Tracker‘s newest episode had Justin Hartley‘s Colter Shaw in search of a missing girl in a possible murder case — but was he capable of track her down alive?
The Sunday, December 7, episode of the hit CBS series showed Colter helping a grieving mother one yr after her daughter disappeared from their home. The mother was battling alcohol addiction on the time and woke up to search out her little girl missing — along with blood on the scene that hinted at an injury.
The entire town turned on the mother so when her daughter’s dress was left on her property, she was arrested on suspicion of murder. Colter needed to race against time to search out clues that might absolve the mom, which is how he discovered that the unique detective on the case with the little girl’s grandfather.
Ultimately the unique detective kidnapped the girl and raised her along with his wife. But once Colter was onto him, the grandfather nearly killed a person attempting to escape. He decided to release his granddaughter, who was secure and sound. Colter reunited mother and daughter by the point the episode got here to an end.
Tracker, which premiered in February 2024, introduced fictional survivalist Colter as he travels the country to assist solve various missing individuals cases. As Colter has received an increasing number of help, the ensemble solid has grown with their respective characters, including handlers Teddi (Robin Weigert) and Velma, hacker Bobby (Eric Graise) and attorney Reenie (Fiona Rene).
After joining Tracker in season 1, Weigert’s character was written off within the premiere along with her wife, Velma (Abby McEnany), admitting that they needed a long way. Velma then began working with Reenie and Teddi wasn’t discussed again in season 2.
Season 2 then caused some to be concerned about when Graise was noticeably absent from six episodes. News later broke that Graise and McEnany wouldn’t be coming back — at the least for now.
“I do think it’s evolving. If I can’t evolve those characters — Randy or Reenie or Bobby — they’re not only folks that just pick up the phone and go, ‘OK, here is the reply.’ That’s when the show is phoning it in,” executive producer Elwood Reid exclusively told Us Weekly in May. “The challenge is once you got to study them, which I believed was interesting. That’s the challenge of the show shouldn’t be having it fall right into a formula.”
Reid noted that they didn’t want Tracker to “fall into complacency.”
“The one rule I actually have of the show is each week Colter goes to return to a brand new place and there’s going to be a brand new case. How he gets those answers and what he uses on the team, that’s all something that’s up for grabs,” Reid teased. “Meeting these [local] weird characters is something we’re going to attempt to do more of because the season goes on. Just Colter coming in and interacting with other characters. That’s fun to see Justin flex those muscles with really good guest solid members.”
Ahead of season 3, Reid defended the choice to shake up season 3.
“Justin has to hold a lot of the show. So I don’t want the opposite characters which can be within the show to simply be phone-a-friend where at any time when he’s in trouble, he just picks up the phone. The challenge in season 3 has been how can we construct actual good story out of [it],” Reid teased.
He continued: “It’s just constructing out those story lines. The challenge we arrange for ourselves this season was to construct out those people’s world a little bit bit. It’s about attempting to get a little bit little bit of lightness [into the show] because sometimes Colter is doing a little really dark and heavy stuff. It’s life or death.”
Tracker airs on CBS Sundays at 8:30 p.m. ET before streaming the following day on Paramount+.