Tracker-Out of the Past

S02E01-Tracker Out of the Past-Episode Recap

The long-awaited Tracker premiere started Season 2 off with an incredible show. Tracker ‘Out of the Past’ aired on Sunday October 13, 2024. For all those who tuned in, what follows will come as no surprise. For everyone else, fair warning, spoiler alert! All the juicy details of the episode are captured here.

Introduction

Colter breaks into a house and after a cursory search, he finds two things of interest; 1) a handwritten note, and 2) a bag of dirt in a sealed Ziplock bag.

When the homeowner arrives, he finds Colter waiting in the dark. He doesn’t seem surprised to find him there. Colter calls the man ‘Frank’ and asks him about the dirt. Frank claims he’s remediating toxins from the soil in his backyard and tells Colter to get out of his house.

The two men taunt each other which eventually ends up in a physical altercation. We learn that Colter’s visits to Frank happen each year on the anniversary of the night a young girl, by the name of Gina Picket went missing from a mall parking lot ten years ago. Frank denies any involvement, but Colter is determined to prove it was him.

Once Colter is back home in his Airstream he gets a call from Velma. We learn that Velma’s life partner Teddi is away tending to her mother, and Velma is keeping herself busy helping Reenie set up her new criminal law firm. Velma and Reenie share details of an available job with Colter, which becomes this week’s Tracker Assignment.

Cast

The Tracking Assignment

A reward of $35K is offered to track a family of four; Ted and Connie King and their two children Brett (9yo) and Amy (6yo), who have vanished outside of Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Ted’s brother Craig posted the reward. Reenie tells Colter that the sheriff’s department has already started a search for the missing family.
 

–>Colter Arrives on Scene

Once Colter introduces himself to Craig King, we learn that Craig’s brother Ted and his family have been missing for 15 hours. They were going on a last-minute vacation. He admitted to hiring Colter because he felt the local law enforcement might be out of their depth.

Craig confided that he thought his brother had people after him because of his gambling problem. He owes money to the wrong kind of people. Which was confusing because according to Craig, his brother was a recent lottery winner and had the money he needed to pay his debts.

Colter examines the missing family’s van and encounters Marshal Martinez, who demands to know why he is poking around her crime scene. Colter is surprised that marshals are involved in a local missing person case that is less than 48 hours old. Martinez told him the case was federal because of a similar abduction of a lottery winner in Florida.

–>Something Doesn’t Feel Right

As Colter begins to search the area around the van he encounters Martinez’s partner, Marshal Jeremy Boyd. He is much friendlier than Martinez and Colter shares some anomalies about the crime scene.

It feels like they are intentionally being misled. The van looked staged, had no signs of struggle or being run off the road. He thinks the family walked away and doubled-back. They weren’t abducted, they were running from someone. Which means, they need to extend their search to the opposite field, so Colter and Boyd split up.

–>It Gets More Weird

While searching the opposing field Colter gets a call from Bobby who informs him that Ted paid his gambling debts, but his wife Connie is a mystery. She has no electronic footprint prior to 2015. It looks like she didn’t even exist before then.

Colter asks Bobby to keep digging, as he comes upon an old, abandoned car. He looks inside and finds the two King children, Brett and Amy.

The kids explained that Brett kept his tablet on him, so his father went to dispose of it and didn’t come back. Their mom went to look for him and told the kids to stay put, but she never returned either.

Martinez arrives on the scene and pulls her weapon on Colter. He insists he is just trying to help. Martinez takes the children to deliver them to their Uncle Craig and tells Colter that there are things about this case that he doesn’t understand.

–>It’s Witness Protection

Bobby tracked the boy’s tablet, and Colter arrives at the gas station where the tablet was located and sees it in the garbage. He goes inside and finds the attendant dead.

While searching the station, Colter is jumped from behind. He manages to subdue his attacker and finds a badly beaten Ted, who tells him that these people are after his wife.

Marshal Boyd arrives at the scene and Colter calls an ambulance to take Ted to the hospital.

Reenie and Velma call to report that Connie was in Witness Protection for nine years because she testified against Tommy Garner, the head of a large, organized crime family in Mississippi. Turns out the Garner’s were her own family, as she was married to the son, Kirk Garner.

–>Connie Makes it Back

Connie tries to get a car, but the one she has won’t start. She sees a vehicle pull up and a large man get out. She ducks out of site and takes a Taser out of the glove box. She uses it on the man to stun him, takes his keys and drives away.

She immediately makes it back to where her children are hiding, but they are not there. Instead, Colter is waiting for her.

Colter tells her that the kids are safe with Craig. While in Colter’s truck enroute to collect her children, Connie explains that the lottery win resulted in a photo of them in the local newspaper which exposed her whereabouts.

The Garner’s came after her. They will stop at nothing to avenge Tommy Garners conviction.

–>Boyd is Dead

Meanwhile, back at the original crime scene, Marshal Martinez comes across a body in the woods.

Reenie calls Colter to tell him that Marshal Boyd has been found dead and that his time of death was 8 hours prior to him showing up at the gas station.

Connie shows Colter a picture of her mob ex-husband who turns out to be the man who has been impersonating Marshal Boyd.

And he knows where the children are.

–>Intent to Kidnap

Kirk Garner shows up at Craig’s house, still impersonating Marshal Boyd. He murders Craig and begins hunting for the children. Kirk finds the kids upstairs and puts his knife away. He gets emotional while watching Brett and Amy, and it becomes obvious that Brett is actually his own son.

Connie and Colter arrive just as Kirk attempts to herd the children out of the house. Amy immediately runs into her mother’s arms, but Kirk prevents Brett from doing the same. He pulls a gun on them and Colter tells Amy to run to his truck and lie down in the back.

Colter also has a gun, but he is forced to drop it.

Connie begs Kirk to let go of Brett, but he refuses. Kirk says he will let Connie go and tell his family that she is dead if she gives him his son in return. She refuses. Colter asks her to trust him. He convinces Kirk to let the boy say goodbye to his mother. Kirk agrees and when the boy runs to his mother to say goodbye, a shot rings out from a sniper at the edge of the property (the Marshals) and Kirk Garner is killed.

–>Reunited

We see the King family reunited at the hospital, under the protection of the Marshals. Reenie reports that Kirk’s attempted kidnapping of Brett is added to the Garner family offences, which may leverage the King family’s ability to seek freedom from witness protection.

It turns out that Marshal Martinez said there was a bounty payable on the Garner Organization, so Colter gets paid even though he refused the money that was originally offered to him by Craig King.

Ted and Connie take up Reenie’s suggestion to turn the funds into a charity in Craig’s name. Reenie picks this time to tell Colter that her fee is now 10% of the bounty. “New law firm, new rate.”

The name of Reenie’s new firm will be “The Law Offices of Greene and Associates” with the associates to be named later.

Colter is invited to Reenie’s new office celebration, but he passes. He has the Gina Picket file open on the table and tells the team he has something he needs to do.

A New Story Arc

There is another story arc presented, that pulls forward something from Colter’s past. It is the ten-year-old cold case of an abducted girl named Gina Picket. This story arc is introduced when Colter breaks into the home of Frank Whales at the beginning of the episode.

As the episode concludes, we see Colter arrive at an apartment building. The young woman turns out to be Camille, the sister of Gina Picket. Given the ten-year timeline it’s obvious that these two have history together. Colter and Camille share a drink together and she asks if Colter went to see Frank.

It is obvious that Gina’s disappearance is causing lingering sadness for both of them and rather than dwell on that, Camille leans in for a kiss so the two of them can ease into a romantic distraction. As they linger afterwards, she asks him what happened with Frank.

Colter told her about getting a sample of Frank’s handwriting, hoping they could compare it to some of the letters Camille received. And the dirt. She asked if he believed Frank about the toxin remediation. He isn’t sure. He admits to feeling like he’s missing something, but he’s determined to find a clue that puts Frank in the parking lot the day Gina went missing. Colter’s gut instincts tell him that Frank was there.

Camille is struggling to remain hopeful about learning what happened to her sister, but Colter told her he would make good on his promise to keep digging until he finds the answers.

The Shaw Family History

No new clues are discovered about the Shaw family history in this episode.

In Closing

My overall opinion on this episode is that it was highly entertaining. It had all the hallmarks of good performance. There was wonderful interaction between the primary and guest characters alike. Justin as Colter brought his A-game, Eric as Bobby is so believable as he pulls off our very own Zen-master of ‘Tech.’ Abby really brings it home as Velma, who displays sweetness, deep feels and drama yet to come. I can’t wait to get the backstories on all these great characters. Fiona as Reenie is our very own kick-ass lady with viper-like wit and edgy intelligence. All the guest stars did a great job telling this week’s story and if I may, I’d like to congratulate Benjamin and Aliyah, as those young ones did a wonderful job as Brett and Amy.

I did have one glaring problem though; Colter’s interaction with Marshal Boyd.

Colter is portrayed as a savvy investigator and experienced tracker. He is intelligent and proficient enough to understand and read the clues that determine the King family doubled-back, based on the direction of the trodden grass. Thus, deducing that they were not abducted, but on the run. So, it stretches credulity that he would miss all the obvious clues that Boyd was being impersonated by a man who was not an experienced Marshal. I could overlook the wrong shoes for a grid-search, but for him to show up at the gas station and then disappear?  What did he say? Was he going back to Martinez? Was he going to go to Craig’s to check on the children? Was he going to the hospital to interrogate Ted? The man’s wife was missing so it’s not unreasonable that in the eyes of the law, beaten or not, Ted would be a suspect. It seemed odd to me that this was left hanging. It felt like a hole.

Previews for S2E02

There is already much excitement building about Episode 2 – Ontological Shock. Check out the following links for some preview scenes.

Entertainment Weekly – Watch exclusive first clip of Jensen Ackles’ Return to Tracker.

TV Promos-Tracker 2×02 Promo “Ontological Shock” (HD) ft. Jensen Ackles | Justin Hartley series.

trackercbs – BTS on Set with Jensen Ackles and Justin Hartley.