“Logo text [This story contains spoilers from the first part of a two-part season three premiere for Tracker, “The Process.”] In the season three return of CBS’ No. 1 hit show, Tracker lead Justin Hartley as Colter Shaw, the body tracker of missing people (and occasional dogs), is sitting alone at a bar in some”, — write: www.hollywoodreporter.com
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In the season three return of CBS’ No. 1 hit show, Tracker lead Justin Hartley as Colter Shaw, the body tracker of missing people (and occasional dogs), is sitting alone at a bar in some off-the-beaten path town looking dejected and within his own thoughts as a young waitress unsuccessfully tries to engage him in conversation.
Colter’s family and colleagues have actually been trying to track him for weeks. He dropped off the grid after meeting and interrogating a man named Otto in season two’s shocking finale, who readily admitted he killed Colter’s father, Ashton (Lee Tergesen), over a disagreement. Otto admitted to throwing Shaw’s dad off a cliff, while the emotionally distraught Colter pointed a gun at him. Did Otto survive the encounter? Was Colter distracted enough to commit murder?
Hartley tells The Hollywood Reporter that he’s pretty sure Otto lived. “I think it’s safe to assume that,” Hartley says. “I don’t think it made the cut, but we did do a line where he says, ‘It took everything within me not to kill him.’ But I think at that point, it would have just been murder. It wasn’t that mom called Otto and was like, ‘Come over here and kill my husband.’ There’s way more to it. The intention was, ‘Come over and be a mediator. My kids are in danger. We need to get away from this guy.’”
What viewers do find in the beginning of the new season, however, is the one person who can successfully track Colter down anywhere in the world: his brother Russell [played by Jensen Ackles]. And not a minute too soon, as Colter has engaged in a violent bar fight trying to protect the waitress, who is now being harassed by a brute patron.
After the fight, the two brothers end up in Colter’s trailer while Russell quizzes him about why he disappeared. Colter explains their father’s death mystery and the meeting with Otto. He appears to be still upset about what his mother’s perceived role was in their father’s death. Russell takes a different approach. He feels like the children couldn’t have known the anxiety their mother was going through, and maybe she felt the need to get herself and her children away from the chaotic situation. He seems ready to give their mother more grace than Colter will.
“I love our show when we do stuff like that,” Hartley says. We do the action and all that, but the heart is what’s important. I think that’s what separates our show. That’s what people care about, to see these characters and their heart and what they care about.”
Colter, on the other hand, can seemingly empathize with and give mostly everyone grace — except for himself, says Hartley.
“Colter is really good at talking to other people,” Hartley explains about the difference in the two brothers. “He can easily talk to strangers about what matters to them, what’s in their hearts, what they care about and why they are in the situation they are in. But he’s not really good at doing that for himself. He becomes a shut-in and recluse. He’s like, ‘I’m going to handle everything on my own. He bottles things up. All of that creates damage.’”
After the heartfelt conversation between the two brothers, Russell informs Colter that he was fired from a job and needs work. Colter’s team receives a call from a man whose ex-wife and teenage daughter are missing. He knows his ex’s new husband deals with shady people doing investments. He thinks the new husband has gotten his ex and daughter mixed up in some unscrupulous deal. The father will pay whatever fee is necessary to have Colter find and bring his family back alive. Russell joins in for the adventure.
Justin Hartley as Colter Shaw (left) with Jensen Ackles as Russell Shaw. Sergei Bachlakov/CBS ©2025 CBS Broadcasting, Inc.
It’s at this point in season three’s premiere that most of the show moves away from the Shaw family’s tragedies and focuses on how a group of unknown people have made the missing ex-wife run various errands for money and other information, after killing her new husband and kidnapping the daughter. The criminals make the mother cut off the hand of her dead new husband, and use it to open a safe to steal money and documents. The criminals give the mother a burner phone where orders are texted and must be completed within a certain time period, or both the daughter’s and mother’s lives are at risk.
This premiere launches a two-part storyline, with the second part, “Leverage,” airing next Sunday. Viewers saw at the end of Sunday’s episode that this case has inadvertently put both Colter and Russell’s lives in danger.
Hartley says working with his buddy Ackles again was the highlight of doing these first two episodes of season three. He says the vibe and dynamic just flows.
“It’s just great,” Hartley explains. “We have the same work ethic. We have the same sensibilities when it comes to the craft and work and all of that, which is very professional. I enjoy the company and appreciate his talent. Also, he is just fun to hang out with. It is cool to have an old friend on set that you share a lot of old stories with. We know a lot of the same people. It’s really a treat.”
But after next week’s episode, Hartley says season three will continue to move in a direction never seen before Tracker.
“We are actually in the middle of it right now where Colter will find himself in a sticky situation,” Hartley says. “He will have to use all of his knowledge and skills, everything in his bag, to try to evade and keep himself away from authorities. Instead of him always looking and chasing after someone, he is being chased. This is an interesting turn for our show.”
Could previous storylines creep back in? Hartley says never say never, but the goal is to move the show in a new direction.
“We do have a lot of guest stars who are coming back, along with some fan-favorites. But for Colter, I can say that this year he is chasing after inner peace,” says the star and executive producer. “Finding his purpose in life is also part of his job, but there are still too many family things that don’t make any sense. And he’s the kind of guy who is not going to stop until he gets to the bottom of it and has all the answers. He needs that.”
Tracker airs new episodes Sundays at 8 pm on CBS, streaming next day on Paramount+.