After That Major Casting Overhaul, ‘Tracker’ Doesn’t Need Its Newest Velma Replacement

After a stellar two-part opener that reunited Colter Shaw (Justin Hartley) with his brother Russell (Jensen Ackles), Tracker has finally returned to form with its third Season 3 outing, “First Fire.” But while the Colter plot was your standard Tracker fare, complete with some twists and an intense struggle between life and death, the Reenie (Fiona Rene) side of the story took an interesting turn. After conscribing Randy (Chris Lee) to her cause and losing Velma (Abby McEnany) between seasons, the CBS drama has introduced yet another character to fill the “assistant” role in Reenie’s life: Cassady McClincy Zhang‘s Melanie “Mel” Day, which is an odd and unnecessary choice.

‘Tracker’ Season 3’s Newest Character Is Melanie Day

Image via CBS

We know very little about Mel Day after Reenie first met her, only to hire her immediately on the spot during the interview. We do know that she cares about law and order due to her mother being killed many years ago, a death that has thus far gone unavenged as no killer has been brought to justice. Furthermore, we see that Mel has done her homework on Reenie and the firm. She’s shown to be excited to be working for not just Denver’s top independent lawyer, but also the rewardist she’s often paired up with. Mel makes it clear that she’s impressed by the way Reenie exposed the illegal activity at Leonard Sharf’s (Pej Vahdat) company last season, but is even more drawn to everything Colter Shaw. Not that we can blame her, but this is quite an interesting choice to bring in a new character to the CBS series so quickly after axing two others from the program.

Last season gave Velma (who was supposed to basically be Reenie’s assistant) barely anything to do after several Season 1 episodes forgot about the Bruins entirely. The second half of the season even pushed Bobby (Eric Graise) out for a time, replacing him with his cousin Randy until he was brought back in the final batch of Season 2 episodes. Now that he’s gone again, we still want to see his story better wrapped up. So, the decision to not only include Randy but now this Mel character in Reenie’s day-to-day is a bit odd, especially since she’s so quickly introduced and accepted into the Tracker fold. We know that Season 3 aims to give Reenie more to do than before, further highlighting her abilities in the courtroom beyond just what we see in her time with Colter (and perhaps that’s where Mel will come in), but right now it feels like a bit of an oversight considering the basic premise of the show.

To be clear, this is not to say anything negative about Cassady McClincy Zhang herself. She’s more than proven herself on shows like The Walking Dead (where she played Lydia in the final three seasons), as well as her guest stints on Castle Rock and Chicago Med. From what we’ve seen from her on Tracker thus far, there’s no reason for us to think anything ill of her performance. It’s solely a question of whether the character is necessary to the plot or a distraction that will pull the show off-track right after it just got back on.

‘Tracker’ Season 3 Was Headed in the Right Direction With Only Three Cast Members

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Between seasons, Tracker worked hard to par itself down for the sake of streamlining the narrative. Velma’s exit didn’t affect the show at all, given that Colter and Reenie often found the former jobs all on their own, and although we’ll miss Bobby, his role is likewise unnecessary as Randy already fills the “tech guru” position. Because Reenie and Randy both offer something to Colter every week that cannot be replicated, their inclusion on the series is paramount to Colter’s success. Sure, Colter could probably do as he does in the original Jeffrey Deaver novels and figure everything out on his own, but for a 42-minute network television show, the extra characters help solve mysteries quicker and fill in the understandable knowledge gaps. After all, Colter isn’t a lawyer nor is he as tech-savvy as someone like Randy.

There’s no question that both those parts are necessary for the function of the show, but what does Mel offer that we don’t already have in Reenie? An assistant? Does the show really need this? It’s a question that Tracker will need to answer fairly quickly if it wants us to care about this character and take her inclusion seriously. If not, then who is to say that she — like Bobby, Velma, and Teddi (Robin Weigert) before her — won’t just be booted out of the program at a moment’s notice? What makes Tracker work so well is that each episode largely centers on Colter and his adventures. We love Reenie and Randy, but they’re background in comparison — and they should be. Adding another character to that background could come across as white noise if Tracker isn’t careful.

“Mel Day” Could Be an Alias for Someone More Sinister in ‘Tracker’ Season 3

Just as we theorized about Leo Sharf last season, there’s always the possibility that something more nefarious is at play with Melanie Day. It could be that “Mel” is nothing more than an alias for someone who has come into Colter’s life for a more sinister reason, someone perhaps like Gillian Meeks. In the season’s two-part opening episodes, Colter and Russell encountered a program called “The Process,” created by Don Schneider (Lenny Jacobson) and Philip Jost (Timothy Wallace) after they were a part of an experiment run by Dr. Susana Tate (Lesley Fera).

After Tate shut down the project, three students of hers were furious. Schneider and Jost were two of them, but Gillian Meeks (who has thus far not made an appearance on Tracker) was the third. It’s possible that, with the destruction of The Process algorithm and the dismantling of the experiment, Mel could actually be Meeks in disguise, waltzing into the fold to turn Colter’s world upside down.

Right now, this is nothing more than a theory, of course, but it would certainly make sense as to why the Tracker team thought it best to introduce another new character right after slimming the cast down. With Mel studying Colter and everything he does, the idea that she’s actually a spy — either Meeks herself or someone blackmailed by her in order to infiltrate Reenie’s confidence — would be quite a memorable twist for the show. But at present, we can only wait it out and see what Tracker Season 3 has to offer.