Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Tracker Season 2 Episode 15.
Multiple threads come together in Season 2, Episode 15 of Tracker — but if you’re looking for details about the mysterious past of Colter Shaw (Justin Hartley), you’ll have to wait. Still, “The Grey Goose” gets deliciously complicated as Colter teams up with characters we’ve met in both seasons of the CBS series. He’s got people he can count on, and people who can count on him, all across the country. He’s making some enemies, too — in this case, a woman serving a life sentence in a correctional facility, but that’s the cost of doing business.
In a kinda sorta rare move for Tracker, “The Grey Goose” also happens to be almost 100 percent populated by female supporting characters. Truly, the only men in the episode are Colter himself and Cousin Randy (Chris Lee), who gives us a quick update about what Bobby (Eric Graise) has been up to since temporarily departing the series earlier in Season 2. We were originally told that he was dealing with “family stuff,” and learned in this episode that a friend of Bobby’s, who was like a brother, recently passed away.
Colter Shaw Gets Deputized by an Old Ally on ‘Tracker’ Season 2 Episode 15

The episode opens with a prison transfer that goes wrong. The prisoner, Justine (Camille Hollett-French), feigns an illness, and the driver, Rachel (Carlena Britch), almost too willingly agrees to pull over. Justine shoots the other prison guard and, as far as the cops know, takes Rachel hostage. Lucky for her, or so we think, Rachel’s aunt, Detective Brock (Diana Maria Riva), worked with Colter in Season 1, Episode 9, “Aurora.” Brock enlists him for a second team-up and makes Colter an official temporary employee of the Aurora Police Department. Our intrepid loner is appropriately grumpy about that, but the cops don’t pay cash.
Cousin Randy uses security footage from a rest area near the scene to identify a getaway car and driver. Not only are Justine and Rachel not on foot, but this escape was planned. Colter and Brock find the getaway car in the woods near an underground bunker, like a Cold War-era fallout shelter, where inside, it appears Justine grabbed some cash. Colter observes that the bunker looks like it was used to store marijuana from a grow operation. He finds a phone number and texts it to Randy. (Colter also calls him to make sure he got the text. Old man, much?) It’s a burner, but Randy traces the metadata back to the prison Justine escaped from with Rachel and the other guard. This is officially a conspiracy. They need to infiltrate Vermont women’s prison to find out what’s going on… but that’s not a job for Colter or Detective Brock.
Reenie Helps Bille Go Undercover in ‘Tracker’ Season 2 Episode 15

Image via CBS

Colter calls in a favor from his rival, Billie Matalan (Sofia Pernas). It’s kind of a big favor, asking her to go undercover in jail and put her life on the line for him. But she loves a challenge just like him and agrees to go to jail as a prisoner known as “The Matador” to get information. When she gets there, Reenie (Fiona Rene) is waiting to explain the job and the rules to her. “I can see why Colter likes you,” Reenie says. “Likewise,” Billie says. Once Billie is on the inside, she starts investigating Justine’s old cell to find the burner phone or any evidence that her cellmate was working with her.
Meanwhile, Randy learns that the getaway driver’s sister was incarcerated with Justine and goes by “Mama Roach” (Laura Patalano). Billie, who picks a few fights to earn the respect of the women inside and learn the power structure, meets her as well. But Justine’s cellmate and Mama Roach are too smart for Billie’s story. They figure out that she’s not who she says she is and jump her in the yard. Billie calls for the one guard who knows her true identity and gets out of jail (almost) free. She got the information they needed, but it was a really close call!

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Reenie jokes to Velma that she’s not a good friend because she certainly wouldn’t put herself behind bars for Colter like Billie did. Velma rolls her eyes in response to the suggestion that Billie is just a friend. Whoa! Sure enough, at the end of the episode, when all is said and done, Colter spends the night in Billie’s hotel room. The romantic life of Colter Shaw on Tracker continues to defy description. There’s Billie, Camille Pickett (when she returns from overseas), the will-they-won’t-they with Reenie, and who knows who else! As long as his many situationships across the continental United States are fine with keeping it casual — and it does seem like they do — it’s all good.
A Family Reunion Doesn’t Go as Planned on ‘Tracker’ Season 2 Episode 15

Image via CBS

Back to the mystery at hand. Midway through the episode, Detective Brock gets a call from Rachel. She tells her aunt that she jumped out of the car and gives Brock a vague set of directions to find her. But Colter finally picks up on social cues and calls Rachel’s bluff. (He’s been good at tracking people, but bad at noticing when people are acting sus as recently as the previous episode of Season 2.) He suspects that she’s working with Justine, and when the directions Rachel gave Brock don’t match the other information they have on where the two are heading, the detective has to agree.
Sure enough, Rachel was in on it all along. She and Justine are working together to steal a fortune from Justine’s stepmother and the family’s medical marijuana business. Fun fact we learn in this episode: even though weed is legal in several states, the risk of breaking federal law means that even legitimate companies like this one still stuff cash in bunkers and “non-traditional banks” in case they get raided. Thanks to Randy and Billie’s efforts, they know that they are working for Mama Roach as well. We even see Rachel not only call Mama Roach on a hidden burner in her cell, but threaten to kill Justine’s family if things don’t go their way. It also seems likely that she, not Justine, killed Mama Roach’s brother and a guy at a repair shop who called in a tip earlier in the episode. She’s strayed really far from the path.
Colter and Brock race to get to the stepmother at her office. Justine and Rachel get there first and take the woman hostage. But the detective and the deputy are waiting when they leave the vault. Rachel goes so far as to put a gun to her own head, but Colter intervenes. Poor Brock, who got Rachel the job at the prison to begin with, now has to arrest her own niece. “We all have blind spots when it comes to family,” Colter says. What about your family, Colter? He’s been dropping a tidbit about them once per episode for weeks. This time, it was that his dad used to teach him the importance of looking at things with “a fresh set of eyes” and used the phrase “burning daylight” a lot. But it’s past time that we finally revisited the saga of the Shaw family and learned more than folksy idioms and breakfast-for-dinner traditions. At least he’s got a government check coming to him, eventually, for a job well done.
New episodes of Tracker Season 2 premiere Sundays on CBS.

Tracker

Multiple threads come together in Tracker Season 2’s latest episode.

Release Date

February 11, 2024

Network

Paramount

Pros & Cons

Returning characters are good for worldbuilding.
Billie’s undercover mission is a compelling subplot.
The fact that they find Rachel only to arrest her is a good twist.
Good moments from Reenie, Velma, and Randy, as well as Bobby update!

Mama Roach is a dangerous loose end.