It has been a long wait, but well into Season 2 of the CBS series Tracker, the Colter family mystery is finally being addressed again. It was just a short opening scene in Season 2, Episode 19, “Rules of the Game,” but the story was revisited with a teaser at the end of the episode. This is the first time questions about the death of Colter’s (Justin Hartley) father, Ashton (Lee Tergesen), have been brought up since Season 2, Episode 2, “Ontological Shock.”
Marking the return of Melissa Roxburgh’s Dory, Colter’s younger sister, they finally explore what was in that box of belongings that family friend Lizzy (Jennifer Morrison) gave to Dory. The two also theorize about what could have happened that fateful day when their father was found dead.
- Release Date
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February 11, 2024
- Network
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CBS
- Showrunner
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Elwood Reid
- Writers
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Ben H. Winters, Hilary Weisman Graham
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Justin Hartley
Colter Shaw
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The Latest Developments in Colter’s Family Mystery in ‘Tracker’
The episode begins with Colter in his trailer with his sister, visiting her while passing through town. She brought a box of their father’s belongings, which old family friend Lizzy had given her after their mother passed away. She asks Colter if he wants to go through it now or after she leaves, knowing her brother and his lone wolf ways. Dory claims to have already gone through it herself, but she only found research and notes. “There was no smoking gun,” she advises. However, she mentions that his work on zero-point energy was impressive and “way ahead of the curve.” As a science professor herself, Dory knows what she’s talking about.
“Was he onto something?” Colter asks. She indicates that it was long ago, so it’s possible. While the mention might seem insignificant, this could prove essential to the mystery. Zero-point energy relates to quantum mechanics and the potential to use this energy in practical situations. It’s easy to see how if Ashton made some breakthrough, he could end up in the government’s crosshairs.
Dory admits that while their dad was a genius, she claims he was “sort of losing his mind at the end, there.” Colter recalls their dad talking about people trying to steal his ideas, but he thinks maybe their dad was right. He suggests this could be why he gave the box to Lizzy’s mom for safekeeping. She worked in material sciences, and Colter’s theory is that Ashton might have been pressuring her to do something with his research because, by that time, he had lost all his academic credibility.
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“I can’t help thinking there’s something in that box that’s connected to what happened to Dad the night he died,” says Colter. He then tells Dory about the “government spook” he and Russell (Jensen Ackles) ran into a while back, referencing the events in Season 2, Episode 2, “Ontological Shock.” “What if Dad wasn’t paranoid?” Colter asks his little sister. “What if his research got him killed?” These are the questions fans have been asking ever since.
At the end of the episode, Colter is back in his trailer after solving yet another case and decides to go through the box. He rifles through the papers with research he doesn’t understand, picks up a few random items, including a box with small rocks, then grabs a notebook. He finds a tiny piece of paper hidden, tucked into the spine. It has a phone number written on it.
Colter grabs his phone and calls the number, but it’s out of service. It’s likely only a matter of time before Colter contacts Bobby (Eric Graise) to do some digging and find out who the phone number was connected to in the past. Knowing Bobby, he can trace the number in record time, which will bring Colter one step closer to finding out what really happened. Given how this episode drives the mystery forward, even if the moments were only a few minutes total, this could mean that the rest of the season will focus more heavily on the overarching Colter family mystery.
The History of the Mystery in ‘Tracker’
While Tracker covers different cases in every episode, one overarching mystery has loomed since the beginning. In flashbacks, fans learn that Colter’s father moved him and the family to live off the grid when he was a teenager. There, Colter learned the survival skills that have become essential to his job today as an adult. It’s also likely the reason he chose this profession.
Colter’s father was a respected professor, but he grew increasingly paranoid, believing that someone was after him. A brilliant mind, it’s unclear what type of work he was doing or what he had discovered, if anything. One day, when Colter went looking for his father, who had suddenly run off, he found him dead at the bottom of a cliff. Colter always felt his brother Russell had killed their father since he saw Russell peering over the edge of the cliff when he looked up after finding their dad. But this was debunked years later when Russell showed up to clear his name. He assured Colter he had nothing to do with their father’s death, and said he recalled seeing someone else in the woods that day.
The plot thickens when it comes to Colter’s mother, Mary (Wendy Crewson), who seems adamant that Colter stay away from his older brother. But it doesn’t seem as though she thinks Russell is dangerous, but rather that he might say something he shouldn’t. In Season 1, Episode 2, “Missoula,” Mary calls Colter, convinced someone had broken into his father’s old office. But nothing comes of the storyline.
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Later, when working a case for an old family friend whose daughter went missing in Season 1, Episode 13, “The Storm,” Colter learns from Lizzy that his father and her mother were having an affair. Lizzy says Ashton had come to visit her mother just before his death, and they had argued. After her mother’s passing, she found a box of Ashton’s belongings. Unsure of what to do with it, she gave it to Dory. That story, however, fell cold since Colter hadn’t seen Dory again until this latest episode.
The next time the family history is brought up in Season 2, Episode 2, “Ontological Shock,” Reenie (Fiona Rene) calls Russell for help when Colter goes missing while working a case. He finds his brother and helps him save a man who, while searching for aliens, came upon a secret government black site. When leaving, the abductor tells Russell that he knows who he is and that the family has a long history of getting in the government’s way. He also advises that his father “asked too many questions.” Once again, this storyline has been abandoned until now. The next time Colter mentions his family is during dinner with Reenie. He talks about his father’s “episodes” and alludes to the fact that things weren’t easy with his father once he had gotten worse with his paranoia.
With these new developments, which have been a long time coming, fans can’t wait to find out how it all shapes up. The hope is that the next episodes will see the return of Ackles as Russell, Morrison as Lizzy, and Crewson as Mary. While it initially seemed as though Dory might be hiding something, this latest exchange suggests that she wants to leave the past in the past, as she initially told Colter. The others, however, might not be revealing everything they know. Once they realize Colter is looking into it, more truths may finally come to light.
Whoever was at the end of that number when Ashton died could hold the key. Fans hope the answer comes in the next episode, or at least by the end of this season. Tracker has already been renewed for Season 3. Stream Tracker on Paramount+.