Justin Hartley’s Newest ‘Tracker’ Case Has Colter Rescuing a Stolen Dog — and Winning Over Us’ Heart
Just when you thought Justin Hartley couldn’t get any more heroic on Tracker, the newest case has his character, Colter, searching for a stolen dog.
During the Sunday, November 24, episode of the hit CBS series, Colter accidentally stumbled into a new job when he found an abandoned dog at a gas station. Colter tried to take the dog back home but the German shepherd was taken out of his truck. This kickstarted a search that led to a family that survived a home invasion. The mother and son were robbed — but only of their pet.
Colter promised the boy he would find the dog for a small reward of just under $200. The search took many twists as Colter tracked Barkley down to his previous owner, a former member of the army who got involved in some shady stuff and was not being threatened. Luckily Colter saved the dog — and later got to reunite Barkley with the boy, free of charge.
This marked the first time Colter’s job involved finding an animal instead of a person — but Us wasn’t mad about it. The episode ended on a high note when Colter wrapped up the case by going to visit Velma (Abby McEnany) and Reenie (Fiona Rene) at their new office.
Based on Jeffery Deaver‘s novel The Never Game, Tracker centers around a survivalist named Colter who travels the country helping people and law enforcement tackle a variety of mysteries. As the series unfolds, viewers learn more about how Colter’s past shaped his current life as a lone wolf.
The first season of the show made Tracker the most watched 2023-24 scripted series. The drama was quickly renewed for a second season, which introduced new cases for Colter to solve. Season 2, which debuted in October, scored the title of this fall’s most-watched TV premiere after returning nearly 10 percent up in viewership from the season 1 finale with 8.3 million total viewers.
Hartley, 47, not only stars in the show but also serves as an executive producer alongside This Is Us producer and director Ken Olin. Hartley’s role behind the scenes has allowed him to surprise fans with exciting guest stars — including his wife, Sofia Pernas, and Jensen Ackles.
“I’m excited about it. It’s been a long time coming. Ken Olin and I built this show from the ground up years ago, before This Is Us even finished filming our final season. We’ve been at this for years, through a pandemic, and a strike, and on and on,” he told Entertainment Tonight in February. “We poured our hearts and souls into this thing and started working on this what seems like forever [ago]. It’s a labor of love for sure. I’m really proud of it and just happy to finally get a chance for people to see it.”
That same month, the actor opened up about how he made Colter appealing for all audience members, telling The Hollywood Reporter, “I think a lot of times, it’s all about the message or this political topic. Sometimes, it gets lost in the shuffle that we are entertainers. I want people to watch something and to be entertained.”
He continued: “Colter Shaw is not agenda-driven, necessarily. He’s a businessman. He takes the money, that’s how he makes his living. He’s not politically driven. He’s driven by doing the right thing. And, where does that come from? Well, that comes from his childhood, and we unpack that in the series.”
According to Hartley, season 2 is only getting bigger and better.
“We have a whole other season to shoot that we have to make better than season 1. So while we wanted all those story lines wrapped up, we also wanted those bows to sort of lead to other questions — bigger, deeper questions — about his past,” Hartley teased to Deadline in May. “So I think we did that in answering some of these questions that we had built up all year. I think we did a good job of making sure that the answers to those questions then lead to a bigger mystery, something that we can unpack in season 2.”
