The ‘Tracker’ Team Talks Jensen Ackles’ Season 2 Return—What Will Colter Learn From Russell?
At least things shouldn’t be so tense between the Shaw brothers when Colter (Justin Hartley) meets Russell (Jensen Ackles) in Tracker Season 2… at least not at first. After all, we don’t know what will lead up to Russell’s return in Episode 2, nor do we know how the brothers will leave things at the end of the episode. But we do have some teases of what to expect, thanks to the stars and executive producers chatting with TV Insider at the Television Critics Association summer press tour.
As the beginning of Tracker Season 1 showed, Colter thinks Russell had something to do with their father’s death when they were kids. Colter doesn’t answer his phone, their sister Dory (Melissa Roxburgh) tries to get them to talk, and then Russell misses a scheduled meeting. But then in the penultimate episode of Season 1, the brothers reconnect when Russell needs Colter’s skills, and in doing so, they talk about what drove them apart. Russell insists he had nothing to do with their father’s death, and while he doesn’t know if he fell or was pushed, there was someone else in the woods that night.
Furthermore, Russell reveals that their mother has a secret too—he saw the man he saw in the woods the night before, talked to her, and she told him it was best for him to leave and keep quiet about what happened after their father’s death. The brothers parted ways on more amicable terms—though not quite goodbye, as Russell left him only his cash and his knife—and the season clearly opened the door for both Ackles and Roxburgh to return.
“They’ll come in and out of the show,” executive producer Elwood Reid told TV Insider. “If we can drop a few bombs in Colter’s life with those characters and then see how he struggles with them, then we’ll have them come back to sort of resolve the issue—because, I mean, the evidence we have on the show right now is that his sister definitely has a point of view about what he should do, which is forget about it and leave it at that. And then you look at Jensen’s Russell, he seems to have put it all in a box in a way and just deal with it. But you know in Episode 2, he has very different memories of something that happened in their past that Colter doesn’t remember at all.”
Hartley agrees that there’s more story to tell with the brothers, especially after Colter learns that Russell wasn’t involved in their father’s death, “at least not in the capacity that Colter thinks he was. So there’s more story to tell there. Jensen is coming back, which is great. Can’t wait to see him. We always have so much fun together. He’s a crazy actor and super talented. So we’re so lucky to have him. And I love Melissa as a person. She’s a dear friend, and so I think there’s more story to tell there, so it’s great to have her back.
In the Season 1 episode of Ackles, we also see some great interactions between Reenie (Fiona Rene) and Russell; He’s very impressed, and Colter makes it clear that she’s not allowed to.
“I think she wants to have a little fun, especially because Colter has pissed her off so much,” Rene said. “Russell is a great opportunity to get a little revenge, but at the same time, we don’t want to use anyone, right? So I think she’s going to have a little fun. And I noticed that in Episode 12 when Russell comes in, even though he’s very direct with her and she’s like, backing off, I think there are moments where she’s rethinking some of her thoughts. So we’ll see if there’s maybe more of that in Season 2. I don’t know.”
What do you hope to see when Jensen Ackles returns as Russell in Season 2? What do you think he knows that Colter doesn’t? Let us know in the comments below.
