‘Tracker’ Season 3 Doubles Down On Justin Hartley’s Biggest Concern

Tracker made some major cast changes in Season 3, supposedly to shake up the dynamic. And while some of the new additions have added intrigue to the story, like Mel (Cassady McClincy), the switch from Bobby (Eric Graise) to Randy (Chris Lee) doesn’t appear to solve the one concern Justin Hartley, who plays Colter, reportedly had about the direction of the show.

This has us wondering if the action drama changed a major character who could have remained in the cast for a supposed reason that hasn’t panned out.

Justin Hartley Didn’t Want ‘Tracker’ to Be a Phone-a-Friend

Image via CBS

In an interview with US Weekly while defending the decision to shake up the cast, Tracker‘s executive producer, Elwood Reid, said that he didn’t want the show to “be phone-a-friend” every week. I think that gets old,” he said. Reid notes that Hartley is the one who challenged him on that. “Do I need to call Bobby all the time?” the actor asked him. “Can I do this?” Justin Hartley himself requested that his character be more self-sufficient, rather than continuously rely on supporting characters.

Interestingly, Reid added that the show’s concept works because Hartley doesn’t rely so much on Reenie (Fiona Rene), Velma (Abby McEnany), another character who departed after Season 2, and Bobby. “He may talk to Bobby for one phone call. The show works because you are over Justin’s shoulder.”

This has rung true in some of the latest episodes, which have focused mostly on Colter in the field with different people he works with along the way, from his older brother Russell (Jensen Ackles) to police officers, search and rescue teams, and forest rangers. He’s arguably not the true “tracker,” however, unless he’s working a case out in the wild. Logically, not every case he works will be of this nature. However, when the story heads back to the city or even small towns, we begin to question whether the series has shifted from the “phone-a-friend” direction or not. In actuality, it seems to have become even more reliant on that angle.

In Episode 3, “Angel,” Randy is the Tracker

CBS

The most glaring evidence of this comes in Episode 3, “Angel,” when Colter is called in to find a missing crime scene cleaning crew member named Margot (Cassandra Naud). She didn’t show up to work in the morning, and her boss knows something is wrong. The first thing Colter does is ask Randy to scan Margot’s phone, but he finds nothing. Randy does find her vehicle, however, and sends its location to Colter. The first lead would not have happened without Randy.

When Colter gets there, he finds another phone hidden in the car, and who does he call? Randy. Colter pairs the device with his phone so that Randy can tap into it and see the messages she was sending and to whom. As it turns out, the messages were going to a burner phone, and of course, Randy finds the location of that phone, which so happens to be 20 miles away based on pings from a nearby cell tower. Off Colter goes to follow this next lead. Colter finds the car, but the young man speeds off, scared when Colter approaches. He snaps a photo of the license plate as the car is leaving, and you guessed it, sends it to Randy, who finds the owner that it’s registered to and an address.

Colter takes it from here for a time, working alongside the two young men. He learns they are friends of Margot’s, fellow true crime enthusiasts who are looking for her, too. Colter, with the help of the others, does make some discoveries using his own instincts, finally doing something other than following a trail of breadcrumbs Randy has neatly laid out for him.

Once Colter and his new friends notice that an angel wing symbol at the murder scene that likely led to Margot’s capture has appeared at others, he leans on Randy again to cross-reference several similar cases they found to see what a connecting link might be among them. Of course, it only takes Randy a few seconds to discover that the victims were all clients at the same therapy center. When Colter arrives at the home of the man he finds out worked with all the families (at least Colter figured that identity out himself), he tethers his phone to the man’s laptop so Randy can verify that he is indeed their culprit.

This latest episode is the most egregious example of how much Colter relies on technology for the career he chose, which is supposed to rely on his survival instincts, not gadgets. But it isn’t the only one. Throughout Tracker Season 3, this continues to happen, arguably more so than in the previous two seasons. Even in episodes where Colter is literally out in the wild, like in Episode 5, “The Old Ways,” he relies on Randy.

He had Randy look into the socials of missing teens in that episode to see if he could find any information that might lead them to where the kids were going. Randy comes through, noticing their interest in urban legends, which helps point Colter to where they were (with the help of search and rescue team member Luke Parsons, played by Emerson Brooks). Later, when Colter discovers one of their phones lying on the ground, he calls Randy to get insight about the app that’s on it and has Randy tap into the device to read the secret messages to help crack the case.

Colter is the Heart, but Phone-a-Friend Remains In ‘Tracker’

Image via CBS

Colter is still at the heart of the show, the one with the intuition and guts to get involved in dangerous situations, putting his life at risk for the sake of others and his job. It’s important not to minimize this. But the reality is that if cutting Velma and Bobby from the story was meant to allow Colter to work more on his own, that didn’t pan out. Mel as a Velma replacement might provide another interesting angle to the story that we haven’t figured out yet, but Randy is basically a carbon copy of Bobby, doing the same thing in the same way. Except now, he’s in an office with Reenie, so it doesn’t appear he’ll be leaving any time soon, instead of a dark room by himself like Bobby.

Randy arguably gets even more screen time than Bobby ever did, and Colter relies on him more. In Episode 2, he even brings Randy into the fold to meet with Russell. He’s also entrusting Randy with digging into the details of the mysterious scientist David Pearson and how this connects to his father’s death. The truth of the matter is that Randy doesn’t just help Colter; Colter couldn’t do his job without Randy.

He’d likely be running circles without the solid leads on locations that Randy provides time and time again. He’s the brawn with great instincts, particularly when a search takes him into the mountains or remote locations. But Randy is the brains. This isn’t a bad thing. Jack Bauer from 24, after all, would have been nothing without Chloe O’Brien. The issue is that the dynamic doesn’t sit with the earlier statements about shifting the show away from Colter relying so much on the team and focusing more on him working with others to use his gut instincts and MacGyver-like skills.

The implication, then, is that Randy came in to simply bring a different flavor to the show, not reduce Colter’s reliance on tech support as was initially declared. “There was a real warmth and fun when he came in. It was something that I think we were missing a little bit too in some episodes. He was just immediately fun when he came in. With those dynamics,” said Reid when talking to US Weekly in November 2025, well into Season 3, “and in playing with this team dynamic, that’s all stuff we’re going to continue to play with in Season 3 as the show evolves.”

Thus, if Hartley was hoping that the “phone-a-friend” dynamic would change, it looks like that won’t be happening any time soon; at least not in cases that don’t take place in the woods, but even sometimes in ones that do. Everyone needs tech support now and then. For Colter, it seems he needs it more often than not. Randy is his Chloe. He’s phoning a friend more than ever. It’s just a different friend this time.