‘Tracker’ Season 3 Episode 5 Recap: Justin Hartley’s Colter Is Forced To Confront His Past in a Dark Case

Hot off the tail of last week’s neo-Western themed episode, this week’s Tracker dives right back into the survivalist aspect of the CBS drama. As Colter Shaw (Justin Hartley) is hired to find a group of missing teens, things quickly go awry when our hero stumbles upon a community that would rather be left alone. As Tracker continues into its third season, “The Old Ways” reminds us that there is no shortage of material at play here and that Colter is just as capable as ever.

“The Old Ways” Starts With Missing Kids and Lots of Questions

Image via CBS

The episode opens in Santa Cruz, California as a group of four friends — siblings Sara (Ava Marie Telek) and Jaden Canfield (Preston Oliver) and Brooke (Yobdee Marazzi) and Charlie Hope (Leandro Guedes) — hike through Laurel State Park. But while Jaden thinks it’s time to turn back, Sara fights to press forward anyway. It’s no surprise then, when Colter Shaw soon finds his way into town, already on the case after the four fail to make it home after 18 hours. As Colter pulls in, we get an update from Randy (Chris Lee) on his investigation into David Pearson, the man whose number Colter found in a box of his dad’s old stuff. Evidently, Russell (Jensen Ackles) is still on the case, too, as he’s the one sending all the new redacted files. Randy promises to look into it, but then the pair refocuses on the task at hand. Upon arriving at the scene, he gets the download from the Canfields and heads on in.

Upon getting to the closed-off section of the trail, Colter meets Search and Rescue operative Luke Parsons (Emerson Brooks). The two exchange tidbits about their respective upbringings, but what’s really of note is that Colter believes the kids lied to their parents about where they were actually headed, possibly due to the fact that the Canfield siblings were moving to Hong Kong in the next month. Of course, nothing on Tracker is ever quite that simple. Meanwhile, back at Reenie’s (Fiona Rene) law office in Denver, Mel Day (Cassady McClincy Zhang) tries to stall one of Reenie’s clients, Michael Wu (Mat Lo), before her boss arrives. When she does, Reenie shares that the group he’s signing with slipped a sneaky “non-compete” into their agreement. Afterward, Mel and Reenie decide to come up with codewords to keep them more efficient, and we’re left wondering why the episode took the detour at all.

Back at Laurel State Park, Colter gets a call from Randy, who has found Sara’s social media posts, namely about a hidden treasure supposedly lost by bank robbers back in the day. Luke confirms that he’s heard of this, adding that folks have gotten injured in the pursuit. As they keep moving through the forest, they arrive at a spot where Luke has found injured hikers before, only to come upon Charlie, who has no pulse. Working fast, the pair stabilize him and Charlie quickly comes to, explaining that he fell and that his friends went off to find help. Luke informs Colter that he’s heading into some dangerous territory, as there are illegal drug operations in the area, but that’s never deterred our hero before. After Colter finds Jaiden’s discarded phone, he presses on.

‘Tracker’s Latest Episode Takes Some Dark Detours

Image via CBS

Back in Denver, Reenie tells Randy that she loves having him around, but the small aside is soon interrupted by the main plot when Randy receives a call from Colter. Having looked into Jaiden’s phone, Colter wonders what he would have to hide, and Randy promises to look into it. But something a bit more mysterious turns up as Colter hears a strange noise that leads to an off-the-grid community. Although Colter tries to play nice, being surrounded by hostiles doesn’t put anyone’s guard down. They attack but are no match for the rewardist, who effortlessly dispatches them before drawing his weapon. Seriously, for all the Reacher comparisons this show gets, you’d think we’d get a few intense action scenes beyond what we got in the Season 3 opener… Anyway, the group’s lookout, a young boy named Kenny (Noah Peregyrm), tells Colter that he saw someone in a cameo suit take them after stealing his dad’s rusty ’78 Ford pickup.

Colter gets back on the trail and heads for a new set of coordinates after Randy traces the location of the individual that Jaden had been secretly messaging with. While the messages themselves had been deleted, there was enough of a digital footprint for Randy to magically cobble something tangible together. Having regrouped with Luke, Colter finds the cabin in question and the pair investigate. Inside, a desktop computer reveals the other side of Jaden’s message thread with the secret individual, who appears to be his and Sara’s biological father. From what we can see, Jaden’s frustrations about the move to Hong Kong pushed him into finding his real father, Richard Sandford (Hunter Emery), and the two have been reconnecting ever since.

On the trail, Richard leads his children (and Brooke) through the woods. But things get dicey when Sara’s asthma gets the best of her, and Richard steps in to coax her back into regular breathing rhythms. While Jaden and Brooke try to convince him to get her to a hospital, he refuses to listen. It’s clear that Richard wanted to take his family off the grid, a fact later confirmed by Reenie, who spoke with his ex-wife (and the kids’ mother), Nora (Robyn Ross), who confirmed that he left a decade earlier after joining an environmental activist group. She had no idea that Jaden was in contact with him, but clearly isn’t too happy about it. Colter clearly relates, and in understanding how someone like this thinks, puts two and two together that Richard is taking his kids somewhere where they can get help for Sara, because right now his homemade remedy isn’t doing her any good.

‘Tracker’ Season 3, Episode 5 Forces Colter To Confront His Own Past

Image via CBS

Realizing that the nearest place to get help is a local pharmacy near the state park. Colter and Luke speed that way, coming upon a stopped ambulance parked beside the abandoned Ford pickup. Brooke and the EMTs were tied up inside, but Jaden and Sara have been taken back into the woods by Richard. It isn’t long before Colter and Luke track them down, but they decide to wait to make a move until they stop and set up camp. Once they do, Colter goes after Richard while Luke gets the kids out. Confronting the wildlife survivalist, Colter talks the man down by breaking into the deep reaches of his own soul. We can see how his own strained upbringing has led him to this moment, as he hopes Richard won’t make the same mistake his own father did. Thankfully, Richard heeds Colter’s advice, choosing to leave his kids behind rather than die in front of them.

Colter returns to the campsite and relays Richard’s last message to his children, who wrestle with the news that their father is leaving them yet again. But it’s for the best. Now they can now return to their life from before and prepare for the next phase as they move overseas. Once the authorities show up, Jaden and Sara’s parents soon follow, and their family is reunited once again — something Colter will likely never experience himself. It’s here that Luke thanks Colter for his help, stating what we all know: that things would’ve gone down quite differently without him around. In the end, it was Colter’s own experience with a troubled father that saved the day, and Luke hopes that he won’t lose his number. We hope not too.