Hunters season 1, episode 5 recap: At Night, All Birds are Black

The Hunters split up to follow leads they hope will reveal the whereabouts of the Ghost. Morris gets in over her head as the Nazis get closer to Offerman.

In Paraguay 1976, a room full of children have died of some kind of disease at a remote research camp on Hunters. The Nazi doctors running the camp are pleased with the results. So this pathogen is probably “the solution” that the Nazis are trying to import from South America.

Scenes of Joe training Jonah in hand-to-hand combat are intercut with Offerman’s story about The Wolf. He had it out for Offerman because of his relationship with Ruth. Small indignities grew to outright assaults until one night he spent hours torturing him. Offerman had a chance to kill The Wolf that night when his back was turned, but something inside him stopped him from doing something terrible “when something terrible needed to be done.”

He says he hesitated once and it was the greatest mistake he ever made. Offerman makes Jonah swear that when he has to make that choice he will not let what is inside of him stop him from doing what is difficult. Foreshadowing alert! I bet you anything Jonah is going to be faced with the decision about whether or not to kill Offerman.

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On the Hunt for Oskar Hauptman aka The Ghost, the Hunters discover the whereabouts of his former lieutenant, now called Victor Dillman. They also have a lead on The Ghost’s former lover, propagandist filmmaker Tilda Sauer. The Hunters split up to investigate their leads. Joe, Jonah, and Harriet check out Dillman in Alabama, while Roxy, Offerman, and Lonny check out Sauer. Mindy and Murray can’t help because tomorrow is their daughter’s wedding as if they hadn’t mentioned it.

Before Jonah takes off for Alabama, Carol comes to confront him. He missed Booty’s funeral, he lied to the police about seeing the guy who killed him, and an FBI detective showed up asking about him. She’s worried about him and wants to help. But Jonah is afraid that his involvement in the Hunt will get her hurt, so he says some mean things to her to get rid of her.

Team A tracks down Dillman (Raphael Sbarge) and Jonah is able to get his signature on a fake petition for identity verification. Harriet confirms that Dillman is Dieter Zweigelt, but he happens to be holding a huge 4th of July party that night. They come back under cover of darkness and kidnap him from under his guests’ noses.

Dillman reveals that he was invited into the country by the American government, just like thousands of other Nazi scientists recruited after the war. That’s a true story! Oska Hauptman, who last he knew was working as Director of Medical Engineering at a lab in Maryland, asked Dillman to work with him developing a weapon more powerful than the atomic bomb. Dillman said no, not wanting to jeopardize his life in America.

Dillman’s not the only Nazi at the party either. After some forceful persuasion, he names names. Harriet seems especially interested in one, in particular, Moritz Ehrlich (Ronald Guttman). She approaches him and speaks to him in German, telling him the Jews are after him and that she can keep him safe. She hustles him to the car and leaves Joe and Jonah behind to escape without her help when they’re caught torturing Dillman.

Group B captures Tilda Sauer (Barbara Sukowa) in her home. They feed her manure and show her her own Nazi films until she admits her identity and gives them information on the Ghost. But she doesn’t break. She maintains that her name is Karen Ballinger and that she was never in the war and that she has no idea what they’re talking about. Eventually, she starts talking back, making them doubt themselves. She turns to Offerman, saying that he is the biggest charlatan of all. In German, she begins to say to him, “Great pretender, clever tongue…” when he suddenly shoots her in the head. It goes against their whole code of honor to kill anyone before their identity is verified. Roxy and Lonny are horrified not just by Offerman’s actions, but by his off-handed callous manner. He’s a zealot, just as much as any Nazi.

Lonny discovers a book with a mysterious symbol on the cover placed inconspicuously on Sauer’s bookshelf, the same book Travis is seen reading occasionally. As Offerman, Roxy, and Lonny leave the house, Offerman’s car explodes when his driver starts the engine. Travis and a team of bullying Nazi brothers have been surveilling Offerman and rigged his car with a bomb.

Unfortunately for Travis, the explosion only killed the driver. Travis goes after them with a rifle, singing manically as he tries to hunt them down. He’s already killed two of the Nazi brothers, probably just for fun, and he clearly enjoys terrorizing the Hunters with deadly force. His own hunt is cut short when he can hear police sirens approaching. Roxy was injured in the blast, but otherwise, they escape unharmed.

Morris meets with disgraced journalist Danny Rohr (Miles G. Jackson) to learn more about Offerman. About a year ago Offerman came to Rohr telling a story about a Nazi war criminal he spotted in New York. When Rohr looked into it, he found thousands of Nazis living in America. He was the one who went to NASA asking questions about Gretel. He has a source who can prove it, but when it came to publishing his findings he was framed as a pedophile and fired. His fiancée even left him. And when Rohr needed help, Offerman was nowhere to be found.

Morris says that she can help Rohr expose the Nazis and tell his story if he can introduce her to his source. Reluctantly, he agrees, but when his source doesn’t show up for the meeting she begins to doubt his story. But when Morris is beaten up and warned away from the case, she realizes that Rohr’s story is true. She’s more determined than ever to expose the Nazis.

Biff meets with the Colonel, saying he’s proven how integral he is to the success of their mission. He’ll persuade the President to lift sanctions on South American trade as long as the Colonel can guarantee his safety and set up a meeting with the General. She scoffs at his terms but says she’ll see what she can do. So who is the General?

Hunters is obviously a very timely and relevant series in the current political climate, but particularly disquieting in this episode when it examines the actions of Fascists when sinisterly disguised under the banner of Patriotism. It is something that we see all the time these days, and who can safely argue with something when it is labeled as unpatriotic to disagree with it?

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Tilda Sauer/Karen Ballinger supports a political candidate dedicated to conservative policies that are prejudicial by design, and this exclusionary system is how she claims to be “putting America first.” White America, that is. Roxy translates, clarifying that Sauer wants people to pull themselves up by their bootstraps when some people can’t even afford the boots. Roxy is caught in a system that denies her the same basic equipment and opportunity as her white peers but then is vilified as lazy when her hard work fails to have the same results. It is dispiriting how little has changed.

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