The Tracker finale revealed who was involved in Colter’s dad’s death, but what does this mean for season 3 — and what other surprises should viewers expect?
During the season 2 finale on Sunday, May 11, Colter (Justin Hartley) connected his father’s mysterious death to a case he was working on in his hometown. Colter ended up meeting his dad’s former friend, who confirmed he pushed Ashton to his death — after Colter’s mother Mary (Wendy Crewson) seemingly asked for help.
“That story will be far more complicated than you’re led to believe at the end of the season,” executive producer Elwood Reid exclusively told Us Weekly. “His brother Russell [Jensen Ackles] has some of the answers to that question. His sister Dory [Melissa Roxburgh] might have some pieces of that. His childhood friend Lizzy [Jennifer Morrison] might have some pieces of that too.”
The revelation will continue to affect Colter moving forward.
“Going way back to the genesis of the show — and it’s even in the book — is that Colter’s childhood was not what you would call a rosy childhood. He’s got a lot of questions and mysteries surrounding his childhood. For a guy each week that goes out and solves things, he’s someone who hasn’t been able to answer questions about his own life,” Reid continued. “I don’t think anyone thought necessarily that anything having to do with his family and the death of his father would be anything but pretty complicated and dark.”
Reid added: “We’ll pick up that element not as a whole season. But we will be able to see Colter struggle with learning the truth about what happened with his mother and his father and the rest of his family. His siblings have other pieces of that truth. That’s what’s interesting about the show is we’re able to mix the light in the dark all the time.”
Keep scrolling for answers to the biggest questions ahead of season 3:
Did Colter’s Mother Actually Have Her Husband Killed?
“Those are all things that are going to come back as the season goes on and there’s going to be a much larger arc that will touch on all of that within a current case,” Reid hinted. “The bigger mystery — which isn’t answered in that final scene — is when Colter finds his father’s stuff and he finds that little phone number. The question becomes, ‘What was his father involved in that caused this crisis in his family?'”
Will ‘Tracker’ Keep the Darker Tone in Season 3?
In comparison to the show’s premiere, season 2 had much darker cases, which aren’t going away any time soon.
“We were in the writers’ room talking about the season 2 finale and we needed a case that tonally would fit and dove into this dark thing that happens with Colter’s family. It was interesting the way we figured it out but I think that’s what works with the show is Colter is a guy who’s always trying to figure out what happened and has questions,” Reid shared. “He’s a guy who in the case of the week seems very sure of himself. He’s very confident and he knows what he’s doing. But when it comes to this thing with his mother and his brother and his sister and his father, he doesn’t know. We get to see glimpses of that.”
Reid continued: “Justin is very good at keeping the exterior up. So when you do see it as an audience, it feels earned. One thing that Justin and I talk a lot about is he never wants it to feel cheap or easy. What we end up doing is just taking words away and giving him more to play. That’s been the real fun balancing act of the show.”
Since Tracker premiered in February 2024, viewers have been tuning in to see Colter travel the country to help solve various missing persons cases with help from his team: handler Velma (Abby McEnany), hacker Bobby (Eric Graise) and attorney Reenie (Fiona Rene).
“There’s going to be an attempt to build out the rest of the characters — particularly what’s happening with Reenie and where we left her off and what her life is looking like,” Reid teased. “The show always comes back to that. What makes the show work in my opinion is Colter is a guy that comes in and says, ‘I can help you.’ It works every time.”
The key to Tracker‘s success is investing in the emotional aspects.
“Finding cases that have those interesting emotional twists and turns are really good for the character of Colter,” Reid explained. “We don’t always get there. We get to see a different side of Colter in every episode — depending on how he’s been challenged.”
Are Any Cases or Topics Off the Table?
“There have been but they’re always for reasons where it is because they’re hard stories to crack. But because of subject matter? No,” Reid revealed. “The show is all of those things and it is what CBS has really allowed us to do, which is bring in all those elements that the show isn’t just one thing. It’s a little bit messy and it’s fun.”
Tracker is all about not being predictable.
“If you think about the show, you don’t know where he’s going week to week. You don’t know what story he’s going into,” Reid added. “Personally, I would get bored if I just know every week that I’m going to be in the courtroom and there’s going to be a guy who did or didn’t do it. That’s what makes the show fun. You don’t know where you’re going and you don’t know what kind of case you’re getting into.”
Could Colter Die in a Future Season?
After Hartley recently teased that the titular character could die, Reid elaborated on the vision for the show.
“There’s the physical element of it. But then there’s also — which I think we’ve seen a few times during the season — there’s the emotional thing that gets to him. I continue to remind ourselves — the writers — that he’s human, he can die and he can get hurt,” he shared. “Justin is always pitching that we see an episode where Colter is almost dead in the middle of the show and we go back. He’s got all kinds of crazy ideas but I think that’s what makes the show fun. The minute he becomes like Superman, he is out. That’s not what Justin wants to play — and I don’t think that that’s what the character is.”
“One of the challenges in season 3 is going to be reconfiguring the team and figuring out what that team looks like,” Reid told Us, adding that his goal is to make sure Tracker doesn’t “fall into complacency” over time.
“I don’t want the show to be ‘phone a friend’ every week. I think that gets old and Justin is always challenging me on that,” he added. “He’s like, ‘Do we need to do this? Do I need to call Bobby all the time? Can I do this?'”
Despite the potential changes, Reid clarified it wouldn’t be a “revolving door” of team members.
“I do think it’s evolving. If I can’t evolve those characters — Randy or Reenie or Bobby — they’re not just people that just pick up the phone and go, ‘OK, here is the answer.’ That’s when the show is phoning it in,” he explained. “The challenge is when you got to learn about them, which I thought was interesting. That’s the challenge of the show is not having it fall into a formula.”
Reid also pointed out that Tracker has “no rules” to follow.
“With those dynamics — and in playing with this team dynamics — that’s all stuff we’re going to continue to play with in season 3 as the show evolves,” he teased. “We’re going to bring back some characters from seasons 1 and 2 — we’re going to see them more and more. There’s been some fun characters that I think are fun to see in Colter’s world [season to season].”
What Is the Spinoff Plan?
Just like Us, the Tracker creative team sees the potential for more shows within the franchise.
“There’s been a lot of shows that spin off incorrectly. The same level of care and craftsmanship that you see in Tracker has to be considered. My first rule of writing any show is, ‘Don’t do any harm to the main show. Don’t siphon something off.’ But at the same time, you have to make whatever you’re doing as good and as thoughtful,” Reid hinted. “Tracker is just one of those weird magic shows that came together. It resonated with people because there’s an emotional accessibility to that. You need that for any spinoff you do. You need someone who’s emotionally there and available. The stories can be surprising and fun.”
The Tracker writers aren’t ruling out adding another show.
“If the right idea comes by, we’ve had some loose ideas for spinoffs,” he added. “If and when we are lucky enough to be able to do that, we have to do it in a way that is as good — if not better — than the original.”
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