“You will survive.” Those are the first words we hear from Colter Shaw (Justin Hartley), a lone bounty hunter who goes around helping solve mysteries, including missing persons, in the series premiere of Tracker (which got its post-Super Bowl slot). And sure, he cares about finding these people and doesn’t get paid until the job is done, but he’s definitely going to get that reward.
His first investigation, enlists the help of handlers Velma (Abby McEnany) and Teddi (Robin Weigert), a couple who may or may not have too many dogs (depending on who you ask): 14-year-old Gil, whose mother thinks he ran off with his biological father (who has a history with drugs). But as Colter sees on surveillance cameras from a local burger joint, the man who took him is not his father. He sends the footage to tech genius Bobby (Eric Graise) just before he’s arrested for breaking into the restaurant’s security room, and that’s how we meet lawyer Reenie (Fiona Rene), whom Velma and Teddi call in for help.
Colter and Reenie have an awkward history; they had dinner, drinks… and then he snuck out of her room “like a guilty frat boy.” He tries to explain that a woman was kidnapped, but she doesn’t want to hear it. (Well, they need somewhere to grow, plus he’s free to hook up with a local cop who warms up to him.) She gets him out of jail, and Bobby informs Colter that Gil’s biological father died six months ago. It turns out another ex-con has been impersonating him because he bragged about burying money from a drug deal and hiding it where he took his son camping. Colter tracks them down and, after being shot, almost convinces the kidnapper to let him leave with Gil and his own chance at escape, but then the state police act early. As a result, Colter ends up having to convince Gil to fall off a cliff into the water below so he can swim to safety. Both succeed, and Colter is paid.
Meanwhile, throughout the premiere, there are flashbacks to Colter’s life as a child and with his father (Lee Tergesen), who taught him how to survive, including taking him and his siblings out into the woods near a cabin to learn skills like rock climbing and tracking. “My childhood wasn’t normal,” he tells a local officer. His parents were both professors at Berkeley, and after some incident, his father took them to live separately in a cabin. “It was an adventure. My dad started talking about people trying to get him, about how we all had to be prepared. Taught us how to track, how to hunt. He taught us how to free climb at a place he called Devil’s Notch,” he shared.
One night when he was 15, his brother Russell was 18, and his sister Dory was 9, their mother went out and their father told them to leave because someone was coming. When Dory wanted to wait for her, their father grabbed her and Russell intervened. Their father pulled out a knife, then realized what he had done and left on his own. Russell chased after him, and when neither of them returned when their mother returned, Colter went looking for them. He found his father dead. At the top of Devil’s Notch, he saw Russell. “What have you done?” he called out. Russell leaves.
Now, someone is trying to reach Colter, even Velma and Teddi. And Colter has multiple missed calls, plus a text from the same number he ignores: “Come on, Colter. Call me back. We need to talk.” “Don’t ignore me, Colter. There’s something you need to know…” “I’m not going anywhere. You need to hear what I have to say.”
Colter then returns to the cabin, where there is a tombstone for his father. His mother comes to him, and he tells her that Russell called and wonders if she knows anything about his brother or father that he should know. She tells him to block the number and ignore him. She has asked very little of him over the years, but what she wants now is for him to leave it be, for everyone’s sake.
So what do you think Colter’s mother is hiding? What’s going on with Russell? What do you think of Hartley’s new show? Take our poll below, then head down to the comments to let us know what you think.
