[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Tracker Season 2 finale “Echo Ridge.”]

Colter’s (Justin Hartley) getting answers about what happened the night his father was killed, but they may not be the ones he wants to hear. The Tracker Season 2 finale, which aired on Sunday, May 11, saw him return home to Echo Ridge for an investigation, only for that to lead him to a big piece of his family mystery.

A woman calls Colter in to find her missing brother, which leads to the discovery that he stumbled upon a child-trafficking ring. He was killed for his attempt to intervene. Then, at one of the houses where the kidnapped kids were kept, Colter stumbled upon one of his father’s carvings. That, eventually, led him to the man whom his brother Russell (Jensen Ackles) saw in the woods with their father the night he died, Otto (Alex Fernandez). He confirmed that he pushed Colter’s father off the cliff — and revealed that his mother (Wendy Crewson) had asked for his help!

“We have so many ways to go in Season 3. We haven’t even picked up the pieces of it yet,” executive producer Elwood Reid tells TV Insider after that cliffhanger.

“I remember being in that room with Justin when he pulled the gun on the guy, and Justin was right on the edge. He was so emotional. He knew what that moment was. We only did two takes of it. Usually on something like that, I do 20 takes. He did two takes, that was it,” Reid reveals. “He’s like, ‘That’s it, we’re done.’ He was ready. He’s been waiting the whole season for this.”

Below, Elwood Reid breaks down the finale and teases what’s ahead in Season 3 for Colter and that family mystery, possible returns from Jensen Ackles and Melissa Roxburgh as Russell and Dory, Reenie (Fiona Rene) recovering from what she went through in Episode 19, and much more.

Colter has found who threw his dad off the cliff, but now there’s the matter of what happened to lead up to that. There’s apparently his mother asking for help. So that sounds like his mother wanted his father dead. But first of all is everything that this man has said so far the truth?

Elwood Reid: Yes.

So at this point, what does Colter think it means?

It’s interesting because something Justin and I talked about, when you look at the whole of the show, I think one of the things that is interesting about the show thematically is that Colter’s really confident and sure when he’s looking for people and trying to find something, but when it comes to this big, huge thing in his past, he doesn’t know. And I think that’s part of what tortures him. And you see him with his brother Russell, Russell’s like, “F**k it, who cares? It doesn’t matter. It’s in the past.” I think one of the things that Justin and I wanted to do was ring out with him where we really leave a lot of unanswered questions and I think they’ll continue into next season.

I don’t think, me personally, and Justin and I have spoken about this quite a bit, is that there’s no satisfactory answer about what happened when they were children. And there’s a lot of really dark stuff I don’t even think he talks about with this brother and sister. And the hope would be next season is to come in and open up a little bit of that box and look inside — I don’t mean the box box, I mean the box that he carries around in his chest — and start to see some of these things that made him or unmake him and see how that affects him through the season. So I think that’s one of the things where we want to start next season. But yeah, I don’t think there’s a neat answer to any of this stuff. Just like it’s all family stuff. It’s sloppy families are messy.

What can you say though about what his mother needed help with exactly? Is it what it sounds like or is it so much more complicated?

It is really interesting you say that because I was really wary of giving — Alex Fernandez who plays Otto, is an actor I’ve used before in my other shows like The Bridge. I’ve used him a bunch. He’s a pro I call all the time. I was very, very nervous about giving both his mother and Otto, those characters, anything that they would play. There is some history there, which I think we’re going to unravel in the opening of Season 3 about maybe perhaps a personal relationship with her and this man. But also one way to weirdly look at it is Colter grew up to be a guy who comes and helps people. I think back in the day, Otto may have been that guy for his mother, but why is going to be a bigger question that we’ll explore in Season 3. And I think the why of it, hopefully Russell, who’s played by Jensen Ackles, has probably a little bit more, few more pieces of that puzzle than Coulter does. Colter’s the one guy that stayed with his mother, his sister went off to live with aunt and uncle, and Russell went off and joined the military. He’s the one guy that kind of lived in that lie, that bubble, that lie a little bit longer. So I think that’s going to come with a big pot of emotion when he does really finally confront his mother about all this s**t.

Speaking of that confrontation, what can you say about what we’ll see between Colter and his mother and how each are approaching that? Because they were already going to be having a conversation before that last scene.

It is interesting, and again, I don’t want to tip the actors where to play. It always makes me nervous. I am always surprised, particularly with someone like Justin, the less I give him, the better places he takes it. He and I have a weird sort of mind meld about the character. So very little is on the page and he always instinctively knows where to go with it. But I think as far as his mother’s concerned, she’s someone, and I want to be very careful about this because it’s very hard to judge people this way. She was pretty okay with “lying” to Colter for the majority of his life and continuing that lie deep into adulthood. And the question becomes why? What’s really there that she’d be willing to lie? And I do believe there are some truths that are just better not spoken. And I don’t know if Colter’s ever going to get — I mean, I shouldn’t say that. He’s going to ask the question, whether he gets a satisfactory answer or not, I don’t know. But I think that will play right into Justin’s strengths. I think when it comes to his mother, you see a little bit more of an open wound, which I think is good.

Sergei Bachlakov / CBS

When Colter’s talking to his mom about his siblings, he says he has no idea what Russell’s up to, which is true, yes, but does he also not want her to know they’re on good terms now? She didn’t want him talking to his brother in the series premiere… 

Yeah, that’s very good. You’re one of the first people to pick that up because again, for a lie or a conspiracy to work, people all have to have parts of the truth and parts of the lie. And 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.” 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.

Are there plans already to have Jensen and Melissa back and are you looking at having them back at the same time? Is it about scheduling?

It’s so f**king hard to get their schedules. I mean, Jensen and I are friends. He was on a previous show of mine [Big Sky]. I love the guy. I text him all the time. I’m like, I’ll take three hours of you. He’s very busy as you know in The Boys universe. So when we can get him, we can get him. And Melissa, I think, is ready to come up and play. And I really love the scene she did at the end of the season. In many ways she’s the biggest blank canvas we have as far as a character goes. We feel like she knows something, but we don’t know what it is. Again, I think this stuff is really juicy and interesting. I never want to give Justin complete resolution or answers. I just don’t think life works that way. And I think he’s really good at playing that uncertainty.

Reenie is still clearly feeling the effects of what happened to her and understandably, but what does this mean going forward for her as a lawyer? Is she going to be more selective with clients?

Yeah. One of the things that we’ve talked about towards the end of the season, I think, and it’s continually evolving, the character of Renie, her character journey vis-a-vis Colter, too, is what her business might be going forward, what she sees as her mission. I think the more she gets involved with Colter in the jobs that they’re doing, I think the more that pulls on her in that direction. And you saw the fallout from [Episode] 19, that was her legally representing a client and getting dragged into this really dark thing. I think it’s going to make her question a lot of stuff. We’re going to find her in the beginning of the season, I think, not so much in a dark place, but where’s all this going? What do I want to do with my life, kind of thing. And she’s going to make some changes, hopefully.

The series began setting up what appeared to be a slow burn for Colter and Reenie with their history, but then you introduced Billie and you did go there with Colter and Billie this season. What can you say about Colter’s love life and just what kind of relationship he could even have with what he does?

Well, again, what you just said, I think that’s something that Justin intrinsically knows. We’ll have conversations. He’s like, “Oh, I just can’t go into town and just sleep with everybody.” I think there’s that sort of throwback element to the show. And I think when it comes to Billie, the reason Billie’s a little bit safe for him, and I mean that in a strange way, is because there are two alphas. I think they probably know they could probably never be in each other’s orbit, but those two alphas meet and there’s sparks there. And I think that’s what’s interesting about the way we play those characters in this season. One of the things that was really important to me as a writer was to — I think Billie has this really confident mask that she has on all the time. In the episode, you got to see the lie she was living. So these are two people, when she’s talking about her family and her mother, Colter didn’t even know that about her family. So I think these two people are fronting to be these other things and with each other they can really kind of be themselves for that little bit of moment. But as you said, he is that kind of like guy that’s on the road doesn’t lend itself to relationships. So I think there’s something really interesting about that dynamic.

And then with Reenie, it’s interesting because I think there’s a real emotional connection there and it’s turned into something interesting in the writer’s room. And with the actors, there’s a real, I don’t want to say like family, that’s the wrong word for it, but they do really care for each other. What that means as far as romantically or stuff goes, I don’t think we’re there yet as far as the writers go, because I want to build Reenie’s character out independently of Colter and her world. And that was one of the things I think we’re going to continue to do in Season 3, which will be, shows always work better when you prop up a character. They’re not just sitting there waiting for the lead to take them off of a shelf when they’re ready.

Bobby (Eric Graise) was gone for a few episodes. Are we going to see him full time next season? And is Randy (Chris Lee) going to continue to stick around like he did towards the end of this season?

I think we will see both of them. Like I said, I just finished [my] first season so the writers haven’t been in the room. Part of I think the biggest piece of the puzzle is going to be figuring out the Reenie of it all, what Reenie’s world looks like, and figuring out how the team fits around that. What’s been interesting about this show is we’ve done shows that are really — like you saw, there was an episode with Randy this year that worked really well. Then there’s also episodes where we don’t see any of the teams, it’s just Colter all by himself. Those work really well too.

I don’t want the show to fall into a formula where it’s like every week we see the same team and they say the same things. I think what makes you want to come back to those other characters that are in Colter’s team, so to speak, is when we just don’t lean on them for sort of to move the plot along. So it’s a long answer to saying, I haven’t quite figured out the motor of the show yet, moving forward in Season 3, but it’s one of the things we’re going to talk about when the writers get back in the room.

I have to say how much I loved Reenie and Velma (Abby McEnany) together this season.

Yeah. That goes towards, it’s funny, we’re talking about writers’ room stuff here, but it goes towards building Reenie’s character out so she can completely exist and stand on her own. I personally don’t like, and I know even Justin and I talk about this, when it’s like phone a friend all the time because then you or I could do that. It’s like they have to be fully-fleshed out characters with storylines that we care about, or it will just be Justin 24/7. And I think the show is richer when Reenie’s character has a real world and we see her boyfriend [Michael Rady] and we see this complicated Sharf [Pej Vahdat] character that’s come into her life and we see stuff with Velma and we see stuff with Bobby and Randy. I think that makes the show better. But it’s hard because if you look at the poster, it’s Justin on the poster. I love writing for Justin. He’s easy to write for and he holds the camera really well, but we have to invest a little bit in those other characters, I think, for the show to be strong.

Is there anything else you can tease about Season 3?

Yeah, I think there’s going to be, I mean, knock wood, if I can get some of these actors, we’re building out, just like we saw in episode 16 when he had that friend that was a search and rescue guy, we’re building out a little bit more pieces of his past. And we’re also looking at building out kind of, I’m hoping, and this is just a middle of the night idea I’ve had, is one of the cases from Season 2 had a little Easter egg that will then come into a case in Season 3, but then also dovetail back to some stuff possibly with his father. I know that’s a really weird loopy loop answer, but we’re trying to build a much bigger picture here. And again, that’s the fun stuff, the much larger arc stuff.

Tracker, Season 3, Fall 2025, CBS