Justin Hartley and Sofia Pernas’ Chemistry Is Beyond Expectations on ‘Tracker’ Season 2 Reunion
The chemistry between Justin Hartley and Sofia Pernas reached an all-time high as the pair reunited for season 2 of Tracker.
In the show’s latest episode, airing Sunday, October 27, Colter (Hartley) teams up with his ex Billie (Pernas) as she tries to solve a case in her hometown. As a result, Colter learns more about Billie — including why she’s running away from her past.
“My mother raised me and my sister on her own. To make ends meet, she became a con artist. Sometimes she used us to distract a clerk when she was shoplifting, and she even made us shake donation cans at Christmas,” Billie revealed after she and Colter found a missing high school baseball star. “But she grew up to get a job at City Hall. She was a bookkeeper and embezzled nearly half a million dollars from the treasury. The town couldn’t pay salaries and pensions that year, and people were talking. My family’s name was ruined.” Colter tried to comfort Billie, saying, “You’re a kid, it’s not your fault.” According to Billie, she’s still being punished for her mother’s actions.
“They have a great scene where she really opens up to him,” Hartley, 47, told TVLine in a joint interview with Pernas, 35, about the pivotal scene before it aired on screen. “The way you acted it was great. Your acting showed that you’ve never shared [this information] with anyone, ever.”
Colter’s undeniable connection to Billie has been explored on the show since season 1. According to Hartley, they always planned to have Pernas in a major role.
“I just thought it would be a really cool idea. It was my idea from the beginning to have this character appear that you just mentioned,” Hartley explained to Deadline in May. “I think in the second episode, there’s a big prize for a car. There’s a line where one of the women says, ‘Word on the street is Billie’s working on the case.’ And then Coulter rolled his eyes. If you were really paying attention, you’d think, ‘Oh, he’s got a rival, this Billie guy.'” Hartley, who is also an executive producer on the show, recalled laying the groundwork for Pernas’ character before she appeared, adding, “My idea was to tease that and intentionally name the character Billie, and then reveal that Billie, of course, is Sofia.”
He continued, “We didn’t tease that as much as I wanted to, just because we were so pressed for time. But that was the intention. Then when she showed up, honestly, I’m not sure how much of the character aspect that she brought was actually written.”
