What started as a harmless prank last season has gotten a little more serious with the return of Russell Shaw (Jensen Ackles) in Tracker Season 2. Last season, Russell flirted playfully with his crush Reenie Green (Fiona Rene), which made Colter (Justin Hartley) a little defensive. But this season, Russell took it a step further by tricking Reenie into going on a date so he could help rescue Colter in the second episode, “Ontological Shock.” The thing is, Colter doesn’t seem to mind as much as we think he does, but why would he?
Network television is often known for its soap operas—just ask Tracker’s Friday night neighbor Fire Country—but part of what sets Colter Shaw apart is that he focuses almost entirely on work. The show doesn’t have much room for relationship drama, and maybe that’s by design. Still, we can’t help but feel like Tracker is actively keeping Colter and Reenie at a distance at this point, especially after how close the pair became last season. When the show first started, it seemed like Reenie was just a recurring player, someone who occasionally showed up to help Colter, but as the show progressed, it became increasingly clear that this wasn’t the case at all. Reenie is here to stay, and we couldn’t be happier.
Season 1 may not have given us a kiss or a confession, but the chemistry between Colter and Reenie was palpable, and the more she ran into a fire to save Colter’s life, the more obvious her love for him became. At this point, it was all just subtext, and that was perfectly fine, but with Russell returning in Season 2 (now dating Reenie as a bonus), it seems like the show wants to go in a different direction. The early season reveal of newcomer Camille Picket (Floriana Lima), Colter’s on-and-off lover of a decade, is especially telling of how far the show is hoping to pivot these two apart. Coupled with the fact that Colter and Reenie have yet to share a scene this season (as Reenie has been busy opening her new clinic in Colorado), it’s starting to feel like a network conspiracy.
Things are about to get even more interesting for Colter, as Justin Hartley’s real-life wife, Sofia Pernas, will be back as co-star of the Billie Matalon Award in the next episode! Could it be any clearer that someone behind the scenes doesn’t want Colter to have a happy, healthy, long-term relationship with Reenie Green? The thing is, it’s possible that the show’s star is the one ordering this, which seems especially fitting for a show about a lone wolf like Colter Shaw.
According to Justin Hartley, he’s decided to keep Colter relatively single throughout Tracker’s run so far. “The fact that Colter doesn’t have a girlfriend, I think that’s one of the things I wanted to keep,” the actor explained to People magazine earlier this year. “I feel like if he has a wife and a girlfriend and a family, and he continues to do all these dangerous things, it’s kind of selfish.” Hartley doubled down on his answer at San Diego Comic-Con 2024’2 when a fan asked him about Colter’s feelings for Reenie. “I think all the things about him being heroic and brave come off as reckless and selfish.” How much of that is true is up for debate, but we can see why the actor feels that way about people who choose the path of heroism. Before his role on Tracker, and even before he became a hot commodity after This Is Us, the actor first became infamous for playing Oliver Queen, aka Green Arrow, on Smallville. Though Oliver eventually settled down by the end of the series, one of the show’s most notable episodes (Season 6’s “Justice”) saw Oliver choose his duty as a superhero over his relationship with Lois Lane (Erica Durance). It was an impossible choice, but one he was forced to make for the sake of the people he was sworn to protect, including Lois herself. It’s entirely possible that Hartley absorbed some of his Smallville character’s decisions and brought them with him to Tracker; there are certainly other similarities between Colter Shaw and Oliver Queen. Either way, fans are hopeful that Colter and Reenie will be able to make things official at some point. Until then, we can only watch the pair continue to work together as friends and allies.
