After Jensen Ackles’ Russell Shaw returned in this week’s episode of Tracker titled “Ontological Shock,” the show will welcome another guest star from the first season. Sofia Pernas will return as Bille Matalon, a professional rival of Colter’s Shaw. Billie will appear in Tracker Season 2, Episode 3, “Bloodlines,” as the pair team up to solve a case. “Colter and Billie Matalon, a prizefighter, team up to find a missing high school baseball star,” according to the official synopsis. Justin Hartley, who plays the series’ main character Colter Shaw, and Pernas have both teased Billie’s return. “We’re going to get a little glimpse into her backstory,” Pernas told TV Line about the upcoming episode. “I feel like we shared bread in 106, and she’s comfortable in 203”—comfortable sharing more about herself with Colter, who she hasn’t necessarily trusted with sensitive information before. “That ice-breaking moment [on the phone in Season 1, Episode 6] gave her a certain comfort in being able to say, ‘I need help,’ and she asked him for help in the third episode.” No one understands family trauma like Colter Shaw, and Hartley teases that Billie and Colter have that in common. “Of course, he’s skeptical,” Hartley points out. But this time, Billie’s plea is “reasonable.” Along the way, “you learn a lot about her, about her childhood, and it gets pretty intense. It’s a very sad story, but it’s also a story of triumph and perseverance.” “You get a sense of why she is who she is, in a lot of ways, and that comes from her mother,” Pernas added.
Despite helping to bring closure or solve mysteries for others in need, Colter’s family mystery remains something he can’t solve. While Russell chooses to ignore it as outlined in this week’s episode, the couple’s older sister, Dory (Melissa Roxburgh), despite knowing more than the rest, seems content to let sleeping dogs rest. Colter’s family tragedy is something he doesn’t often share with others. Next week’s episode will see Billie Matalon share some of her deepest secrets with Colter.
“In my mind, she’s buried this really deep, and she makes a living off of this wall that she’s built. I don’t think this is something she’d just tell someone over coffee, so I wanted it to be more than that.”
Tracker has potential. There’s plenty of room for potential spinoffs, perhaps with Ackles’ Russell Shaw as a private military contractor, Fiona Rene’s Reenie running her own private company, or even Billie showing off her skills as a reward agent. There are a number of ways the Tracker universe could expand. However, showrunner Elwood Reid has made it clear that such plans don’t exist… right now: “It’s funny because all my friends are saying, ‘You’ve got to start thinking about splitting it off.’ It’s very difficult. I’ve seen that with shows, when they split it off too early, both shows have problems. The show is so special with Justin [at the center], so it’s really important that we continue to expand the world, expand the cases, and [expand] what Tracker can do.”
