Well, that was quite the bloodbath!
Tracker is many things, but in general, it’s not super heavy on death, though that can be a natural conclusion to an action-adventure story. Violence can and will lead to people losing their lives.
But Tracker Season 1 Episode 10 was heavy on murder, with many people caught up in the aftermath of a heist gone wrong.
Much like Tracker Season 1 Episode 7 was a showcase for Bobby, this hour gave us some insight into Reenie, who finally returned triumphantly after being MIA for a while.
Although we didn’t get to meet her father, he was a factor, as his friend needed help, and it’s always a treat when Gil Birmingham pops up in a show we love.
It was an exciting turn for Reenie to request a favor from Colton rather than hiring him, even though Colter would be getting paid in the end.
It helps to have professional trackers with military-style training on speed dial and within driving distance of where you need them to be!
Of course, Colter was readily on board with helping Gus find his adult children who’d gone missing with a mysterious client, but from the start, you could tell that something was off about the whole voyage.
For starters, they were flying into a storm, which is always suspect, and being so off-course at last check-in raised Colter’s antennas.
Now, I don’t know much about planes or the protocols when one goes missing, but how does a missing plane filled with passengers garner so little attention?
The authorities did a fly-by, found nothing, and would return later.
It was bizarre that there were no people out on foot, which is what Colter wound up doing.
It was a remote area, but if Colter could parachute his way down, surely someone else could, too. Were any rangers in the area out looking?
That’s a minor quibble in the grand scheme of things, but one I had to address.
Since there’s nothing Colter can’t do, he quickly jumped out of a plane into the wilderness like it was no big thing and began tracking the missing people, which you’d think would be difficult, but not for Colter.
While Colter was out finding crashed planes and dead bodies, Reenie was back doing her own investigation. She may be a hotshot lawyer, but she is also a great investigator.
She has excellent instincts, which makes sense considering her profession.
Breaking into Walter’s vehicle may not have been strictly legal, but the thought process was on the money. Something fishy happened in those woods, and with at least one person dead, time was of the essence.
Finding any information they could on the mysterious client was the right call, especially after that creepy man showed up at the shop with his Doublemint gum and shady demeanor.
While Reenie was in her PI bag, Colter was in his survivalist bag, and somehow, in that one backpack he was carrying around, he had enough equipment to rappel down an incline and triage Madison when he found her with a broken arm.
Only Colter Shaw!
The information dumps on Tracker can be a lot. Still, I’m beginning to accept that we will be saddled with heavy exposition due to the nature of the series and the focus on Colter rather than the victims or perpetrators.
And it’s not as if this is the only show to do that, but for whatever reason, it can feel like a lot on Tracker. However, it’s better to sprinkle information throughout than have everything come out in the last few minutes so the audience can finally connect the dots.
Discovering Walter stole from casino dealers was unexpected, but considering he needed another adult male to help him carry all the money he stole, I could see why they were hellbent on getting the money back, and Walter was dead set on getting himself out of the country.
I’m not sure how much ground Colter had to travel in a day, but the man began by jogging, traveling to Gus’s, jumping out of a plane, and then walking miles through the woods.
Again, that’s not something the average person can do. They’re almost turning Colter into a mythical creature, though they try to bring him back down to earth by sustaining various injuries regularly.
During this case, he got shot in the shoulder, but a silly through-and-through gunshot wound was undoubtedly not going to stop him from seeing this case through to the end.
Don’t you sometimes wonder what the men being sent out into dangerous situations are being paid to risk life and limb to secure money or assets that aren’t theirs?
Vaults got shot twice, but blood loss wasn’t enough to keep him from tracking down a duffel full of cash and killing anyone who got in the way.
I’m never a fan of people splitting up in dangerous situations, especially not when one of those people is Reenie.
She didn’t even have a gun to protect herself!
Colter eventually found Hank before a hobbled Vaults did, and it felt like there was a better way to get him than hiding under the floorboards. If Colter had, say, hidden in the bathroom and shot the man when he walked in, we wouldn’t have gotten the badass view of Colter shooting a bad man dead through the cracks of the floorboard.
By my count, five people lost their lives, and that’s a lot for one day.
Colter and Reenie teaming up again resulted in a happy ending for those in trouble. Even though we didn’t get to watch Hank and Madison reunite with their dad, we did see a much healthier-looking Colter celebrating another successful job.
Colter: Well, I was just, observing that for such a busy lawyer, you are sure out of the office a lot.
Reenie: Well, the office is kind of boring. And this is not so much.
Colter: So you’re using me to play hooky from work?
Reenie: This is work. It’s called field work.
There was a brief conversation between Colter and Reenie that alluded to her being a little dissatisfied with her job, and it makes you wonder if they’re setting something up for her in the future.
Colter’s lone wolf status is his thing, and while I can’t see him having a permanent partner (Velma and Teddi are close enough as his handlers), it also feels like incorporating Reenie more (which they should) means they have to address the elephant in the room.
Reenie won’t be able to pop into whatever state Colter finds himself in whenever she feels like it forever, but could she quit her job and live on the road with Colter? No. So what do they do?
They could keep things as they are, but it will get more impractical over time.
Tracker Notes
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I get that the secondary characters won’t be in every episode, but making them feel so obsolete doesn’t do the series any favors. Sometimes, they barely register as characters because their sole purpose is to give Colter information over the phone.
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Speaking of secondary characters, where’s Bobby?
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After news of the Jensen Ackles casting was released, I couldn’t help but wonder if the episodes leading to his arrival would reveal more about him or what he’s been up to, but not so far.
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We won’t ever see Colter and Reenie go on that fishing trip, but I hope they do it off-screen and we hear about it in passing. We don’t necessarily need continuity through a procedural in every aspect, but I’d selfishly like it here.
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Colter and Reenie still have all the chemistry.
We’re cruising toward the end of Tracker Season 1 already, with guaranteed Shaw family drama to come, but while we wait, slip into the comments and let me know what you thought about “Into the Wild.”
Whitney Evans is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is a lover of all things TV. Follow her on X.