‘Tracker’ Season 2 Episode 4 Recap

Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Tracker Season 2 Episode 4.

Colter Shaw (Justin Hartley) and Reenie Green (Fiona Rene) finally get off the phone and spend some time together on Tracker in Season 2, Episode 4, “Noble Rot.” But, of course, the only thing that brings them together is a missing woman. This week’s case uncovers dirty little secrets at a vineyard wellness retreat and gets surprisingly bloody before all is said and done.

Colter Investigates a “Corporate Kidnapping” in ‘Tracker’ Season 2 Episode 4

The episode opens with a woman (Jessica Sutton) stumbling through grapevines at night, being chased by an unknown assailant. Ten hours later, in the morning, Colter arrives in the Napa Valley to track down Quinn Ridgely. She runs a software company with Gray (Sofia Hirt), her wife and business partner, but she’s also gone missing from a corporate leadership summit at a vineyard. Gray has put up a $50,000 reward for her wife, and since Colter’s favorite lawyer happens to be at the retreat, he’s on the case.

Reenie doesn’t think that corporate kidnapping is what’s happening, even though the wife and security at the venue both assume it. There’s been no ransom note or call. After the first round of investigating, Colter agrees. At Gray and Quinn’s villa, Colter notices blankets on the couch, indicating that the couple slept separately the night before. Gray admits to a fight over the direction of their company. Colter also notes that the struggle looks somewhat staged. What if she wasn’t kidnapped? What if she ran away? He then meets William Locke (Neil Jackson), who owns the estate, and the head of security, Peter Reynolds (Roshawn Franklin). They’re as cagey as Reenie warned, so Colter immediately suspects that they’re hiding something.

As Reenie and Colter start to investigate the property, Reenie uses the old “catch more flies with honey” method to lead a security guard away so Colter can look at the CCTV footage. With help from Bobby (Eric Graise), they discover that footage showing Quinn talking to someone just before she disappeared has been deleted. This leads them back to William Locke, who admits that Quinn came to him for “toad venom” to use as a psychedelic. He leads them to the spot where the audience saw Quinn running scared in the opening scene. Colter follows her tracks to a construction site and finds her glasses in a boarded-up hole. All of a sudden, foul play is back on the menu.

The Vineyard Has a Violent Secret in ‘Tracker’ Season 2 Episode 4

Colter also finds a severed human foot in the hole Quinn fell into, which is more than a little concerning. He says that it has been there for a while, and can’t be Quinn’s. He also thinks that there were multiple bodies buried at the construction site. They follow tire tracks to a maintenance shed. There, Colter speaks with a woman named Rona (Gloria Garayua) about the construction site and some barrels that seem to have been moved recently. When Colter walks away from Rona, he rightfully has Bobby track her phone to find out who she’s calling. Bobby gives him a location on the property, where Colter finds the other bodies stored in barrels. What is going on at this vineyard? A man attacks Colter, though the latter gets the upper hand and soon learns that a contractor named Jesse Pardue is behind all of this.

It turns out Quinn was kidnapped by Jesse and Rona. After taking hallucinogenic drugs to cool off after fighting with her wife, poor Quinn accidentally stumbled on the construction crew hiding the bodies of migrant workers who died in various accidents over the years. What an incredibly dark turn for this episode! While Colter and Reenie have been trying to find her, she’s tied up at another one of Jesse’s job sites and trying to bargain with him. She offered him money from her company and her personal bank account. But now that Jesse knows Colter is on to him, time is running out and he decides he’d rather kill her and dispose of her body in a wood chipper.

The hostage situation escalates when Colter arrives on the scene, thanks to a quick internet search from the one and only Velma (Abby McEnany). At the last second, Rona turns against Jesse and shoots him so that Quinn can escape freely. It works a little bit too well. He stumbles backward into the woodchipper, and we actually see his bloody remains come out the other end. Dang, CBS! That was surprisingly brutal. But Quinn is safe and Colter’s job is done.

Reenie Has a New Love Interest in ‘Tracker’ Season 2 Episode 4

On the personal side of things, Reenie brought a plus-one to the corporate summit. Thank goodness. If Colter’s going to have multiple romantic irons in the fire, she should too. Reenie tells Colter that she’s been texting with a former coworker named Elliott Rush (Michael Rady) and introduces the two of them. Their courtship is clearly in the early days, and they aren’t super affectionate with each other, but do seem to make a good team. It doesn’t help that they’re both still working at this summit. The getaway wasn’t all that romantic even before Quinn’s disappearance diverted their attention from each other.

It should be noted that before Colter can process this new man in Reenie’s life, he asks her about that dinner she got with Russell (Jensen Ackles). Reenie seems pleasantly surprised that he heard about that, but Colter’s brother is not really the plus-one type. That’s why she invited Elliott. Besides, as she says, “It’s not like that between us.” Noted! So then Colter moves on and teases her about Elliott. He questions whether or not wine tastings and yoga with him fit her vibe. “Why,” Reenie questions, “you have thoughts?” When he denies it, she reminds him that she didn’t ask him any questions about Colter’s rendezvous with Billie in last week’s episode. That’s very fair.

At the end of the episode, Reenie comes to say goodbye to hColter and give him his money. He’s drinking a beer on the vineyard like an act of rebellion. Elliott compliments him on his work, mentioning that he’s heard a lot about him. Colter tells Reenie that he hopes Elliot knows how lucky he is, and sadly smiles when the two walk away. This is a good place for them to be in, whether you’re shipping them or not. If the circumstances were different, they might be together… but the circumstances are not different, and they’re okay with that. For now, that is.

Tracker airs on CBS on Sundays at 8 PM ET and is available to stream next-day on Paramount+.

Watch on Paramount+