Justin Hartley‘s CBS series Tracker faced the challenge of writing off a major cast member following a surprising exit. The show’s execution of this onscreen change was revealed during the season 2 premiere on Sunday, October 13. Velma (Abby McEnany) mentioned some distance between her and her wife, Teddi (Robin Weigert), explaining that Teddi would be away for a while to help her mom get sorted. This paved the way for Velma to spend more time helping Reenie (Fiona Rene) and signaled a shift in the storyline.
It was confirmed in August that Weigert would not return as a series regular after appearing consistently throughout the first season. Weigert’s character, Teddi, played a significant role alongside McEnany’s character, and Hartley’s character, Colter, in solving missing persons cases across the country for the reward money.
Hartley hinted at the evolving storylines in the second season, revealing that Reenie would be leaving her firm to strike out on her own, leading to a new dynamic as she teams up with Velma. This narrative shakeup also meant that Velma would be pursuing a new job while her wife was away, setting the stage for a shift in the character dynamics.
Additionally, Hartley explained how Jensen Ackles and Melissa Roxburgh would return to play his character’s siblings despite their busy schedules. The show, based on Jeffery Deaver’s novel The Never Game, gained a strong following after premiering in February and was the most watched series of the 2023-24 TV season, leading to its renewal for a second season.
Tracker’s success has paved the way for new cases for Colter to solve, promising an engaging and thrilling second season for fans of the show.
“We have a whole other season to shoot that we have to make better than Season 1. So while we wanted all those story lines wrapped up, we also wanted those bows to sort of lead to other questions — bigger, deeper questions — about his past,” Hartley told Deadline in May about future plans for the show. “So I think we did that in answering some of these questions that we had built up all year. I think we did a good job of making sure that the answers to those questions then lead to a bigger mystery, something that we can unpack in season 2.”
