We now have new information surrounding Jensen Ackles' participation in season 4 of Tracker!
As part of TVLine's fall TV preview, Tracker showrunner Elwood Reid teased the potential for Ackles to take on a bigger role in the show's upcoming season. Reid says he would like to see the actor appear in a large block of episodes dealing with the fallout of the season 3 finale.
If you remember, Tracker's season 3 finale saw Russell confront MacIntyre, the man behind the secret government project his father worked on. While Russell initially went there to "cut off the head of the snake," he ended up being blackmailed by MacIntyre, who threatened to expose something horrific that Colter's father did to him as a child. However, he offered to destroy the file if Russell did a job for him.
"We thought it would be fun to have one of the brothers hold a secret," Reid explained, noting that it could "create some tension" between the two.
Tracker season 4 is gearing up to be the best one yet
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Justin Hartley shared his excitement for Russell's arc, calling season 4 the show's "most ambitious yet."
"As an audience member we know something that Colter doesn't know," Hartley said. "This is the first time that the audience in any way has been ahead of Colter. It'll be an interesting perspective."
Russell's secret will no doubt create tension between the brothers, but Hartley isn't concerned. "Whatever Russell is doing, whatever secrets he's keeping from Colter, he's doing it to protect Colter. And I think Colter's smart enough to realize that," the actor shared.
This begs the question: what's actually in the file? MacIntyre alluded to something pretty horrific in there and was adamant that it was all true. And judging by Russell's reaction, he believes the same. But we weren't given any details as to what actually happened to Colter.
The only thing we can infer is that Colter was most likely experimented on by his father. In season 3, we learned that Chrono Stasis was a government-sanctioned project involving kids with savant syndrome. Colter and Russell discovered that the government was kidnapping children with the condition to experiment on them. If they proved useful, the kids were then designated for military purposes, including but not limited to psychological warfare and combat strategy.
Therefore, it is not far-fetched to believe that Colter's father used information he collected from experiments on his son to start the project. Colter doesn't necessarily present as a savant, but he's smart, creative, and has a unique set of skills that allow him to find people who are lost. It wouldn't surprise us to find out he possessed one or more of these qualities as a child, hence his father experimenting on him.
Tracker season 4 premieres Oct. 4, at 9:30 pm on CBS.
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