Did ‘Tracker’ Season 4 Premiere Just Reveal First Details About Colter’s New Ongoing Mystery?

When Tracker Season 3 ended, it did so with a new mystery for Colter (Justin Hartley) … only he doesn’t know it yet. His brother Russell (Jensen Ackles) accepted a shady job in order to keep him in the dark about something their father did to him as a kid that’s in a government file. And so, with Russell not in the picture at the moment (Ackles is returning!), that isn’t addressed in the Season 4 premiere. But a new mystery is introduced. Warning: Spoilers for the Tracker Season 4 premiere ahead!

The first time we see Colter, he’s in his trailer, starting his day. He picks up a notebook, flipping through it and past completed jobs before landing on a page with an ongoing one. The writing on the page reads: “Attempted to talk to employer no answer, no one on site — 2 attempts. Follow-up call with M three days later. This time he was more willing to talk. Told me he was home that night and they talked about plans for the next day. She left. Reported seen getting into a car. WHOSE CAR WAS IT?” Colter looks troubled.

Tyler Golden/CBS

This seems to be setting up the new ongoing storyline that Hartley teased to TV Insider ahead of the season.

“There’ll be something that sort of haunts Colter, and you’ll see a little bit of a hint of it in the premiere. And then of course, as we do on Tracker, it comes back full circle,” he previewed. “It has to do with his job. It’s not necessarily a white whale case. It’s just sort of a color that you haven’t seen before with him. We’re used to seeing him look for someone or something and then find it after a struggle. I don’t think that’s always the case, where people get everything they want.”

He continued, “There’s that old saying — what is it? ‘If you work hard enough, you can accomplish anything.’ I don’t really think that’s true. I really don’t. I think if you work really, really hard at something, or the hardest you’ve ever worked at something, I don’t think that means you’re going to get that thing. I think there are other elements at play. So, in keeping with our theme of the show where he’s human, he’s not a superhero, he does have faults, he does fail, that kind of stuff does weigh on him and bug him, we’re going to tap into that a little bit, which, of course, I’m excited about.”

The premiere also caught up with Reenie (Fiona Rene) and her love life … setting up the return of someone from her past. Maxine (Kathleen Robertson) mentions that her in-house investigator asked about her. And when she tells Reenie his name — Adam Shevlin — the other woman reveals, “I did [know him] many, many years ago.” Maxine comments, “I don’t know what he was like back then, but I will say he’s very smart, he’s very cute, and he’s not married.” But Reenie stops her: “Please do not do that. … It’s a very long story.”

Michael Malarkey debuts as Adam in Episode 3, with the description teasing, “an unexpected reunion with an old friend leaves Reenie revisiting her past.” When Malarkey’s casting was announced, CBS described Adam as “disarmingly handsome, intelligent and sophisticated, but with a bit of a bad-boy undercurrent” and revealed that his and Reenie’s “familiar banter brings questions about their history and possible future.” We’re intrigued!

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

Tracker, Sundays, 9/8c, CBS