The first season of Netflix’s The Hunting Wives introduced us to a peculiar character who went by the One-Eyed man (played by Jullian Dulce Vida). Now, the reason why I called him peculiar was because he appeared out of nowhere and tried to strike up a conversation with the show’s protagonist, Sophie O’Neil. She had been partying in Coyote Joe’s, a famous nightclub in Maple Brook, with her new friend, Margo Banks, when the One-Eyed man first showed up. As his name suggests, the One-Eyed man didn’t look very friendly, nor did he act like a friend, and therefore Margo asked him to back off, but he didn’t. He looked Margo straight in the eye and told her that she looked familiar. He called Margo by her former name: Mandy.
Spoiler Alert
The truth was, before meeting or marrying Jed Banks, Margo, aka Mandy, used to work as an escort to support herself and her brother, Kyle. And how did the One-Eyed man know Mandy, and what did he really want to tell Sophie? The ending of season 1 suggested that the One-Eyed man was a private detective hired by the Democrats to dig up dirt on Jed and people associated with him so they could jeopardize his upcoming campaign. Jed was running for governor of Texas, and his political opponents were willing to do anything in their power to expose him in the eyes of the public. But it still didn’t make any sense why the One-Eyed man or the other private detective who replaced him was so keen on talking to Sophie and no one else. Maybe because Sophie was an outsider, which made her an easy target. They likely wanted to turn Sophie against the Banks so she could deliver them some scandalous information that would destroy Jed’s political career.
The last we saw of him, or “felt his presence,” was during Abby’s funeral, where he had left a note with his number on the windshield of Sophie’s car, which suggested that he had been keeping a constant watch on Sophie. However, the question here is, where did he disappear all of a sudden? Did someone kill him, or did his employers ask him to keep his distance from Sophie, perhaps because she had become a prime suspect in Abby’s murder? Well, we don’t know, because the series doesn’t explain it, and the One-Eyed man refused to share any information about his predecessor, except for the fact that he too was a private detective hired by the same clients.
Now, there could be multiple explanations for what exactly happened to the One-Eyed man, but if you would ask me, then I personally believe that his clients called him off because he was attracting too much attention. If you remember, he had broken into Margo’s house and urinated in the washroom, leaving behind DNA evidence that could have been used against him. Later, he approached Sophie in broad daylight and left his number like an amateur. I mean, obviously he wasn’t fit for the role of private detective, right? They are supposed to do their job in secrecy. Above all, he should have understood that he was working for an opposition party who were trying to obtain information against their rival through an illegal channel, so if he had gotten arrested, then the whole thing would have backfired for the Democrats, giving Jed Banks an opportunity to mock the opposition and bring their true face to the public.
Another possibility is that Margo told Jed about the man who wore an eyepatch who was prying too much into their private lives, and Jed, being a well-connected, shady oil tycoon, made a few phone calls to make the man disappear off the face of the Earth. Well, it wouldn’t have come to him as a surprise because he was already aware of the fact that he was messing with some really powerful and dangerous folks. So whatever happened to the One-Eyed man, I guess it would be safe to assume that he won’t be returning for season 2, as he has already been replaced by another private detective, who picked up the call when Sophie dialed the number the One-Eyed man had left on the note. I believe, before his disappearance, the One-Eyed man informed his clients a little bit about Margo’s family history, her past profession, and obviously her former criminal life. But even though the private detective knew a lot about Jed’s wife, it wasn’t enough to do any real harm to his election campaign, and therefore his clients needed more, which brings Sophie into the picture, given she had some really damaging information about Margo’s private life that could have derailed Jed’s whole political career. But Sophie didn’t tell the PI about Margo’s affair, her abortion, or the murder she had committed, because somewhere at the bottom of her heart, Sophie too had developed feelings for Margo, and she didn’t want any harm to befall her. I mean, she was indeed going to tell the police about Abby’s real killer at one point, but now that Sophie herself has killed someone, I am not sure if she will be entering the police station or talking to any detectives anytime soon. This means whatever information Sophie has against Margo, she won’t share it with the private detective she met. I believe Sophie might develop a guilty conscience for killing Margo’s brother, Kyle, keeping her from wanting to harm the woman anymore.
The question here is, what’s this PI going to do next? In the end, we saw him parking his vehicle outside Sophie’s house, and he had given her a 24-hour window to contact him with something substantial, or he’d go after her family. So, how is Sophie going to tackle this situation? Well, we will find out more in the next season of The Hunting Wives, but I think as of now, it’s safe to assume that the Democrats will likely tell the PI not to investigate Sophie or Margo; shortly after, Jed will cut all ties with his wife. He’s already preparing a plan to deal with the crisis in hand, and I believe he is going to paint Margo as a disloyal wife in the media and play the victim card to save his election campaign. But as said earlier, the second season will give us more clarity into the matter.
