Colter rushes to Seattle to help Reenie when her client’s assistant is kidnapped. But when he’s sent a video of her being held at gunpoint, something just seems… off.

Scale is key to this episode, as it draws one of the season’s final two pseudo arcs into the light. The long-assumed dubiousness of both the men in Reenie’s life is front and centre as the episode expands massive in scale but collapses down to a fine point in scope. The good news is her boyfriend Eliot seems lovely! The bad news is, well, everyone else. Maybe.

The scale comes from the fact this is another Tracker episode that breaks the format and in doing so makes it stronger. Colter’s skills as an actual tracker are front and centre, in a plot that’s one point techno thriller and one part Saw movie as he races across town trying to save Francesca. That also gives us a chance for Bobby (the always fun Eric Graise) to get some more to do. He’s working the case backwards as Colter’s working it forwards, and that sense of teamwork that the season has become progressively more enamoured with is really fun.

Fiona Rene’s Reenie is even more essential, bringing Colter in initially and then working the case in parallel. Reenie’s client Leo Sharf (Pej Vehdat) is core not only to the disappearance of Francesa but to the case itself, and breadcrumbs scattered through the last few episodes pay off in a very satisfying way. Leo may be a very, very bad man. Or he may be a bog standard venture capitalist. Regardless, his actions lead to Reenie being put directly in harm’s way, and rising to the occasion when she is. Reenie is no one’s victim, and her work when she becomes part of the case is essential to solving it. Fiona Rene is a massive talent and the emotional nuance she gives Reenie her is vital. She’s determined, focused, terrified and doesn’t let herself feel any of it until she knows she’s safe.

It’s interesting too to see Bobby and Reenie find out this is not the usual case before Colter does. That plays with the show’s fondness for well-developed supporting players and Kaylah Zander’s excellent work as Francesca is both visibly threatening and unsettlingly relatable. We talk a lot here about how Tracker often feels like the supporting characters have stepped in from their own show. Francesca is the first to step in from a show where she’s the heroine to one where she’s the villain.

That refusal to be predictable is one of the show’s best qualities and this is one of its best episodes. For the first time in a while, the case is concluded but there are dangling threads and the scope of the episode feels, much like brother Russell’s earlier guest appearance this season, like an indicator of something more. Leo’s ambiguity feels like it’ll be making a return, and we also meet another potential recurring ally in FBI Agent Moss. Played by genre legend Tahmoh Penikett, Moss is himself an exploration of the show changing scope. Initially hostile to Colter, he shifts focus the moment he realises what’s at stake and much like Keaton earlier in the season, looks like we’ll be seeing him again.

Finally, as we head into the season finale, the scope changes once again. Melissa Roxburgh returns as Colter’s sister Dory, handing over the box of their dad’s belongings she inherited. We get a nicely handled bit of sibling sparring and then the episode wrapping up with Colter finding something that finally puts his dad’s death back on the map and sets up the season finale.

Verdict: Scale and scope. Human cost and consequences. This isn’t just one of the best episodes in ages, it may, and should, be a template for how the show steps into its third year. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart