Lexington – Episode 6 begins with what appears to be a horse heist. The following morning, Colter Shaw’s (Justin Hartley) arrival at the ranch and meeting with owner Hugh Lazlo (Peter Oldring) confirms the break-in and theft of prized stud, Argo. Colter’s concerns about the exceedingly high reward ($250,000) lead to the discovery that Argo is scheduled for a Kentucky Derby qualifying race in three days. Before providing Colter with a detailed report of the theft, Hugh spends several minutes explaining how Argo’s placing in the Derby, let alone winning it, would set him up for life with 5-figure stud contract fees.

A glance at the report tells Colter that the job was professional. In addition, he learns that ownership of Argo is split between 4 primary investors, but it is Hugh and Tina Lazlo (Michelle Morgan) who handle the day-to-day care and maintenance for the stud. The mention of Tina leads Hugh to share his and Tina’s divorce as well as his suspicion that she might be involved. It isn’t just that Argo’s pedigree papers were taken from the safe, but the absence of Argo puts Tina’s new boyfriend’s, Redford James (Kevin Mundy), horse as the betting favorite in the Derby.

Colter is nearly stopped in his tracks when he finds Billie Matalon (Sofia Pernas) waiting to speak with Hugh. He is apprehensive to share what he learned from his meeting, but as she points out, she’ll hear about it anyway. In turn, she shares a bit of what she knows and it appears that she has been busy. After a bit of back-and-forth bantering, Billie attempts to turn the job into a bit of a competition.

Despite claiming otherwise, Colter appears a bit shaken by Billie’s presence as he discusses his findings with Teddi (Robin Weigert) and Velma Bruin (Abby McEnany). After assigning them the task of looking into Redford’s background, Colter learns that he’s hosting his annual black tie event, the Lexington Gala, tonight.

Later that evening, Colter doesn’t waste any time introducing himself to Tina and Redford. Tina not only knows all about Colter but appears affronted about being labeled a suspect. Although it appears to take some restraint, she calmly explains how the last few years of her life have been dedicated to Argo. Their discussion eventually leads to Colter meeting the other two owners, Kenji Tomine (Jeremiah Oh) and Stuart Tyler (Peter New). Kenji appears to want it known that he is not only the majority owner of Argo, but he’s footing the biggest portion of the $250,000 reward.

When Argo’s owners are whisked away by a reporter with questions about the Derby, Colter uses the opportunity to snoop around the upstairs. He quickly finds what appears to be a home office which also leads him to the discovery of a wall safe. It is about this time that Billie makes her presence known by teasing him for failing to clear the room before his search. His defense is that he didn’t need to thanks to her very aromatic perfume. Despite their constant bickering, it appears they can work effectively as a team. This is until Billie mentions a MacPherson job in Miami. Neither of them goes into great detail about the case, but it’s apparent that they’re both still sore over whatever happened. After failing to find any evidence in the safe, the unexpected arrival of a guard (Daryl Ducharme) forces them to put their differences aside.

Returning to the party, Billie proposes a partnership. When Colter later conveys the offer to Teddi and Velma they not only immediately turn it down, but they mention Billie screwing them out of the reward money on the MacPherson.

Billie doesn’t appear all that surprised and even smug when Colter shows up at her hotel room the following morning. He immediately makes it known that he hasn’t agreed to anything yet, but proceeds to test her loyalty by requesting her to share something about the case that he doesn’t know. She shares her suspicions about Redford being innocent because he previously turned down an opportunity to invest in Argo. Colter has already deduced that Redford was innocent last night at the party when he found betting slips, indicating that Redford had bet on Argo to win the Kentucky Derby before the horse went missing. Much to her surprise, he asks her to accompany him to the crime scene.

As they canvass the crime scene, it only becomes more apparent that they have very little to go. Their biggest clue turns out to be the CCTV footage from the stable door and both exits off the property. The only problem is the stable camera was blacked out with spray paint while the exit cameras captured nothing useful. This ultimately leads to them visiting the exits in person, which initially only makes matters worse because of the wild assortment of tire prints. Although there are plenty to follow, there doesn’t appear to be any rhyme or reason to them. After some deducing, Colter realizes that Argo was ridden away rather than being put in a trailer and driven off.

When Colter and Billie visit Hugh at the stables with their discovery, they also meet Dr. Glenn (Joe Costa). Before they do, Hugh tells them that Argo has an aggressive nature and is only comfortable with a few select riders. Tina was one of those people but she was with him when the alarms went off. Colter and Billie later question the doctor to find out more about the short list of potential riders. This puts them on the trail of a former Jockey now residing in Florida and former trainer, Dan Flynn.

Colter’s next call goes to Bobby Exley (Eric Graise). After a bit of good-spirited teasing for working with Billie, he not only gives them the details of Dan’s long and troubled past but he provides the location of his cell phone signal. It doesn’t take them long to find Dan’s corpse when they arrive. It’s later revealed that he sustained two gunshot wounds on the night Argo went missing. That along with the muddy riding gear leads Colter to suspect that Dan stole and murdered during the handoff.

With the cops on the scene, Colter enlists the help of Billie to distract Officer Tomerlin (Shawn Youngchief) so he can check out the rear of the property, which leads to him finding a syringe of horse tranquilizer. Colter decides to question Hugh and leave Glenn to Billie.

Colter decides to approach Hugh with the accusation that he shot Dan while Billie applies an entirely different approach. Colter’s tactics lead him to not only learn that Hugh fired Dan for drinking but he later tried to pay for his rehab. Hugh also shares a recent sighting of Argo that came in on the tip line. Billie lures Glenn out of his office with claims that she spotted several kids messing with his truck. She uses the opportunity to dig into Argo’s medical files, which leads to the shocking discovery that Argo is rife with injuries and infertile.

After swapping information with Billie, Colter phones Bobby to request information about the address where Argo was spotted. It doesn’t take Colter and Billie long to realize that the sighting was staged once the barn goes up in flames. Much to Colter’s surprise, Billie sacrifices burning her hand to help him escape.

Colter later thanks Billie for saving him while wrapping the wound. This would have led to them kissing if Bobby’s call with Colter’s earlier request didn’t interrupt them. It turns out that Stuart Tyler not only owns the barn they just nearly died in but he recently used an LLC to purchase another piece of pasture. The address leads them to Argo. Colter goes to get him while Billie stays with the vehicle. Much to his surprise, when he returns with Argo, Stuart has Billie held hostage. Despite her hands being tied behind her back, Billie uses some clever heckling to distract and attack Stuart, allowing Colter to intervene.

Colter returns Argo to Tina and Hugh while Billie meets with the FBI. Although Colter collects a check for the reward, his subsequent conversation with Billie reveals that all Argo-related assets will be frozen for the duration of the investigation. The episode ends with Colter agreeing to the dinner Billie offered earlier in the episode. Much to his surprise, she takes a rain check.

 

Tracker Review

I don’t know if it was the oversaturated Kentucky Derby theme but I didn’t enjoy this episode as much as the others. The episode wasn’t entirely horrible and it appears the creators tried a different approach. The problem is, the Kentucky Derby/Stud/steroid theme has been done so many times with series like these that It’s nearly impossible to come up with something entirely unique.

It was a good episode to introduce Billie, but even that didn’t feel as enjoyable as it should have been. I did appreciate how the writers chose to trickle more and more information about the Miami case as the main story developed. That said, it still felt like there were some intentional gaps left to fill in. All said and done, not a horrible episode but certainly not one of the more scenic or interesting.

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