Critic’s Rating: 4.7 / 5.0
4.7
Overall, Tracker isn’t a dark show.
They may deal with dark subject matter at times, but most hours carry a little sense of lightness, often in the interactions between Colter and his team or even the people he meets during his various journeys.
But Tracker Season 2 Episode 9 was dark. It was one of the darkest hours we’ve seen yet and undoubtedly one of its best.
Tracker Season 2 hasn’t endured a sophomore slump whatsoever.
They’ve delivered solid hours all season long, and as they head into the second half of their season, they’re off to a hot start with a conclusion to a season-long case that we just learned about in Tracker Season 2 Episode 1 but had been plaguing Colter for years.
It was interesting to have Colter work on something sporadically all season, almost in place of the Shaw Family drama.
Gina Pickett’s disappearance was personal for Colter, not only because he knew her but because of his relationship with Camille.
Their bond was cemented when Gina disappeared, and Colter worked on the case. Anytime they were together, you could tell there was a deep affection between them, but there was also a lot of sadness.
Camille was naturally grieving her sister, and it’s tough to be stuck in a state of limbo without any real answers. She hoped that Gina would be found and they could be reunited, but with each passing year, hell, each passing day, that became more difficult for her.
It’s why she asked Colter to take a step back during Tracker Season 2 Episode 8 because she’d reached a point where she had to change the way she was living essentially because it wasn’t healthy.
Knowing Colter, he was never going to give up on finding Gina or helping Camille, and when Keaton came calling with the biggest lead he’d ever received, Colter wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to finally bring peace to the Pickett family, even if it went against Camille’s wishes.
Keaton’s old-school, and he’s shown that at every turn, whether he’s kidnapping people and torturing them just a tiny bit or getting a small-town police chief to give him some time to work the case with a civilian for a few hours before they call the big guns in.
Colter has his little army of Velma, Reenie, and Bobby, but Keaton has been an intriguing partner for Colter because he’s just the right side of intense to keep up with Colter.
The two never saw a minor felony they weren’t willing to commit.
Finding Silva and learning about The Teacher allowed Colter to see the whole case through fresh eyes, and when he and Keaton sat down and retraced all the steps that’d come before, it led them right back to Frank Whales.
Colter always knew that Frank was involved somehow, which was why he continued to keep him on his radar and make those visits to see him and remind him that he hadn’t given up on proving he played a part in Gina’s disappearance.
I genuinely love Colter, but he will sometimes do the wildest things, like wake a man up with a gun to his face and then force him to walk him through his last interactions with a missing woman.
Considering how long Colter had been paying Frank those visits, it was telling that at the mere mention of The Teacher, he gave up more information than he ever had before.
It was great timing that Colter found Gina’s hair clip, which was not exactly hidden in Frank’s wallet.
In Colter’s different visits, should we assume that he just never looked in his wallet? Or just chalk it up to one of those television moments there’s no reason to think about too deeply?
Hearing Frank detail how he took Gina was incredibly sad because she just had no idea she’d been hunted by these sick men who preyed on her.
Frank wasn’t being completely transparent because of the fear gripping him when he talked about The Teacher.
Did he have a choice in any of it?
It’s an interesting thing to ponder because, on the surface, you always have a choice, right? They may be both terrible options, but there’s still a choice to be made.
Frank’s insistence that he truly did not have a choice didn’t make any sense as the hour droned on, considering how much freedom he seemed to have.
The Teacher wasn’t in his backseat with a gun at his back when he picked up Gina. He was choosing to fall through with what he was tasked to do, even though he seemingly could have run away at any juncture to save himself.
But while Colter and Keaton continued to get closer and closer to the truth, there was a separate plot involving a man in a gas mask kidnapping a young man, and once Colter found those tapes at the barn, we discovered that the gas mask man was the elusive Teacher.
The Teacher talked to Brendan suspiciously because he was almost buttering him up oddly and acting as if he did him some favor.
It made me curious if that’s the same tactic he used with Frank, as if what he was doing for him, stalking and kidnapping a woman, was his purpose or something.
It was all grossly sickening, but as more and more information came out, things started to make sense.
When Colter went to the nursing home to meet the farm owner, Patrick Campbell, my spidey senses tingled as soon as we met son-in-law Noah. But I second-guessed myself because would it really be that easy?
Once Keaton put together the Silva, Frank, the dead guy at the barn, and Brendan connection that they were all on the sex offender’s registry, the pieces started to click into place.
The Teacher was finding these men, whom he most likely deemed broken, and molding them into the men he needed to be by appealing to something they were missing in their lives.
Frank was so enamored with him because he treated him the way no one else had ever treated him. He felt special, loved, and cared for in a way he probably never had in his life, and to keep feeling that and appease the person bestowing the feeling, he did all his dirty work.
It’s a sick and terrifying power dynamic The Teacher had with these disciples he groomed, and the creepiest part was how fast it seemed to work if Brandon attacking Colter when he got to that abandoned hospital was any indication.
Frank probably had ulterior motives for his willingness to help Colter because he wanted that showdown moment with the man who had to have haunted his nightmares. Still, it didn’t matter when he finally got Colter into that serial killer’s lair.
Once Colter has a killer in his sights, he won’t let him go. Lethal gas or whatever was floating through the air in there be damned.
When The Teacher ripped off his mask, I was not surprised to see that it was Noah. When the kids randomly threw that frisbee on the porch while Colter talked to him, his wife, and the Campbell guy, I knew he had something to do with things because they lingered on Colter’s smile a little too long.
Seeing how he soothed Frank first-hand was scary, and even though he’d hyped himself up for the moment, Frank still succumbed to Noah’s words and physical touch.
I thought for sure Frank would snap out of the trance and shoot him, but he didn’t do that until after his throat was slashed.
Frank was one of the more interesting bad guys we’ve seen on Tracker because he was broken and battling against a whole host of demons inside him. He wasn’t a good person, but he tried in those final moments to do something right.
Saving Colter wouldn’t absolve him of his sins, but it was the right thing to do because Colter didn’t deserve that fate.
Wrapping up the case of a lifetime should have left Colter feeling less heavy, and it certainly helped Camille move forward now that she had answers and could finally bring her sister to rest and her killer to justice.
Their goodbye was sweet, and it felt like they still had unfinished business, but I wonder if their timing will ever be right or if, in the end, they just weren’t fated beyond to have more than the bond they created through an unfortunate circumstance.
Tracker continued its hot streak here, and now that Colter solved this case, it’s time for the series to get back into the Shaw family drama and start to answer some of the lingering questions there.
I’m not in a hurry to wrap that story up, but pretending like it barely exists now is a curious choice, considering it’s always been one of the most fascinating pieces of the series.
Tracker Notes
- Reenie will always be the best because she was willing to help Colter but not at the expense of her oath to be a lawyer. And as usual, she was brilliant and the one that got Frank to speak up.
- Keaton was a lot, but his and Colter’s partnership worked well for what it was. Colter would do well to call upon him when he needs a fresh set of eyes on a case.
Tracker is back, people! And there’s lots to enjoy as the season continues.
How did you feel about the end of the Gina Pickett case?
Would you like to see Colter and Keaton team up again?
Drop all your thoughts down below so we can discuss them!
You can watch Tracker on CBS at 8/7c on Sundays.
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