The Abandons Recap ‘The Hunt’: The Sacrament of Confession

The Abandons Season 1 Episode 2 

Spoiler Warning: This is a detailed recap of the second episode of the first season of The Abandons. If you have not yet seen the show, please head over to Netflix before reading on.

You have to hand it to Constance. She studied her enemies and knew how to exploit their weaknesses. She knew that Fiona was a woman of deep faith. Fiona’s Catholicism was very much part of her daily life and not an afterthought of the busy. In their battle of wills, Constance needed more ammunition. Enter Father Killian Duffy, a childhood friend of Fiona’s, a priest who made monthly rounds into town, the very priest to whom Fiona and her family would go to to confess their sins. Their weaknesses. 

But first, a different kind of predator. A grizzly bear wandered into town and gorged the mayor for breakfast. Was I surprised that that was the extent of Patton Oswalt’s screentime? Yes. The bear was headed to the river — if they left it alone, there was a good chance it would soon move off from their communities — but Constance was concerned the bear would prove a distraction to her miners at a time when production needed to ramp up. Cornelius Vanderbilt was coming. A hunting party was assembled. 

Angel’s Ridge was small, a town that rose around the Van Ness silver mines, and even the residents of the Hollow, including Fiona’s sons, joined the hunt. When Garret started handing out vouchers to the hunting party — vouchers that could be used to purchase anything in town — it was a simple illustration of the company town that was Angel’s Ridge. 

Where there was conflict between families, there was Romeo and Juliet. Elias was wracked with guilt that as the eldest, he was not able to sufficiently protect his family. He apologised to his sister Dahlia. Yet he also was rather clearly starting up a romance with Trisha, the sister of the man who sexually assaulted Dahlia and whom the Hollow had buried in secret with Sweetie the precious dog. Elias’s anger toward Garret was understandable. His feelings toward Trisha was less so, unless these feelings had existed long before the conflict between the families exploded into irreversible violence? I don’t dislike the pairing — and there is a reason Romeo and Juliet type of stories have withstood the test of time — it just felt a little narratively misplaced at this time. Perhaps we’ll get more details later into the season. 

Nonetheless, it was probably a good thing that the bear rather pointedly followed the hunting party even before they had finished laying down the bait, before the fragile peace between Garret and Elias exploded. No, of course they shouldn’t have killed the bear. But within the context of the period and the story, the decision was narratively understandable. 

Whilst the boys were away, Fiona and Dahlia were entertaining the newly promoted to Monsignor, Father Duffy. The show laid out the conflict as soon as he came on screen. Dahlia commented on his new horse and coat. After a nice meal at Fiona’s house, they played a game of fidchell, which he lost, and he tried to pay the lost wager (Fiona refused). Fiona and Dahlia just assumed Father Duffy had money because of his new position. 

Why did Fiona and Dahlia confess their most secret sins to Father Duffy? The obvious answer was that they were both practicing Catholics, and this was part of how they assuaged their guilt. Dahlia especially has been struggling with her trauma. Fiona could not have failed to notice this; she must have hoped a confession to a priest they both trusted would help Dahlia. Would Fiona have confessed had it not been to try and help Dahlia? Perhaps not. She has killed before – her husband who brutally abused her – and the way Father Duffy acted with her, it did not look like he knew of her past deed. 

Fiona told Dahlia to tell Father Duffy a simple story, that her life was threatened, that striking back was her only choice. For her part, Fiona meant to tell the priest that what she did was an act of love, that she took the life of someone evil to keep safe someone good. The telling of the story would set them free.

Except, the story that Fiona wanted Dahlia to tell was not entirely the truth. What was it that Oma said? ‘A lie sets no one free.’

Constance, a non-Catholic, was inside the church on the day that Fiona and Dahlia confessed. Constance even sat with Fiona for a while and talked to her about Willem. These were two women on opposing sides of a great social divide, yet Constance made an effort to connect with Fiona as a mother who has experienced the pain of the loss of a child (she was referring to Fiona’s past miscarriages). Why would Constance go through this, if she did not already strongly suspect that Fiona’s family had something to do with Willem’s disappearance? 

And so Father Duffy got the confessions and rode off, and as he left the bundle of letters he carried accidentally dropped from his satchel. Issac picked them up and handed them over to Fiona, a known true friend of his. Fiona had been curious about those letters, particularly the one from the Archbishop, and this time she did not allow Dahlia’s gentle reprimand to stop her. She read the letter, and got her children to follow her riding out into the night.

They caught up with Father Duffy soon enough. The letter from the Archbishop said there was no money, so who provided all of the priest’s lifestyle upgrades? Why was he taking the road to the Van Ness house when they were not Catholics? Father Duffy had committed a great sin. He agreed to break the seal of confession for money.

He did not deny it. He even accepted the judgment of Fiona’s kids, who drew their weapons. But Fiona did not permit another murder. She called Father Duffy out for putting this burden on the innocent, and allowed him to ride off.  

A moody exploration of sin and the corrosive weight of secrets, 'The Hunt' drew its strength from the storms that raged within the calm visages of its characters. The corrupt and the supposed incorruptible found common cause in silver. On the other side of the divide, a fierce mother struggled to keep safe the children whom she herself exposed to a darker realm. 

Rating: B+

Strays

👒There were back to back scenes of Fiona and Constance getting ready in the morning to illustrate the differences between the two women. Fiona with her rosary, alone, dressing, with visible lash marks on her back. Constance was being dressed by a maid.

👒Oma was joined by Lilla when she visited her tribe, the Cayuse. There they witnessed an argument between father and son; the son wanted to join the Cayuse rebels.

👒Trisha told Elias that Garret’s pomp and bluster was his way of keeping sadness at arm’s length. Albert was witnessing this forbidden love grow. 

👒Trisha also bonded with the bandit leader Roache, over Schubert. 

👒Constance sternly told Garret to lead the hunting party well, but to not put himself in harm’s way. 

👒Fiona: ‘You make extortion sound like progress, Constance.’ Word.

👒Roache had to tell Constance the difficult news, that despite searching everywhere, there was no trace of Willem.

👒There’s a kid who seemed to be documenting the hunting party, I wanted to mention him in case we see him again later in the season. 

👒If we take Father Duffy at his word, Fiona was the Teller children’s nanny. Dahlia added that Fiona nursed their father Angus back to health after the great fire. 

👒During the funeral of Mayor Nibley, there was a shot of a stone bearing Emmett Van Ness’s name. This was probably Constance’s husband, buried in the town that grew around his family business. 

👒Cornelius Vanderbilt arrived and left with no lines. Constance told Garret that Vanderbilt’s shipping enterprises were in jeopardy, and that if the decline in their mines did not stabilize, he would withdraw his stake. 

Episode Title: The Hunt

Episode Writer: Emmy Grinwis

Episode Director: Gwyneth Horder-Payton

Original Air Date: December 4, 2025

You can access Recap Lab’s coverage of The Abandons via this link.

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