‘Missoula’ is the second episode of the Tracker series. This time, Colter tracks down a missing young man who has been pulled into a deadly cult and doesn’t want to be found. This article is part of our 5 episode recap.
Prepping for Season 2!
We are ramping things up for premiere day, October 13th/24.
Coming into Tracker Week, we are pulling together the family-rich episodes from the first season to highlight the mystery, intrigue and questions we still need answered. Next up is S01, E02, Tracker-Missoula.
Season 01, Episode 02 – Missoula
| Season 1/Episode 2 – Aired: Feb 18, 2024 – Missoula |
| Shaw Family History |
| – Colter remembers a time when he beat his dad and Russell to the top of Devil’s Notch, but he’s convinced they let him win. – Colter remembers that his dad really knew his way around the outdoors and that he was charming and charismatic. – Colter’s dad “had a place for everything.” – Colter felt like his father “could look right into me.” – He also remembers that his father could be mean and was impossible to please. |
| Episode Notes |
| The episode opens with Colter’s mom waking up and walking into her living room to discover a note propped up on the kitchen table that says “I’m watching you.” She looks out the window and can see that the outbuilding (her deceased husband’s office) has been broken into. She takes her gun and goes outside to see the lock busted off and papers all over the floor. She calls Colter. When Colter arrives they examine the office together. He can see the broken lock and he notices something about the mantel. A wooden figurine has been moved. He can tell it’s in the wrong place by the dust marks and he puts it back where it belongs, commenting that his father had a place for everything. This raises some questions. If the figurine is back on the mantel then his mother put it there before he arrived and didn’t tell him about it. Which also leads us to believe that she did not tell Colter about the fact that whoever broke into the office also entered her home while she was sleeping and left the ominous note. We see no evidence of the cabin door being damaged, so does that mean that whoever entered the home had a key? It’s possible that she doesn’t lock her door, but she locks the door to an office that her husband hasn’t used in 20 years? She tells Colter that she over-reacted and shouldn’t have bothered calling him. He stays the night anyway. During Colter’s tracking case, he crosses paths with a cult leader who asks him personal questions about his father being a scientist turned activist, getting fired from his university job and the circumstances of his death. After Colter rescues the missing young man, he finds the file the cult leader was keeping on him, and he takes it. |
| Questions |
| 2-8. Who broke into Colter’s mom’s home and his late father’s office? 2-9. A figurine taken from Ashton’s office was used to prop up the ominous (I’m watching you) note. Is there anything significant about this figurine? Why did Colter’s mom hide the note from him? 2-10. The cabin where Colter’s mom lives wasn’t damaged (reasonable assumption as Colter would have noticed), so either she doesn’t lock the door to her cabin, or the intruder had a key. Which is it? 2-11. If Ashton Shaw has been dead for 20 years, why is someone suddenly interested in his belongings now? 2-12. What is in the file that Colter stole from the cult leader’s office? |
All photos courtesy of CBS Tracker series and/or IMDb.
Reminder
Don’t forget to tune in. Tracker Season 2 will premiere on Sunday Oct 13, 2024, on CBS and Paramount+.
