Tracker Season 2 Is Already Setting Itself Up For An Unwinnable Choice (& It Didn’t Have To)
With its premiere, Tracker season 2 has already seemingly set itself up for a plotline dilemma and the most frustrating part was that it didn’t need to put itself in that position. Tracker season 1 was incredibly successful for CBS; according to the network, it was its most successful original show in years. Part of that success was down to the fun premise, following “rewardist” Colter Shaw (Justin Hartley) as he tracks down missing persons, but also thanks to Tracker’s engaging cast of characters, both the main characters and the one-off characters who appear in each self-contained episode.
One of those standalone characters who endeared himself to audiences in Tracker is Jensen Ackles’ Russell Shaw, who reappears in Colter’s life with a new case for him and revelations about their father’s mysterious death years ago. What happened to their father and why he was killed was the overarching mystery of Tracker season 1, and the show has barely scratched its surface. Tracker season 2, however, already introduced another cold case that seems poised to usurp most of the narrative focus.
Tracker Season 2’s Missing Sister Plot Risks Pulling Focus Away From The Plotline Of Colter’s Dad
There’s Still A Lot To Unpack Regarding Ashton Shaw’s Murder
Introducing a story arc that is clearly going to last more than a few episodes, if not the whole season, isn’t a problem in and of itself. The problem is that Tracker already has one of those: the aforementioned mystery of what really happened to Colter and Russell’s father. The mystery surrounding their father’s death was set up early in Tracker season 1, with plenty of flashbacks to their childhood, including the climactic moment that Colter found their father, Ashton, dead at the bottom of a cliff and looking up to see Russell standing atop the cliff, leading Colter to believe Russell had pushed their father and setting up their years-long estrangement.
Introducing a story arc that is clearly going to last more than a few episodes, if not the whole season, isn’t a problem in and of itself. The problem is that Tracker already has one of those: the aforementioned mystery of what really happened to Colter and Russell’s father.
Even though Russell’s reentry into Colter’s life finally cleared him of suspicion, the larger question of who did kill their father, and how much their mother, Mary Dove, knows still remains. It was established that their dad was a brilliant man who had gone off the grid, seemingly after running afoul of the U.S. government or other powerful figures. It’s a complex mystery that will take time to unravel, but introducing the new storyline of his former lover’s missing sister will undoubtedly pull focus away from it.
It’s possible that this storyline was introduced because the writers opted to continue the mystery surrounding Ashton’s death only in the Tracker season 2 episodes in which Jensen Ackles’ Russell Shaw appears. If that’s the case, it’s understandable that they’d need a solo plotline for Colter to fill in the gaps when Russell isn’t around. That could be a little disappointing, though, as it’s unclear how many episodes of Ackles will be in. We know he’ll be in more than one, but how many more isn’t known. If it’s only a few, at that rate, the mystery of their father’s death could take years to unravel, a frustratingly slow process.
Tracker Can’t Balance Both Overarching Mysteries Without Sacrificing Its Successful Premise
It’s A Trap Sophomore Seasons Too Often Fall Into
If Tracker season 2 doesn’t sideline either the Gina Pickett cold case/Camille Pickett romance or the Ashton Shaw mystery, it will be incredibly tricky to pull off and still utilize the case-of-the-week format that was so successful in its first season. It’s virtually impossible to devote enough time to each mystery to move their stories along in a meaningful way without sidelining, or at least shortchanging, some of the one-off episodes and their cases. It’s a problem that has often plagued weekly procedurals with longer arcs in their sophomore seasons and beyond, when a show bites off more than it can chew too soon and abandons its premise to the detriment of the show.
That said, Tracker season 2 has two things going for it. One, it’s twice as long as season 1, which was 13 episodes. Considering it was CBS’ biggest hit in years, it was inevitable that the second season would get an episode order magnitudes larger than the first season, and indeed, season 2 got a full 22-episode order. That gives it more time to devote to its longer story arcs. Two, the showrunners have mentioned in previous interviews that they have no intention of creating any Tracker spinoffs at the moment, as they want to focus on season 2 without falling into the trap of their focus being pulled in too many directions, leading to a diminished quality.
None of this is to say that Tracker‘s writers won’t skillfully balance both larger mysteries with the episodic story format that has been so successful with audiences. Still, it’s frustrating that the show even set itself up for this potential problem in the first place, as it never had to happen. The missing sister plot came out of nowhere in Tracker season 2’s premiere, as did the sudden revelation of his ongoing love affair with Camille. It felt clunky, and that’s partly because the show didn’t need that added storyline to have forward momentum. There’s plenty going on already, from Reenie’s new firm, to Teddi and Velma’s split, to Colter’s tangled family story. Hopefully, Tracker season 2 can execute it all without sacrificing stories or character development.
