Off The Books – The episode opens in the middle of the night at an abandoned Roanoke, Virginia gas station with Doug Thompson (Christopher Seivright) pumping gas. His constant looking around and avoidance of the surveillance system indicate he might be up to something shifty. A flashlight across the road in the woods confirms these suspicions seconds later. It’s only moments after this that he snaps his phone and flees on foot.
The footage then skips over to Colter Shaw (Justin Hartley) speaking with Velma (Abby McEnany) and Teddi (Robin Weigert) Bruin about the lack of employment. Shortly after hanging up with them, a car pulls up outside. The driver is revealed to be Russell Shaw (Jensen Ackles). After a few awkward beers around the campfire, it’s revealed that the meeting was preplanned. Not only that, but Russell had scheduled another meeting earlier that week but failed to show. There is also an awkward conversation about the night of Ashton Shaw’s (Lee Tergesen) death. It’s unclear whether or not Colter believes Russell’s claims that there was another man in the woods that night, a man that he had seen with Mary Dove Shaw (Wendy Crewson) before. It’s evident that Colter doesn’t roll out the red carpet like Russell had expected. Once this awkwardness passes, Russell tells Colter about Doug Thompson, who has now officially been AWOL for 5 days. Much to his surprise, Colter reluctantly agrees to help him.
The next morning Colter picks Russell up at the Beach Grove Motel. On their way to speak with Tracy Thompson (Alexandra Metz), Russell describes Doug as a solid friend of 18 years who’s saved his life on more than one occasion. Russell also mentions their shared employment with Horizon Groups as well as Doug’s transformation after a recent car accident. There is little time for introductions thanks to Tracy’s heightened state of alarm when they arrive. Her panic is revealed to be brought on by a package that she received earlier that morning. It turns out to be a finger in a box with a strange astrological sign.
Colter learns that Doug recently disabled their surveillance system out of fear that people were hacking in to spy on them. Russell is quick to assure her that Horizon Group has nothing to do with the disappearance. Once outside, Colter uses a nifty little sketchpad and pencil trick to pull a fingerprint from the finger and sends a photo of it to Bob /Bobby Exley (Eric Graise). It’s merely minutes later that Bobby calls with the identification of Len Klavens (David Hardware), along with his police record. Len’s offenses turn out to be minor and drug-related, but the big reveal is that his address as of two days ago is the city morgue.
Colter watches with amazement as Russell fails horribly to convince Yolanda Allen (Maria J Cruz) to let them see Len’s body. Colter takes a different approach and breaks in, which triggers a silent alarm and their subsequent arrest. It does appear that the body belongs to Len, but the more interesting part is that the corpse is covered in enigmatic tattoos and missing all its fingers.
Colter spends his time in lockup questioning Russell about whom and why someone would send Doug’s finger to Tracy. Russell is more concerned with how they are going to get out of their current predicament. The answer soon comes in the form of Reenie Green (Fiona Rene), who makes quite the impression with Russell. When Russell treats them to a food truck meal and Reenie is called away by a work call, Colter tells him that Reenie is ‘off-limits,’ despite her earlier claims that there was nothing between them. Getting back to the case, Russell reveals that he was able to lift the official autopsy report before they were carted out of the morgue. This not only leads to the location where the body was discovered, but it suggests that the fingers were removed before death.
The site of the body dump appears to be pretty ‘out in the open’ which Russell contributes to sloppy work. When Colter accuses Russell of not being open with him, Russell tells him about Doug’s superstitious nature and belief in ‘blood magic.’ Their continued canvassing of the dump site leads them to a nearby tattoo shop with the same astrological design from the box sent to Tracy. Inside they meet and question the clerk (Nathan Dashwood) who appears all too eager to help them. His eagerness is soon revealed when escorts them into an ambush, under the guise of offering a protection spell. It doesn’t take the brother long to turn the tables on their attackers and question them. As it turns out, Glenn (Benjamin Rogers) is rather talkative and admits that Doug came in for a protection spell for Tracy, hence the finger. It is also revealed that Len overdosed. As for the man that Doug was afraid of, it takes some convincing but Russell persuades the answer out of him, Carlos Solano.
Outside, Russell tells Colter about a Panamanian businessman, Moy Solano, whom he and Doug were hired to eliminate through the Horizon Group. Russell claims he watched Moy die with his own eyes and everything went according to plan until exfiltration. Russell had left something back at their camp that could identify him, leading Doug to return to the camp while Russell proceeded with evacuating. Although Doug escaped, Moy’s men got a photo of him. Colter doesn’t get to probe further at the moment thanks to a call from Reenie who shares what she’s learned about the Horizon Group. After learning that the group is just as shady as they are dangerous, Colter gets Russell to reluctantly agree to arrange a meeting with his handler (Catherine Lough Haggquist).
Once again it takes some persuasion but Colter gets Russell’s handler to provide an address to a safe house outside of Richmond where Doug might have gone. Before leaving they also learn that Horizon was brought in to eliminate Moy because he was planning a coup. Sometime later at the safe house, they not only discover a body but evidence that Doug was there and watching Moy’s brother, Carlos.
When Colter realizes they are in way over their heads, he suggests calling the police. There is some subsequent back and forth but Russell convinces him otherwise. While still at the safe house, Colter discovers a peephole camera and sends the footage to Bobby, who pulls a partial plate from two enforcers (Marcel Zade/Sebastian Cordoba) who kidnapped Doug. While waiting for the footage, Russell reveals that Doug went back after a knife that their father had constantly made him carry during his childhood. The knife is carved with Russell’s name, which would have been a dead giveaway.
The partial plate turns out to be just enough for Reenie’s FBI contact to trace it back to a van take leads to an LLC that eventually links back to Carlos. Against her better judgment, she later meets with Colter and Russell to deliver the news as well as a file on Carlos. This ultimately leads them to an address in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Upon their arrival at the house, it doesn’t take the brother long to make quick work of the security and locate Doug. Despite the ease with which they dispatch the guards, Russell does get a through-and-through arm wound. After getting Doug safely to the vehicle, Colter cleans and bandages the wound for Russell. This is when Russell asks Colter to take Doug home so he can deal with Solano. After some slight hesitation, Colter agrees. Colter does later return to the motel, only to discover that Russell has gone but left behind a package.
The episode ends with Colter finding a roll of money and Russell’s pocket knife in the package.
Tracker Review
The episode was easily one of the best of the series thus far, but for some reason, it didn’t feel as if it was as good as it should have been. Both Hartley and Ackles did a great job and share an unmatchable onscreen charisma. It’s easy to see that the two are more than comfortable together. The case was fair intriguing, but nothing was revealed about the main plot that wasn’t suspected or already mentioned. Despite this and the overly dark action scenes, I’d still give the episode a 5.6 out of 10.
The thing that interests me most is that this episode wasn’t the finale. What could this possibly mean? I can’t wait to find out!
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