A group of hikers walks through the hills in Santa Cruz, California, joking about not having cell service as CBS’s Tracker season three episode five opens. They debate whether they should keep going, even though Jayden’s worried his sister, Sara, is out of her asthma medicine. She reminds him he promised one last adventure, and Jayden reluctantly follows the group as they keep exploring.
(This is a recap of season three, episode five, so there are spoilers ahead!)
Colter (Justin Hartley) has Randy (Chris Lee) looking through a box of files Russell sent over. A lot of the info in the records is redacted, but Randy promises to do more research. Colter confirms this paperwork is connected to the number he had Randy run, but he doesn’t provide any additional details. It’s best Randy go into this research without knowing anything in advance.
Colter’s just minutes away from the trail where the hikers were last seen. Apparently, Jayden was right; they should have turned around. Since there isn’t any cell service on the trail, Colter will need to use his satellite phone.
Colter meets with Jayden and Sara’s parents and learns three of the four have hiked the trail before, and the only sign of them has been protein bar wrappers. The parents admit Jayden’s a little upset because they’re moving to Hong Kong, and this was supposed to be a day hike with friends.
The group sent a photo yesterday afternoon; that’s the last she heard from them. Search and Rescue is currently at the spot where the photo was taken, so Colter heads up there. He introduces himself to Luke Parsons (Emerson Brooks) from S&R and Luke appreciates the help. Colter learns they don’t usually organize a large-scale search until hikers have been missing 24 hours. They’re doing it on a smaller scale now at 18 hours, just to get a head start.
The trail doesn’t look difficult, but Colter thinks they were carrying too much equipment just to hike to where they told their parents they were heading. Luke points out an area that’s more difficult to climb, and that’s where he and Colter will start.
Randy returns to the office and finds Mel (Cassady McClincy Zhang) worried because she can’t reach Reenie and her first appointment of the day is waiting. When the client’s just about to leave, Reenie rushes in with a legitimate excuse. She went over new contracts and found that her client would be signing away his rights to work in his industry for three years. They slipped in a non-compete clause, and she advises her client not to sign. She wants to push back against the deal and he agrees.
Randy dived into the hikers’ socials and found out that Sara is into urban legends. She was really interested in an old train robbery involving $100,000 in coins. The treasure’s supposed to be buried in the Santa Cruz mountains. Luke’s heard of it and knows where they’d be heading. It’s a difficult area that the park has closed off because of landslides.
Luke and Colter climb over a gate, and Colter finds four sets of prints. They continue to follow the tracks and spot Charlie, unconscious but breathing. He has a superficial head wound and a possible spinal injury. He comes to and says he fell. His friends left food and water and then went to get help. Charlie’s able to point out the direction they went, but Luke believes it’s far too dangerous for them to follow. There are illegal growers in that direction who don’t like visitors.
Colter doesn’t want to wait and promises Charlie he’ll find his sister. Luke stays behind to wait for medevac while Colter continues following the tracks. He comes across Jayden’s cell phone and calls Randy to find out what the app Wiisp is used for. Randy explains it’s a shady version of WhatsApp. They’re both confused about why Jayden would be using it.
Colter hears something and gets off the phone. He spots a man tossing rocks at bottles and sneaks toward the buildings. Bricks of drugs are stacked nearby, and Colter sees another man walking around with a rifle. Colter draws his gun and follows him. After the man puts down his rifle, Colter sneaks up behind him and orders him to back up. When he complies, Colter puts away his gun and asks about the missing teenagers.
The man whistles and Colter’s quickly surrounded. Colter tries to assure them he’s not a cop; he’s just looking for missing hikers. They don’t care. The men make the mistake of attacking and Colter gets one in a headlock. He aims his gun at their leader and asks again about the hikers. They claim they never saw them.
Kenny, the young man who was tossing rocks, joins the group and confirms he’s the lookout. Colter promises to forget what he’s seen if Kenny’s allowed to tell him what he saw. Kenny reveals a scary guy took the three hikers into the bushes and knocked out another lookout. The man had a gun and a weird camo suit and stole Kenny’s dad’s truck.
They try to stop Kenny from describing the truck, but Colter promises if they let Kenny talk, he’ll redirect the cops away from this encampment. It’s a ’78 Ford truck.
Colter finds pieces of a homemade camo suit on the trail and calls Randy to get to work on the truck. Randy discovered Jayden only talked to one person on Wiisp and deleted most of his messages. Only one message from the guy remained: “The path ahead is clear.”
Jayden sent the first message five months ago, and Colter can’t figure out what’s going on. Randy traces the sender’s IP and it’s not that far from where Colter is right now. It must have its own power source because it’s off the grid. Colter gets the coordinates and calls Luke with the new info.
A short while later Colter and Luke approach the cabin. The door’s open and the same weird camo material is inside on the floor. The corn on the stove is still warm.
The computer shows the messages to and from Jayden. It appears Jayden’s been talking to his biological dad who he hasn’t seen in 10 years.
The scene shifts to show the man forcing the teenagers to keep walking. Sara’s having difficulty breathing and collapses, and the man uses a salve to help her out. Jayden says, “Dad, please, she needs a doctor!”
Reenie spoke with Jayden’s mom and learned she didn’t know Jayden had contacted Richard, his father. Jayden’s mom confirms something changed in Richard after they had kids and that he doesn’t believe in modern technology or medicine. Richard joined an offshoot of the Earth Liberation Front, a group of radical activists.
Reenie wonders if Jayden used the hike as a cover to meet with his dad. She believes Richard is dangerous and unstable, and Colter finds a large stash of food, indicating Richard’s ready to stay there for a long while. Both Colter and Reenie wonder why Richard decided to leave. Colter finds Sara’s inhaler and a bowl with ingredients that would make her asthma worse.
Luke informs Colter there’s a large search going on in the area and state troopers have set up a blockade. Colter believes they left after Sara had an asthma attack. The closest doctor or pharmacy is in town, and that’s where Luke and Colter head.
Colter drives like a madman into town, with Randy monitoring the cops to see if they’ve found the stolen truck. They come upon an ambulance with Brooke tied up in the back, along with the EMTs. An EMT says he treated Sara and points out the direction they went.
Sara’s in bad shape, struggling to breathe as they walk. Jayden had no idea their dad would do this, but Sara reminds him that their dad’s crazy. Richard joins them and says he’s going to take care of them and together they’ll learn how to live off the land.
Luke and Colter spot Richard and the kids, and Colter thinks they need to hang back until they stop to make camp. Colter’s sure Richard will protect his kids, so they need to get to him while he’s away from Sara and Jayden.
Richard walks away from the campsite and Colter follows him while Luke makes sure the kids are safe. Colter orders him to toss his ax and gun, and then they can talk. Richard does, and Colter tells him he’s in over his head. Richard’s certain he can take better care of his kids in the wild, and that right now his kids are soft. He planned on training them in the old ways and Colter assures him that if Jayden and Sara are forced into this life, they will turn on him. (He speaks from experience.)
A helicopter is heard moving toward them, and Richard says he can’t go to prison. It would kill him. Colter insists the best way out of this is to let his kids go. Richard confesses he misses his kids, but this is the only life he knows. Colter is willing to give Richard a head start if he promises never to contact Sara or Jayden again.
Colter returns to the kids with Richard’s gun. He says Richard realized he was in over his head and that he’s sorry. Richard also wanted them to know he loves them. The kids still look scared, and Colter promises them it’s okay. Jayden hangs back and Colter says it will take time, but they’ll be fine.
Luke thanks Colter for all his help, aware it would have been a different outcome without him. Colter confesses he let Richard go and Luke agrees to leave that out of his report. Losing his kids is enough punishment.
Jayden’s mom also thanks Colter and hands over the reward, with a little extra from Brooke and Charlie’s parents. She’s concerned about her kids and worried she did the wrong thing by not talking about Richard. Colter believes Jayden needed to learn the truth on his own.
- Tracker Season 3 Episode 1 “The Process” Recap
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