Hunters season 1, episode 3 recap: While Visions of Safta Danced in His Head

Jonah has second thoughts about joining the Hunt while the rest of the Hunters uncover evidence of a Nazi conspiracy. Morris gets closer to the truth.

While Morris comes under Nazi surveillance, a guilt-ridden Jonah does some more research into his grandmother’s life on Hunters. He reads her account of her first day in Auschwitz, how they were stripped of their clothes and belongings, shaved off their hair, rounded, sorted, and branded like cattle. Young Offerman (Zack Schor), the man who saved Young Ruth’s (Annie Hägg) life and the man she was now in love with, was the one who gave her the number tattoo. He wanted her to fight, to keep hope until they could one day be together, but she didn’t know if she could fight against that kind of darkness.

When Jonah is visited by Ruth’s lawyer (Chip Zien), he tells Jonah a legendary story about her from the camps. She stepped between a young girl and the Nazi officer threatening her with a gun. Ruth pressed her head up against the barrel, knowing she would meet her fate for her act of defiance, but he didn’t shoot her. The young girl she saved that night is now the lawyer’s wife.

Back at Hunter HQ, the Hunters discuss the possibility that there are many more than the 23 Nazis they found America. Holstedder’s broadcast suggests that there are people he’s broadcasting to, that they’re communicating and organizing. They can’t let that happen.

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While Lonny, Roxy, and Joe keep an eye on Holstedder’s house to see if anyone shows up, Lonny sees movement in a window. They discover that the whole murder scene has been expertly cleaned away, but as they investigate Roxy gets jumped by a woman hiding in the broadcast room. There’s a struggle in which Roxy eventually kills the woman with a broken broom handle. So the Nazis are organized enough to have professional cleaners on hand to cover the tracks of their conspiracy.

Meanwhile, the Colonel is indoctrinating a new generation of Nazis, promising they will reclaim their birthright and eradicate their enemies. Somewhere in a factory, there are Nazis constructing explosives. Whatever they’re planning, it’s not good.

Biff Simpson, previously a big part of their plans, has been sidelined and he knows it. Not only is Biff insufferably arrogant and generally obnoxious, but he’s allowed that arrogance to put the whole operation at risk. He’s quickly becoming a liability.

Offerman visits Jonah at the comic book store where he works to check in on him. Offerman couldn’t protect Ruth, so he feels like it’s his duty to protect Jonah, but Jonah just wants out of the Hunters. He helped avenge Ruth’s murder but he’s not cut out for the Hunt.

Jonah tries to forget all about the Nazis by getting high and hanging out with his friends, but even his daydreams of a Coney Island dance routine set to Stayin’ Alive by the Bee Gees is interrupted by visions of Young Ruth from Auschwitz.

Morris has one of her FBI contacts look into mysterious deaths in the snowbird community and there have been eleven in the last year alone, four of whom were listed as war refugees. Her contact Ron (Sam Daly), hints that he knows what it’s like to be an outsider, so Morris confides in him about her theory that Nazis are living in America and that someone is murdering them.

Morris investigates the scene of Richter’s murder and there is quite a lot of evidence left behind, including Jonah’s jacket with his name in it. Unfortunately, Travis is able to sneak onto the scene disguised as a policeman and takes the name label out of the jacket for himself. But Morris finds surveillance photos of Ruth, which will lead her to the same place in the end.

Harriet discovers that Holstedder and Richter had copies of the same key leading to a safe deposit box somewhere. If they can get to the box, maybe they can find out who was giving them their orders. Despite all the work she’s doing to help uncover the Nazi conspiracy, Harriet seems to be some kind of double agent. She makes a secret phone call to warn someone, in German, that they’re getting closer.

They discover that both Holstedder and Richter frequented the same restaurant so they decide to check it out. It happens to be across the street from Zurich International World Bank, which was founded by a man who helped the Nazis during the war. Chances are the safe deposit box is in there.

Mindy and Murray identify a line of morse code underneath all the Nazi recordings from Holstedder’s, each corresponding to a date of some assassination or tragedy. The last is a date set for two weeks from then, with further details hidden in another string of code.

As Jonah catches up with his friend Carol who lives across the street, Travis sneaks into Jonah’s house and snoops around. He finds Jonah’s work schedule and discovers he’s supposed to be working that night, so he sets off to find him at the comic book store. Unfortunately, Jonah is late for work and it’s Booty working the shop. As Carol walks with Jonah to work, Travis is in the shop interrogating Booty to find Jonah.

Booty is such a loyal friend that he chooses to tell Travis that he is Jonah rather than give his friend up. Travis knows full well that Booty isn’t Jonah, but that doesn’t stop him from shooting him in the back as he tries to run for help. Jonah has a premonition and rushes to the comic book store. He sees Travis leaving the scene, then finds Booty dead in the store. Jonah was on the verge of quitting the Hunters, but now he has a very personal reason for joining back up.

What did you think of this episode of Hunters? Be sure to tell us in the comment section below!