Season 1: Recap

New Holy Ground: Season 1, Episode 13

Wanna know what happened during the first season of Hunters? You've come to the right place, Earthling. Read on ...

Aliens known as Hunters walk the Earth, and they look a lot like us (on the outside, anyway — on the inside it's all sorts of icky gonzo biology). They take on human appearance by extracting DNA samples from the spine via evil-looking syringes. Gross!

One of the most mean-spirited (and, yeah, most charismatic) Hunters is Lionel McCarthy. He communicates with his fellow Hunters via a series of messages hidden in Spotify playlists. Hunters have brute strength, but their greatest asset — and greatest weakness — is their extremely sensitive hearing.

The leader of the Hunters is Musa Wazari, aka Brother Number Four. He's lived among us as a Romanian freedom fighter for more than thirty years, masterminding terrorist attacks against the human race. We know Hunters are from a distant, war-torn planet … but what do they want from us?

The tactical team dedicated to tracking down Hunters is the ETU (Exo-Terrorism Unit), led by the compassionate but no-nonsense Truss Jackson. Jackson often clashes with his superior, Finnerman, who's much more ruthless and unforgiving.

Jackson's top operatives are Allison Regan, who's actually a Hunter herself, and Dylan Briggs, who has a personal vendetta against Hunters (which he refers to as 'guanos') after his lover was killed by one of them. Regan and Briggs don't like each other very much, but they get the job done more often than not.

The ETU's latest recruit is Flynn Carroll, an ex-FBI man dealing with PTSD upon his return from a tragic military operation in Afghanistan. Something horrible happened to him there … something he can't quite remember.

Flynn becomes involved with the ETU after his wife, Abby, is kidnapped by McCarthy. McCarthy uses the Hunter weapon of choice, a sonic stun gun, to render her incapacitated.

It turns out that Abby is a Hunter herself, with McCarthy tasked with re-programming her back to the Hunter cause after perhaps becoming too entrenched in her human life. Abby was 'assigned' to Flynn years ago, as apparently Flynn is of great interest to Musa. But why?

Meanwhile, Regan struggles with her Hunter nature, often utilizing a sonic 'treatment' to control her urges of hunger and violence. When Regan is somewhat willingly kidnapped by Musa, Abby tries to convince her of the Hunter cause through a series of bizarre re-programming techniques … like being submerged in a tub of silver Hunter blood.

Regan is reunited with her long-lost Hunter father, Ted, who had been a secret prisoner of the ETU for several years. Ted later kills himself lest Finnerman try to turn father and daughter against each other, though not before he reveals a code that allows the ETU to translate the Hunter language.

Regan is also reunited with her long-lost mother, Liana, who is Musa's right-hand woman. Liana is disgusted with Regan's refusal to join the Hunter cause, which leads to some pretty epic mother-daughter fights.

The Hunters are planning something called 'The Purge,' which the ETU assumes is some sort of large-scale attack. Indeed, the Hunters seem to be building what looks like nuclear weapons, fueled by the materials from their many lithium mines.

Whatever The Purge is, it involves the Hunters being able to revert to their native forms, which they achieve with the help of a human genetic scientist named Sterling Martinez. Martinez is later killed for his services. No loose ends!

The ETU tries to gain the upper hand by using their translation abilities to send a false message to the Hunters. Claiming to be Musa, they summon the Hunters to a hotel in rural Ohio, where ETU soldiers lie in wait.

Finnerman reveals her bloodthirsty nature when she orders the extermination of what are basically working-class people just trying to get by on this strange planet, many of whom don't even know what The Purge is. Flynn and Regan go rogue after the brutal hotel ambush that claims the lives of many Hunters … and leaves Musa seriously wounded.

Finnerman finally goes too far when she attempts to kill the increasingly defiant Jackson … and his entire family. Jackson later executes Finnerman and makes it look like it was the work of Hunters … which doesn't convince the increasingly hostile and insubordinate Briggs, who was taking orders from Finnerman directly.

Flynn is skeptical of this after living what was basically a six-year lie with Abby, but he and the ETU receive confirmation from the unlikeliest source: McCarthy, who's been cast out by Musa due to his reckless behavior …

… which includes murdering his own Hunter offspring, lest it be used as yet another test subject for the ETU.

McCarthy agrees to take the ETU to the launch site in exchange for full immunity. The ETU better stop that launch, because the nuclear blast required to send that rocket into space will wipe out most of Mexico.

The ETU raids the launch site, though the launch itself is sabotaged by Liana, who is revealed to be one of The Exalted, a group of Hunters that attempted to keep Musa from leaving their home planet in the first place. The spaceship is now set to explode … with all of the Hunters inside!

A now completely crazed Musa tells Flynn the truth about what happened to him in Afghanistan. His entire unit was wiped out by Hunters who were on something called The Great Hunt; as Flynn is the only human to ever survive a Great Hunt, he has revealed himself as The Chosen One who will help Musa defeat The Exalted!

Flynn's had just about enough of this nonsense and tears open Musa's head. Yikes.

Meanwhile, McCarthy's escape attempt is foiled by Briggs, who brutally shoots him point blank with not one but two sonic guns. Later, though, McCarthy's body seems to have disappeared! Did he manage to survive Briggs' attack?

Abby desperately tries to save her people from the ship set to explode, but she's run out of time. She and Flynn flee from the launch site, narrowly escaping the nuclear blast.

Jackson and Briggs manage to escape as well, but not with Regan; she runs off with Liana, and when last we see them, mother and daughter are in Russia, where they meet up with a group of Hunters in their native forms. These are The Exalted!

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