Tracker Gets Supernatural in Jensen Ackles’ Return — What Did We Learn About Colter and Russell’s Father?
A supernatural case brings Jensen Ackles’ Russell Shaw back into the fold during Sunday’s Tracker. How appropriate.
When Colter suddenly disappears during his search for Scott Palmer, a missing father tracking unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), Reenie recruits Russell to find his brother and return him to safety. He tracks Colter to a Department of Defense black site, where he’s being held by an unnamed government official (played by The Glades’ Matt Passmore). After he breaks him out, Russell tells Colter that he was “close by, cleaning up a mess.” He’s working for “private contractors again” — but that is all that he reveals about what he’s been up to since he first reentered Colter’s life in Season 1.
Despite all evidence pointing to the existence of UAP, Colter has his doubts. Russell, on the other hand, suggests he’s seen some things — and his belief, we learn, was influenced by their father.
“Remember that time when we were kids, when Dad took us up to Eagle Head Rock to show us the lights in the sky?” he asks Colter. “Come on, you remember! You had your little spaceship pajamas on. You asked Dad what the lights were, and he pointed to the spaceship on your little jammy shirt.”
They eventually track Palmer to a UAP landing site, where Russell is confronted by the aforementioned government official who held Colter captive. When Russell cracks wise, this unnamed official tells him, “You’re like your father, Ashton Shaw. You have a long family history of getting in the government’s way.” (Something tells us this won’t be the last we see of this guy.)
After they save Palmer and return him to his daughter, Colter and Russell hit the open road in Russell’s 1967 Chevrolet Impala 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu SS Convertible, at which point Colter confronts Russell about Dory’s “secret box of Dad’s stuff.” He asks Russell if he knows anything about it — but rather than offer a yes or no answer, Russell asks Colter if he knows what’s in said box. Once Colter says he doesn’t know, Russell tells him that it’s “probably a bunch of junk… who cares?” But Colter thinks it’s weird that their sister has this box that she didn’t mention to either one of them.
“Well, you know what I think? I think she didn’t want you going down some rabbit hole like you surely would,” Russell responds. (He totally knows something Colter doesn’t know… right?)
Russell ultimately drops Colter off on the side of the road to retrieve his truck. When Colter asks why Russell won’t drive him any further into the woods, his big brother answers, “this baby doesn’t drive on gravel.” Heh!
