Tracker Season 2, Episode 11, “Shades of Grey,” wants to be a tense drama about crime families and how that’s an oxymoron. And the CBS show succeeds, too, but not because it’s that tense or dramatic of an episode. Rather, it works because viewers are likely to be reminded of a classic installment of The Simpsons that touched upon the same general theme.
“Shades of Grey” sees Colter Shaw enlisted by baking maven Ivy Hale to find her missing son Matt. However, Colter learns quickly that Ivy’s bakeries are just part of what she has her hand in. This revelation also puts some strain on the relationship between Reenie Greene and her boyfriend Elliot, who’s been enlisted as Ivy’s attorney. It’s an entertaining episode, but Ivy could learn a thing or two from Marge Simpson.
Tracker Season 2, Episode 11 is another installment boosted by its casting choices. The Season 2 spring premiere boasted The X-Files fan-favorite Nicholas Lea as its villain of the week, and “Shades of Grey” has quite a few recognizable faces. Ivy Hale is played by Amy Pietz, who portrayed Everett’s abusive mother Kendra Lang in the short-lived Paramount+ series Wolf Pack, and is able to strike the right tone between being a loving mother and arrogantly shady. In fact, she probably could have been even sharper and gotten away with it. Pietz gives Ivy an abrasive enough personality that it’s not shocking when her true career is revealed, but she also keeps the audience on side because they believe Ivy’s love for her son.
Ivy’s rival is Rick Lindo, portrayed by veteran character actor Al Sapienza, who’s been in countless movies and TV shows but is best known for playing Mikey Palmice in The Sopranos and Detective Raymond Terney in Person of Interest. He unfortunately only has one major scene, but is still instantly recognizable. And The Flight Attendant’s J.J. Soria plays Vargas, who is introduced as one of Lindo’s henchmen, but is revealed to have a personal stake in the case: Matt Hale was his childhood best friend. The only character who fails to grab the viewer is, sadly, the actual villain of the piece: Ivy’s cousin Casey, who orchestrated Matt’s abduction as part of a scheme to stop Ivy from going legitimate. From the moment when Tracker introduces Casey — working as the delivery guy in Ivy’s bakery — it’s clear that he’s up to something because of how awkward he is in every scene.
One would not normally put Tracker and The Simpsons in the same sentence, but “Shades of Grey” evokes memories of the Simpsons episode “The Twisted World of Marge Simpson.” For those not in the know, that’s the one where Marge Simpson takes a job with Pretzel Wagon… only to learn that Homer has contracted with Fat Tony and the Springfield mafia to ensure her business succeeds. Ivy and Marge both find success in food-based businesses, both are devoted to their families, and both try to “go straight” in their respective episodes. Ivy’s just doesn’t end with the mob and the yakuza fighting it out on her front lawn.
The reason why “The Twisted World of Marge Simpson” worked was its theme of doing anything for family. Homer’s motivation for going to Fat Tony was that he so desperately wanted to see Marge succeed, having witnessed her depression when the business struggled. Likewise, there is a heartwarming element in Tracker, because Ivy is trying to become a legitimate businesswoman to protect her son. Even though she’s failed to keep Matt out of harm’s way, that doesn’t make her intentions any less meaningful. Season 2, Episode 11 could’ve just committed to the mob bit and painted Ivy as an unrepentant criminal mastermind Colter had to angrily confront and then take down. Instead, while he still disapproves of her, he allows her to leave before the cops arrive.
Likewise, albeit brief, it’s great to see that Vargas is the person who rescues Matt. It would have been nice to see a bit more of the two former best friends interacting — yet viewers can at least believe that they’re able to rebuild their relationship once Matt gets over the trauma of being abducted. For a show at the beginning of primetime, Tracker has a few surprisingly dark moments, such as Matt getting a tooth forcibly pulled and Casey choosing to take his own life by electrocuting himself on a subway rail. But “Shades of Grey” adds more definition to its characters so that audiences get invested in the guest cast’s stories, which is necessarily in what’s essentially an anthology show.
