Critic’s Rating: 4.4 / 5.0
4.4
It was a Shaw brothers reunion during Tracker Season 2 Episode 2 when Russell blew back into Colter’s life at, quite frankly, the perfect time.
When Colter found himself involved in a government conspiracy and off the grid, Reenie decided to bring in the big guns to find him. And by big guns, yes, I mean Jensen Ackles’ devastatingly charismatic Russell Shaw.
And what followed was another solid installment of the CBS hit series.
This may be wildly premature, considering we’re only two hours into Tracker Season 2, but the series is firing on all cylinders.
While Tracker Season 2 Episode 1 was a straightforward missing persons case with a late twist, this hour was a little supernatural mixed with government conspiracy, making it markedly different yet just as intriguing.
The only way to keep a series like this fresh is to mix up the cases; the first two were incredibly different.
Colter’s no stranger to mixing it up with the government, but he has yet to deal with UAPs, which threw him a little off-guard.
Admittedly, I’m not up on my UFO knowledge, so I didn’t know that they were referred to as UAPs now, but you learn something new every day!
Scott Palmer was basically a conspiracy theorist who stumbled upon something serious, as he threw himself into alien research as a means to deal with the grief of losing his wife. He became so obsessed with it that he put himself in grave danger.
The thing with government conspiracies is that if you’re actually on to something, there’s a real possibility that some shady people will make sure you don’t live to tell the tale, and that’s precisely what was happening here.
Colter being Colter, it didn’t take him long to follow Scott’s footsteps, but where Scott didn’t get snatched up by the shady government man, Colter did.
It’s so odd to see Colter in any form of serious trouble because we’ve seen the man shot, beat up, and everything else in between, yet he always manages to find a way out of every horrible position he finds himself in.
Colter’s a badass, but even he would have trouble getting out of the building without help.
Enter Russell Shaw, older brother extraordinaire who never met a situation he couldn’t make a joke out of.
This show would do well to keep this running commentary about Reenie and Russell being best buds (and maybe more!), if only for the way it makes Colter’s face twist up in disbelief every single time it’s mentioned.
We saw enough during Russell’s appearance on Tracker Season 1 Episode 12 to know there was a tiny little spark between him and Reenie, and expanding upon that here was funny, okay.
Jensen Ackles and Charming are synonymous, so he may not have shared any tangible screen time with Fiona Rene here, yet I am still invested in those two having a little flirtatious something or other because it’s FUN.
It also gets under Colter’s skin slightly, which adds an interesting layer to their already complicated dynamic.
Russell showed up at the perfect time because Colter’s hope of getting past all those armed guards was naïve at best. But Russell saved him, and then the two teamed up again.
Colter and Russell may not always agree, but they play off each other well. They both have massive egos and think they’re the smartest people in any room (though Russell would actually say that out loud and Colter would never), but they are smart enough to listen to one another when it matters.
Like Russell instinctively knowing that Colter had a tracker on him, he fished it out of his back with a blade that was NOT sterilized, and Colter barely batted an eyelash.
The life of a Shaw sibling, I suppose.
The key to finding Scott was always about tracking him before that shady government man could! To do so, Colter and Russell conferred with Dr. Blair, and the writing was on the wall about where that was headed the minute they told her to get out of town.
I know that many of the cases covered on Tacker involve dangerous scenarios, but every time innocent people die, it throws me off because WHY? I know, obviously, it’s to lend some realism to the tales because the reality is that when dealing with shady people, there is a real danger involved.
But it still throws me off.
Colter and Russell get to the UAP landing site, and I’m sorry, but some government conspiracy when the two of them just waltzed into the area with guns so easily!
Was there no full perimeter security? Were no drones circling the area to pick up on unauthorized foot traffic? Or any other high-tech security measures you think that place would employ?
For the purposes of what needed to happen next, the answer would be no.
I know they’re keeping the Shaw family drama close to the vest because they don’t want to give it all away at once, but they are building Ashton Shaw up as some kind of mythical suspicious person.
Shady government man probably did a Google search of the Shaw brothers and found Ashton’s name, but he seemed to know more than what a quick search on the World Wide Web would tell him.
Ashton got in the government’s way once upon a time? What did he do? What did it involve?
One day, we’ll get some answers, my friends—one day.
Back to the action, though, how long was Scott in that trailer, and how did no one spot him? I keep asking many questions with no good answers, so moving on, the fact that Scott was more concerned about proving himself right than protecting himself showed you just how far down the rabbit hole he was.
But that’s what happens when you believe something so steadfastly. Very little can be done to dissuade you, including imminent danger.
For a second, I thought we were actually going to get a peek at some extraterrestrial activity outside the walls of that trailer, but that was never what this was all about. If the three of them had seen anything, this story wouldn’t have been bottled up to join all the other cases of the week.
With Scott returning home, Colter and Russell were left to say their goodbyes. While I still believe in Russell’s innocence, it felt a little suspicious how quickly he was ready to disregard Colter’s claims about that mystery box Dory had.
But to be fair, Russell has seemed to want to move on from the past, while Colter firmly has one foot planted there, seemingly at all times. So, maybe he’s trying to save Colter some pain, or there IS something to hide.
We’ll find out one day when the Shaw family drama triumphantly returns, but in the meantime, bring us more Russell Shaw when the storyline allows, Tracker gods. The show is only better for it.
Tracker Notes
- The little things with Jensen Ackles are so good, like when he walks around that room after knocking out shady government guy and whistles or when he wipes his mouth while eating that sandwich at Dr. Blair’s and then wipes it on his jacket. It’s just too perfect.
- Guys, help! I didn’t watch Supernatural, so I have no idea if that car is meant to illicit a chuckle out of those in the know because it’s a Supernatural car. But it’s a hot car, and the brothers look great driving it around!
- I feel bad for Velma because they’re telling us she’s unmoored without Teddi, but at least she has Reenie during this time!
There was much to like about this one, including Russell Shaw’s return! There’s no telling when he’ll be back, so we should relish this one for a bit.
Let me know in the comments how you felt about his return and the hour overall!
You can watch Tracker on CBS on Sundays at 8/7c.
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