It’s been a few months since Tracker concluded its pulse-pounding third season, providing Colter Shaw (Justin Hartley) with some closure regarding his father’s murder all those years ago. But with the conclusion of the Ashton Shaw (Lee Tergesen) mystery and the departure of his brother Russell (Jensen Ackles) for the time being, it feels like, in some ways, Tracker‘s main narrative has come to a close. The mystery we’ve been meditating on since the pilot has been solved, which leads us to wonder: What is Colter Shaw going to do next?
‘Tracker’ Just Solved Its Biggest Mystery — So Where Does It Go From Here?
At the tail end of the Season 3 finale, «The Best Ones,» we discover that Colter has an «off the books» home somewhere in the Pacific Northwest that basically nobody knows about. Well, except for John Keaton (Brent Sexton), who hauls Ashton’s old truck up from Echo Ridge so that the famed rewardist can put the pieces back together. As they ponder their own messy family histories, Colter expresses his dissatisfaction with the truth surrounding his father’s death. Nevertheless, he has found peace with the fact that Ashton was trying to do the right thing by leaving the Chrono Stasis Institute behind — even if his increasing paranoia cost him his life. With seemingly no intention of pursuing the Chrono Stasis folks any further — and Russell making the sacrifice play by keeping the government off his brother’s back — Tracker is going to have to change its direction if it wants to keep viewers guessing as to where Colter will go next.
Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz Which Action Hero Would Be Your Perfect Partner? Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt
Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn’t work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back.
🎖️Rambo
🍸James Bond
🏺Indiana Jones
🔧John McClane
🎭Ethan Hunt
01
You’re dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you.
02
You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission.
03
You’re pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of.
04
The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are.
05
How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability.
06
Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership.
07
Things go badly wrong and you’re captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters.
08
What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn’t replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn’t know you had.
09
Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.
10
It’s the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one.
Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…
Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Rambo
Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.
James Bond
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
Indiana Jones
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
John McClane
Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Ethan Hunt
Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
Since the series began, Tracker has meditated on the complicated relationship that Colter had with his father. Sometimes he recalls the survival instincts and skills Ashton taught him with a grateful demeanor, but other times he wrestles with the harshness of his somewhat traumatic upbringing. Either way, this mystery has been baked into the Tracker formula from the very beginning, and with the show now concluding such a vital element of its run thus far, something must take its place in order for it to continue to thrive as it has. Season 2 famously spent much of its first half investigating the disappearance of Gina Picket (Lina Lecompte), while the two-part third season opener, «The Process,» launched a multi-episode mystery with future potential. While we don’t have a clear direction yet for what new thread Colter will unravel, there are already some impending changes coming to Season 4 fans should look out for.
Colter Shaw Needs Some New Material for ‘Tracker’ Season 4
When it comes to the sort of cases that Colter Shaw will devote himself to in Season 4, we can (at least on some level) expect more of the same. No doubt, the Tracker formula won’t be shifting between seasons, and our favorite reward-seeking hero will still be making his way around the country to find himself in the middle of new and thrilling cases. That said, there are some things about the CBS procedural that will be changing — quite noticeably, in fact. Trading in the north-west feel of Vancouver for sunny Los Angeles, Tracker is officially moving production for its fourth season. This change-up came at just the right time as the Shaws sold off Echo Ridge and have officially cut ties with the story geographically tying them there.
Tracker has always found new ways to keep Colter’s latest cases fresh and engaging, between introducing new characters, raising the stakes with multipart stories, and offering a mixture of deeply personal and action-packed adventures. To expect anything less at this point would be silly, especially in the wake of how well-balanced the third season was in this regard. So long as there’s a new long-term thread for Colter to follow, Tracker will be back in business this fall.
