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

Who tracks the Tracker? Government conspiracies and alien sightings run amok when Colter Shaw (Justin Hartley) himself briefly goes missing in Season 2, Episode 2, “Ontological Shock,” forcing his team of misfits to rise to the occasion and work together like they never have before. Even Colter’s brother Russell (Jensen Ackles) comes back to town to help solve this supernatural mystery.

A Widower Goes Missing in ‘Tracker’ Season 2 Episode 2
Image via CBS

The episode opens with a man named Scott Palmer (Steven Culp) running through the woods and making a found footage horror-esque video. He claims he’s approaching a secret, uncharted DOD site. Then, all of a sudden, his camera stops working, and a bright light flashes. Next thing we know, Colter Shaw is driving up to a house in Pennsylvania. Scott’s daughter Patty (Brooke Nevin) hires Colter to find out what’s going on and where her father went. Colter learns that Scott is retired, likes hiking, recently became obsessed with government conspiracies, thought he was being followed because he knew too much, and has been harassing an astrophysics professor named Dr. Iris Blair (April Parker Jones). Blair’s husband put a restraining order on him. Colter’s unconvinced that this guy didn’t just go off the grid. However, he notices that some of the call logs between Blair and Scott, which Reenie (Fiona Rene) was able to obtain thanks to the restraining order, are quite long. He may have been calling her multiple times a day, but she stayed on the line to chat. Their relationship may not have been hostile at all. And when Colter talks to Dr. Blair about Scott, she doesn’t seem scared or worried at the mention of his name.

In fact, Scott and Blair were in communication about aliens and UFOs–just don’t call them UFOs or aliens. They’re UAPs, or Unidentified Anonymous Phenomenon, and NHIs, a.k.a. Non-Human Intelligence. While Colter remains skeptical, his hacker on retainer Bobby (Eric Graise) is fully a believer in UAP and other government conspiracy theories. (The persons of interest who Bobby cites — Dr. Jacques F. Vallee, Josef Allen Hynek, David Grusch, Luis “Lue” Elizondo, and the Kumburgaz video — are all real, by the way.) Colter and Bobby track down the location where we, the audience, last saw Scott. But then their phone call cuts out. Colter’s electronics start to go on the fritz just like Scott’s did too, followed by the same bright light.

Colter Shaw’s Team Has To Track Him in ‘Tracker’ Season 2 Episode 2
Image via CBS

Hours after Colter has checked in, the team scrambles. Reenie calls an audible, a.k.a. Russell Shaw. Colter, meanwhile, wakes up in a sterile, austere room with his arms restrained. He was hit with a tranquilizer and taken to some kind of base. A clean-cut anonymous government agent (Matt Passmore) asks Colter about Scott. The tracker sees through the interrogation’s true purpose. They don’t know where Scott is either. But the second the agent leaves Colter alone, he’s easily able to free himself from his restraints. Too easily, in fact, which Colter will realize in a few scenes. He is momentarily distracted by the arrival of his brother, who busts him out. Colter is a little disoriented by Russell and Reenie’s “phone buddy” status and that he’s talking to Velma too. He’s not doing a great job covering up his jealousy.

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Once the Shaw brothers are back on the road, it finally dawns on Colter that escaping such a secure location with his cell phone should not have gone so smoothly. He remembers that black site was also looking for Scott, and concludes that the government agents let them go in order to use Colter’s tracking skills. Of course! Russell smashes Colter’s phone. He also finds and cuts out a tracking device they put in his brother’s neck. (A tracking device in the tracker? What will they think of next?)

They return to the professor’s house and confirm that Scott had been helping her gather research about UAPs on the downlow to protect her reputation. They discovered a signal that could be extraterrestrial communication, or something else. Colter and Blair realize that they’re coordinates and could reveal where Scott went after he lost phone communication. The brothers are off to find Scott once and for all. But once they leave, the agents get to Dr. Blair!

‘Tracker’ Season 2 Episode 2 Ends With an Explosive Encounter
Image via CBS

They say never follow a hippie to a second location, but following a conspiracy theorist to a second location works out at the end of Tracker. At the second black site, activity is buzzing. There’s a countdown to “the surge” running over an intercom. The trailers are full of samples and equipment. To Colter’s skeptic chagrin, Russell thinks it’s a UAP landing site. While he faces off against the nameless government agent. Colter finally finds Scott hiding out in a lab. There’s only one problem: he doesn’t want to go! He thinks that a “vessel is coming” and he wants to see it. He wants to know that it’s real because his wife would have wanted him to find out and tell the world. He’s not crazy. He’s just grieving.

In the final moments of the episode, a British man drives up to the Shaw brothers and hands a phone to Colter–Rene hired him to find them after Russell stopped returning her calls and messages. The team did not know that Colter was safe with Russell, or that Russell destroyed Colter’s phone. It’s a shame we didn’t see the group debrief after this strange and unusual case. Thankfully, Patty actually pays Colter when he returns her father. He can reimburse Reenie for the two men she hired and the van she bought to find them.

The stakes of this are honestly a bit too high for comfort. This doesn’t seem like the kind of case that should or could be wrapped up in one episode. Russell and Colter may think that they’re in the clear because the operation is over and Scott doesn’t have any evidence. But they do have evidence. Russell picked up a piece of unidentified material on the black site and plans to give it to his “alloy guy” for analysis. And those government agents killed Dr. Blair off-screen because she knew too much. That’s scary stuff! Also, as Russell points out a little too casually, the agents know something about the deceased Shaw patriarch, having said that Ashton Shaw asked too many questions too. That’s a Shaw family mystery wrapped into an intriguing enigma! At least this prompts Colter to tell Russell about the box of their dad’s stuff that her sister has been keeping from them.

Tracker Season 2 airs on CBS on Sundays at 8:30 PM ET and next-day on Paramount+.

Colter Shaw’s brother returns as the Tracker uncovers a government conspiracy.ProsJensen Ackles is a good foil to Justin Hartley.The episode touched on a major cliffhanger from Season 1 about Colter’s father.Colter’s team continues to bond even if he’s not there to enjoy it, which creates a fun workplace dynamic. ConsIt’s hard to believe that they actually got away with breaking into a government black site with no consequences.

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

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