Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Tracker Season 2 Episode 7.

It’s not enough for Colter Shaw (Justin Hartley) to bring a lost dog home on Tracker, Season 2 Episode 7. This week’s tracking adventure unfolds to reveal military secrets, lost artifacts, and a missing person’s case that Colter just stumbled into while solving the first mystery. Our hero’s professional ability to be in the right place at the right time is unmatched.

The episode opens in Denver, Colorado. While filling up his truck at a gas station, Colter finds a dog named Barkley with a thorn in his paw. The dog has a leash and tag with an address on it, so Colter decides to take him home. Easy work for a seasoned tracker, right? Wrong! While Colter buys supplies and tries to make conversation with a depressingly apathetic gas station clerk, someone takes Barkley out of his car. Suspecting that something is up and the person who took the dog was not his owner, Colter remains on the case.

Then, when he gets to the dog’s home, he finds the door ajar. He pulls his weapon and, upstairs, finds the owner (Natasha Burnett) and her son Aiden (Aiden Stoxx) tied up and gagged. They tell Colter that a man wearing a mask broke in, held them hostage, took the dog, and left. The mom tells Colter later that she received a mysterious phone call from a man offering to buy Barkley from them earlier the day before. But since the dog is an emotional support animal for her son to help process his grief after his dad/her husband died, she refused.

While the mother talks to the police, Colter bonds with the kid – who’s significantly less creepy on Tracker than Stoxx is as Sammy on Yellowjackets. (Not to mention what happens to Sammy’s dog on that series…) Aiden “hires” Colter to find his pet with $187 of birthday money. The cops, as is often the case on Tracker, are initially not interested in Colter’s help investigating the robbery and want him to leave the active crime scene. The cop also isn’t interested in the fact that Barkley has now been stolen twice. So Colter goes off on his own, promises the mother not to worry about the money, and resumes the search for Barkley.

Military Secrets Reveal Another Kidnapping on ‘Tracker’ Season 2 Episode 7
CBS

Colter encounters so many new people and situations in this episode that he introduces himself out loud with his first and last name on five separate occasions. That’s too much for a drinking game! He first works with his in-house hacker Bobby (Eric Graise) to figure out who broke into the family’s house. This turns out to be pretty simple work: Aiden’s gaming webcam was recording when the masked man broke into their house. Colter spots a barcode on a keychain the assailant had clipped to his jeans, which leads the tracker and the hacker to a rental car service and the name of the person currently renting the car: Max Miller.

At the alleged dognapper’s house, Colter finds another door ajar and signs of a struggle. Photos on the wall indicate that Max Miller (Seamus Dever) is a married war veteran. Then, another man attacks Colter: a military friend of Max’s named Nate Riggins (Dylan Bruce). They two quickly realize that they are on the same side, as Nate tells Colter that Barkley used to be Max’s dog, and they placed him in a rescue when Max was in rehab. Yesterday, Nate says, Max called him asking for the dog’s whereabouts. After he was informed, Nate says that he heard gunshots over the phone and was unable to contact Max or his wife Chelsea after that… so he also came to the house to investigate. The two acknowledge the possibility that Max could have been experiencing a PTSD episode, staged a home invasion, and hurt his wife, but need further proof.

Bobby works on pulling up the GPS location of the rental car while Colter and Riggs look around for clues. Colter uses what can only be described as kid detective techniques to find the name “Lawson” imprinted on a pad of paper from a note that was written and torn off. Riggs explains that Lawson was a shady private contractor in West Africa who talked Max into helping him steal Benin Bronze statues from an archaeological site. How very Indiana Jones! He also mentions that Max was questioned by DCI (Department of Criminal Investigations). The two determine that Max needed Barkley to help him find the statues because he was probably drunk when he buried them. Max used Barkley to hide contraband all the time, Nate says, which would have been useful information a few minutes ago. But it’s fine, because Bobby gives Colter a GPS update and they hit the road.

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In the woods, Riggs and Colter find Max and Barkley searching for the stolen statues. Max tells his friend that Lawson kidnapped his wife Chelsea and threatened to torture and kill her if he didn’t find them in 24 hours. He tells Colter that while they both stole artifacts, only Lawson got arrested, and now blames Max. It’s never fun to see male characters kidnap women to motivate male characters, whether it’s in a cartoon from the ’80s or an episode of procedural television in 2024, and Chelsea really gets the fuzzy end of the lollipop in this episode. She barely has any lines! The guys talk a lot about how Max has been “on the straight and narrow” since meeting her–implying that she’s the one keeping him healthy and sober. That’s fine and good for him, but women/romantic partners are not substitutes for rehab and therapy (or emotional support animals like Barkley) when it comes to addiction and PTSD! It’s a bummer to hear characters say that out loud, but not surprising.

Barkley Saves the Day on ‘Tracker’ Season 2 Episode 7
CBS

Meanwhile, Reenie (Fiona Rene) talks to a DCI contact about Max and Lawson. She learns that Lawson is a demolitions expert, wanted for murder, and bribed his way out of prison. This dude is scary. She warns Colter about how dangerous Lawson and this whole thing is. This guy wants revenge, and might want more than just some statues. When Max finally finds the statues, Colter tells Reenie, “The situation just got fluid,” to which Reenie appropriately responds “What?!” Colter… use your words! What do you mean it just got fluid? He hangs up and starts trying to talk the two veterans into going along with his plan for how to handle Lawson. (If tracking runs dry and Colter Shaw ever needs a backup career, he’d be pretty good on a Hostage Rescue Team.)

Colter volunteers to find Chelsea while Riggs watches from a high vantage point and Max delivers the statues to Lawson. The kidnapper seems hesitant to hand Chelsea over or even provide proof that she’s alive. Lawson shoots Max in the shoulder and Riggs takes him down. But Colter couldn’t find Chelsea in Lawson’s vehicle, and now Lawson is dead. So who comes to the rescue with the final tracking? Barkley, of course! Colter gives the Very Good Boy a scarf belonging to Chelsea that Lawson left behind. The dog finds the missing wife in seconds. Teamwork at its finest.

Colter Finally Visits Reenie & Velma on ‘Tracker’ Season 2 Episode 7
Image via CBS Entertainment

At the end of the episode, Colter returns Barkley to Aiden. He tells him to buy his mother something nice with his $187 instead of taking him. Considering that some of the birthday money likely came from his mother in the first place, that feels like kind of an empty gesture to suggest to a kid. Why not tell him to buy the dog a present? Barkley has been through it! Also, for those keeping track, once again, Colter Shaw almost died and did not get paid.

But then, despite telling an unfazed Velma (Abby McEnany) that he wasn’t going to make it to Reenie’s office as planned earlier in the episode, he shows up unexpectedly. It only took seven episodes into Season 2, but finally, Velma and Colter are in the same place – and Reenie is there too! Does their happy reunion turn into a surprise advertisement for Amazon Prime? A little bit, yes. Reenie and Velma bought Colter a dash cam for his truck. But after they gush about the delights of next-day delivery, they show Colter around their new digs. Hopefully, Bobby will make it too for the (as of this moment, imaginary) Tracker office Christmas party.

Tracker airs on CBS on Sundays at 8:30 PM ET and next-day on Paramount+.

Colter Shaw reunites two families and a dog on Tracker Season 2 Episode 7.ProsThe episode is genuinely suspenseful, with new objectives unfolding at every minute.Colter shows off his strategic skills in addition to his tracking skills. ConsThe female characters are not given much to do.For how dangerous Lawson allegedly is, the hostage situation resolves a little too quickly.

Colter Shaw, a lone-wolf survivalist, uses his expert tracking skills to assist law enforcement and private citizens across America. Traveling in his old RV, Shaw takes on various cases, from missing persons to complex criminal investigations, always seeking the truth and the rewards that come with it. His journey is fraught with danger and moral dilemmas, as each case reveals deeper layers of conspiracy and human struggle.Release Date February 11, 2024 Cast Justin Hartley , Lee Tergesen , Oscar Chark , Eric Graise , Fiona Rene , Wendy Crewson Main Genre Crime Seasons 2 Creator(s) Ben H. Winters Network Paramount Streaming Service(s) Paramount+ Expand

Watch on Paramount+