When Tracker returns for Season 3, it’s doing so with a family reunion right off the bat: Jensen Ackles will appear in the premiere.
On Monday, August 25, CBS dropped the first details and photo (above) from the Season 3 premiere. “The Process,” which will air on Sunday, October 19, at 8/7c, will feature Ackles’ return as Russell, Colter’s (Justin Hartley) brother. According to the logline, “As Colter grapples with the shocking truth surrounding his father’s death, Russell (Jensen Ackles) joins forces with his brother to help track down the missing wife and daughter of one of Reenie’s [Fiona Rene] clients. Their reunion finds them mixed up in a chain of events involving a sinister underground operation known as ‘The Process.’”
Tracker Season 2 ended with Colter encountering the man who pushed his father over the cliff all those years ago on the night he died — and finding out that his mom (Wendy Crewson) asked for the man’s help! Notably, when Colter and his mother reunited, he didn’t seem to let on that he and Russell had repaired their relationship, and showrunner Elwood Reid did call that important. In fact, their mom was all too happy for the brothers to be estranged at the beginning of the series, when Colter thought Russell had something to do with their father’s death.
“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,’” Reid told TV Insider after the Season 2 finale.
He continued, “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 [Melissa Roxburgh], 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.”
Well, now that Ackles is back as Russell, we might get to see that. We’ll have to wait and see just how much they discuss their family drama while working the case.
Tracker Season 3 Premiere, Sunday, October 19, 8/7c, CBS