Warning! Tracker Season 2 Episode 2 spoilers. A new character is introduced in Tracker Season 2 Episode 2, which has significant consequences for the Russell Shaw exoneration storyline. In the penultimate episode of Tracker Season 1, Jensen Ackles makes his debut as Shaw’s brother. When Russell appeared in Tracker, little was known about the character other than that Colter Shaw (Justin Hartley) believed that Russell killed their father. However, Ackles retold the story from Russell’s perspective. What Russell said to Colter in Tracker Season 1 began to clear him of his father’s murder, and Season 2 continues this trend.
Russell is a good theoretical choice for who killed Colter’s father in Tracker, as Colter saw him standing on top of a cliff with a dead Ashton below. However, Russell did tell Colter that there was someone else in the woods the night their father died. While Colter never officially confirmed his change of heart, he seemed to believe his brother’s side of the story. Ackles eventually returned to the role of Russell in Tracker season 2, and the brothers discovered a connection that would prove Russell was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time the night their father died.
In season 2, episode 2, Tracker established a connection between Lee Tergesen’s Ashton Shaw and the Department of Defense. Colter investigates a top-secret government site while searching for a missing person for evidence of aliens and UAPs. While Colter is at the mysterious DOD site, his phone loses connection and begins flashing strange patterns, and suddenly, a loud ringing sound knocks him unconscious. Colter’s team assumes he’s missing when he doesn’t answer their calls and recruits Russell to find his brother. Thankfully, Russell quickly finds Colter thanks to his military connections.
Tracker season 2 airs on CBS Sundays at 8 p.m. ET.
After discovering the bounty trespasser, an unnamed man has Colter trapped at the DOD site in a concrete room. It’s unclear when Colter might leave. That’s when Russell shows up at the perfect moment. Russell frees Colter, who escapes with his brother and the missing person he’s looking for. While the DOD site has an odd connection to aliens, it’s even stranger that the DOD agent knows Colter’s father, mentioning it to Russell in a brief conversation. This implies that Ashton has a connection to the DOD, which correlates with Colter’s intelligence that his father works for the government.
Ashton’s connection to the Department of Defense suggests he has top-secret connections, which could give others the motivation to kill him. This theory seems especially likely given the comments made by the DOD agent, including his reference to the Shaws having a history of obstructing the government. This joke suggests that the government feels contempt for Ashton. Tracker season 2 thus introduces a group of people with a much greater motive for eliminating Ashton than his son, who likely just got caught up in the events of that night in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Ashton [Shaw] gradually rose to the top of a government project that was redacted as he rose through the ranks of a professorship at Berkeley.
Any information the unnamed man had about the Shaw patriarch could help clear Russell’s name, proving the nature of his father’s murder. This development fits with Ashton’s claim at the time of his death that someone wanted to assassinate him. While Colter always understood his father’s reaction to be paranoid, it’s possible that Ashton was irrationally worried that someone from the government was trying to get rid of him and keep him from sharing what he knew.
Ashton’s connection to the DOD could begin to shed light on what was in the box of files that Lizzy Hawking (Jennifer Morrison) gave Colter in the Tracker season 1 finale. Colter mentioned the files when Russell was talking about Ashton’s connection to the DOD. He revealed to Ackles’ character that Lizzy gave the files to Dory (Melissa Roxburgh). Russell suggested that the box of files might be old, but Colter had other evidence to prove otherwise. The unnamed man in episode 2 of Tracker season 2 proved that Ashton’s relationship with the government was legitimate and that he was once a problem for the government.
