After opening the new season with a two-part bang, Tracker Season 3 has upped the ante by introducing a threat that goes beyond the physical. With “The Process,” Colter Shaw (Justin Hartley) met his match as he went up not just against those blackmailed into committing unspeakable acts, but an algorithm that exists solely to uncover the secrets of even the most careful. For a rewardist holding one of the darkest family secrets of all, this isn’t exactly good news. But after only two episodes, Colter and his brother Russell (Jensen Ackles) were able to seemingly derail The Process for good, but perhaps this plotline ought to extend a bit further…
‘Tracker’s “The Process” Arc Isn’t Fully Complete
When The Process is first introduced, Tracker frames the blackmail chain as being run by some secret conspiratorial group. Whoever is behind it knows how to get sensitive information on those it inducts into the program, using others to gather physical evidence and even commit murder if necessary. But it isn’t long before Colter uncovers the truth. As it turns out, The Process initially began as a university experiment by Dr. Susana Tate (Lesley Fera), who ran it with her master’s students. But, when the experiment began to go awry, with many of the students running it showing sociopathic tendencies, Tate cancelled it entirely. This means that there were an unknown number of people exposed to this idea to begin with, people who may still be traumatized by the events.
We learn in “Leverage” that there are three students in particular who opposed Tate’s decision to close the experiment. Yet, of those three, only two were introduced near the end of the two-part season opener, as Tracker revealed that they were the minds behind the aforementioned algorithm. Although Colter and Russell destroyed the machine that ran said program, Don Schneider (Lenny Jacobson) and Philip Jost (Timothy Wallace) were the ones ultimately responsible for The Process, which had been running for about a decade by the time the Shaw brothers put an end to it. But the whole ending seemed to occur too quickly for our comfort. Some viewers have rightly pointed out that the dots connected between Tate and, eventually, her students were done so almost too quickly.
While it’s possible that Tate was hiding something, or perhaps being secretly blackmailed herself, the main issue with The Process plotline is that it doesn’t feel complete. Colter and Russell may have destroyed the program, but that knowledge, that experiment, is still out there and could easily be used again. In fact, there’s still one other student whom Tate names that could easily be connected to this program (whether it’s another algorithm or a similarly structured crime ring) to continue The Process beyond what we saw in these opening episodes. Much like “The Teacher” arc last season, Tracker may be setting up a larger plotline worthy of closer examination. If the writers behind the show were smart (like we know they are), this won’t be the end of it.
Gillian Meeks May Be ‘Tracker’s Missing Link — and Might Be Even More Sinister Than Her Predecessors
From what Dr. Tate tells Colter, there is at least one other student who would’ve been capable of seeing this sort of experiment through: Gillian Meeks. Meeks isn’t found with Schneider and Jost when the Shaw brothers take them out, and it appears that she had nothing to do with their version of “The Process” at all. As far as Tracker reveals, Meeks is nothing more than a quick name to be dropped to Colter during an interview that has no bearing on the larger story. But if Season 3 is going in the direction that we think it might, it would be a fascinating twist to see The Process come back into play later as the third season progresses. Perhaps these are the “dark forces” that Justin Hartley teased ahead of the new season. Tate notes that Meeks might be somewhere in Europe, but maybe she was more involved in the conspiracy than we thought, possibly as a “silent” partner?
It’s possible that Colter putting an end to the program could push someone like Meeks out of hiding, forcing her to do something about the one person who was able to beat The Process at its own game. The concept is certainly a compelling one, especially if Meeks holds some sort of grudge against the Shaws for what happened to the others. If those in Colter’s life were blackmailed against him, folks like Reenie (Fiona Rene) or Randy (Chris Lee) or even newcomer Mel (Cassady McClincy Zhang), it could make for a riveting sequel to what we see in the first two episodes — whether it’s one-and-done or multi-episode. Right now, Meeks is only untapped potential. We know nothing about this character other than her name, leaving everything up to the imagination of the creatives behind the show. Here’s hoping that they’re able to tie all this back in later on and that The Process will become a bigger threat as time goes on.
‘Tracker’ Season 3 Seems to Be Rebranding the Show In the Best Ways
But whether The Process or Gillian Meeks show up again (or for the first time) on Tracker or not, it seems to us that the show is going in the right direction. After a second season that started strong, wavered in the middle and then finished off well, the removal of certain cast members and the paring down of Colter’s main team has streamlined the series into something more effective. The introduction of Mel Day in the third episode makes us a little nervous that the show is going to repeat the same mistakes it made with the Bruins in the first two seasons, but hopefully Tracker will prove us wrong. More characters isn’t inherantly a bad thing (Russell worked great in the opening episodes), it just means we’re juggling more stories every week.
Although The Process story took up the majority of the first two episodes, it seems that Tracker has been able to transition back to being a largely one-man show, with the titular rewardist back in the limelight doing what he does best. “First Fire” was a great follow-up that gets back to the core of what makes a show like this work so well, even if it does introduce a few new elements that may carry throughout this new season. But however Season 3 shapes up, Tracker has shown that it’s still as good as ever, and the show continues to keep us on the edge of our seats.
Tracker airs Sundays on CBS and is available for streaming the next day on Paramount+.
- Release Date
-
February 11, 2024
- Showrunner
-
Elwood Reid
-
Justin Hartley
Colter Shaw
-
