What To Know
- In the two-part Tracker Season 3 premiere, Colter faces moral dilemmas involving his family and confronts the sinister system known as The Process, ultimately refusing to play its game.
- Justin Hartley and showrunner Elwood Reid tease deeper family secrets.
- Reenie’s breakup with Elliot marks a new direction for her character, while Russell’s future actions and intentions remain uncertain as the season progresses.
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Tracker Season 3 Episode 2 “Leverage.”]
Near the end of the two-part Tracker Season 3 premiere, Colter (Justin Hartley) is presented with a couple tough questions: What would he be willing to do to save his mother and sister, and which one would he save first? That’s all part of The Process, the eerie system in which people are blackmailed into doing terrible things. Colter doesn’t play. But TV Insider had to ask Hartley what his choices would have been.
“I’d like to think he’d be able to save both of them. But I mean, you can’t not save your mom, but it’s your sister. You got to save your sister. She’s so young. I don’t know,” Hartley admitted. “Maybe he enlists Russell [Jensen Ackles] and they save him both. I don’t know. Or maybe Colter can do it on his own. He’s not playing the game.”
Colter and Russell, working together, do seem to have put a stop to The Process, though there is that remark of a third grad student who could have been involved still being out there. It was unclear if she was ever involved, but she did share a similar perspective as the other two regarding their professor’s previous experiment that led to The Process.
“That storyline, there are going to be some little Easter eggs planted, and we’ll see them. There were a lot, a lot, a lot of discussions — remember, Colter’s father was an academic,” showrunner Elwood Reid told us. “In Episode 7, a piece of information that Russell gives Colter actually bears some fruit and actually tangentially touches on that world a little bit. Not the Process, but the dark things that academia has been doing in that world, and his father may have been involved.” When that comes into play, expect to see Melissa Roxburgh return as Colter’s sister, Dory, if it all works out.
One of the men running the Process asks Colter how well he knows his family, and Colter looks at his mother’s photo. That’s why he’s not talking to her. “We see this guy who seems to have all of the answers and he’s always got a plan and he doesn’t know what to do and he doesn’t have any answers and he doesn’t have a plan, so he’s waiting,” said Hartley. “It’s a very rare thing for him. This is what I love about the show. … We’ve never seen him like this. He’s at a loss.”
This episode also reveals, via a conversation with Russell, that Reenie’s (Fiona Rene) relationship with Elliot is over. That’s because of where her storyline is going this season, Reid explained.
“We are trying to expand her world a little bit, expand that office. Also, I think she was traumatized by it, and he wasn’t exactly honest with her all the time. I think she feels a little betrayed by that. And we’re going to see as the season goes on, the way that Reenie deals with that, what happened to her, and does she blame herself? Does she start acting out a little bit? Does she start to come a little bit unraveled?” he said. “It’s just a little storyline we’re touching out with her. It’s going to dovetail back. She may have to face the boyfriend again for some information, so we don’t know.”
As for what Russell’s going to do next — he says he wants to use his skills to do something good — that’s still to be determined. “I don’t think he knows,” according to Reid.
Watch the full video interview above for more from Justin Hartley about this episode, Colter’s key relationships, and what’s to come this season.
Tracker, Sundays, 8/7c, CBS