S02E06-Trust Fall-Episode Recap
Previous to the episode ‘Trust Fall,’ here are some access links to previous Tracker episodes;
| Season One Recap Article | Season 02 Episode 04: Noble Rot |
| Tracker Family History | Season 02 Episode 05: Preternatural |
| Season 02 Episode 01: Out of The Past | Season 02 Episode 06: Trust Fall (Nov 17) |
| Season 02 Episode 02: Ontological Shock | Season 02 Episode 07: Man’s Best Friend (Nov 24) |
| Season 02 Episode 03: Bloodlines | Season 02 Episode 08: The Night Movers (Dec 1) |
Here is the next installment of Tracker titled ‘Trust Fall.’ The episode aired November 17, 2024. All the details are below. Enjoy!
Introduction
The scene starts with four friends, Cooper, Sam, Monika and Jason sitting around a campfire. They have been drinking enough to be drunk. Two of the men, Cooper and Sam, are singles, while the other two, Monika and Jason, are a married couple.
Monika notices that it is a full moon and convinces the group to go for a hike to a nearby waterfall for a quick dip to sober them up. Sam says he needs to go for a leak first, and Monika and Jason spend a little time with Cooper, convincing him to join in the fun.
As the camera pans out, we can see a strange man watching the group of campers from some distance away, and he has a rifle slung over his shoulder.
Colter is washing the top of his Airstream when Velma calls him about a job.
Colter was specifically requested via a previous case. Her name is Lauren Wright, and she is offering $25K to find four of her friends who went missing while on a camping trip. The hope is that they are simply lost in the woods, but Colter has agreed to take the assignment to find out.
Reenie tells Colter that she will be in the area. She is flying to Seattle to meet with a new client who has been referred to her via a contact in her old firm, Elliott. The client sounds like he is very wealthy but comes with “a bit of baggage.”
Cast
| Cast Member | Character |
|---|---|
| Justin Hartley | Colter Shaw |
| Fiona Rene | Reenie Greene |
| Abby McEnany | Velma Bruin |
| Eric Graise | Bobby Exley |
| Brent Sexton | Keaton |
| Holly Curran | Monika Lewis |
| Jean-Luc Bilodeau | Jason Lewis |
| Andres Velenz | James Cooper |
| Amanda Wong | Lauren Wright |
| Dejan Loyola | Sam Gibson |
| Haig Sutherland | Marcus Wilson |
| Melanie Merkosky | Natalie Perry |
| Chris Wood | Detective Evans |
The Tracking Assignment
This week Colter’s tracking assignment involves three missing campers. During his search for them, he encounters a retired police officer who believes a serial killer is on the loose.
–>My Friends are Missing
Colter travels to Snoqualmie National Forest in Washington state and arrives at the campsite to meet with Lauren Wright. Due to a business dinner, Lauren could not join her friends until this morning. When she arrived her friends were missing. She called Parks and Services, Search and Rescue but they will not launch a search until 48 hours have passed.
Colter examines the site, and it looks like they left in a hurry. The cell phones were left behind, and food was left out. Colter finds a prescription bottle of Lorazepam (anti-anxiety med) that belongs to Monika. When he examines Sam’s tent, he can see an empty knife sheath and some blood. There is no cell phone in Sam’s tent and Colter asks Lauren if there is any possibility that Sam could be dangerous. She says he has a bit of a bad temper but doesn’t think he would hurt any of his friends.
Colter tells her to call the police and remain at the site, while he begins to search for them.
–>An Injured Sam
As Colter is searching, he has Bobby on the phone investigating who Sam is. Bobby reports that Sam has a history of violence. He has previous drunk and disorderly charges and a spotty work history. Colter asks Bobby to look into the history of the other three campers while he continues to search.
Along the trail, Colter hears someone screaming for help. He follows the sound until he finds Sam. Sam explained that they were all going to go to the waterfall last night, and he stepped off the trail to take a leak. Sam fell and injured himself when a piece of wood pierced his leg. He passed out for a time, and when he came to, he heard a couple of gunshots about two hours before dawn.
Colter stabilizes his leg and moves him back to the campsite.
–>Rifle Shots
Sam tells Colter that just before he fell, he was trying to find his way back to the campsite. He seemed surprised at how drunk he felt. Colter said it could be caused by the elevation. He began asking questions about the gunshots Sam heard.
Sam said they were loud and a few seconds apart. Colter surmised that they were rifle shots, and the time between was the shooter setting up his next shot, as opposed to two shots done in quick succession.
Colter brought up the blood he saw in Sam’s tent and asked him about it. Sam showed him that he had cut his hand on a bottle earlier in the night. Also, he didn’t have his knife on him, so he has no idea where it got to. Colter wanted to know more about the hike that Monika was so keen on taking and Sam explained it was to some waterfall she had been to before. Sam told Colter, when he asked about whether or not the gunshots came from the same direction as the waterfall, that he thought it was possible, but could not be sure.
–>Keaton
Colter delivers Sam back to Lauren at the campsite and told her to get him to a hospital. She told Colter that she had called the police like he asked, but had no idea how long it would be before they could get there. Colter didn’t want to wait. He was concerned that the others could be hurt as well, so he headed in the direction of the waterfall to look for them.
As Colter approaches the waterfall, he sees a man, who he yells out to. The two of them face off, each with their handguns at the ready. Based on the man’s stance, Colter suspects he is law enforcement. The man tells him that he is a retired officer with the Tacoma Police Department, by the name of Keaton.
Colter puts his weapon away and moves in close enough to have a conversation. He wants to know why Keaton is armed and why he is at the waterfall. Keaton insists he answer the same question, and Colter tells him about his search for the missing campers. Keaton’s story is that he was driving on one of the access roads and heard the same shots. He makes it a habit to search this area whenever there is a blue moon, which happens every two or three years. He told Colter that it is related to an old case of his where two victims were shot a decade apart, but both were in a five-mile radius of the waterfall. Both victims were shot using the same caliber bullet, no fingerprints, and they both happened during a super blue moon.
Keaton never believed that the shootings were random. This case is the one that got away. Even though he is retired, he is still hunting the guy who did it.
Colter asked him if he figured out where the shots came from. Keaton said he hadn’t yet, and he is not sure if the shots were fired by the same man he is hunting. Colter invites him to join him in the search for the campers, and Keaton accepts.
–>Maybe They were Being Hunted
As Keaton and Colter make their way past the falls, Colter finds a backpack that has no blood on it but has a bullet hole. He finds a name tag inside and it belongs to Monika. They also find markings on a rock nearby that would indicate the direction the bullet came from. Both men have a good instinct as to what direction the missing campers would have run. Colter is afraid that perhaps they were being hunted.
They also found a bullet-casing the same caliber as Keaton’s other victims, and he explained to Colter that both victims were shot from a steep downward trajectory. Colter asked if their bodies were found at the falls. Keaton said they were moved to somewhere else in the forest, but they were sure, based on soil samples, that the killings happened at the falls.
Looking up to where they suspect the trajectory of the shot would come from, they argue about whether or not Keaton can make the climb. Keaton assures Colter he can make it, and if his killer is up there, Colter is going to need him for backup.
–>Sitting Ducks
When Keaton and Colter get to the top of the hill, they can see that the shooter would have a perfect shot down at the foot of the falls, and with the cover of night, he would go unnoticed. Colter asks why Keaton is still looking for this guy now that he’s retired. Keaton wants to catch this killer to put the families at ease, give them closure and convict a killer. They couldn’t catch the killer all those years ago and he couldn’t let it go. Colter said he could relate and shared his story about making a promise to a friend to find out what happened with the disappearance of her little sister, Gina Picket.
Keaton is an old-school cop who put a lot of stock in a man’s promise and told Colter that he sure could have used a partner like him. They find another .308 shell casing and realize that they are sitting ducks and need to get moving.
–>We Got Him
Keaton and Colter keep walking and eventually find a lean-to made of wood and branches. Perfect camouflage for anyone who wanted to hide out in the woods. As they are inspecting it, someone begins shooting at them. Keaton returns fire and gets shot in the arm. His wound isn’t life threatening, so he tells Coulter to go after the shooter.
Colter and the killer exchange fire until Colter shoots him in the leg. As he closes the distance between them, he orders the shooter to drop his weapon. While they are talking, Keaton comes up behind the suspect and threatens to kill him if he doesn’t put his rifle down.
–>They Were Going To Kill Each Other
In the next scene the police have arrived. They identify the man as Marcus Wilson. He has been in and out of mental institutions his whole life and believes that the mountains belong to him.
Colter asks Marcus directly if he saw the three missing campers. They found the shell casings so they know he shot at them.
Keaton thinks Marcus killed the campers and moved the bodies in the same way he moved his other victims years ago.
Marcus said he thought about killing them, but he didn’t have to. They were well on their way toward killing each other. He pointed to the picture that Colter showed him from his phone, and said that Monika and Jason were holding Cooper at knifepoint. They had tied his hands behind his back and he was begging for his life.
After Marcus shot at them, they left using the south falls exit trail.
–>She Drugged Me
Colter went to the hospital to see Sam and Lauren and tell them what he learned so far. Lauren said it didn’t make any sense, but when Colter asked Sam, he wasn’t so sure.
Sam told them that the doctor had just been in his room to see him and told him that he had unusually high levels of anxiety medication in his system. Sam said he doesn’t take anxiety medication.
It looks like Monika drugged him to prevent him from joining them on their hike to the falls.
Colter asked if there was any bad blood between the three of them or if they could think of any reason why Monika and Jason would want to hurt Cooper? None of this made any sense to their friends.
–>We Moved On
In the next scene we see Monika, Jason and Cooper driving down the road in a van. Cooper is driving and Jason has a knife at his throat. Monika is trying to understand why someone would be shooting at them.
Jason insisted they stay focused and the three of them began to argue.
It all comes out that eight years ago, Jason, Monika and Cooper were all involved in a serious car accident where a man died. They covered it up and agreed to move on, but Cooper was riddled with guilt and was unable to do that.
If Cooper confesses to what they did, Monika and Jason could lose everything. They have a family now. All of them agreed to this camping trip so they could work things out, but it’s obvious that they intended to kill Cooper all along. They were going to make it look like an accident at the falls, but because Marcus started shooting at them, they had to flee.
Cooper said he has set up an email to automatically be sent out the next day. It contains a letter that confesses everything to the police.
–>Let Me Help You
Colter reaches out to Bobby to see if he can uncover anything that will help him figure out what is going on with these three campers. The only thing that seems a bit weird, is that Cooper has been making secret, anonymous payments each month to a woman named Natalie Perry in Seattle. He can barely pay his own bills, so this seems like a strange thing to do, and he also goes out of his way to ensure he stays anonymous.
When Colter gets back to his truck, Keaton is waiting for him. He is grateful that Colter helped him with his problem, so he’d like to return the favor. While he and Keaton check the addresses of the missing campers to see if any of them made it home, he reached out to Reenie who is in Seattle on business, and asked if she could drop in on Natalie Perry who is receiving money from Cooper.
–>Anonymous Money
Reenie pays a visit to Natalie Perry. She says she has no idea where it comes from. Reenie tells her about Cooper, but she says she has no idea who that is. Reenie sees a picture of Natalie’s husband and asks her about him.
Natalie tells her that her husband Brian, died eight years ago.
Brian went out for a jog and never came home. The police suspected it was a hit-and-run, but they never found his body. There was a hot line set up at the time, and they got some calls from people who reported hearing a crash, and some said they saw college kids driving erratically (drunk). The police didn’t have much to go on, so they never found out who did it.
Reenie reported back to Colter with all the information she learned from Natalie. Between Reenie, Colter and Keaton they piece it all together. It sounds like Cooper wanted to come clean and confess, but that would mean that Monika and Jason would be implicated. The only way for them to stop him, would be to kill him.
–>Cooper’s Band Name
Jason and Monika are holding Cooper at his apartment using the knife. Monika is trying to hack into Cooper’s email so she can stop the message. Cooper won’t give her his password.
Jason and Cooper continue arguing about Cooper wanting to confess. They agreed years ago to keep all this a secret. Cooper admitted that he just can’t live with it anymore, especially after seeing Natalie and her son shopping for a fishing rod for the little boy. Something a dad would have done with him. Cooper just wants to do the right thing, and they deserve to know the truth.
Monika remembers the name of Cooper’s band in college and tries it as the password, and it worked. She gets into his email and can see that he is about to confess everything; the fact that they were all drunk; that Jason was driving that night; that Brian Perry was killed and they disposed of his body. It was meant as an insurance policy to force Jason and Monika to turn themselves in, but the letter would have been sent out regardless if they agreed to it or not.
Cooper tries to make a run for the door, and Jason grabs him. The two men struggle, and Jason ends up being stabbed in the chest. Cooper keeps repeating that he is sorry, but Natalie picks up a kettle bell and hits Cooper in the head with it.
–>Confession Letter
Keaton and Colter show up at the apartment and find Jason dead on the floor. Keaton calls the police to report it while Colter reads the letter left open on the computer that confesses the death of Brian Perry and implicates Jason, Monika and Cooper.
They see the bloody kettlebell on the floor and suspect that Monika has killed Cooper with it. They realize that Monika has to dispose of Cooper’s body, and they suspect she is going to dump it in the same place they dumped Brian’s body all those years ago.
–>Take Care of Each Other
We see Monika dragging a body wrapped in plastic along a wooden dock. Just as she gets to the end, we hear Cooper coughing, and we know he is still alive. Monika pulls the plastic away, and Cooper is begging her to stop. She takes out the knife and is going to kill him when we hear Colter’s voice behind her ordering her to stop.
After all the bad decisions that have already been made, Colter pleads with her not to make another one. She hasn’t killed anyone yet, but if she does this, she has no chance at a life. He continues talking to her and tells her to think of her children while he gets close enough to get the knife out of her hand.
The scene is flooded with police and emergency vehicles. Lauren and Sam show up in time to see Cooper being taken away. Colter tells them to take care of each other, and Cooper and Monika too.
–>Gina Picket
Colter walks down to the end of the doc where Keaton is standing looking out at the lake. He tells him that the police have Monika in custody. Keaton said they will dredge the lake in the morning looking for Brian Perry’s remains.
The two men thank one another. Colter asks Keaton what is next for him. Colter was impressed with Keaton. He kept fighting the good fight and never gave up. He saw things that others missed and got the bad guy. Keaton said the bad guys always make a mistake eventually, you just have to hope someone is looking when they do.
Colter asks Keaton if he would be interested in pursuing his old cold case regarding Gina Picket. Colter gives him some details about the case and Keaton said he would be happy to put fresh eyes on it and do some old school leg work on the case. He will be in touch if anything shakes loose.
–>A Bubbly Celebration
Colter is in his Airstream when the door opens and Reenie walks in. She doesn’t waste any time giving Colter a piece of her mind over interrupting her work to ask her to do a favor for him. She once again reminded Colter that she is running her own business now, and the only reason she was in Seattle was to land a very lucrative client.
In the end, she let him know that she nailed it and nothing he did messed that up for her. She came prepared for a celebration with a bottle of champagne, which they shared out of coffee mugs.
Colter asked about her new client, and she wasn’t at liberty to tell him much other than he is very rich, very powerful and needs a lawyer. She did say that it comes with some potential risks, but she didn’t share any details about that either.
The Shaw Family History
We didn’t learn anything new about the Shaw family history during this episode. We did however, revisit some of Colter’s past regarding the disappearance of Gina Picket. Colter and Gina’s older sister Camille share a romantic history and Colter made her a promise to keep searching for answers.
In season two, episode one “Out of The Past,” Colter shared that he has always suspected a man by the name of Frank Whales and he visits Frank every year on the anniversary of Gina’s disappearance. In that episode, Colter got a sample of Frank’s handwriting and encountered a bag of dirt that Frank said was a sample used in toxin remediation from his yard. Things to watch out for.
In this episode, Colter shares details regarding the Picket case, with the retired police officer Keaton, who has agreed to put fresh eyes on the case and see if he can find out something that Colter can use.
In Closing
–>Overall Opinion of the Episode
This episode was awesome. I thought last weeks episode was really good, and this one was even better.
Having both dramas play out simultaneously was good television. We had the drama of Keaton’s search for his cold-case serial killer, while Colter’s tracking assignment intersected that storyline with the drama being played out with the missing campers.
And along with all of the other regular characters on Tracker, it sounds like we might get a few episodes with Keaton too. I really like the Keaton character. He’s a gruff, astute, old-school cop who is a bit rough around the edges. He has all the right morale fibre to be the good guy, and like a dog with a bone, he will always get his man. He refers to Colter as “Young Blood” but they both share some things in common; they are brave, stoic, dependable, my word-is-my-bond types. The guys you want on your team when the chips are down.
Now that Keaton has agreed to poke around in the Gina Picket case, we will be sure to see him again in the future.
The other thing in this episode that raised my “spidey-sense” was Reenie’s new rich, powerful client. We’ve heard him described with words like risky and “comes with some baggage,” so I can’t help but wonder if Reenie is going to end up in a threatening situation. I can envision Colter, and even Russell for that matter, in a no-holds-barred fixation on getting her out of danger.
And as always, I’m on tap to learn more about our “Colter-Crew” Velma, Bobby and Reenie in the weeks ahead.
Extra Episode Photos
Preview for S2E07
Coming next week for Tracker is episode “Man’s Best Friend.” When Colter finds a lost dog at a gas station in Denver and the dog is subsequently stolen from his truck, Colter makes it his mission to track him down and reunite him with his family.
Something a Little Extra
Justin Hartley chats with ET’s Nischelle Turner about his reunion with Jared Padalecki and the possibility of his ‘This Is Us’ castmates joining ‘Tracker,’ airing Sundays on CBS.
Reminder
Don’t forget to watch Tracker on CBS/Paramount+ Sunday Evenings at 8:00pm ET/PT.
- Please note, all photos used in this article are courtesy of CBS, Paramount+ and/or IMDb.
