Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Tracker Season 2 Episode 10.
There may be a grandmother, a cabin in the woods, and a big bad wolf on this week’s episode of Tracker, but finding a missing girl and the survivalist she disappeared with is no fairy tale for Colter Shaw (Justin Hartley). This week’s case matches Colter with a kindred spirit and employs his skills in some expected ways — and a few unexpected ways, too. Does a lupine biker gang in Wolf Creek count as Tracker’s “werewolf” episode, after previous episodes have touched on aliens, witches, and vampires? Maybe!
Colter Searches for a Fellow Survivalist on ‘Tracker’ Season 2 Episode 10

The episode opens with a young singer-songwriter named Angie (Sydney Scotia) finishing her set at a bar in Wolf Creek, Minnesota with a cover of the Zach Bryan song “Oklahoma Smokeshow” at a sleepy biker bar. There’s a creepy guy, Ben (Jim Parrack), watching her from a dark corner. She doesn’t seem bothered as she leaves; however, the next morning Angie is missing. Colter Shaw gets a call, not to find Angie, but to find Ben — the suspect in her disappearance and the death of two bikers and a cop who were also at the bar that night.
Ben’s rich grandmother (Deborah Strang) wants Colter to find him before the cops do. She tells our tracker that Ben was raised by his brutal father to be a survivalist. If someone equally savvy doesn’t get to him first, more cops might end up dead. So Colter starts poking around town, where both the cops and the biker gang are not friendly. Because Colter is tracking someone so similar to himself, the team does not have much to do. Reenie (Fiona Rene) does not appear in this episode at all, which is a bummer. However, we do hear from Velma (Abby McEnany) that Reenie is expanding her office and may even have hired her full-time. We also meet Bobby’s cousin Randy (Chris Lee), who takes over for Bobby (Eric Graise) while he’s OOO on a family issue and helps Colter learn more about Ben’s criminal history and whether or not he’s connected to Angie. Randy is just as charming as Bobby, maybe more so. It would be great to see the two of them bicker together. It would be great to see Bobby interact with anyone besides Colter and on the phone, to be honest.
While there was less from the team, we did, however, get a brief mention of Colter’s father in this episode. Colter and Ben bond over having dads who push them to be prepared for anything. Colter says some vague things about how he doesn’t know what dark future his dad was so worried about. And at the end of the episode, Ben’s grandmother says that whoever raised Colter must have done something right. Does that mean that Tracker is going to pick up that loose thread next, now that the Gina Pickett case is closed?

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A Wolf Pack Puts Colter in a Tight Spot on ‘Tracker’ Season 2 Episode 10

Once Colter finds where Ben and Angie are hiding out in a cabin in the woods, he learns the truth. The night before, Angie accidentally witnessed two members of the biker gang killing a police officer after calling him a snitch. Ben broke up the fight and left them knocked out, then left with Angie to keep them both safe from the bikers and/or the cops. Colter convinces him to clear his name instead of fighting off and potentially killing anyone. Unlike some previous episodes in which Colter teams up with someone who shares his very specific set of skills, Colter gets to be the mentor. Even though they’re still working outside the law, he pushes Ben to be less of a loner — as Colter has learned to be via his chosen profession. Cops arrive at the cabin and Colter, Angie, and Ben sneak out and drive away in the singer-songwriter’s van. (It’s her vehicle and she ends up in the back seat! Men are the worst, even when they’re saving your life!) Colter asks Vic, a local who helped him out earlier in the episode, to drive Angie to safety while he and Ben get some video evidence of the inside job.
However, while Colter and Ben successfully hold up the sheriff’s office without anyone getting hurt and get what they need, the bikers catch up to Vic and Angie. They hold them hostage at the bar and shoot Vic before Colter and Ben catch up. Ben uses his survivalist tools (a “death whistle” that sounds like something out of Yellowjackets) to lure some of the bikers away while Colter goes into the bar where Angie is waiting. Things take a dark turn when Ricky (Aaron Stanford) manages to capture Ben. But then Colter successfully gets Ricky on his side by revealing that his fellow wolf (Nick Gomez) was responsible for the violence the previous night. Angie is safe, Ben heads out on tour with her as her bodyguard and roadie, and Colter collects a hefty $50,000 reward.
The Sheriff Pleasantly Surprises Colter on ‘Tracker’ Season 2 Episode 10

Image via CBS

It’s not unusual for local law enforcement to clash with Colter Shaw during his for-hire investigations on Tracker. In their mind, he’s trying to do their job for them and potentially tampering with their crime scenes. At the beginning of “Nightingale,” the Sheriff (Jacqueline Obradors) in Wolf Creek seems like no exception. She wants Colter to leave. She even goes so far as to impound his vehicle and drop him off on the side of the road so that he doesn’t have a head start finding Ben.
However, we learn later on in the episode that she’s been independently gathering information about the biker gang’s criminal activity and dirty cops in her organization who were working with them. In other words, she had a good reason to want Colter in the dark and off of this case and then end things on good terms. It’s nice that, once in a while, the cops are right to not want a random man sniffing around their case and tracking their suspects.
New episodes of Tracker Season 2 premiere Sundays on CBS.

Tracker

Finding a missing girl and the survivalist she disappeared with is no fairy tale for Colter Shaw.

Release Date

February 11, 2024

Network

CBS

Showrunner

Elwood Reid

Writers

Ben H. Winters, Hilary Weisman Graham

Justin Hartley

Colter Shaw

Pros & Cons

Cousin Randy is a needed bolt of energy.
The grumpy sheriff should occasionally be right.
Ben’s death rattle maneuver is really, really cool.

You can’t introduce a survivalist with a rich grandmother and not expect follow-up questions.
Points will always be docked if Reenie’s not there.
This case is almost too easy for Colter.