How ‘Tracker’ Just Set up Jensen Ackles’ Finale Return as Russell

Tracker, as it nears its Season 3 finale in about a month (May 24), has just set up a major return — Russell (Jensen Ackles — with the most recent episode. The April 26 “Alaskan Wild” sees Colter (Justin Hartley) continuing to look for answers regarding what his father was up to before his death. Warning: Spoilers for Tracker Season 3 Episode 18 ahead!

Colter heads to Brineport, Alaska, to find Buck Avery (Michael O’Neill), who knows that the rewardist has been asking around about him. Colter explains that his father, Ashton, spent time up there, four months before he died 20 years ago.

Once inside Buck’s home, Colter explains that he’s been going through his father’s old journals and notes and it looks like he was working for the government at some point. Ashton was a professor at Berkeley until something happened and he got fired, then he moved his entire family to a compound in the middle of the forest. From there, everything changed.

Colter’s specifically looking into his father’s involvement with something called the Chronostasis Institute, and Buck explains his family leased part of the land of the valley to government contractors who had a secret lab, a research facility. Everyone had to sign NDAs, but Buck’s too old to care. It was all DARPA-funded, and they were running experiments involving the weather and northern lights. After the accident, they left. Buck doesn’t know any details about that accident, directing Colter to Dr. Serena Euckidge, another researcher who rented a cabin up there. She’d mentioned the accident but that was it. A month later, the whole thing was shut down and it was like it never existed.

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Colter’s father was up there when the accident happened, but Buck doesn’t know what he was doing. Serena’s not the type he can just look up online, Buck tells him. She was deep in whatever mess was going on at the lab, then she was gone.

After Colter wraps his case of the episode, he calls his brother, Russell, and leaves him a voicemail: “It’s your favorite brother. Listen, I don’t know where in the world you might be right now, but I found out who dad was working with before he died. It runs pretty deep, government cover-up. I got a name. Serena Euckidge. Was thinking you might want to help me track her down. Alright, call me back.”

Ackles returns in the May 24 finale, titled “The Best Ones.” According to CBS, “Colter and Russell search for a victim of a nefarious research project.” That could very well be related to the “accident.”

What are your theories about the Chronostasis Institute and Russell’s return? Let us know in the comments section below.

Tracker, Sundays, 9/8c, CBS