S01.E02: Missoula

[DanaK]

Quote

Colter tracks down a missing young man who has been pulled into a deadly cult and doesn't want to be found, on the CBS Original series TRACKER, Sunday, Feb. 18 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+

 

[AnimeMania]

Donald Heng as Jackson Cheong 
Wendy Crewson as Mary Dove Shaw 
Stefanie von Pfetten as Rebecca

[Featherhat]

So I liked this okay. I find cult stories and how potentially harmless woo woo gets twisted into stealing, extortion, murder and burning people when put in the hands of one person. 

Ryan Robbins! Always nice to see him get work. 

Different kind of story this week with someone not being held against their will and Colter having to talk him out of it (until the end). We didn't really get to see if what the kid said about his parents being smothering had any basis in fact because they were reacting to him literally emptying his bank accounts and disappearing but he did change his mind pretty sharpish at the end and suddenly believed that Colter was telling the truth and Rebecca was lying. Guess being shown pictures of a hit and run will do that to you. 

No lawyer love interest this week and minimal scenes of his handlers and the hacker guy (sorry not remembering names yet). I like them but I do think this show would benefit from them all meeting up at some point, I think I'm going to get bored of watching JH interact with case of the week by himself. Then again I enjoy a good team/two person hander show.

So I guess it was Russell that broke in to his mother's home? She definitely knows more than she's saying but it's clear that little clues are going to be dropped for potentially years to come with probable red herrings and misdirection as with so many shows. 

[AnimeMania]

The only part that I liked was when Jackson tackled Rebecca, there seemed to be some extremely hidden subtext, that I feel wasn't actually addressed in the show, but may have been warranted. Maybe they should have spent a little more time on how Rebecca groomed Jackson and what his expectations were.

I felt it was a total waste of time to call Colter to the compound just to tell him Jackson wasn't coming, unless that was the only way they could find him and put a tail on him.

I thought this episode was kind of boring and don't understand why they would change the episode order, since you would want your best episode to follow your record high ratings pilot episode.

[possibilities]

I suspect we will eventually get some backstory on the handlers and the computer expert (I also don't know names yet). For me, they are the most interesting people on the show, despite having little to do so far, so I hope they do get to be more involved and that they are not just "representation bait" to get people like me to watch... but I have a sinking feeling that, in fact, that is all they are going to turn out to be. 

I like that Colton is not just a hired hunk to do physical stunts, but that he had to use some psychological approaches to work this case, and at the end of the episode I thought: OH! They chose this story because it's a vehicle for supplying him with that folder of deep dive info about his family.... So they are trying to make the cases weave into and advance the personal backstory. Hmmmn. 

I also noticed that they didn't feed us a hook up of the week. I'm glad of that. 

Still, I did feel bored during most of it. It was like the same car chase over and over again. I'm not opposed to action, but this one dragged. It was too repetitive. Colton tracks them. They track him. They threaten him. He beats them up and escapes. It didn't even feel like escalation, which was weird.

 

[LakeGal]

I liked the first episode.  But I found this one boring.  I hope it improves next time.  

[MissLucas]

Not that exciting, but no hook up of the week is appreciated. The whole evil cult thing was a tad too much on the nose for me. They can't all be winners.

[emma675]

I'm confused as to why this is the second episode, but my TV claimed it was the fourth one. Either way, it kind of dragged. 

Are we supposed to think it's Colter's brother who is stalking his mom? 

I'm happy we didn't have to deal with the former girlfriend/lawyer and no hookup of the week, but I want to see more of the lesbian couple and IT guy who helps. So far, I like the secondary characters more than the main one.

[MarylandGirl]

I found the first half or so of this pretty engaging, then, as others said, it got repetitive. Felt like it wrapped up too quickly at the end, with Jackson suddenly believing him and the confrontation.

I also want more information on the handlers and tech guy. And hope they end up in scenes together. As I could see it boring, too, if it's just Colter all by himself traveling to different cities.

[tvmom]

4 hours ago, emma675 said:

I'm confused as to why this is the second episode, but my TV claimed it was the fourth one. 

I have Xfinity, and it also said this was Episode 4. Episode 3 (Mt. Shasta) aired on Paramount Plus. 
 

According to Xfinity scheduled programs, Episide 2: Springland will air on 2/25, and Episode 3: Mt. Shasta will air on 3/3. 

Edited February 20 by tvmom

[CSunshine76]

I don’t know about y’all, but if I’m ever being followed, I will most certainly be careful to use my blinkers as Colter did. 🤦🏻‍♀️ I mean, come on show.

[shapeshifter]

20 hours ago, tvmom said:

Episode 3 (Mt. Shasta) aired on Paramount Plus. 

Not here in Western NY on Paramount+. We got Missoula. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I expect I'll eventually quit this show, but having lived in the shadow of Mt. Shasta from 1978 to 1997, I will watch that episode for sure.

BTW, Klamath Falls is not far from Mt. Shasta . Where is this filmed? I assume Vancouver Island? The Mt. Shasta episode should be obvious to me whether or not any of it was filmed on location if I watch on the 58" screen.

Edited February 21 by shapeshifter

[Dowel Jones]

Yes, but he's going there by way of Missoula  MT, a far piece out of the way.

[MarylandGirl]

9 hours ago, CSunshine76 said:

I don’t know about y’all, but if I’m ever being followed, I will most certainly be careful to use my blinkers as Colter did. 🤦🏻‍♀️ I mean, come on show.

Right? I thought he was doing that to misdirect, then was going to turn in the other direction or bust a U-turn. Nope!

Though I guess he ultimately wanted to confront the guy.

[Jillybean]

I, too, am wondering about the decision to air episodes out of order. I'm guessing that episodes 2 and 3 did more to set up the characters and back story. Strange.

 

ETA: also, not enough dogs in this episode.

Edited February 20 by Jillybean

[Xarquol]

The episode was also identified as episode 4 on YouTube TV.

Let's hope things go well and we don't end up with desperation scheduling. The US version of Life on Mars was not great, but it wasn't awful, and I watched it all. But no-one else did. When it went on hiatus before Christmas, we were half way through a two-part episode with a splendid cliffhanger. ABC needed a ratings recovery in the second half of the season, so they put a completely different episode on when the show returned in January, so as not to confuse first time viewers. We didn't see the cliffhanger resolved for many more weeks. I believe the series also got shown in that shoddy order elsewhere. And the least said about the finale the better.

[MissLucas]

I assume they switched the order of episodes because some suit thought the Shaw family mystery was the better hook than the missing person of the week. And I've already decided that geography on this show follows the rules established by Supernatural. If you have a cool car the US is the size of Liechtenstein.

[KaveDweller]

20 hours ago, tvmom said:

I have Xfinity, and it also said this was Episode 4. Episode 3 (Mt. Shasta) aired on Paramount Plus. 

A lot of time the episode order gets changed, so I am guessing that is what happened here.

I don't totally get why. I thought this was much weaker than the pilot, so if this was what they thought was second best, that doesn't give me much hope for what is to come. Maybe they wanted to show something that was different than the pilot to show it won't always be the same type of case? Or maybe they wanted to play up the family drama with the break in at the moms?

[juliet73]

This ep was totally meh! Jackson was so deep in this cult, but Colter shows him a photo of a former dead member and Jackson instantly comes to his senses?! Colter next stop needs to be the Church of $cientology!  

I liked the first episode so I hope future eps are more like that but without the one night stand lawyer.  

I agree with some of the other comments about the brother taking the rap for the mom killing the dad.  I'm sure the brother wants to tell Colter the truth and that's why the mom told him to block his calls/ignore him.  

[MissLucas]

Google insists on telling me that Mary McDonnell plays Colter's Mom and Wikipedia says she joined the cast 2022. So I watched the pilot wondering when she would show up. No idea what happened but I guess the fact that they initally went for a relatively big name for the part means that Moma Colter definitely has a couple of figurative and probably one literal skeletons in the closet. No disrespect to Wendy Crewson. (Also: during her first scene I kept wondering what the hell Mary McDonnell had done to her face.)

[Morrigan2575]

This dragged a bit and, kept giving me wierd vibes due to Allison Mack/Nxivm 

[Trini]

1 hour ago, MissLucas said:

Google insists on telling me that Mary McDonnell plays Colter's Mom and Wikipedia says she joined the cast 2022. So I watched the pilot wondering when she would show up. No idea what happened but I guess the fact that they initally went for a relatively big name for the part means that Moma Colter definitely has a couple of figurative and probably one literal skeletons in the closet. No disrespect to Wendy Crewson. (Also: during her first scene I kept wondering what the hell Mary McDonnell had done to her face.)

She was initially cast, but dropped out for whatever reason. There wasn't really any news reported about the recasting.

[OLynn33]

I'm in this for the lesbian handlers. They are their own show.

[SunnyBeBe]

I love this series!  Omg, it’s very entertaining for me. Justin is perfect in his role.  I’m so happy.  

[Netfoot]

So... The cult leadership murders people to preserve the cult... and keep video and still photographs of their murdering because... why? And they don't lock it in a vault, they leave it in an unsecured filing cabinet in an easily penetrated house? And anybody can find out about this by just calling up a former cult member and asking? Or can only peg-legged h4x0rz make that call?

As well as asking me to swallow this, you also do a family back-story drama-dump on me when the last thing I'm interested in is Mom and Big (baby?) Brother and their tortured story? Not to mention the whole episode kicking off with the break-in at Mom's house and The Winnebago just happening to be in the neighborhood. But to no purpose because he came, he saw, and he shot off again first thing in the morning with no more strained conversation with Mom (thank goodness) than we witnessed upon his first arrival?

And the two aunties - what did they do again? I mean, I know they play a vital role in the whole business of Rewardisting, but I can't remember what exactly they did this time?

I said before, if this becomes all about Daddy, I'm out. Sprinkling a little Case Of The week into the mix won't help. Especially if the COTW is so simple and transparent and quickly wound up with virtually no effort, as it was this week. Will watch another episode, but it will have to be much better than this.

[SunnyBeBe]

Yeah…there might be some issues, but so far it’s not bothering me.  

[love2lovebadtv]

On 2/19/2024 at 3:26 PM, LakeGal said:

I liked the first episode.  But I found this one boring.  I hope it improves next time.  

This one wasn't as good but it wasn't terrible. I'm still hopeful 😊 

[roamyn]

Too abrupt a resolution.  Too formulaic.

But as long as Lee Tergeson keeps showing up in flashbacks, I’ll keep watching.

[Ceindreadh]

On 2/26/2024 at 3:48 AM, Netfoot said:

And the two aunties - what did they do again? I mean, I know they play a vital role in the whole business of Rewardisting, but I can't remember what exactly they did this time?

 

They went and spoke to the widow of the previous accountant who had been killed in a hit and run.  She was able to tell them that pictures of the incident existed at the 'centre' so Colter knew that he had to go there.