While Justin Hartley’s Colter Shaw provides answers to families in need, he struggles with his own seemingly unanswered questions gnawing at him from his past. Just like everyone who was hooked on Tracker Season 1, we’re left with a simple question. Who exactly was Colter’s late father, Ashton (Lee Tergesen)? The show’s upcoming episode will provide those answers while welcoming Manifest veteran Melissa Roxburgh as Colter’s sister, Dr. Dory Shaw. A recently released trailer lays the groundwork for some of the answers regarding the Shaw family’s many secrets.
According to TVLine, the episode introduces viewers to Colter’s sister, Dory, and unlike her brother, Dory has settled down and made a career for herself as a professor — just like her parents. The short clip shows Colter presenting Dory with some newly discovered information, stating that their father was a government contractor for seven years. Colter thinks it’s strange that their mother, Mary (Wendy Crewson), didn’t mention it to them. Dory, on the other hand, just doesn’t want to think about it and advises her brother to do the same. Knowing Colter’s Hartley, however, that seems highly unlikely.
Childhood flashbacks from previous episodes clearly show that Colter and his siblings had an unusual childhood. Living a typical suburban life at first, things would change when Ashton had an accident at work and soon moved the family to a cabin in the Sierra National Forest. Despite making the most of the situation and teaching his children survival skills, Ashton’s paranoia would overwhelm him one night as he walked into a storm, never to return.
Much like the situation with his father, there are unresolved issues in the relationship between Colter and his brother, Russell. The pair are clearly estranged, with Colter ignoring Russell’s attempts to contact him in previous episodes. Jensen Ackles has been cast as Colter’s brother, and ahead of their reunion, Hartley teased a tense event. Colter believes Russell killed their father, after finding Ashton lying at the bottom of a cliff while a young Russell (Matthew Nelson-Mahood) looks down from above. Of the Colter-Russell reunion, Hartley explained, “And then when it came time to cast Russell Shaw, I was like, ‘We’ve been building this whole thing up. It’s important that we put someone in there who’s just a giant. Someone who you’re going to trust because he’s going to go up against Colter, in a good way or a bad way, and who you also believe is his brother.’ And I just thought Jensen Ackles would be perfect for the role.”
