From Hoarder to Killer: Arlo Brandt’s Twisted Revenge and The Pit’s Dangerous Failures in The Hunting Party Episode 6

Arlo Brandt

In Episode 6 of The Hunting Party, which takes place in Nebraska in 2009, the episode starts with an exciting scene where a man is driving quickly down a country road. His car gets stopped by some spiked boards on the road. The man, now scared and looking for safety, finds the Brandt family's farm and asks for help. The farm is owned by Arlo Brandt, who has a big, dark secret. 

Arlo not only collects a lot of things (he’s a hoarder), but he is also secretly a serial killer. Things get really tense when Arlo grabs a knife, getting ready to harm the man who came to his farm.

At the airbase, Bex gets there early and is ready to start her day. She sees that Odell is already on his third cup of coffee, and they start working right away. Bex immediately brings up a problem with Silo 12 and tries to get Odell to tell her the truth. Odell admits it’s dangerous but doesn’t give her all the details, saying they’ll talk about it later. 

Meanwhile, Shane’s involvement makes things more complicated because his father is Dr. Dulles. This connection puts Shane in a tricky situation, and the rest of the team doesn’t know how much Shane is really involved.

He comes back to the group and explains that Brandt's obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) led him to become a serial killer. In a place called the Pit, they used a type of therapy called MDT to treat him. This therapy involved taking away all of Brandt's belongings. The goal was to find out what caused his "sickness" and try to cure him by having him repeat certain behaviors.

Inside his cell, there was a phone on the wall that kept repeating the phrase "Uncluttering one's life will unclutter one's mind." This constant repetition was part of Brandt's therapy. He was forced to give up his belongings because he had no other choice if he wanted to eat. Despite these harsh methods, Brandt's treatment was considered successful in the place called the Pit.

The problem begins now that Brandt is back in society. He will probably feel overwhelmed and might go back to his old ways, but with a change. Instead of his previous targets, he now goes after wealthy individuals. This new focus might make him even more dangerous because his obsession is now tied to getting more money.

Arlo Brandt’s obsession becomes extreme when he kidnaps a hardware store owner named Big Gus, his son, and a few other people. Surprisingly, it looks like he doesn't want to kill them. Earlier in the episode, he got 12 monk robes, which makes his plan clear: he wants to teach his captives his radical way of thinking. By making them experience the tough conditions he went through in The Pit, Brandt hopes to pass on his twisted lessons to each group of captives.

Bex and the team quickly figure out where Arlo is and focus their search on an old, unused water treatment plant nearby. When they confront Arlo, it gets really tense.

Bex talks to Arlo and calms him down just enough for Hassani to surprise and capture him. With Arlo back in custody, it seems like the case is solved. But then things get more complicated as Shane finds out that his father's health is getting worse. To make things even more confusing, Dulles’ daughter shows up, and she has no idea who Shane is.

Later on, Odell tells Bex in private that people who needed more research than what the Pit could provide were sent to a place called Silo 12. This is where the whole problem started. Just before the prison break, there was a security breach at Silo 12. About a dozen armed security guards were in the area at the time. To make things even more complicated, the Attorney General knows about the breach and might even be the one who caused the explosion that destroyed the Pit.

The Episode Review

This week's case is interesting and focuses on Arlo Brandt, who has changed his approach to try to reform people. This change raises important questions about the goals and effectiveness of the Pit's methods for dealing with killers. The big worry is that many of these killers still have serious mental issues even after escaping, making people doubt if the Pit's methods really work.

Unfortunately, the ending of the story is disappointing because it is very similar to what has happened before. It lacks creativity and doesn't take advantage of Arlo's condition for a more original solution. A smarter idea could have been to lure him with a room full of stuff and then catch him. The show often uses the same tactic of distracting Arlo while Bex calms him down, and this is starting to feel repetitive and predictable.

Meanwhile, the episode gives more details about the Pit and the complicated conspiracy surrounding it. There's a bigger plan happening, but how it relates to the prison break and affects our team is still unclear. Even though these new discoveries are interesting, the episode of The Hunting Party is still pretty dull and doesn't have much excitement or new ideas.