Colter Shaw (Justin Hartley) is certainly used to jobs taking unexpected turns, where a missing person leads to a larger conspiracy or mystery, on Tracker. But his inability to smell a rat — or, rather a backstabber — in a cupcake shop in Season 2 Episode 11, “Shades of Gray,” nearly gets him and many people killed.
The episode opens in media res with Colter Shaw being held at gunpoint in New Jersey. Two men threaten him and accuse him, unsurprisingly given his chosen profession, of sticking his nose where it didn’t belong. Then, in true “bet you’re wondering how I got here” cold open fashion, the episode flashes back to 18 hours earlier and Reenie (Fiona Rene), of everyone. Her ex-co-worker boyfriend Elliott (Michael Rady) gets a call from a distressed client whose son has gone missing. The two paused their date night to give Colter a call and his next assignment.
Colter Takes a Trip to the City in ‘Tracker’ Season 2 Episode 11
The client is a woman named Ivy Hale (Amy Pietz) who runs a chain of cupcake bakeries — seemingly inspired by Baked By Melissa — out of New Jersey. Her son Matt (Derek Anderson) is a financial bro in Manhattan and disappeared without a trace. Colter visits Ivy at the brick-and-mortar location, where he learns that she did not approve of Matt’s new girlfriend. He also had a suspicious encounter with Ivy’s cousin and courier Casey (Reilly Dolman). Ivy treats Casey dismissively, and when Colter tries to appeal to him privately by calling her bossy, Casey tells him that Ivy and her son had a huge fight and that he was planning on going on a trip with his coworkers. The ever-diligent and unsuspecting Colter crosses the river to investigate Matt’s job and love life.
Colter has no trouble snooping around Matt’s downtown office. The receptionist Janice (Alex Sgambati) is boldly reading a paperback romance novel at her desk, so a man like Colter Shaw waltzing in and flirting with the information out of her is kind of her dream come true. He learns the identity of Matt’s married girlfriend. With some additional help from Bobby’s cousin Randy (Chris Lee), he finds out that Lucy (Rhianna Jagpal), who looks honestly sweet compared to how both Ivy and the receptionist described her, has a private second condo in the outer boroughs. Everyone seems to have it out for Lucy for no reason. Even Randy calls the fact that her husband isn’t on that lease “scandalous” — is he living in a world where women can’t own property? Come on, dude.
When Colter gets to Lucy’s condo, the girl is tied up in the bathroom. But unlike what the episode title may suggest, there’s nothing kinky going on. She’s not even having an affair. She and her husband have been separated for years. It was all a red herring. Lucy tells Colter that Matt was kidnapped by two people with Eastern European accents. She says that Matt warned her not to involve the police and that she’d picked Matt up from a hotel where he was hiding. Colter goes there next, and the entire staff seems fishy. This receptionist is not as receptive, so to speak, to Colter’s charms. When he gets caught poking around the basement by some serious-looking goons, he pretends he’s looking for the pool. Hilarious bit. They don’t buy it for a second, however, and the next thing Colter knows, he’s face to face with a big scary mafia boss named Lindo (Al Sapienza).
A Cupcake Mogul Starts a Mafia War on ‘Tracker’ Season 2 Episode 11
Well, well, well! Turns out Ivy is not just a baker; she’s a mafia boss as well. Her rival, Lindo, denies any involvement in Matt’s kidnapping but determines that Colter knows too much and should be taken out. Two enforcers take him out under a bridge, back to the predicament that Colter found himself in at the top of the episode. Colter manages to get one of them, Vargas (J.J. Solia), on his side and lets him go so that he can go find Matt. (Vargas kills the other guy, Pete. RIP, Pete.) He also has some information. Both Vargas and Matt had been getting suspicious texts that seemed like they were getting set up and/or pitting their families against each other. So Vargas told Matt to get out of town.
The Europeans who kidnapped Matt sent a photo (and a tooth!) to his mother and told her that it’s from Lindo. Ivy agrees to retrieve Matt the old-fashioned way by paying the ransom and fires Colter. Without implicating Vargas, he warns her that someone is trying to manipulate the families and incite a mob war. Meanwhile, Elliot and Reenie show up with Colter’s truck. Elliott insists that Ivy was trying to go clean and run a legitimate cupcake business. That tips the audience, if not Colter just yet, off to who is really behind this. Randy tracks the burner phones to find out where Matt is… but it’s miles away from where Ivy is walking into a trap.
Sure enough, when Ivy gets to the under-construction subway station drop site, her shady cousin Casey pulls a gun on her. He resents her for benching him, wants to take over the business (not the cupcake business, the other business), and staged the whole thing. Colter, who sent Vargas to retrieve Matt while he plays the hero for the boss lady, bursts in and chases Casey down. But then the entitled cousin goes for a knife that he dropped on the track and electrocutes himself. What started out as one of the most dangerous situations Colter has ever been in turns into his easiest take-down yet.
Colter a Reenie Share a Quiet Moment in ‘Tracker’ Season 2 Episode 11
At the end of the episode, Reenie visits Colter at his van. He’s parked by the river, a safe distance from the hustle and bustle of Manhattan — and he’s clearly expecting her, as he has set up two folding chairs by the fire. The two debriefs over a beer. Colter smartly declines an invitation to third-wheel “multiple escape rooms” with her and Elliott. Reenie gives him his fifty-thousand dollar reward courtesy of the Cupcake Mafia, and Colter threatens to donate the potentially dirty money to charity. (You have employees, Colter! You need to pay them for their services!)
Now, the romantic tension between the two of them hasn’t become unbearable yet. It’s not not there, but both characters have other things going on in their lives. With Reenie’s business booming, it’s understood that she wouldn’t drop everything to live in sin on the road with Colter Shaw. Not to mention the fact that she’s in a relationship and Colter has at least one or two situationships floating around. However… Reenie’s boyfriend betrayed her and Colter! He’s a little too quick to shrug off not knowing that his client ran a crime syndicate. This relationship has to end soon. Plus, if the new, difficult client Reenie alludes to is foreshadowing something for future Tracker episodes, they may get pushed together sooner rather than later.
Between this mysterious client and the way the show keeps dropping hints about parent/child relationships, the end of Season 2 is looking like a doozy. There are a lot of open threads that could turn into threats. At least New Jersey’s own Ivy Hale owes them a favor. That’s not a bad thing to have in your back pocket! Better than cupcakes.
