Colter Calls Russell, Setting up Jensen Ackles’ Return

If there’s one thing that we the audience and Colter (Justin Hartley) know about Russell (Jensen Ackles), it’s that he gets up to some shady stuff that he just doesn’t and can’t talk to his brother about. But right now, he’s actually keeping something about Colter from Colter. Will what happens when the rewardist tries to reach Colter set off any alarm bells, or will he think that it’s just Russell being Russell? Warning: Spoilers for Tracker Season 4 Episode 2 ahead! 

At the beginning of the episode, Colter tries to reach his brother but gets his voicemail: “Hey, Russell, it’s your favorite brother. Give me a call, just want talk to you about, uh… Just been a while. Haven’t heard from you. So, you know, give me a call if you get time. Hope you’re well.”

Then, at the end, Russell has texted, “Sorry I’ve been MIA. Been real busy. talk soon.” Colter asks, “Are you OK?” and the three dots appear signaling that Russell’s typing but then disappear without a message sent.

Last we saw Russell in the Season 3 finale, he took a shady job to keep Colter from finding out what was in a government file about what their father did to him. But don’t expect Colter to become wise to the fact that Russell’s purposefully keeping something from him … at least not so fast.

“I don’t think necessarily he’s suspecting anything new. I also think that he always assumes that his brother is keeping something from him,” Hartley told TV Insider ahead of the season. “So I don’t know if it completely changes. I don’t think there’s anything new necessarily about his brother, new suspicions, but I think that this lingering suspicion that his brother’s always keeping something from him is still there.”

So when Ackles does return onscreen in the fifth episode, the brothers’ relationship is solid. When they do reunite, it’s because Russell needs Colter’s help.

“One of his buddies is in dire straits, big time dire straits. And not a self-inflicted thing, just sort of something that happened to him and he thinks of his brother Colter, and he’s like, ‘I bet you Colter can help you with this,’” Hartley said. “So he reaches out and of course Colter’s willing to help and it reunites the two brothers and they go on this pretty epic journey.”

He also is hopeful that Ackles will return for more than just this one upcoming episode in Season 4.

Elsewhere in the episode, Tracker is finally digging into Mel’s (Cassady McClincy Zhang) mom’s murder. She was killed in a rest stop parking lot when Mel was 16. Now, Mel asks Reenie (Fiona Rene) for help.

“I signed up for these text alerts whenever her name comes up online and it’s usually just, like, podcasts, transcripts, and true crime forums, that kind of stuff,” she explains. “It’s probably nothing, but I came across the name of this military officer that my mom worked with in the weeks before she was murdered. … I just saw that he retired early. It was an honorable discharge, but it’s just weird.”

Mike Taing/CBS

His records are blocked, and while she thinks it could be due to military clearance, Reenie offers to reach out to one of her contacts. However, as Reenie’s contact informs her, Eric Jeffries wasn’t honorably discharged. She also receives his file, which lists an “other than honorable discharge” and his status as “absent without leave (AWOL), dropped from rolls.” She doesn’t tell Mel.

What did you think of the episode? Let us know in the comments section below.

Tracker, Sundays, 9/8c, CBS