Tracker Season 3 Episode 17, titled “Daughters,” found Colter Shaw in a messy first-ever situation, caught by the suspect (and killer) he was pursuing.
A serial killer, to be exact, which honestly isn’t a situation anyone should ever want to find themselves in.
Colter took on the case to help find a missing girl named Tori, who was a witness to a triple homicide.
The case was one of the more horrific ones Colter has dealt with, as the parents were suffocated with a bag over their heads and propped up in their beds, while Tori’s best friend, Julie, was stabbed.
Tori was sleeping at the time of the murders, but the killer knew not to leave a loose end, pulling her from under the bed, where she was hiding, and kickstarting a search mission for her that likely would not have ended successfully if her parents hadn’t hired Colter.
The police and the FBI weren’t taking the case as seriously, aside from FBI Special Agent Temple, who heard about the murders and was intrigued to see if it was the same serial killer she was investigating.
After chatting with Colter, it was clear that the killer matched the profile and was the lead she was looking for to put an end to his crimes finally.
Both Temple and Colter had the same goal in mind—to find Tori by any means necessary and stop the killer from taking anymore victims.
And in this case, they were both equally as useful to each other. What Colter didn’t see, Temple did, and vice versa. She also had plenty of insight into the killer’s previous movements, allowing them to pinpoint that in this situation, the killer was surprised by Julie and killed her in a panic.
They leveraged his misstep, including leaving behind the murder weapon, to their advantage.
Without the murder weapon, they likely wouldn’t have been able to find where he was keeping Tori, as the killer was simply that skilled at covering his tracks.
But Tori was never the goal. He intended to take Julie, but was forced to pivot after killing her instead.
Colter’s past was also a huge help here, as the killer was a skilled hunter, so Colter was able to understand his decisions and movements.
After realizing the knife was handmade, he was able to track down the person who made it, eventually leading them straight to G. Lee, the suspect.
And that, likely to no one’s surprise, was the hairstylist.
Honestly, the moment they went to chat with him, it seemed like the obvious answer, but Colter didn’t look into him at all. I guess he didn’t want to jump the gun and had no reason to suspect the hairdresser, but I’d have likely looked into anyone who came into contact with the girls that evening.
That being said, a photographer with previous charges was the perfect decoy. And the hairstylist knew it, which is why he planted the knife inside the guy’s RV who took the girls’ photos just hours prior.
Steering the cops and FBI down a different lane bought the suspect some time, but Colter was still pursuing other leads, especially when it was clear that the photographer had no clue about the murders.
And then in an unexpected twist, Colter allowed himself to get ambushed while walking into the serial killer’s lair. His guard was up, but it wasn’t up enough.
When he woke up after being knocked unconscious, he was chained down. It was too close for comfort, I’ll say, but it also adds a smidge of realism that Colter isn’t always coming out on top.
Any normal person would’ve immediately lost their cool in such a situation, but Colter wasn’t rattled in the slightest.
He was able to convince the killer to show him that Tori is alive, which in turn bought him some time so that he could wrangle out of the chains.
Thankfully, Colter didn’t come to the killer’s house without telling anyone where he was going (a common TV series trope), but Temple walked right into G. Lee’s trap, as she activated the motion sensors that allowed him to get a one-up on her, too.
He shot her in the clavicle, thankfully missing all the main arteries, but it would’ve ended poorly for her had Colter not broken free from his restraints and snuck up on the killer.
The evening could’ve had a much different outcome, but it didn’t come to that. Temple survived, with Colter restoring a sense of hope in her, reminding her that, although there is plenty of darkness in this world, it’s a better place because they try to make it so.
Julie was reunited with her parents, and despite the trauma of everything she’d seen and endured, she was alive.
It was yet another gripping episode of Tracker, proving that the series has found its groove when it comes to episodic cases, though it’s still missing out by not allowing things to get deeply personal for Colter. I’m holding out for the finale for any momentum into the case involving his father’s death, though, I really don’t think we should be waiting till the final episode to make any headway either.