Tracker Season 1 Episode 13 Recap: The Storm

Colter searches for a friend’s missing daughter on Tracker Season 1 Episode 13, “The Storm.” 

The episode opens with the daughter, Katie, and her boyfriend, Dylan, on a boat when a dicey storm is about to roll in. They’re amateur storm chasers, but it doesn’t seem like it’s the storm they need to be afraid of.

Katie spots something odd just before we cut to Colter on his way to Sandy Point, Oregon to meet up with Lizzy, Katie’s mom.

We learn that Lizzy (Jennifer Morrison) is an old family friend that Colter knows from spending family vacations in the area. Lizzy has been worried for two days now about her missing daughter.

She’s relieved to see Colter and starts out by insisting that she’ll be paying him a fee — she doesn’t want this to only be a favor.

Colter promises Lizzy that if Katie is alive, he’ll find her.  

 

He starts by visiting Katie’s friend, Rachel, who was also part of their storm-chasing team and who is certain that Katie and Dylan’s boat didn’t simply capsize. She has audio of their last conversation that suggests something else happened as the storm approached.   

From there, she and Colter head out to the water, and it doesn’t take long for them to spot a dead body caught up in some kelp.

It’s Dylan. And it’s not a simple drowning. He’s definitely been murdered, though law enforcement insists to Colter that they’ll take the lead on it — and they’re not even so sure Colter is right.

In fact, it’s pretty suspicious how much the sheriff doesn’t want Colter involved. He spouts off some nonsense about the summer tourists coming in soon and he should just focus on Katie.

Colter being Colter, though, isn’t one to give up so easily. He can spot a red flag from a mile away, and he’s good at finding allies when he needs to, also. He finds out some additional background from another office, Kelman, learning that Katie and Dylan had a feud with “the Sampson brothers” over territory. 

Sound silly? You bet it does. Because there’s more to that story, too.

The Sampson brothers are surfers who aren’t afraid to fight, and Colter finds himself taking a few swings from them without much provocation. That tells him a little more of when he needs to know to find Katie, of course.

The next step in Colter’s search takes him to a dead body, a frozen one, in an old run-down building. It turns out to be the body of a girl who went missing three years ago named Haley Thomas, and now it’s even more clear that there’s more to Katie’s disappearance.  

Lizzy tells Colter that her daughter was always trying to uncover the town’s dirty secrets, of which there are many, it seems. So, it makes perfect sense that Katie was likely trying to find out who killed Haley. Dylan’s death had been a warning.

Meanwhile, Reenie is helping Colter out as she often does. She’s resigned from her job and has some free time, after all. 

Reenie investigates a man named Vince Talbott, who they’re all but certain had something to do with Haley Thomas’s death. He’s uber-rich and very shady, and he doesn’t take kindly to Reenie confronting him.  

Back at Sandy Point, Colter is closer to figuring out how to get to Katie. He sees that one of the Sampson brothers may actually have a conscience and uses that to his advantage.

The brother finally reveals, thanks to Colter’s prodding (he really does have a way with people on top of his tracker skills) that he’s not sure if Katie is alive or not. He says she was already banged up pretty badly and he couldn’t bring himself to shoot her. Then he reveals where he left her.

It’s dark by the time Colter gets to Katie, who has managed to keep herself alive on her own up until this point. She tells Colter how Talbott sent the Sampsons after her and Dylan, and how Xavier had killed Dylan.

Just then, the other brother shows up, ready to kill them both, but because Katie is no damsel in distress, she’s able to sneak up behind him and knock him out. 

You’d think this would be the end of it, but the detail that’s still important to remember is how shady the sheriff was acting at the beginning of the episode. 

The sheriff arrives at Lizzy’s house to tell her that Katie is okay. It should feel odd that he’s the one to show up with this news, but she trusts him and takes his word for it, and doesn’t really bat an eye when he asks to come in for coffee.

That’s when the tables turn again.

Colter gets a call from Lizzy and answers to say that Katie is safe, but it’s the sheriff on the line. He tells Colter to bring Katie to him within 15 minutes, or he’ll kill Lizzy.

But, because Colter knows how to make allies, he shows up with Kelman, who pretends to be there to help the sheriff. Instead, it’s all a ruse to get the sheriff away from Lizzy and then have him arrested by the FBI.

Lizzy then has a tearful reunion with her daughter, and Colter decides to stay for a few days at the place where his family used to vacation. 

He even invites Reenie to join him, since she does have some free time right now, after all. She hesitates but declines, and Colter tells her whenever she wants to, she knows where to find him.  

Later, Colter sits with Lizzy at her restaurant, asking about Katie and then reminiscing on old times. It turns out, however, that they have some differing memories of what things were like back then.

Lizzy tells Colter that her mother and Colter’s father were having an affair in those days. And, strangely, after her mother had died, Lizzy found a box of Colter’s father’s research. She recounts seeing the two of them fighting and then hugging in the driveway only days before Colter’s father had died.

Colter says he’d like to see the box, but Lizzy reveals she no longer has it. She had sent it to Dory. 

Why, then, did Dory not mention this to Colter? 

That’s likely the question that will carry us into the second season. For now, though, Colter finally decides to take some time for himself, and the episode ends with him heading out on a surfboard.

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Tracker airs Sundays at 9/8c on CBS.

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