Warning: spoilers are ahead for Episode 13 of CBS’ Tracker Season 2, called “Neptune” and available streaming with a Paramount+ subscription.
The latest Tracker case of the week in the 2025 TV schedule took Justin Hartley‘s Colter Shaw to New York City, with a desperate husband by the name of Logan offering a reward for Colter to locate his missing wife Clare. While I initially thought that the wife might have run off and stolen the very pricy dress she’d been trying on, the case turned out to be much more complicated with spies, secrets, and a lot of bodies dropped.
Even as the stakes grew higher and higher while I watched, though, I couldn’t help but think back on Reenie making a suggestion earlier this season that could result in huge changes for Colter… if he follows her advice, anyway. I’m not sure that’s too likely, and a moment between Colter and Logan this week seems like the perfect setup for Jensen Ackles to return once more as Russell Shaw and/or Melissa Roxburgh to come back as Dory Shaw.
In the previous episode that aired on March 9, Colter and Reenie shared a meal. What started with some lighthearted teasing about him having pancakes for dinner turned into him revealing that whenever his dad would “have one of his episodes,” his mom would make them all breakfast and “say it was like starting the day over.” It was a big moment for Colter to willingly open up, and prompted Reenie to suggest that he give therapy a try.
Colter immediately groaned and cracked a joke, but Reenie sincerely told him that talking to a therapist helped her realize that what she’d really wanted was to quit her job and start her own firm. Colter simply responded “Got it,” which was probably the best that Reenie could have hoped for on that subject.
Talking to a therapist would surely mean big changes for Colter, so I’m not sure I see it happening in Season 2, but Reenie’s suggestion combined with Colter dropping some trivia about his mom and siblings had the Shaw family fresh in my mind ahead of “Neptune” on March 16.
In “Neptune,” Colter had to warm Logan up to the fact that Clare had been lying to him about some fundamental aspects of her life, and he was having trouble processing that his wife could have deceived him so effectively. Colter finally told him:
Logan, people can love each other and lie to one another to protect them from the truth.
It’s technically not clear if Logan even heard this very Colter-esque nugget of wisdom, since he was kidnapped just moments later, but it was an interesting moment for longtime fans of Tracker. I can 100% believe that Colter believes it’s fine to lie to people he loves to protect them from the truth, but am not nearly convinced that he’d feel the same about somebody else doing the same thing to him.
And that brings me back to what the middle Shaw sibling learned about Dory way back in the Season 1 finale. Colter’s sister had been given a box of their father’s belongings, but neglected to mention it to him in Melissa Roxburgh’s first episode. Tracker hasn’t really revisited that bombshell in the second season, but Justin Hartley told CinemaBlend that his character “just had to step away for a second and go, ‘Okay, let me gather my thoughts” first. Could the time be right for some more Shaw family drama, in the wake of Colter finally solving the mystery of Gina’s disappearance?
For what it’s worth, Hartley also said that they’ll “have her back” and he loves Melissa Roxburgh, so fans definitely shouldn’t rule out seeing Dory and Colter back on screen together. Russell already made an appearance in Season 2 when Jensen Ackles reprised his role back in the fall, but I won’t lie – it’d be great to see him again too. Will I someday get my wish of seeing all three Shaw siblings in the same episode?
Well, whether or not we see any of the rest of the Shaw family before the end of Season 2, CBS already renewed Tracker for Season 3, so time isn’t exactly running out. For now, keep tuning in to CBS on Sundays at 8 p.m. ET for new episodes of Justin Hartley’s This Is Us follow-up, and stream earlier installments on Paramount+.
