Tracker Season 3 Episode 2 Proves Two Shaw Brothers Are Better Than One

Critic’s Rating: 4.5 / 5.0

4.5

When Colter and Russell team up for a case, you can guarantee a solid hour of Tracker.

It’s been said before by me, and it’ll be said again that Justin Hartley and Jensen Ackles have the kind of chemistry that you don’t see every day.

And teaming them up for an action-adventure series will deliver every damn time.

After the events of Tracker Season 3 Episode 1, the Shaw brothers were pulled into The Process, and Tracker Season 3 Episode 2 was all about figuring out just what the hell the twisted game was all about, and more importantly, how to stop it.

The cases where Tracker deviates from the script — meaning they don’t revolve around someone ponying up cash for a missing person or something else — are always some of the best.

As a formula, the show works just fine with its cases of the week as is, but I do enjoy the others that become a bit more personal for Colter, and with The Process directly affecting him and his brother head-on, this one was about as personal as it gets.

When we met Harith in the beginning, it became more evident, based upon what we learned in the opening hour of Tracker Season 3, that all these people doing these horrible things were victims of a treacherous and crushing cog known as the Process.

With each new person we met, the same information was spouted, and the same fear and reluctance radiated off them.

None of these people were cold-blooded murderers, but instead people trying to survive to see another day and ensure that their loved ones would as well.

Harith was someone who thought he was out and then got sucked back in by the Shaw brothers saving Lisa and Haley, and as his reward, he got to try and murder Russell Shaw, something you and I knew was never going to happen.

There are no cooler customers under pressure than the Shaw brothers, and when the two of them combine their knowledge and skills, along with help from Colter’s crew? There’s really no way to stop them.

In many ways, this episode took all my criticisms over the past two years and tried to make amends with me personally by having both Reenie AND Randy in the hour and doing more than just talking to Colter on the phone.

We got IN-PERSON Randy. We got Randy charming Russell Shaw over eggs and coffee. We got Justin Hartley, Jensen Ackles, and Chris Lee bantering in a little suburban diner, fighting to see whose charisma would shine the brightest.

(And lowkey it was a tie!)

Tracker has always had these amazing characters who could just never reach their full potential because there was never the time or space for them to do so. Bringing Randy out to do more than give information through the phone, even in those short interactions, does so much to help center his character.

It’s probably not feasible for that to happen every week, but it felt like such a positive omen for the rest of the season to see the series already taking steps to improve.

As the tech whiz himself, Randy was able to get a set of coordinates, and pairing up Russell and Reenie is always such a good time. Again, I am loving that we’re two hours in and we’re checking in on Reenie, allowing her to be more than just Colter’s lawyer bestie.

Russell Shaw tries his best to act unbothered, but you can always tell when something affects him and when he really cares, and while he’s always like that with Colter, you also see it in the moments with Reenie, as well.

Sure, Russell has a little thing for her. Who wouldn’t? But in the car, that wasn’t Russell trying to do anything more than be a friend to Reenie if he could be.

Aside from his fake concern about her breakup, that made both me AND Reenie giggle, and it was so perfectly Russell.

Our expectations of Russell when we learned about him in Tracker Season 1 were those of a boy who potentially killed his father. But as we’ve gotten to know him over the years, you see a man who had to grow up quickly and become a hardened, self-sufficient man, who could use some therapy, but is an all-around good person.

I believe he’s a protector at his core, and his talk with Reenie showed someone who maybe doesn’t have much practice comforting others, but will do his best for the people he cares about.

He’s also a badass under pressure, and the whole car sequence was straight out of Fast & Furious.

I thought for sure Harith was dead, and it was going to screw things up for him and Colter even more, but it turned out to be the best thing for them because they got even more information and were able to step into the game in a way they hadn’t before.

With Colter’s information from Lisa and what he found when he finally got to the briefcase, it became clear that the game was about finding people who could be easily blackmailed.

Or, at the very least, finding people more afraid of facing the consequences of their own actions than hurting other people.

The people involved in The Process were victims, but it was also a lot more complicated than that. They were saving the lives of their loved ones while aiding in or even directly taking the lives of innocent parties.

It was a truly twisted and nasty game, and you could see that when Colter confronted Harith, he understood the true depths of what was being asked of these people.

It was never black and white.

Once Colter and Russell got the upper hand by faking Russell’s death on the fly (thank god for fast-food ketchup packets!), they took control of the game without the powers that be knowing it.

And Randy’s ability to find the one lady nearby who bought copious amounts of the briefcase model found in that shady building was just the icing on the cake.

Some aspects of this case reminded me of Saw, in the sense that it felt like whoever was behind it was trying to teach people a lesson, punish people for wrongs committed upon them, or a combination of both.

But what it turned out to be was an experiment gone wrong. An experiment that exacerbated some of the narcissistic and sadistic tendencies of two people who reveled in power and what they perceived to be God-like capabilities.

Schneider was holed up in that bunker, sitting at computer screens, taking pleasure in watching people pushed to their limits. Punishing people who’d done wrong, seemingly giving them their comeuppance, but also inserting innocent people into the fray.

It was all very sad at its core and extremely scary.

I had a feeling that the Shaw family was going to get inserted into things even more. And that scene between Schneider and Colter was so tense because those pointed questions really got to the core of one of Colter’s current predicaments.

But Colter didn’t fall for the bait, and once again the good guys won.

This was a terrific way to start the season. Bringing in Russell will always be a great thing, and there was ample room for Randy and Reenie, too, making everything feel more balanced and inclusive.

There was also so much Jensen Ackles, and who would ever tire of that?

The final conversation between the brothers sparked hope that we’ll see Russell again this season as he looks into the mysterious phone number Colter found, and it was also another beautiful, vulnerable moment for Russell.

Here’s hoping that when we see Russell again, he’s worked towards finding a place for himself, somewhere he feels he belongs.

Colter leads a very interesting life that not everyone could have, but it’s his own — a fulfilling life he’s chosen.

Russell deserves to find that for himself.

Tracker Notes

• Does anyone feel like this storyline is going to come back again? Like, down the line, they’re going to discover that Jillian lady was also helping the other guys, and she’s going to try to revive the whole thing?

• Every time Colter links up with his brother, it feels like he ends up having to shoot someone.

• Colter and Russell shooting up the computer screens was such a great shot.

• What was with the shady guy at the building Colter went to get the briefcase? What was that about?

• I have to ask the question. With Reenie single, does this mean she and Colter could become a thing? I know Russell has a little crush and whatnot, but Reenie and Colter are the real pairing through all this. Right?

Tracker is off to such a great start, and there’s so much to talk about after this one. So, start talking in those comments!

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You can watch Tracker on Sundays at 8/7c on CBS.