Colter is asked to find a group of four friends who vanished during a camping trip. His investigation leads him into the woods and across the path of Keaton (Brent Sexton), a retired cop working a cold case which maybe the reason for the disappearances.

Before we get into it, yes if the name ‘Jennifer Morrison’ as the director credit looks familiar, it is the actress. Morrison is best known for her extended run on House and her lead role in Once Upon A Time but she’s got an extensive directorial background too including episodes of Surface, Euphoria and Doctor Death. She also appeared in a recurring roe in This Is Us, and had a guest spot on Tracker in the first season. She’s clearly comfortable with the shape of the show and has experience working with This is Us alum Justin Hartley and that all consistently pays off. There’s a jaw-droppingly beautiful sequence at a waterfall here, followed by a string of pleasingly nasty action sequences. There’s a gunfight which is positively nerve-wracking and in a show like this, where the lead has plot armour, that’s a hell of an achievement. Even better, Morrison never loses sight of the fragility and humanity of the characters. This is an action heavy episode but it’s all untidy, panicky and unsettling. As it should be.

Frequent show writer Travis Donnelly and newcomer to Tracker Dominique A. Holmes also impress. Tracker is at its best when it unpacks the case for us slightly faster than for Colter and this is a particularly burly one. There’s a hint of the Dyatlov Pass incident to Lauren (Ashley Wong) discovering her friends’ abandoned campsite and that unease is the engine for the episode. The eventual reveal isn’t especially surprising but it’s very grounded and human. People broken by tragedy in different ways and coping in a wide variety of bad ways. Everyone’s wrong here, and no one’s quite right enough meaning Colter doesn’t so much solve this case as help people live with the truth. It plays a lot like Criminal Minds at its best and for a procedural that’s a very high compliment.

The core cast impress as always, as do the guest cast but one in particular stands out. Veteran character actor Brent Sexton, who you may well know from a definitive turn on The Expanse, is fantastic as Keaton. The ex-cop is a big, methodical bear of a man who instantly bonds with Colter and gives the show a hint of both the old west and the Winchester family. Zero bullshit, 100% compassion, Keaton is Colter in a few decades and both Sexton and Hartley do a great job of exploring the complex emotions that stirs in these two weird, dutiful, fundamentally good men. That leads to the fantastic ending where Keaton gets closure on his case and offers to help Colter with his. The arc plot is back, the family just got one enormously fun character bigger and we’re into the pre-fall finale run at a sprint.

Verdict: Clever, complex, compassionate storytelling and one of the show’s best to date. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart