‘Tracker’: Justin Hartley Talks Major Finale Twist & Who’s Returning in Season 2
Just when Colter Shaw (Justin Hartley) thinks that he may know what led to his father’s death years ago, something comes up to change everything.
The Tracker Season 1 finale sees him help an old friend, Lizzy (Jennifer Morrison, in a This Is Us reunion), find her missing daughter. Then, she reveals that her mother and his father had an affair. After her mother’s death, Lizzy found a file box with research papers and journals she realized belonged to his father (a memory surfaced of a visit she witnessed as a kid). Lizzy told Colter’s sister, Dory (Melissa Roxburgh), about it, and she had her send it to her. But Dory didn’t mention that when he saw her recently…
Below, Hartley breaks down the Shaw family drama and mysteries, reveals who will be back in Season 2, and much more.This has been quite the rollercoaster of a season when it comes to Colter’s family, and he still doesn’t seem to have any answers. Instead, there have just been reveals like the government work, now the affair to lead into Season 2.
I think it’s very, very cool that this guy who has all the answers, Colter Shaw, who figures everything out and has his world figured out and it’s very simple, thought something and is now realizing that it’s completely different than what he thought. I love the idea of a twist. There is a huge twist because now it’s like, wait a minute, someone else has a motive now. The person out there who killed my father is still out there, maybe. I don’t know if this man’s still alive or whatever. Russell [Jensen Ackles] said there was another man out there and now I find out about an affair and I’m like, wait a minute, that looks like very strong motive. I love the mystery of it.
There’s all the government work, too, and all of these things when you’re like, “Oh, my dad’s nuts. He’s going paranoid, the government’s after him, people are going to kill us.” And now the more Colter’s finding out about this stuff, he’s like, “Wait a minute, was this lunatic actually onto something? Let’s revisit this.” And why are people hiding all this stuff from him? It’s just a lot of mystery and I love the way that our writers wrapped up Season 1 and answered a lot of questions and you feel really satisfied when you watch the episode—at least I did, and I hope everyone else does. But at the same time, it certainly does lead to a holy hell for Season 2. I love that, too, the lead-in for Season 2 and the big cliffhanger.
At this point, does Colter perhaps trust Russell the most out of any of his family members? Not that he trusts him completely, but it seems like Russell is maybe being the most honest with him.
It seems that way. Isn’t that strange how that got turned on its head? He’s not spilling all the beans. I also suspect that there are things that he’s withholding as well and there’s a reason for that as well. As far as Colter’s concerned, I don’t think Colter’s like, “I can trust my brother 100 percent.” I think if he is the percentage guy, the percentages that he thought he could trust all of those people in his family went way down after this season finale. I think Russell’s went way up and then it ticked down a little bit because of everything that he found out. But yeah, he certainly had an idea about what his life was and the circumstances behind his father’s death. It really seems to be all signs point to he was wrong about it, so we’ll see.
Lizzy suggests that Colter talk to his mom, but he says no. Does he want to have more information before talking to her or is he just not ready to do so?
No, I think he needs more information before he talks to her because he certainly doesn’t trust her. And imagine going from thinking that your brother killed your father to now thinking that your mother had something to do with his death. That’s kind of bizarre as well. So yeah, there’s a lot going on there. I think he just has to get his brain wrapped around all this stuff before he opens his mouth. That’s probably what he is thinking. I’m rubbing my head as I’m thinking about it. I would want more information before I spoke to that person.
Do you know of any plans yet to see Russell and Dory again in Season 2?
Yeah, we have plans to—here are our grand plans. We hope to bring both of them back. We hope to bring Jennifer Morrison back because I think she has more story to tell. We hope to bring Sofia Pernas back, my wife. I know a guy who could talk to her who could get her back. I think we’ll be able to do that hopefully. I think all of those characters have a lot more story to tell and more information that can lead to more answers for Colter.
And I love a job-of-the-week show. I love the procedural aspect of the show, but I think it’s so rich when you bring those characters’ backstories in and you sprinkle ’em in here and there sometimes a little bit more, sometimes a little bit less. Sometimes the case even leads to Colter’s backstory.
