabins over the years.
Amanda could be keeping Tiffany at any one of them.
- Needles and haystacks.
And all these hills and hollers make a drone useless.
- We're gonna find her.
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
- [gasps, breathes heavily]
[sobbing]
- Nobody knows where you are, Tiffany.
Nobody even knows you're gone.
You realize that, right?
I know.
I've been watching you.
So I know that you don't have anyone.
But it's okay.
It's okay because I know how that feels,
and it's awful.
But you don't have to be alone.
We don't have to be alone.
We have each other now,
and that's all we need to be happy.
That's why I brought us here,
so we could depend on each other
like real sisters do.
Do we have a deal?
- [screams]
- Okay, okay, I get it, I get it, I get it.
You need time.
But you'll see,
the pain only brings us closer.
And no matter what,
I'll take care of you.
[bones crunch] - [screams]
.
- If Amanda's camping out there,
she would have stopped in town for supplies,
gear, water.
Middlesboro, small town at the base of the mountains.
- Smart thinking, Florence.
- All right, looks like we're doing an old-fashioned canvass.
[engine revving]
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
[footsteps approaching]
- Hi, there.
You were out quite a while.
- [whimpering] - Oh, no, no, no, no.
Shh, shh, shh.
Don't worry.
You're okay, I promise.
We are gonna be so happy together.
Here.
- [moans]
- Yeah. Okay.
Relax, okay?
Try to get some rest.
- [breathing heavily]
- Oh.
Your ankle must be hurting.
- [screams, sobs]
- But I'll take care of you.
- Wait!
My heart is racing.
I need my pills.
- No, no, no, you can't take anything, you silly squirrel.
You're in recovery.
- No, not drugs.
I have a heart murmur.
I need my medicine.
Please, if I don't have my pills, I'll die.
- Hey. Have you seen her?
♪ ♪
- No one recognizes Amanda's photo.
- Yeah, same.
Apparently, we're the only strangers
to come through town recently.
- I get the feeling a place like this
does not love the government stirring the pot.
- Guys, I got her. Pharmacy, north end of town.
- Is she alone?
- Yeah, I think so.
- Shane, grab her. We're on our way.
♪ ♪
- She's talking to the pharmacist.
- Wait. No, Shane, stop.
We still don't know where she's holding Tiffany.
- We don't even know if Tiffany is still alive.
- She's alive.
But given how she stonewalled Erikson, if we grab her now,
she's not gonna give us anything.
- Well, if we try to follow her in our vehicle,
she'll make us for sure.
- I got a plan.
♪ ♪
- Don't move, don't move.
- Let me go.
- Are you working with the Feds?
- What? What are you talking about?
- The Pit. Right there.
Are you working with them?
- No, no, I'm not.
- You gotta swear to me. - I swear.
Who are you?
- It's me.
It's Alice.
- Where have you been?
- I will explain everything, I promise,
but right now, we gotta go, unless you wanna get
dragged back to the Pit.
I knew you'd remember the mountains.
- I found us the perfect place.
♪ ♪
- Got them, moving east out of town.
- Copy. We have a visual.
They're heading into the mountains.
- Amanda's already made our SUV,
so we're gonna have to hang way back.
- Okay, give them space.
We're tracking from our end.
♪ ♪
- Okay, I don't see them anymore.
I think we're good.
- What happened to you?
I went to your family's place.
- On Elm Way?
Are my parents still there?
- No.
I just thought you'd go there.
- No, I, um--
I got out of the Pit, and I spent a couple weeks
laying low in Casper.
The Feds and the military were everywhere,
but as soon as I could, I started hitchhiking south.
I knew you'd come here, too, to be honest.
♪ ♪
[scoffs] What is it?
- Nothing.
I just--I pictured you different.
You're taller than I imagined.
- You're just saying that because Lucy was.
Look, I really do wish that I could have met her.
I think we would have been friends.
♪ ♪
- Bex, I'm not sure she's buying it.
Hang in there,
- We're about a half a mile behind you, Bex,
but looking at the map, the road runs out soon,
so we're gonna have to hang back.
But we won't be far.
All right, you got this.
♪ ♪
- Go ahead.
You know the way.
I'll be right behind you.
♪ ♪
.
[tense music]
- You know,
I looked you up on the internet.
I tried to figure out where you'd go or maybe even
find out what you even look like.
But there was nothing.
I couldn't find a single article about you
or what you did, who you murdered.
Why couldn't I find you, Alice?
♪ ♪
- You wanna know what I found when I looked you up?
You were dead.
Yeah, you killed yourself in prison.
I even read the note you wrote.
They posted it online to convince
everyone that was the truth.
Do you realize how powerful these people are?
If they can kill you, they can erase me.
But I killed those men.
Yeah, I bashed their heads in, butchered them like hogs.
- [chuckles]
- What does she know about butchering hogs?
- I remember you telling me about that guy from Minnesota.
- He was a funny one.
- Yeah, he was.
What was his name again?
Was it Joe or John?
- It was John. - John, right.
Do you remember what you kept from John?
- Did I take something?
- Yeah, you told me you kept a souvenir.
Do you remember what it was?
Because I remember what it was.
♪ ♪
- [chuckles]
I don't remember taking anything.
Other than a watch.
♪ ♪
- It really is you.
- Dr. Erikson said she modeled Alice on Belle Gunness.
When they busted Gunness, they found a victim,
a guy from Minnesota, John Moe.
And get this, Gunness held onto his watch.
- Yes, Bex.
- What do you think?
- This is amazing.
Yeah, this is exactly like the one I went to growing up.
- Yeah, it's just how I imagined it from your stories.
- It's awesome.
- We'll be safe here
together.
Uh, can I get you anything?
Do you want a water? Do you want some food?
- Um--
- [humming]
- It's just a little cold, actually.
Can we put another log on the fire?
- You're cold? - A little bit.
- Yeah, good idea.
I'll get it going.
- Thank you.
♪ ♪
- What are you doing?
- [chuckles softly]
I was looking for my room.
- Well, you found it.
But you can't go in there right now.
- 'Cause why?
- I have to explain.
- Amanda, why is this door locked?
- Because...
I couldn't be alone again,
not after everything.
- Is there someone in this room?
- Yes, but she is nothing.
She's nothing. She's a nobody.
This is real.
We are real.
I'll fix it.
- Amanda, stop. Amanda.
Oh--
[chuckles softly]
I wanna do it--
for us.
Come on, let me do it. Give me the gun.
- We'll do it together.
- Okay.
♪ ♪
- Please, somebody help!
- Amanda, stop!
♪ ♪
.
- What are you doing?
- Guys, find Tiffany.
She's out there, wounded somewhere.
I've got Amanda.
[tense music]
- I'll get Tiffany. You go to the cabin.
- Help!
[breathing heavily, groaning]
- You're with them. You're with the Pit.
- Put the gun down, Amanda.
- I knew something was off about you
from the moment I saw you.
- Put the gun down!
- Where is Alice?
Where is she?
- She's in custody with us.
- No.
You're lying.
- She was in her cell when we found her.
She was completely alone.
She didn't get out after the blast.
But she keeps asking about you every day.
- Well, then you have to let her go.
- I can't do that.
You know I can't do that, but I can take you to her.
Amanda, you guys can be together, I promise.
Or we can both die right here.
That choice is yours.
Don't do that to her. She misses you.
Alice needs you.
She really misses you.
Put the gun down, Amanda.
♪ ♪
- Just take me to see Alice.
- Help!
- Tiffany!
- [moaning] Help!
Somebody help!
♪ ♪
[screams]
- Oh, hey. Hey.
I got you.
[exhales deeply]
I'm with the FBI.
It's okay.
[exhales deeply]
- ♪ I'm a king now ♪
♪ Where's my crown? ♪
[all chuckling]
- "Butchered them just like the hogs"?
- I was leaning into it.
- Yeah, you were.
- Yes, I was.
- Come on, you were a little bit too convincing, I think.
- No. Don't put me in the Pit.
- Hey, uh, Amanda Weiss is en route to the new facility,
and she still thinks Alice is real,
so she's not gonna be happy with you
when she finds out you lied.
- As long as she's behind bars, I don't care.
Mm. - I'm out.
- No.
- Yep.
Good job today.
- Bye. - See you tomorrow.
- Thank you, boss.
♪ ♪
- Excuse me.
I've never seen you this quiet or so serious.
Okay.
- Sorry, liquid courage.
- You need that 'cause why?
- There are some things about me
that you don't know that
I'd like to tell you.
[suspenseful music]
- Okay.
- I told you I started working at the Pit
to be closer to family.
But that's not the whole truth.
I took the job...
because I was looking for a prisoner down there.
- Who were you looking for?
- People are asking questions.
- Questions are inevitable.
- My biological mother.
[exhales deeply] That voice recording you asked me about,
that's all I have of her.
[chuckles] I don't even know her name.
You know, I may never.
- Sorry, that voice recording was your mom?
- What about the boy?
- I'll keep my promise.
- I just wanted to know who I am...
[muffled moaning]
Where I came from.
[sustained tone]
And I will never lie to you again.
[chuckles softly]
- Y'all doing okay here?
Can I get you anything?
- No, thank you.
- We're fine. Appreciate it.
To new beginnings?
♪ ♪
[bottles clink]
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪