CBS’s Tracker returned Sunday night with “Monster,” an episode that plunged Colter into a particularly twisty missing-person case. When Ohio mom Alice Baer vanishes, leaving her young son alone, the initial assumption is a relapse into past addiction struggles. But as Colter digs deeper, the truth proves far more complicated – and dangerous.
The trail leads to PJ, a former patient from Alice’s therapist training days. It’s a connection that raises red flags, especially after PJ’s own mother turns up dead along with a colleague of Alice’s. PJ’s troubled past, marked by severe childhood abuse, paints a grim picture, revealing violent tendencies and an inability to handle abandonment. Alice, it turns out, left her therapist training precisely because she struggled with her patients trauma turning to addiction.
Colter discovers PJ has taken Alice to Happy Hollow Amusement Park—a place that held significance for PJ as a child. The race is on to find Alice before PJ’s distorted view of her as a maternal figure leads to another tragedy. The amusement park setting, now abandoned and eerie, provides a fitting backdrop for the final showdown. Colter confronts PJ, ultimately saving Alice’s life and eliminating the threat.
The episode ends with a sense of resolution. Alice is reunited with her son, and Colter pockets the reward money. But “Monster” is more than just a case closed. It’s a look at the scars of abuse, the blurry lines of the therapist-patient relationship, and the lengths some will go to recreate a fractured past. Tracker airs Sundays at 8 PM ET on CBS.
