Tracker Season 3’s Premiere Officially Makes History for Justin Hartley’s CBS Series

Tracker Season 3’s premiere delivers a compelling two-part story to kick off another chapter of Justin Hartley’s series, making history for the show. In Tracker Season 3, Episode 1, Hartley’s Colter Shaw is still reeling from the discovery he made about his father’s death from a man named Otto Waldron (Alex Fernandez), who was with Ashton Shaw (Lee Tergesen) on the night that he died. Colter reveals to Russell Shaw (Jensen Ackles) in Season 3’s premiere that Otto admitted to throwing Ashton Shaw off the cliff, plummeting him to his fate.

The development finally answers the question of what happened to Ashton Shaw the night he died, with a less-than-sinister conclusion. Otto and Colter’s father had been friends at one time, and Colter’s mother, Mary Dove (Wedny Crewson), sent Waldron to talk to her husband because she was worried about him. That said, the news about Shaw Sr. is just one of the tense developments in Tracker Season 3’s premiere. In the weekly case, Colter and Russell get entangled in a high-stakes kidnapping scheme called the Process.

Tracker Season 3’s Opening Is The Show’s First Two-Part Premiere

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Changing the pace for the series, “The Process” puts Colter and Russell in real danger, and not of their choosing. However, the most significant element of the episode is that it ends on a “To be continued” card, marking the first time that Tracker has opened a season with a cliffhanger. The decision to split the story into two parts heightens its stakes, leaving viewers wondering how the Shaw brothers will work their way out of harm’s way. While the scheme’s motivation is unclear, Colter and Russell are involved because they stopped its progress.

The case has a typical start when Reenie’s (Fiona Rene) client, Cal Rogers (Brandon Keener), hires Colter to find his daughter, Hailey (Nevis Unipan), who has gone missing along with his ex-wife, Lisa (Jules Willcox). Russell convinces Colter to take the job after he traces him to a bar in Wyoming, sent by Reenie, who was worried after not hearing from Colter for several weeks. After a heart-to-heart about their dad, the older Shaw brother offers to tag along and help solve the case, saying that he’s lost his job and has nothing better to do.

Colter’s instinct to leave the case alone proved the right call. Still, now that Colter is involved, he can get to the bottom of the Process. While Russell was ready to walk away after finding Hailey and her mother, Colter wasn’t willing to step away from the case, wanting a more complete resolution, even after reuniting the Rodgers family. While Russell convinces his brother to let it go, the episode sets up its second half when the mastermind behind the Process sends both the Shaws a text, reading, “YOU HAVE INTERRUPTED THE PROCESS AND THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES,” which is automatically deleted.

Tracker Only Has One “To Be Continued” Episode Before Season 3

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The reveal that Russell and Colter have no choice but to continue investigating the case is even more intense because the cliffhanger leaves viewers reeling about what will happen to them. The series has only ever used the “To be continued” card once before, in a Tracker Season 2 episode that preceded the show’s holiday hiatus, which set up its story to conclude when the series returned the following year. The first time Tracker audiences had to wait for the second half of the story was when Colter was working with Keaton (Brett Sexton), a retired cop who helped him look into the death of Gina Picket.

Before Tracker Season 2 concluded its first half, Colter got a call from Keaton saying that he had uncovered fresh intel on Gina Picket’s murder, asking Shaw if he could meet. At the end of Tracker Season 2, Episode 8, Colter meets Keaton at a warehouse where he has tied up a man named Alex Silva (Johnny Rey Diaz), who claims he has information about what happened the night that Gina went missing. “The Disciple” closes with Alex telling Colter about a man called Teacher who owns a place called the Farm, with Colter pressing Silva on whether Gina is still alive.

Tracker Season 2, Episode 9, resolved the cliffhanger, with Colter and Keaton discovering the Farm. While Gina had died since she was abducted, Colter finally brought closure to her sister, Camille (Floriana Lima), who had held out hope for a resolution to her sister’s case for years. Aside from Tracker’s Shaw family mystery, Gina’s death was Colter’s longest-standing unsolved case, and the two-part saga was a fitting way to draw out its resolution. That said, this time Colter didn’t opt into the case he’s about to solve, so the “To be continued” card is far more ominous, marking a serious start to Season 3.

What To Expect From The Second Half Of Tracker Season 3’s Opener

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Colter has the whole season ahead, so it’s likely that he will survive to see the end of the Process in Tracker Season 3, Episode 2, “Leverage.” The promo confirms that Russell and Colter will continue working together, putting the brothers side-by-side for two episodes in a row, which is another first for the series. The Shaws will doubtless dive headfirst into solving who’s behind the scheme, which is sure to deliver more great scenes of them working together. Colter is a trained survivalist, and Russell has been in the military and worked as a private black-ops contractor, so it never disappoints when they collaborate.

The promo doesn’t reveal much about where the case is heading. Still, images from “Leverage” show Colter and Russell meeting Randy (Chris Lee) at a diner, putting the tech specialist back in the field after he assisted Shaw with a case in Season 2. Viewers can also expect to see Reenie, since it was her client who got Colter and Russell involved in the first place. Since Russell made it clear he’s still interested in Reenie in Tracker Season 3’s premiere, there could be some romance dynamics at play. In general, viewers can expect a Russell-heavy installment, since the show’s creators have been teasing a Jensen Ackles Tracker spinoff.