Ontological Shock – Episode 2 begins with a man, Scott Palmer (Steven Culp) breaking into a secret DOD Lab and documenting its existence. It isn’t long before he’s besieged by a blinding white light and the footage abruptly cuts to Colter Shaw (Justin Hartley) arriving at Scott’s house in Ironwood, Pennsylvania to meet his daughter, Patti Palmer (Brooke Nevin). She briefly updates Colter on Scott’s disappearance and does a good job of making father sound like a conspiracy nut, but given Colter’s past, he is more than willing to take the case. This is, of course, after he gets all the truth from her.
Colter immediately updates Velma Bruin (Abby McEnany) after leaving the Palmer house and mentions having looped in both Reenie Greene (Fiona Rene) and Bobby Exley (Eric Graise) on the case. After their very brief conversation, Reenie is shown cutting a deal with a Lawyer (Jason McKinnon) on another case. Colter’s incessant calls do not go unnoticed by Reenie or the other attorney. Despite Reenie’s frustration with Colter’s unrelenting calls, she quickly updates him with her findings on the Restraining Order against Scott and sends him the call logs.
After briefly checking the logs, Colter realizes that some were nearly 10 minutes or longer, suggesting that Scott wasn’t just harassing Doctor Iris Blair (April Parker Jones). His later visit with her will confirm as much and Iris admits Scott had some intriguing theories about UAPs (Unidentified Anomalies Phenomenon/UFOs). Colter also notices and calls Iris out on her edgy behavior, which only leads to her rushing off to work. Colter’s ensuing conversation with Bobby will turn his attention elsewhere for the moment and send him to Scott’s last known location, the DOD Site from the opening. After briefly discussing UFOs, Colter tasks Bobby with digging into Iris while he visits the site.
By the time Colter speaks with Bobby again, he’s managed to locate Scott’s hidden car and Bobby has learned that Iris was part of a group of scientists researching UFOs. Their conversation becomes garbled and 12 hours later, Reenie is ready to drop everything and rush off to Pennsylvania. Velma has already dispatched a deputy to his last known location but that apparently turned up nothing. Bobby and Velma manage to calm Reenie enough to get her to reconsider her trip but she does have what she refers to as a Plan B.
Although Colter is under lock and key at the DOD Site, his guard (Matt Passmore) is pleasant enough and claims that Colter’s captivity is for his own good. Whether or not he can be believed, the mysterious guard is surprisingly forthcoming and even admits to knowing Scott, although he does warn Colter against trying to escape. Colter will do just that once the man is gone and the DOD people apparently didn’t anticipate Reenie’s Plan B, Russell Shaw (Jensen Ackles).
After receiving a call from Patti with news that a dark SUV is now sitting outside Scott’s house, Colter realizes his and Russell’s escape was too easy. Although Russell initially claims that he just made it look easy, he eventually pulls over and discovers that Colter has been tagged with a GPS.
Now that things have rapidly progressed, Iris is much more forthcoming about her involvement with Scott and UAP research. As it turns out, she and several other scholars were working with Scott to decode a transmission they received from the DOD Site. The message that Colter received when his earlier conversation with Bobby was terminated helps fill in the blanks and points to GPS coordinates. Before dashing off in search of the coordinates, they urge Iris to get out of town. She takes the warnings seriously but isn’t quick enough to elude the mystery man who questioned Colter earlier.
By the time Iris’s body is discovered, Colter and Russell have followed the coordinates to what Russell claims is a UAP Landing Site. Using the cover of the night, they briefly make plans to split up and search. Although Russell immediately runs into problems with the mystery DOD man, his propensity for conversation eventually provides Russell with the opening he needs to turn the tables. Before knocking the man out, Russell learns that he knew his father, Ashton Shaw (Lee Tergesen).
Colter has much better luck but has a heck of a time convincing Scott to leave. His hesitancy nearly leads to them getting captured. As soon as they reach the perimeter, they are approached by a Van Driver (Charles Jarman) sent by Reenie.
After Scott is reunited with Patti, Russell drives Colter to his truck. During the trip, they will briefly discuss the DOD man mentioning their father and Dori/Dory Shaw’s (Aggie Bell/Melissa Roxburgh) box of his belongings. Nothing new is revealed about this mystery and that is practically where the episode ends.
Tracker Review
Compared to the season premiere, this episode was phenomenal. I still wouldn’t go as far as calling it groundbreaking, but with a little modification, this could have been the first opening episode. Although the UFO conspiracy and government involvement is an overplayed topic, I appreciated the way it was approached throughout the episode. They did a good job of taking it seriously and supporting theories with evidence. All that, along with a surprise visit from Jensen, and I’d have to give the episode a 5.5 out of 10. I’m also wondering if Teddi is being written out.
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