‘Tracker’ Team Talks Jensen Ackles’ Season 2 Return — What Will Colter Learn From Russell? 

Well, at least things shouldn’t be as tense between the Shaw brothers when Colter (Justin Hartley) meets up with Russell (Jensen Ackles) in Tracker Season 2… at least at first. After all, we have no idea what will lead to Russell’s reappearance in Episode 2, nor do we know how the brothers will leave things at the end of it. But we do have some teases about what to expect, thanks to the stars and executive producers chatting with TV Insider at the Television Critics Association summer press tour.

As the beginning of Tracker Season 1 showed, Colter thought that Russell was involved in their father’s death when they were younger. Colter wasn’t answering his calls, their sister Dory (Melissa Roxburgh) tried to get them to talk, then Russell missed a planned meeting. But then in the penultimate episode of Season 1, the brothers reconnected when Russell needed Colter’s skills, and in doing so, talked about what’s kept them apart. Russell insisted he didn’t have anything to do with their dad’s death, and while he doesn’t know if he fell or was pushed, there was someone else in the woods that night.

Furthermore, Russell revealed that their mother had secrets, too—he’d seen the man he saw in the woods that night before, talking to her, and she told him it would be best if he left and kept quiet about what happened after their father’s death. The brothers parted ways on better terms–though not with a goodbye, since Russell just left him cash and his knife—and the season clearly left the door open for both Ackles and Roxburgh to return.

“They’ll be coming in and out of the show,” executive producer Elwood Reid tells TV Insider. “If we can drop a few bombs into Colter’s life with those characters and then see how he wrestles with those, then we’ll earn them coming back to sort of sort out— because, I mean, the evidence we have in the show right now is his sister definitely has a point of view about what he should do, which is just forget about it and leave it. And then you look at Jensen’s character Russell, he seems to have sort of put it all away in a box in some way and kind of just dealt with it. But you’ll learn in Episode 2, he’s got very different memories of something that happened in their past that Colter has no memory of.”

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Hartley agrees that there’s more story to tell with the brothers, especially in the wake of Colter learning that Russell wasn’t involved in their father’s death, “at least not in the capacity the Colter thought he did. So there’s more story to tell there. Jensen’s coming back, which is great. Can’t wait to see him. We always have so much fun together. He’s a riot and a super talented actor as well. So we’re very lucky to have him. And I love Melissa as a person. She’s a close friend, and so I think there’s a lot more story to tell there, so would love to have her back.”

In Ackles’ Season 1 episode, we also got great interactions between Reenie (Fiona Rene) and Russell; he’s impressed, and Colter makes it clear she’s off-limits.

“I think she wants to have a little bit of fun, especially since Colter pissed her off so much,” says Rene. “Russell is a great opportunity to have a little payback, but at the same time, we don’t want to use anyone, right? So I think she’s going to have a little bit of fun. And I noticed that in Episode 12 when Russell came into play, although he was so forward with her and she was like, back off, I think there were moments where she was rethinking maybe some of her thoughts. So we’ll see maybe if there’s more of that in Season 2. I don’t know.”

What are you hoping to see when Jensen Ackles returns as Russell in Season 2? What do you think he knows that Colter doesn’t? Let us know in the comments section, below.

Tracker, Season 2 Premiere, Sunday, October 27, 8:30/7:30c, CBS

-Reporting by Meaghan Darwish