Tracker has become somewhat of a surprise hit for CBS. Premiering immediately following the Super Bowl LVII in early 2024, the show’s formulaic procedural tone and feel along with the compelling performance from Justin Hartley as the lead, Colter Shaw, captivated fans. Filled with action and unique cases from one episode to the next, it’s no surprise Tracker was renewed for a second season, which will premiere October 13, 2024.
Along with the episodic nature of the show, Tracker also features an overarching storyline about Colter’s childhood, family, and life growing up: there’s a mystery involving the death of his father. And one theory aims to completely shake up the story and what the situation could mean for Colter should it ring true.
What Happened to Colter’s Father?
The Cause of His Death Is a Mystery
Seasons | Episodes | Premiere Date |
|---|---|---|
1 | 13 | February 11, 2024 |
As the story goes in Tracker, which is poised to become one of the best CBS shows, Colter’s father Ashton (Lee Tergesen) was an eccentric but brilliant professor at Berkeley. When an incident led to the family moving to live off the grid, Colter’s life changed forever. He learned the survival and tracking skills that helped him become so good at his job. That life drove him to take on a job of searching for missing persons for reward money in the first place. But there are things in his past that haunt him.
Colter recalls rushing outside one night to search for his father and older brother Russell (Mathew Nelson-Mahood). His father seemed to be getting increasingly paranoid and fled from the home. After time passed with no return, Colter went to look for them and found his father lying dead at the bottom of Devil’s Notch. When Colter looks up, he sees his brother Russell at the top of the hill looking down and believes that his big brother killed their father. Their relationship hadn’t been the same since.
Throughout the early part of the series, fans learn that Russell has consistently been trying to contact Colter, to no avail. Colter dodges his calls, refuses to call back, and seems to want to avoid his brother at all costs. After a revelation from his sister Dory (Melissa Roxburgh), however, Colter decides to finally see Russell.
In the penultimate episode of the first season, the best episode of Tracker so far, the two reunite. Russell, played by Jensen Ackles, assures his brother that he did not kill their father. He mentions that he did see someone else in the woods that evening, and suggests he recognized the person as someone who had previously met with their mother Mary (Wendy Crewson). But he doesn’t know who the person is.
Colter believes his brother, but this only re-opens the mystery, the one case Colter can’t seem to solve. Strangely, Mary has always encouraged Colter to stay away from his brother and avoid anything he has to say, which raises suspicions.
Fans Have an Interesting Tracker Theory
The Real Culprit Might Be Surprising
Rotten Tomatoes Rating | Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score | IMDb Score |
|---|---|---|
89% | 64% | 7.0/10 |
One might initially suspect that Mary, who was also a professor at Berkeley, might have been up to something nefarious and was behind the murder of her husband. That would be the obvious reason she’s trying to keep Colter away from Russell, especially if she believes Russell might know something. But some believe her intentions might be pure, and she’s looking out for her youngest son. But why?
Redditor YupNopeWelp has posited an interesting theory: that Colter might have been the one who pushed his father. He blocked out the memory, and everyone else in his family is trying to protect him.
“Does anyone else think that Colter might [have] pushed his father (or, more likely was struggling with his father and the father fell), has blocked it out, and that his mother is ‘protecting’ him from remembering?” they write. “Or at least maybe mother Mary assumes Colter is to blame and doesn’t want to burden him with the knowledge.”
It would make sense, because why would both Russell and Dory both have information that Colter doesn’t? It would make sense that Russell might be privy to information that his younger siblings don’t know. But for both Russell and Dory to know, something seems off.
In the season finale of the show, arguably one of the best police shows of the 2020s, Colter learns from his childhood friend Lizzy (Jennifer Morrison) that his father and her mother were having affair. She seems surprised to learn that Colter never knew. She also reveals that while her mother passed a year prior, she found a box of Colter’s father’s old files among her belongings. Apparently, Ashton had visited her right before he died and left this box with her. Lizzy remembers hearing the pair arguing.
Colter doesn’t know what's in the box because Lizzy says she gave the box to Dory, unsure of what else to do with it. Seeing as Colter had just spent time with Dory where they discussed their father and Dory never mentioned this, it seems suspicious. What did the box contain?
Some suspect the box could have to do with Ashton’s involvement with work with the U.S. government. Whatever it is, however, why would Dory feel that Colter couldn’t handle the details, or felt he didn’t need to know them? One theory is that it might dredge up memories that have to do with the night of their father's death. Perhaps a young Colter found out the information in the box previously, didn’t like it, confronted his father, and this led to a scuffle of some kind that Colter doesn’t recall.
Fans Hope This Theory Isn't True
There Are Also Other Valid Theories
Highest-Rated Episode | 12 | 8.4/10 |
|---|---|---|
Lowest-Rated Episode | 10 | 7.5/10 |
Based on the discussion that proceeds from YupNopeWelp’s initial Reddit post, fans hope that this isn’t the big twist that’s revealed. Redditor the_simurgh opines that they believe Mary was a government plant sent to get close to Ashton, and his paranoia was actually founded. The government really was watching him, but he didn’t clue into the fact that his wife was the one responsible.
“The timeframe of Colter’s dad’s activities,” they explain, “breaks down to when the U.S. government was sending agents to infiltrate…into the movements and lives of individual[s] who were part of anti-capitalist movements, and spying on intellectuals.”
Redditor lantzn thinks the box does contain these secrets, and that Dory is keeping them close to her chest to protect not only Colter, but also her mother. The affair, they believe, could have been designed to help Mary get away once she actually fell in love and knew she was in trouble. “The father may have been killed by the other man in the woods,” they add, “and the mother killed him. Everything being done to stop Colter from snooping into the real cause of the father’s death.”
Others even believe it’s possible that Ashton is still alive and his death was faked. YupNopeWelp says they got the feeling that Lizzy wasn’t telling the truth and that “things are not what they seem.”
Going even further down the rabbit hole, Key_Shallot_2415 thinks it’s possible that the affair between Ashton and Lizzy’s mother happened (or started) many years prior and that Lizzy’s mother could actually be Colter’s biological mother, which is why Dory wanted to protect the secret from Colter.
Whatever the truth, fans expect to learn more about Colter’s past in the upcoming second season. That means seeing more of Mary, Russell (with Ackles confirmed to have a bigger presence in Season 2 of Tracker), Dory, and likely even Lizzy as well. One or all of them holds the key to the truth. And given Colter’s impeccable track record, it’s only a matter of time before he discovers it.
Watch Tracker on CBS and stream on Paramount+.
