While Tracker is a procedural drama, one mystery has loomed over Colter Shaw’s head since the beginning: the death of his father, Ashton. While it was likely that his father was pushed over a cliff, not fell, the truth never came to light. That is, until now.
Finally, in the season two finale, Colter comes one step closer to understanding what happened that fateful day. The truth will reverberate throughout his life from this point. Not only has he discovered who the killer is, but he has also learned something devastating about a person he holds dear.
It’s Not Who Killed Ashton, But Why That’s the Shocker
In season 2, episode 20, “Echo Ridge,” Colter finds himself back in his hometown of Echo Ridge, California, where his mother, Mary, still lives. In fact, she’s the one who called him because a local man named Bill has gone missing, and they are worried about him. Colter visits his mother, enjoys a few bites of pancakes, and some conversation before heading out to meet with the man’s sister to learn more.
There, he learns that a few months prior, a creepy man came into the restaurant with a scared-looking young boy. Bill tried to ask the boy if he needed help while the man went to the restroom, but the boy was too scared to talk. Bill got distracted, and the man and boy left when he wasn’t looking. Still, Bill couldn’t shake the sinking feeling that something was wrong, so he continued to look into it. He discovered the young boy had been missing. When he spotted the man in town, he recognized the person he was with, a local drug dealer named Ronnie Yates.
Colter tracks down Ronnie, which leads him to the identification of the kidnapper, a freelance trucker named Carl Murphy who had been running drugs on occasion. Ronnie had no idea Carl was involved in child trafficking as well, and is disgusted by this revelation. Colter visits Carl’s trailer, but it’s empty. When looking out the window, he notices a wooden carved wolf on the windowsill. He flips it over and sees the signature “A. Shaw” on the bottom, confirming this was Colter’s dad’s, and he’s confused.
Colter eventually tracks down the killer and detains him with the help of a local friend named Paul. Colter shows the man the wooden figure and urges him to advise where he got it from and why it was in his trailer. He says he got it from his uncle, Otto Waldron. Colter goes to see Otto, who at first wants nothing to do with this young man when he mentions his nephew’s name. That kid is a lost cause. But when Colter reveals his identity, Otto is taken aback and invites him in.
While there, Otto reveals how he knew Ashton. He was a linesman and was instructed by the town to set up powerlines by Ashton’s home in the wilderness. Desperate to live off the grid, Ashton did not want this. Otto stood up for him, helping keep the city off his back, and Ashton was grateful for his help. They sparked up a friendship. As he speaks, tears roll down Colter’s face. He tells Otto that Russell told him there was another man in the woods that night, and Colter now realizes that the other man was probably Otto.
He confirms it. Colter pulls out his gun, points it towards Otto, and asks him point-blank if he pushed his father. “I did,” he replies. But he says he didn’t work for the feds. Colter asks why he did it. “Because she asked for my help,” he declares. She? Who is she? Colter asks the question, though it’s clear from the anguish in his eyes that he already knows the answer. It was Mary, Otto reveals, who asked him to do it.
All the Previous Clues That Mary Was Involve
While the reveal came as a shock in Tracker, which marks one of Justin Hartley’s best roles, it wasn’t entirely out of the realm of possibility that Mary was involved. In fact, many had theorized this before. That’s because there were several clues that she was hiding something from Colter.
When Colter visits his mother in season one and mentions that his older brother Russell has been trying to contact him, she insists that he stay away from Russell because nothing good will come of it. Now, fans know it’s likely because she knows that Russell saw Otto in the woods that day. If he had revealed that information to Colter, Mary knew that Colter would be like a dog with a bone and wouldn’t stop until he found out more.
Any time Colter would mention his father’s death, Mary would urge him to just let things be and move on. There was no need digging up the past. His father was suffering from extreme paranoia and had been experiencing very bad episodes prior to his death. The implication is that it was nothing more than an accidental fall or perhaps even that he died by suicide. Mary’s not wanting Colter to look further was a clear red flag that she was afraid of what he would find.
In season one, episode 2, “Missoula,” one of the weaker episodes of season one of Tracker, there’s a strange opening scene involving Mary that hasn’t been revisited until now. She wakes up in the morning to find a note on her kitchen table that reads “I’m watching you.” She grabs a loaded gun from her safe and heads outside to her shed, Ashton’s old office, where she finds the lock broken, papers strewn about. She calls Colter for help.
He investigates and doesn’t think much of it since his mother doesn’t reveal all the details, including the note and the mess she encountered. “Why would someone break into dad’s office?” he asks. He observes the shelf of wooden sculpted figures and moves one of them over, noting that “Dad always had a place for everything, didn’t he?” It’s a subtle hint that something was out of place on that shelf, suggesting that one of the figures was missing. This could have been the wolf figure Ashton had given to Otto. But it didn’t register in Colter’s mind at that moment that it was missing, even though he could tell that something was off with the items on the shelf.
A theory had been floating around that Mary was a secret government operative sent to watch Ashton and his research. Given that Ashton was having an affair with Lizzy’s mother, it’s evident that there was trouble in paradise. What’s more, in the penultimate season 2 episode “Rules of the Game,” Colter tracks a phone number he found on a hidden piece of paper in his father’s journal to a man named David Pearson. According to Randy, who traces the number for him, David was a scientist who worked in Hampton, Virginia, not far from D.C. But one day, David packed up and moved to California.
It’s possible David worked for the government. He might have been someone Ashton trusted who was willing to go against the government and reveal Ashton’s research. However, David died by apparent suicide, coincidentally, the same year Ashton died. If Mary had something to do with Ashton’s death, she may have had something to do with David’s as well. And perhaps Otto isn’t telling the whole truth. After all, if he had grown to become such good friends with Ashton, wouldn’t Russell have recognized who he was that day?
The Motivation and Possibilities
The story in Tracker, one of the best CBS shows, will get uncomfortable from here as Colter confronts his mother about what happened and why she did what she did. Will she deny it or tell the truth? If the latter, she will have to finally own up to what her husband was doing that was so bad, or dangerous, to warrant having him killed. Since Mary was a professor as well, it’s possible it had to do with his scientific research. Perhaps she thought he was going to release information that the government had already warned him against doing, and she felt killing him to prevent him from doing so was the only way to protect her family.
Maybe there was a darker side to Ashton than realized. While Otto seemed to denounce anything his nephew Carl was up to, is it possible that Otto played a role in the child trafficking business, too? Was Ashton a part of that? It’s unlikely the story would go down that road, but it’s something to consider.
More than likely, however, Mary’s motivation had to do with Ashton’s work and the dangers it put them in. If killing Ashton while stealing his research was her mission, this might explain why Ashton visited his mistress, Lizzy’s mother, just prior to his death and left a box of his research with her. He didn’t feel safe having it at home, or he wanted her to release the information in the event of his death, since he felt someone was after him. This research may be what someone was looking for when they broke into Ashton’s office in that season one episode.
At the end of the season two finale, Mary is in Colter’s trailer getting his laundry. She spots the box and sits down to go through it, stunned that it even exists. When she asks Colter about it, he said he didn’t think it was important, and that’s why he didn’t tell her. Now, Colter may realize the very person who the box should have been hidden from is his own mother. The contents may be more important than he thinks. But most importantly, the one person who knows the answer is Mary, and confronting her will be the toughest thing he’ll ever have to do.
