Tracker: What’s Going on With Colter’s Mysterious Brother?

Tracker’s series premiere sets up a major mystery for the rest of the season.

February 12, 2024, 12:14am

"Klamath Falls" – Colter Shaw, a lone-wolf survivalist who roams the country as a reward seeker, using his expert tracking skills to help private citizens and law enforcement solve all manner of mysteries while contending with his own fractured family. In the premiere episode, Colter's handlers, Velma and Teddi Bruin, send him to Klamath Falls, Ore., to investigate the disappearance of 14-year-old Gil Brown who is suspected to have been taken by his birth dad with a criminal background. While pursuing a lead at a local burger joint based on intel from tech genius Bobby Exley, Colter finds himself in some trouble of his own requiring help from legal mind Reenie Greene, on the series premiere of TRACKER, Sunday, Feb. 11 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network and also available on the CBS app and streaming on Paramount+(live and on demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the episode airs)*. The series is based on the bestselling novel The Never Game by Jeffery Deaver. Pictured: Justin Hartley as Colter Shaw. Photo: Michael Courtney/CBS ©2022 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

CBS is setting up Tracker as its next big drama series, giving the Justin Hartley starring thriller the slot immediately following the Super Bowl. The series kicked off with a ton of viewership on Sunday night, and the final minutes of the episode likely left all those new fans with some questions. Chief among them is about Colter Shaw’s brother, Russell. Between the flashbacks and the shady phone calls, Russell’s existence is the show’s biggest mystery heading into its second episode.

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WARNING: This story contains MAJOR SPOILERS for the series premiere of Tracker. Continue reading at your own risk…

Throughout the premiere, Tracker slowly revealed Colter’s past to viewers. After his dad, Ashton, got into a rough situation with some dangerous people, he moved the entire family out into a remote cabin where he trained them to survive. The training worked, but it also came with some physical abuse from their father. Ashton’s abuse of Colter’s younger sister caused Russell to act.

Both Ashton and Russell got lost out in the woods trying to see who was after them. Colter went out to find them and came across his father’s dead body, with Russell standing on top of a cliff behind him. Russell clearly pushed their father to his death, and the brothers haven’t really been connected since.

Where things get interesting is in the modern timeline of the story. Multiple times in the episode, Colter gets a mysterious phone call. One of them goes to his work partners, Teddi and Velma. Another goes to his personal phone. Someone is trying to track him down, and that someone is Russell Shaw.

There’s no telling what Russell wants, but there is clearly something he wants. Colter’s mother even warns him about the calls, saying he needs to never answer them or even try to hear what Russell has to say. That makes it seem like perhaps Russell isn’t the villain in the situation after all. Could Russell have some information about their family’s history that Colter isn’t aware of? Either way, it appears something complicated is brewing for the Shaw family.

What did you think about the first episode of Tracker? Do you have any theories about what Colter’s brother could be up to? Let us know in the comments!

New episodes of Tracker air on Sunday nights at 9pm ET on CBS.