Editor's note: The below recap contains spoilers for Tracker Season 2 Episode 8.
The supernatural streak continues this week on Tracker Season 2, with our team hunting a ghost. In “The Night Movers,” the missing person makes himself disappear, and Colter Shaw (Justin Hartley) gets the break he’s been looking for in the cold case of Gina Pickett.
Colter is hired by referral — word is spreading fast about his tracking abilities — to help a young woman named Alicia (Morgan Taylor Campbell) in San Francisco. Nine months prior, her brother Lucas (Michael Taylor) had allegedly been in an explosive car crash and died. The family mourned, but then a man who looked and acted and even had handwriting like her brother showed up to say goodbye to their mother in the hospital. His face was obscured, but it’s just too weird. Alicia wants Colter to figure out what’s up with her brother, even if it just means confirming that he’s dead. Closure is important!
A Dead Brother Resurfaces on ‘Tracker’ Season 2 Episode 8
Image via CBS
Bobby (Eric Graise) immediately sniffs out that the computer repair shop where Lucas worked seems like a front, and he and Colter are immediately on the case. He talks to the brother’s old coworker/girlfriend (Sofie Kane) and learns that she’s been interacting with an anonymous World of Warcraft player who reminds her of him. He also asks about a recent break-in at the store. The two of them not only suspect that Lucas was the one who broke in and took something from his work station but find camera footage that confirms it. He is, in fact, alive after all. (Nothing happened with the store potentially being a front, however. That was kind of a dead end.)
Colter then uses that camera footage to get a detective (Jolie Jenkins) to show him civilian footage of Lucas’ not-so-fatal accident. He points out a guy who seems unfazed by the explosion, and Bobby tracks him down. He owns a bodega in the area. But when Colter arrives at the shop, the man is dead. Colter notices wigs and other equipment in the store, and after talking to his widow, Barbie (Freda Foh Shen), figures out what’s going on. Barbie and her husband disappear people in trouble, providing them with new identification and even faking their deaths if necessary.
Lucas was frantically contacting a YouTuber right before faking his death. She was killed not long after. Colter asks Barbie if that’s really what happened, but she’s not familiar with this person. The girl, it seems, is actually dead. With Bobby’s help, they learn that Lucas and the YouTuber were planning to break a major political scandal. Lucas was asked to wipe the hard drive of a real estate developer and mayoral candidate named Tim Crosby (Ted Cole) and found a very incriminating sex tape. That explains why Lucas wanted to disappear and why the YouTuber did.
Colter Takes Down a Dirty Cop on ‘Tracker’ Season 2 Episode 8
CBS
Bobby finds out where Lucas is staying. His new identity is “Isaac Newton” – near impossible to Google, but very easy to find in a hotel registry. Colter takes the detective he spoke to earlier with him to check out the room. They hear gunshots, and find a dead body inside the room. The detective identifies the body as Lucas, and then sends Colter away so that the police can handle the crime scene.
But when the detective is alone, she immediately makes a call to Tim Crosby. They’re working together! Twist! Is she a threat? Is Colter in danger now? Nope! Not only did Colter suspect that the cop tipped Crosby off about Lucas, leading to the death of Barbie’s husband, but Bobby tapped their phones. They hear everything. This is now the second time this season that Bobby and Colter have pulled this trick, giving a suspect the information they need to make a call the second they think they're alone. It’s becoming a bit of a signature move.
Then, Lucas wakes up in the ambulance. He's still not dead! Barbie and Colter faked it a second time to fish out the dirty detective. Lucas apologizes to Barbie for what happened to her husband. While he goes home to be with his sister and sick mother, Colter and Barbie call the FBI in to bust the dirty cop and politician at a bar. Who knew that a guy who came back onto the grid to say goodbye to his mom and play World of Warcraft with his ex-girlfriend would lead to exposing so much corruption? Barbie, impressed, offers Colter a job. He turns her down, but smiles as he sees the name of the company on the back of her business card: “The Night Movers,” a.k.a. the title of this episode.
The Gina Case Gets a New Lead on ‘Tracker’ Season 2 Episode 8
While enjoying his routine beer in a folding chair outside the van, Colter gets a call from retired cop/new father figure Keaton (Brent Sexton), who asks if he remembers the cold case he asked him to look into: the disappearance of Gina Pickett. Colter was just getting drinks with Gina’s sister Camille (Floriana Lima) at the top of the episode and mentioned that he had a guy checking the case out; so that’s affirmative. Not only does he remember, but a lot of people probably wish he would forget. But Keaton says to come meet him ASAP, so Colter jumps.
Colter drives across an unspecified number of state lines from San Francisco to wherever Keaton has a suspect named Alex (Johnny Rey Diaz) tied up in a basement. The young man claims to know Frank Whales, the guy that Colter has been stalking and intimidating for years about Gina’s whereabouts in the Tracker Season 2 premiere. He also claims that Whales lured Gina to a farm where someone known only as “Teacher” used to “plant things” – but he doesn’t say what and the episode ends before he tells Colter whether or not he thinks she's alive.
Maybe it’s shows like Orphan Black and Riverdale talking, but sounds like Colter is well on his way to busting a cult. Was Gina kidnapped, or did she join this "Teacher" willingly? Did the bag of dirt that Frank Whales had in his refrigerator come from the farm? How will Camille, who told Colter at the afore-mentioned drinks that she needed to move on from her sister and him, feel about this? Are we going to remain on Colter's side after all of this? He and Keaton are getting increasingly aggressive in pursuit of this girl. Guess we'll find out!
Tracker Season 2 airs on CBS on Sundays at 8:30 PM ET and next-day on Paramount+.
Watch on Paramount+
