The CBS hit drama Tracker has rapidly become one of the most buzzworthy shows on network television. Justin Hartley’s portrayal of Colter Shaw—a loner with a haunted past who helps people for a living—has captured viewers’ hearts. But as Season 3 looms, there’s one storyline fans are dying to see: a full-blown Shaw family reunion. Why? Because beneath the thrill-a-minute action lies a deep, fractured family story that’s begging to be explored.
Colter Shaw (Justin Hartley) is seemingly about to find out just what really happened to his father (Lee Tergesen) the night he died. The Tracker Season 2 finale ended with him finding the man who pushed him off the cliff, but there’s much more to the story. And with all those answers should come a Shaw family reunion. Thus far, Jensen Ackles (Colter’s brother Russell), Melissa Roxburgh (Colter’s sister Dory), and Wendy Crewson (Colter’s mother Mary Dove) have all appeared in a couple episodes but never together. It’s time for that to change.
The series began with Colter’s father’s death a mystery. His father was paranoid and had the family living in a cabin in the woods. When Colter was 15, his dad was killed, and for the longest time, he thought his brother Russell was involved. His mother encouraged him to block Russell’s number and ignore him when his brother tried to reach out.
Near the end of Season 1, Colter reunites with first Dory, then Russell. According to Russell, there was someone else in the woods that night and their mother has secrets, too. He’d seen the man he saw that night before, talking to her. Then, in the finale, Colter helped an old friend, Lizzy (Jennifer Morrison), and she revealed that she thought her mother and his father had an affair. After her mom died, she found a file box with research papers and journals she realized belonged to his father, and she sent it to Dory.
Both siblings returned in Season 2. Russell learned that their father apparently got in the government’s way when, during the course of an investigation into a missing person, he and Colter ended up at an agency’s off-the-books site. In the penultimate episode, Dory brought the aforementioned box to Colter. Their father had been working on zero-point energy, but he’d lost his academic credibility. Inside the box were papers, a small box of rocks, and a notebook with, hidden inside the spine, a folded-up piece of paper. When Colter called the phone number on it, it had already been disconnected or was no longer in service. Then in the Season 2 finale, a missing persons case led Colter to the man whom Russell had seen in the woods the night their father died, Otto (Alex Fernandez). He confirmed he pushed Colter’s father off the cliff, but revealed his mother had asked for his help. That was where Tracker left off and will be picking up heading into Season 3.
So what exactly did Mary Dove ask Otto for help with? Did she want her husband dead, or did she just want to get away from him and things spiraled out of control? Will Otto tell Colter the rest, or will he leave it up to Mary Dove to do herself? Is she ready to explain herself to her children? She hadn’t wanted Colter and Russell talking when the series began, and Colter notably told her he had no idea what his brother was up to when asked.
“His mother in the beginning was very, very adamant about, ‘You guys not talking is probably good for me because I know Russell might know a little bit more about what your father was up to and some of the people he was involved with. I don’t want you to know that stuff, Colter,’” showrunner Elwood Reid said to TV Insider when discussing the finale. “So he’s been very sort of consciously keeping that from her. And that’s why it’s funny, the conversation in the finale when she’s fishing around about Dory, she’s not really asking how Dory’s doing. She’s asking, ‘Did you guys talk about me? Or what did Dory tell you?’ And Dory’s even more innocent because Dory was moved away to her aunt and uncle. So I think that’s the one person she looks at that she can probably win back if we learn a pretty dark secret about her for next season. So it is just all fun family dynamics to play with and hopefully, I can get these actors back to play with them.”
