Reviewer Rating: 4.4/5.0
4.4
It was the Shaw Brothers’ reunion on Trackers Season 2 Episode 2, and Russell came back into Colt’s life at, frankly, the perfect time.
When Colt finds himself embroiled in a government conspiracy and goes off the grid, Renee decides to go find him with a big gun. And by big shot, yes, I’m referring to the charismatic Russell Shaw played by Jensen Ackles.
What follows is another great episode of the hit CBS series.
It’s probably a little early considering Season 2 of Trackers is only two hours old, but the show is firing on all cylinders.
While Trackers Season 2 Episode 1 was a simple missing persons case, there was a twist at the end, a moment that was a bit supernatural mixed with government conspiracy, making it decidedly different, but just as interesting.
The only way to keep a series like this fresh is to mix up the cases. The first two are very different.
Colter is no stranger to hanging around the government, but he hasn’t dealt with the UAP yet, which caught him a bit off guard.
Admittedly, I don’t know enough about UFOs to know that they are now called UAPs, but you learn something new every day!
Scott Palmer is basically a conspiracy theorist who stumbles upon something serious as he immerses himself in alien research as a way to cope with the grief of losing his wife. He was so obsessed with it that he put himself in serious danger.
The thing about government conspiracies is that if you’re actually doing something, there’s a good chance some shady people are going to make sure you don’t live to tell the story, and that’s exactly what happened here.
Colt being Colt, it wasn’t long before he was following in Scott’s footsteps, but while Scott wasn’t captured by the shady government agent, Colt was.
It’s strange to see Colt get into any kind of serious trouble, as we’ve seen the man get shot, beaten, and everything else in between, but he always manages to get away from where he finds himself Every terrible situation you find yourself in.
Colter is a badass, but even he has a hard time leaving the building without help.
Enter Russell Shaw, an extraordinary older brother who was never in a situation where he couldn’t crack a joke.
The show does a good job of keeping the running commentary about Renee and Russell being best friends (maybe more!) as long as every mention of it makes Colt’s face contort in disbelief.
We saw enough in Russell’s appearance in Tracker Season 1 Episode 12 to know that there was a tiny spark between him and Renee, and it would be fun to expand on that here, okay.
Jensen Ackles and Charming are synonymous, so he probably doesn’t share any tangible screen time here with Fiona Rene, but I’m still interested in these two flirting a bit or something because it’s fun.
It also annoys Colt a bit, which adds an interesting layer to their already complicated dynamic.
Russell showed up at the perfect time, as Colter’s hopes of getting past all the armed guards were naive at best. But Russell saves him, and the two team up again.
Colter and Russell may not always see eye to eye, but they work well with each other. They both have huge egos and think they’re the smartest guy in any room (although Russell will actually say it out loud, while Colt never will), but they’re smart enough to listen to each other when it matters.
Just as Russell instinctively knew Colt had the tracker on him, he fished it out of his back with a non-sterile blade and Colt barely batted an eyelash.
I think this is the life of the Shaw brothers and sisters.
The key to finding Scott has always been to track him down before that shady government guy does! Colter and Russell negotiated with Dr. Blair to do this, and once they told her to leave town, things were already going downhill.
I know many of the cases Tacker reports on involve dangerous scenarios, but every time an innocent person dies, I get frustrated because why? I know, obviously, this is to add some reality to the story, because the reality is, there are real dangers when dealing with shady people.
But it still disappoints me.
Colter and Russell arrive at the UAP landing site, I’m sorry, but when the two of them got into the area so easily with guns blazing, there’s some government conspiracy!
No comprehensive perimeter security? Aren’t there drones circling the area to catch unauthorized foot traffic? Or do you think the place will have any other high-tech security measures?
In terms of what needs to happen next, the answer is no.
I know they’re keeping the Shaw family drama a secret because they don’t want to reveal it all at once, but they are setting up Ashton Shaw as some kind of mysterious, questionable figure.
A suspicious government agent may have Googled the Shaw Brothers and found Ashton’s name, but he appears to know more than a quick search on the World Wide Web could tell him.
Has Ashton ever obstructed the government? What did he do? What’s involved?
One day, my friends, we’re going to get some answers – one day.
But, back to the topic, how long has Scott been in the trailer and how come no one noticed him? I’ve been asking a lot of questions but no good answers so moving on, the fact that Scott is more concerned with proving himself right than protecting himself shows how deep down the rabbit hole he is.
But that’s what happens when you believe in something so firmly. There is almost nothing that can be done to stop you, including imminent danger.
For a moment, I thought we were actually getting a glimpse of some extraterrestrial activity outside the walls of the trailer, but that was by no means the whole story. If the three of them had seen something, the story wouldn’t have been sealed among all the other cases this week.
After Scott went home, Colt and Russell stayed to say goodbye. While I still believe Russell is innocent, it’s a little questionable that he’s so quick to disregard Colt’s claims about the mysterious box Dolly possesses.
But to be fair, Russell seems to want to move on from the past, while Colter always seems to stay firmly grounded. So, maybe he was trying to relieve Colt some pain, or maybe there was something he needed to hide.
We’ll know one day when the Shaw family drama makes its triumphant return, but in the meantime, storyline permitting, give us more Russell Shaw, God of Trackers. This show will only get better because of it.
Keep track of notes
- The little things about Jensen Ackles are so nice, like when he walks around the room and whistles after knocking out suspicious government agents, or when he wipes his mouth while eating a sandwich at Dr. Blair’s and then wipes it On the jacket. Just perfect.
- Guys, help! I haven’t seen Supernatural, so I don’t know if this car is meant to make someone in the know laugh, since it’s a Supernatural. But it was a hot car and the brothers looked great driving it!
- I felt bad for Velma because they told us she couldn’t dock without Teddy, but at least she had Renee during this time!
There’s a lot to like about this movie, including the return of Russell Shaw! There’s no telling when he’ll be back, so we should just enjoy it.
Let me know how you feel about his return and the whole time in the comments!
You can watch Trackers on CBS Sundays at 8/7c.
watch tracker online
