That was one of the most balanced episodes of Tracker you’ll ever see.
And it wasn’t just balanced, but genuinely good.
Perhaps that’s expected, but when an episode works, it’s okay to just say so.
I should have known Tracker Season 3 Episode 12 was going to be a good one when it started with a nod to the Shaw family drama. Sure, it was a quick nod, never to be brought up again, but it was a nod!
Dropping it in straight away must have been to remind the audience so they’re prepared for it to reappear in the next few episodes. (Let a girl dream, people!)
Colter sitting out in the middle of nowhere, trying to piece together a decades-long potential conspiracy, is such a Colter thing to do.
One day, Randy or Reenie is going to call him about a case and interrupt him doing something fun. One day!
The case of the week, being about a missing doctor, immediately set off alarms in my head that maybe she was abducted by a patient who blamed her for a death or a surgery gone badly. Or maybe something shady was happening in that hospital that Evie got mixed up in.
On Tracker, no guess about a case is ever a bad guess at first, because they find extremely unique ways to tell the stories of missing people.
From the outside looking in, Evie seemed a bit troubled, at least according to her sister and Dr. Hooper’s observations.
They both spoke of the troubles they sensed in her, but it didn’t sound like anyone really tried to dig deeper into what was going on with her.
Dr. Hooper not reporting her stealing legitimate drugs from the hospital sounds nice in theory because he didn’t want to ruin her life, but one would think that was cause to do more than just stop her from performing surgeries for a little while.
I’m not saying anyone failed Evie, because she clearly kept a lot inside, but it’s hard when you can pinpoint the exact times and ways someone was actively breaking down, only to realize they could have been helped and never were.
At the start of the episode, we saw Evie at a bar, clearly drunk or drugged, with a menacing man. This opening scene hinted that the episode would focus on uncovering this man’s identity and his connection to Evie’s disappearance.
I love when Colter meets people and gets them to spill so much tea, even though he’s not a cop and doesn’t flash any identification to corroborate who he says he is.
There are no tracking badges out there, as far as I know, but I’m trying to imagine a strange man walking into a place I worked and just casually asking me 50 questions about another stranger, and just going along with it.
At least make sure the man’s name is really Colter Shaw in case something comes back on you!
Anyway, why the bartender thought it was okay for Evie to go home with a random man she met at the bar when she was THAT drunk made zero sense, and who cares if he was a regular there?
That’s the kind of person who needs an Uber.
Of course, that outrage was short-lived once the pieces started to come together when Colter got to Josh’s house.
I’ll be very honest, I did not at all make the connection that Evie did the kidnapping until it was literally spelled out for me via Colter. And that happens sometimes on Tracker because they make things so needlessly complicated.
The lorazepam vial probably should have been the tip-off, but it still didn’t click with me that this wasn’t a missing-person case. Or at least not the missing person we thought.
Everyone has seen a revenge film before, and probably has a favorite.
And what worked about this installment was the buildup to our finding out why Evie froze during that one surgery, and why she came home so upset that she was breaking things.
And most importantly, why she was stealing benzodiazepines from work.
Vigilante justice is pretty polarizing, and it was a brief sentiment at the tail end of the episode, but I’m glad it was addressed when Reenie pointed out that, while she wasn’t necessarily a fan of that kind of justice, she did understand where it came from.
Evie had deep-seated trauma and pain from a horrifying sexual assault that will stick with her for the rest of her life. Those two vile men just went along with their lives, while that pain sat with her for years.
And she was right to be proud of herself for everything that she accomplished, but that kind of trauma, especially when it’s unaddressed, will hit you at the most unexpected of moments.
She saw Josh at her hospital, in her safe space, and she was probably instantly brought back to that dark place of pain and also a rage at the fact that this man was freely living his life and had never paid for his crimes.
Now, developing a whole plan to entrap this man, take him to a secluded cabin, and cut off his genitals if he didn’t cooperate with her demands was a lot. But again, Evie had been triggered, and she’d be seeing justice in the only way she felt like she could get it.
Debating whether she was right or wrong feels moot because the hour wasn’t interested in playing morality politics; the hour focused more on the emotional fallout for Evie and how trauma shaped her.
It’s not necessarily framed as heroic, but deeply tragic, and a sign of how badly things can spiral when someone is left to carry that kind of unimaginable pain alone.
Her actions were extreme, but they were rooted in years of anger and pain, and you could see that when she first confronted Josh and later Victor, who both played dumb and tried to gaslight her into thinking she was wrong or misguided, even though they knew what they had done.
Evie was seeking revenge, but more than anything, she was seeking justice.
And that was evident in the fact that she didn’t kill Josh, instead getting him to confess to what he did.
It would never erase what happened to her, but he deserved to be held accountable for his actions, as did Victor, who was just horrific in the few scenes we had of him.
Evie had things planned out with Josh to a tee, and as soon as she got Victor’s name, I think the adrenaline coursing through her just propelled her to his home without really thinking through what would happen when she got there.
Victor’s wife hitting her over the head genuinely got a gasp out of me, as did everything that took place in those woods.
That man was genuinely monstrous, because it wasn’t even about trying to silence Evie so his life wouldn’t be ruined, but about hurting her even further.
Even when confronted with Colter and a gun aimed right at him, he wouldn’t stop trying to hurt her.
An underrated moment was Colter trying to confront Evie, and it took a moment for her to fully trust Colter in that moment as someone there to protect her and not cause harm.
Colter’s ability to connect with people in some of the worst moments of their lives is such a wonderful aspect of what he does.
Was anyone else worried we would get zero information about what happened once Evie was rescued?
Tracker sometimes skates by the consequences, and I desperately wanted to know what the hell happened to Josh and whether Evie would get in trouble. It was one of the times I was grateful for the info dump!
Interspersed within this one were Reenie’s decisions about whether to sign on for the real estate case, as well as a glimpse into her continued struggles with what happened to her during Tracker Season 2.
There was obviously a parallel between Evie and Reenie, and since the series returned from its winter hiatus, they haven’t touched on Reenie’s recurring struggles.
She hasn’t been okay for a long while, and much like Evie, she’s been shouldering her pain alone. She’s been hiding in her work, and taking this case feels like a distraction she can’t resist.
Colter and Reenie NEED to talk.
Based on Colter’s facial expressions during that phone call, he sensed that something deeper was going on with her, and hopefully, he’ll do something about it.
Reenie’s very good at hiding her feelings, but put Colter in front of her face-to-face, and I don’t believe she’ll be able to fool him at all.
If the next hour doesn’t have Colter standing in Reenie’s office, ready and willing to be the steady and reassuring shoulder she could so desperately use, we RIOT.
Tracker Notes
- How are we feeling about Mel these days? She seems to be all in on helping Reenie, and it’s so obvious that Reenie trusts her, so is it time to accept she’s not shady?
- Randy always looks so confused around Mel, and it makes me laugh.
- Maxine is scary. You can just tell this case is about to be a doozy for everyone involved.
This was a very strong hour from top to bottom, and it was something Tracker needed after a couple of hours that fell kind of flat.
What did you guys think about this one? Let me know in the comments below so we can discuss!
You can watch Tracker on Sundays at 9/8c on CBS.
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