Mikes Film Talk

“Hunters” in its second episode, “Messages”  has McCarthy (Julian McMahon) kicking off his bombing campaign with a stuffed, and talking, duck that houses a sonic explosive device. Flynn is still trying to find his wife and has reluctantly joined the Exo-Terrorism Unit  (ETU) although he really distrusts Regan (Britne Oldford) who is also a Hunter like McCarthy apparently. 

McCarthy destroys the music store where Abby (Laura Gordon) and Emme heard the music the terrorist uses to pass on messages to other Hunters.  The terrorist is also destroying other music stores where other Hunters held meetings.  It is also learned that McCarthy was using Spotify to pass on more code via the music. 

Regan hints that Abby, Flynn’s wife, is also a Hunter something that he denies. “We were married for six years,” he says, “I’d know.”

Meanwhile McCarthy is very busy. Filming a video where he “hangs” himself, only to show it has no effect, and telling the ETU what he is going to be doing  next. He also goads Flynn about having Abby.

The FBI agent has a flashback to Abby’s last birthday where Emme (his late partner’s daughter played by Shannon Berry)  gets his wife three items. The last of which is a sonic toothbrush. 

Hunters use sonic weapons and are, apparently susceptible to sonic blasts, which can kill them if set high enough and aimed at the head.  As Flynn learned last week, all the weapons of the ETU are sonic having been reverse engineered from captured weapons.

Regan and Flynn go to speak with a dead Hunter’s human widow and the ETU alien learns that McCarthy’s music causes her to see things. It also effects her in other ways. In the first episode it is ascertained that Hunters keep rabbits.  They like to hunt them.

After hearing the music that Flynn plays for the widow, Regan leaves the interrogation and stands looking at the rabbits at the Slavich residence.  Clearly  the message has brought out her inner Hunter.

McCarthy tells Flynn that if he brings him Slavich’s body he will give Agent Carroll his wife back.  The ETU assemble and accompany Flynn to the meet.  McCarthy, after roughing up the FBI man pretty thoroughly, reveals some of what he means to do and directs Flynn to a body in the next room.

It is not Abby.

Regan leaps to defend Flynn and loses out to McCarthy who does not kill her. Instead he transfixes her with his eyes and relays his “click” message. He also  scratches some skin from her arm.

There is a lot going on here in Hunter land.  McCarthy is taking something from people and not just Hunters. He drills into the faux  Abby and removes something from her spine.  The skin he takes from Regan he passes onto other less presentable versions of Hunters.

“There you are. Lurking like trolls in a Reddit chatroom. You leather-faced fudder-muckers.”

Despite McCarthy’s over-enthusiastic bonhomie, there is no love lost here between the creatures with mouths in their chests and someone called Mosher:

“Tell Mosher I hope he chokes on it.”

Before the end of the episode, and McCarthy’s offering of Regan’s skin, Jessie Slavich  (Hannah Fredericksen), the very human  widow of Randall, plants a sonic bomb in the next music store.  She passes on McCarthy’s message of invasion and detonates the explosive. 

Regan interjects, grabbing both Flynn and Jessie saving their lives. Only Slavich has her carotid artery torn out by Regan seconds after the ETU agents saving tackle.

Flynn goes over memories of the missing Abby disturbed by Regan’s allegations that his wife is an alien.  Later, Regan shows Flynn the skin patch and shares a little of what it is like to be her. The ETU agent asks Jackson (Lewis Fitz-Gerald) for “the treatment” and he refuses. Regan is concerned that the “Hunter sh*t” inside her will become uncontrollable. 

At home, Flynn searches for the clues that  may  reveal whether Abby is a Hunter or not. After tearing the family bathroom apart he finds the sonic toothbrush that Emme got his wife for her birthday.

It has never been used.

McCarthy meets the other Hunters to pass on the skin and and his message.

This is a serious science fiction drama where the terrorists are not human, despite appearances to the contrary.  A rather apt allegory for real life terrorists actually, where only someone who has no humanity can readily commit such heinous acts.

McMahon is brilliant as the leader of the revolution, chewing up the scenery with abandon and a sort of fiendish glee.  Oldford is believable as the ETU secret weapon and Nathan Phillips is spot on as the Afghanistan vet and FBI agent who has lost his wife to an alien kidnapper and terrorist. 

“Hunters” airs Mondays on SyFy. Tune in and see what this impressive new show has in store  for Flynn and Regan this week.