Tracker: Jensen Ackles Debut Brings New Revelations About the Show’s Biggest Mystery

While every episode of Tracker‘s first season has seen Colter Shaw take on a different case, there has been one constant storyline underneath it all. In the pilot, flashbacks showed the death of Colter’s father, a complicated man who had a complicated relationship with his kids. From Colter’s point of view, it looked an awful lot like his older brother, Russell, pushed their father to his death. The events of that night have haunted Colter throughout his adult life, and have clearly been in the back of his mind during the events of . During Sunday’s penultimate episode, that Shaw family history was brought to the forefront, giving us the most revealing information about the incident since the premiere.

Sunday’s new episode of Tracker brought the debut of guest star Jensen Ackles, who played the adult version of Russell Shaw. Naturally, putting Colter and Russell together for the first time in years gave them the opportunity to talk about the elephant in the room, addressing what happened to their dad.

During “Off the Books,” Russell told Colter point-blank that he didn’t push their dad. Obviously he could be lying, and we don’t know yet whether or not he was, but he also offered up a little extra information. Russell explained to his little brother that there was someone else in the woods that night, someone who was responsible for their father’s death. He didn’t say much about who the person was, other than that they were a man and that he had seen the same man talking to their mother once prior to the incident. 

In last week’s episode, Colter’s younger sister told him that their mother hasn’t been completely truthful with him about their old life or their father’s death. He’s not only the only one who has believed their mom about everything, but he’s also the only one that stuck around to help her after she lost their dad. According to Russell, there’s a reason he didn’t stay.

Russell also told Colter that their mother told him to leave home and to not speak about what happened in the woods that night. She knew he saw someone else and didn’t want any of that information to get out. What she could be hiding has yet to be seen, but she clearly wanted to keep Colter from learning about it. If you remember, back in the second episode of the series, she warned Colter about talking to Russell. He tried getting in contact with both of them but she insisted that he could only bring trouble.

Much of this mystery will now revolve around what Mrs. Shaw might know, and it’ll be interesting to see if we have to wait for Season 2 to find out just what that might be.