'Tracker' Season 4 Officially Reveals Colter Shaw's Replacement

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Tracker Season 4, Episode 5.It’s been a while since Tracker really leaned into Reenie Greene’s (Fiona Rene) love life, but with Colter Shaw (Justin Hartley) now going out with Jenna Nova (Gillian Bolt), it’s about time. Although Reenie has been partnered up with Elliott Rusch (Michael Rady) in the past and clearly had some sort of history with newcomer Adam Shevlin (Michael Malarkey), most have hoped that she and Colter would give things a try officially in the future. Well, if you’re in that camp, prepare yourself, because this week’s episode, “Need to Know,” seems to be actively setting up a romance between Reenie and Colter’s brother, Russell (Jensen Ackles).

‘Tracker’ Just Set Up Reenie and Russell on an Actual Date

“Need to Know” reunites Colter and Russell in an explosive mystery that reminds us just why these two work so well together. There’s no doubt that Russell’s appearances offer some of the best material on the CBS procedural, and many wait all season for Jensen Ackles’ return just because his on-screen chemistry with Justin Hartley is so effortless. But the episode also (sort of) reunited Russell with Reenie now that the elder Shaw brother is back in the States — and their interactions were kind of, well, interesting. Since Reenie was in Denver and Russell in Atlanta, all of their banter was solely over the phone. That’s a far cry from their on-screen chemistry last season during the two-part “The Process” premiere. However, Tracker knows that this wasn’t ideal, and so the episode concludes with the pair setting up a date for the next week in Colorado, which came as a bit of a shock.

Tracker works because the case changes every week and the four people
solving it never do. Here is which of them you are, what it says about you, and the case for yours
being the best of the four.

You would rather handle it yourself and you are usually capable
of doing so. Colter is a survivalist who lives in an Airstream and takes reward money for
finding missing people, which is a premise that only works because he is clearly running
from something of his own.

• You are competent and self-contained, and the people who love you find both of those
  slightly difficult.
• The show premiered after the Super Bowl in February 2024 and became the most watched new
  drama of that season.
• Justin Hartley came straight off This Is Us into it, which is about as hard a pivot as
  network TV offers.
• Your flaw is that handling everything yourself is a decision, not a personality, and
  people can tell.

You know somebody, and that somebody owes you a favour. Reenie is
the lawyer Colter calls when a case needs a door opened legally, and she is the only person
on the show who can get further with a phone call than he can on foot.

• Your network is your real skill, and you have been quietly building it for years.
• She was promoted to a series regular because the audience responded to her faster than
  anybody planned for.
• Every episode where she takes the lead is an argument that the show should let her do it
  more often.
• Your risk is that being the fixer for everybody leaves nobody fixing things for you.

You are two steps ahead and you rarely mention it. Bobby is the
one who finds the thing that unlocks the case, usually from a desk, usually about ninety
seconds before anybody realises they needed it.

• You do the part of the work nobody sees and you are completely fine with that, mostly.
• Eric Graise brought the character in from the pilot and he has grown into the show’s
  best deadpan.
• Every procedural needs this role and very few of them make it this watchable.
• Your weakness is assuming people have noticed what you did, because they have not.

You turn up, change the temperature of the room, and leave people
arguing about you. Russell is Colter’s brother, ex-military, and the show has never once let
the audience settle on whether he is a help or a problem, which is exactly why he keeps
coming back.

• You are the most interesting person in most rooms and the hardest to plan around.
• Jensen Ackles arrived in the first season and the response was strong enough that CBS
  kept bringing him back.
• Fifteen years of Supernatural means he can play charming and unsettling in the same line
  reading.
• Your flaw is that keeping people guessing is fun for you and tiring for everybody else.

In fact, their whole back-and-forth this week was a bit strange, which is why we think that Tracker may just be setting up an actual romance here. There’s a strange scene midway through the episode where Russell is on his way to meet up with Grant Valko (Jeff Pierre) and Reenie to simply “check in.” It seems like she’s been trying to keep up with him for months, ever since he went AWOL at the end of Season 3, and calls again here to make sure he’s okay. To us, it seems like Colter’s resident lawyer may be pining after his brother.

Although this may disappoint some long-term fans of the show hoping (probably against hope) that Reenie would end up with the younger Shaw brother, it leads us to wonder how a Reenie and Russell romance would even work. Will Russell even let Reenie get that close with the secret he knows about Colter and their father hanging over his head? It’s clear he’s not yet free from his responsibilities to McIntyre (Glenn Morshower), as “Need to Know” began with him still overseas on mission. It seems like any real personal life is off the table for the time being — at least, unless CBS is setting something else up.

This Romance Can Only Work If Jensen Ackles Gets a ‘Tracker’ Spin-Off

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If Tracker intends to continue putting in the extra effort to advance their on-screen chemistry, the show may have to expand beyond its network television boundaries. Sure, long-distance relationships can work, but it makes for challenging television at the least — especially if Russell only shows up a handful of times per year. Perhaps the best thing to do would be to expand Russell’s story beyond Colter’s regularly scheduled program. Fans have been hoping for a Russell Shaw spin-off almost since he first appeared on the show, and this may be the perfect way to light that fire. While we wouldn’t dream of a series that would take him out of Colter’s own story long-term, something like a short-form Paramount+ series (or miniseries) that puts Ackles in the driver’s seat with Fiona Rene as his co-pilot could work.

A Russell-led show, even a short one, that brought in Reenie as a co-lead or supporting character could be just what he needs to (1) get out of his latest shady government contract work and (2) highlight the romantic potential between these two characters. Occasional conversations over the phone just don’t cut it, but something like The Terminal List with Russell Shaw in the lead as he and Reenie tear down a government conspiracy would absolutely bring in an audience. Colter could even show up to offer support near the end, though it’s more likely that Russell would do his best to keep his brother out of danger. (Maybe that’s where his old buddy Grant, or even Melissa Roxburgh‘s Dory Shaw, could come in.) Of course, Tracker could always become a rotating show like Maverick back in the day… No doubt, the potential for Russell and Reenie is absolutely there, if Tracker plays its cards right.

Tracker airs Sundays on CBS and is available for streaming the next day on Paramount+.