CBS’s Tracker continues its second season sizzling streak with “The Gray Goose,” a fast-paced, emotionally-charged episode that brings again a well-recognized face, drops a serious twist, and takes Colter Shaw into a few of his most morally complicated territory but. It is a jail break story, certain—nevertheless it’s additionally about household, betrayal, and the blind spots all of us carry relating to the individuals we love.
We open on a frosty roadside in Aurora, Vermont—a quiet place hiding violent ambition. A prisoner feigns sickness in a transport van. She pulls a blade from her mouth (sure, that stage of dedication) and escapes, leaving one corrections officer crushed and the opposite—Rachel, Detective Helen Brock’s niece—gone together with her.
The return of Diana Maria Riva as Detective Helen Brock is a great transfer. Her final look in Season 1’s “Aurora” gave us a grounded, humanizing distinction to Colter’s lone-wolf persona, and right here, she’s even higher. Brock isn’t simply one other native cop calling in assist—she’s family-adjacent now, emotionally entangled and reeling after her niece Rachel goes lacking throughout a jail transport gone incorrect. Riva performs Brock with a cautious stability of guilt, stubbornness, and restrained grief. You are feeling her unraveling with out a single melodramatic beat. It is no small feat in a present that strikes this shortly.
The twist—that Brock’s niece Rachel isn’t the hostage however the mastermind behind the escape—is considered one of Tracker’s finest narrative reversals thus far. It’s not simply stunning, it’s thematically wealthy.
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| “The Gray Goose” – TRACKER, Pictured: Justin Hartley as Colter Shaw and Diana Maria Riva as Detective Brock. Photograph: Colin Bentley/CBS ©2025 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
The present has been quietly constructing this concept throughout the season: that hazard doesn’t at all times come from the place you anticipate it, and that the road between survival and sabotage is razor-thin. Rachel isn’t a caricature of evil. She’s a lady who grew up in chaos, noticed a possibility, and took it. Her resolution to control her aunt and weaponize household belief is a intestine punch—and it lands as a result of the present gave Brock simply sufficient emotional grounding for that betrayal to sting. This isn’t a “twist for twist’s sake”—it’s a character-driven reversal, and the present earns it.
Sofia Pernas’ Billie continues to be a compelling wildcard. Her infiltration of the ladies’s jail may have simply fallen into cliché, however the present correctly performs it for stress slightly than camp. There’s hazard in each interplay. She’s strolling a knife’s edge—and whereas the plot mechanics are a bit stretched (does the jail actually purchase this setup?), Pernas sells it.
Her chemistry with each Reenie and Maria “Mama Roach” Barata provides the jail scenes texture. And when Billie will get jumped, solely to ship a swift throat punch and reassert management, it’s a fist-pump second that reminds us this character is greater than a love curiosity. She’s a survivor. And he or she’s taking part in the identical high-stakes sport as Colter—simply with a distinct masks.
Additionally? That ultimate second between her and Colter—wine, stress, a kiss—is among the extra grounded, mature romantic beats the present has pulled off. It felt earned. Difficult. Human. However it provides a layer of emotional complexity. Reenie clearly harbors emotions for Colter, and when she tells Billie she will see why he likes her, there’s an unmistakable hint of jealousy in her voice. That undercurrent turns into even clearer in a later dialog with Velma, when Reenie admits that Billie put her life on the road for Colter—one thing she herself has by no means finished. It’s a quiet however telling second that reveals simply how a lot Billie and Colter’s connection rattles her.
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| “The Gray Goose” – TRACKER, Pictured: Justin Hartley as Colter Shaw and Diana Maria Riva as Detective Brock. Photograph: Sergei Bachlakov/CBS ©2025 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
Bobby’s absence is lastly acknowledged, albeit briefly—he’s stated to be grieving the lack of an in depth buddy. It’s an inexpensive rationalization on the floor, however the way in which it’s dealt with feels oddly imprecise. The dearth of readability round his standing raises extra questions than it solutions. Is that this only a short-term pause, or is Eric Graise quietly exiting the sequence? Colter’s father will get one other philosophical nod, reminding us that Colter’s ethical compass is inherited as a lot as it’s chosen.
After which there’s the quiet reality beneath all of it: Colter desires to consider the very best in individuals. It’s his best energy. That’s what makes this case—the betrayal, the manipulation, the household fallout—so resonant. It cuts towards all the things he tries to carry onto.
“The Gray Goose” doesn’t reinvent the wheel, nevertheless it sharpens the spokes. It’s a tense, emotional episode that digs into belief, guilt, and survival instincts—each within the wild and behind jail partitions. The character beats are sturdy, the pacing tight, and the twist satisfying with out being sensationalized.
That is Tracker rising up a bit. Nonetheless accessible. Nonetheless grounded. However keen to harm its characters—and allow us to sit in that discomfort for a beat longer than ordinary.