Melissa Roxburgh and Josh Dallas Reunite in The Hunting Party and Embrace Darker Roles

The Hunting Party Season 2 has been filled with impressive guest appearances. The NBC series is led by Melissa Roxburgh (Bex). During each episode, the team tracks and captures the extreme criminals who escaped The Pit. In episode “Elliot Carr,” Josh Dallas steps into a devious killer’s role. For fans of Manifest, Roxburgh’s and Dallas’ reunion turns this episode into one of the season’s most anticipated moments.

This episode marks a notable shift, not just in tone, but in character dynamics, giving both actors a chance to explore roles that contrast sharply with their previous on-screen partnership.

In The Hunting Party Season 2 episode 8, “Elliot Carr,” the team hunts a diabolical serial killer who used his shoemaking skills in his crimes. Specifically, the “Connecticut Cobbler” must be stopped before he uses new “skins” in his latest creations.

Dallas assumes the role of Elliot Carr. During our interview, FlickDirect asked what drew him to this role. He explained that reuniting with his Manifest co-star, Roxburgh, was a huge draw. Dallas said that he “couldn’t wait to come play” in this particular fictional world.

Specifically, he finds that The Hunting Party’s writing team creates deliciously complicated characters, and he could not turn down the opportunity to play one. Dallas appreciated that Elliot Carr is not a “straightforward serial killer.” The deranged criminal changed when he entered The Pit.

Josh Dallas: “He's reformatted in his brain, and he comes out different. He still has that same obsession with power, with dominance, with his craft, but he has this very warped sense of remorse. In his own mind, he wants to make a very twisted apology to his victims. That was this overwhelming factor in me wanting to play this guy because it was such an unusual approach.”

While the character itself has an unusual approach, Manifest fans will quickly recognize how different this dynamic feels. As Dallas shared, “Manifest was love and warmth,” whereas The Hunting Party becomes more of a “cat and mouse” experience.

After playing brother and sister for so long, the pair easily slipped into a familiar rapport. That ease and naturalness allowed them both to get more out of their characters. When people watch this episode, those nuances add to the complexity of the story.

For Roxburgh, the mutual admiration for her friend and co-star was clear. While she joked that she was in a “deep depression” since Manifest ended, she could not wait for an opportunity to work with Dallas again. This role is far from her big brother on Manifest, but she felt Dallas’ phenomenal acting skills would be well served in the bad guy role.

Melissa Roxburgh: “I want to see him play the bad guy. And let's just say, I feel like in the Manifest world, if Elliot Carr were on that plane, he would not be coming home, not being reunited with loved ones. We’ve seen him as Prince Charming. We've seen him as Ben Stone. We've seen him in so many roles where he's loving and kind because that's who he is as a person. But, I think in knowing how much he loves to play and dive into characters, I selfishly just wanted to see him play the serial killer. I wanted to see him play the bad guy for once.”

As seen throughout Season 2, the storylines are more complicated, and the criminals are more diabolical. For Roxburgh, she understands that the “heightened” craziness is countered by the team’s approach to the chase. She believes that the “team hunting them gets to have a little bit more fun.”

Additionally, Roxburgh believes that there are some significant differences between the first and second seasons. Similar to other members of the ensemble cast, it is important to have the light and dark in every episode.

Melissa Roxburgh: “I think what people are enjoying this season is that you get a bit more balance. You get the scary, gruesome, grizzly murders combined with bits of fun, humor, light, and WTF moments. You're like, why? What is happening? Whereas Season One felt a bit more serious. I think that that balance makes things more enjoyable for people to watch.”

Melissa Roxburgh and Josh Dallas appear in The Hunting Party, Season 2, Episode 8. New episodes air Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC. Episodes can be streamed the next day on Peacock.