The following contains spoilers for Hunters Season 2, now available on Prime Video.
Season 2 of Prime Video's hit series Hunters pushes Jonah (Logan Lerman) into more treacherous waters. After killing Al Pacino's Meyer in Season 1, Jonah realized the old man was a Nazi known as the Wolf instead of his grandfather. Jonah has been on dark solo missions in the wake of the team disbanding. He's spurred on by the Fourth Reich killing his grandmother, Ruth, and wants to ensure this new Antisemitic movement comes to an end.
However, even when the team's reunited, discovering Hitler is hiding out in Argentina, Jonah keeps losing his cool. Interestingly, Hunters intersperses Jonah's struggle and his descent with the Wolf's history, spilling the truth behind how Ruth died. Unfortunately, this is something Hunters could do without, as it's predictable and doesn't really create any emotional resonance.
Hunters Confirms the Wolf Ordered Ruth's Hit
Season 2 of Hunters revisits the Wolf recruiting the hunters over the years. However, it's because he had to murder a former colleague to keep his identity secret. Thus, knowing ex-workers from the 1940s could see through the reconstructive surgery he did to pass off as the dead Meyer, the Wolf used his resources to assemble killers in the name of reducing white supremacy -- a creative theme Prime Video's The Boys is ironically addressing with Homelander.
Unfortunately, as Ruth reconnected, thinking he was her former lover, she can tell from his bodily marks, recollection of history and idiosyncrasies he's really the Wolf who experimented on her people in internment camps. It leads to her finding evidence of the surgeon Jonah would kill in Season 1, exposing "Meyer." However, Season 2 reveals the precursor to this with the Wolf phoning a Nazi hitman and asking for Ruth to be assassinated to protect their presence. This kickstarted the domino effect that would lead to the Wolf taking Jonah under his wing to slay more Nazis and hide his past.
Hunters' Big Twist Needed the Wolf Alive
The problem is it's already obvious in Season 1 the Wolf ordered the hit. No Nazis ever tracked Ruth down, so from the moment Jonah saw "Meyer" murder the surgeon without reciting a Jewish prayer regarding salvation, it became clear the Wolf was manipulating the young man and had Ruth killed to lure him in. He hinted as much just before Jonah gutted him for tricking them. Had Season 1 kept the Wolf reveal for Season 2 and having the veteran running ops, this backstory would have been more impressionable.
Instead, Hunters pushes flashbacks that don't fit the show because the team is working together again, happy and over his betrayal. Plus, fans already knew they were loyal and had brief insight into their hiring last season, so detailing all this drags the show on and feels like forced capitalization on Pacino's double agent. This backstory-turned-addendum really doesn't impact the team at all in the present, so it's just a trip down memory lane without purpose regarding motivations and traitors. Ultimately, this epilogue would have been better received if Jonah discerned what the Wolf did in person, driving him to murder his "grandpa." It would've brought Jonah's story about revenge and justice full-circle, and repaid the Wolf's bad karma in full.
Season 2 of Hunters is streaming on Prime Video.