Tracker season 2 finale merely open the door to several more questions.

The Shaw family has been strained since the show began, but the heat has certainly been turned up for Tracker season 3, which Reid confirmed would begin filming in mid-July. With the writers' room opening in two weeks, the exact nature of Colter's investigations into his family (and inevitable discussions with his siblings) have yet to take shape, but Reid and his team are already well aware of how they plan to dive further into both his psyche and the characters who surround him.

ScreenRant interviewed Reid about his approach to the central mystery in the Tracker season 2 finale, as well as how the world of the show will expand in season 3. The showrunner expressed his interest in bringing back Colter's brother Russell (played by The Boys and Supernatural star Jensen Ackles), as well as his plans to flesh out Reenie's (Fiona Rene) storyline — whether or not she and Colter ever get romantic.

Tracker Season 3 Will Expand The Shocking Season 2 Finale Reveal About Colter’s Mother

“He’s Going To Be Presented With Bigger Mysteries”

ScreenRant: We know that it was Colter's mom who had his father killed. Is that something that we should assume season 3 is going to focus on, and is Colter going to be sitting on this information at all?

Elwood Reid: Partially. If you think about what was said in the finale, for the first time, he got confirmation that there was somebody else up there. And then he got confirmation that his mother had something to do with it, so there are a lot of unanswered questions that I think we're going to get into in the first episode.

We've laid a lot of Easter eggs for this throughout the season, but I don't think the answer to what was going on with his family and his father and his mother can be solved in one scene. I think it's much more complicated, so as the season's going to go on, he's going to get some answers, but then he's going to be presented with bigger mysteries.

One of the things that is interesting with the character of Colter is, "How does he carry that stuff?" Because he's talking to people in really extreme situations that are missing somebody that they love, their child or their husband or their wife, and he's this steady, calm presence for them. But here's a guy that has a lot of unanswered questions in his own personal life, and he very rarely talks to even people on this team about it. They poke. Reenie pokes, and I think Billie's poked at it a few times, but he doesn't give much of it up.

That's something Justin and I have talked a lot about; him having that in his belly a little bit to feed on while he's doing these cases. It's just there in the performance.

ScreenRant: Can we expect more cases next season that might interconnect with what happened?

Elwood Reid: Yes. I'm hoping there's going to be a case at first that will kind of be dismissed, but it'll be something that will backdoor or catch into something his father may or may not have been involved in.

I don't want to give too much away, but it's about figuring out how to be able to tell these stories on network television. How do you parcel out those arcs over a 22-episode season? If the show becomes serialized, it'll be too hard for people to get into. It's about being able to put that stuff into each episode; to just have a little morsel of it so that regular viewers have something they feel they're following. That's always the balance with the show.

ScreenRant: I love that Colter went a little darker this episode, which makes sense given the nature of the case. But with this being network TV, do you ever have any trouble deciding how dark he should go?

Elwood Reid: No, and it's so funny that people bring that up. Maybe it's just the perception that people have of network TV, but I think that network TV at its best does all of those things. If this was a jokey case-of-the-week show, I think people would get bored.

Justin has those skills in his toolbox, and he's really good at playing different things. You see him with Billie, and they're fun, but then the episode ends with them learning something emotional and dark about Billy's past. You get to see the episode with him and Randy, which is kind of fun and light, but I think to have those episodes, you have to have the darkness. Week in and week out, he's dealing with people who have been taken for usually pretty dark reasons.

For the finale, one of the ideas going in was that this was his hometown, where he had this pretty heavy thing happen to him, so we went back there and had this really dark case about child trafficking. I think that the show works well when it can go into those dark places and also those light places; it's just about modulating and mixing those up throughout the season.

On the other hand, I don't think the show could be completely dark every single week. People wouldn't tune in. I think they tune in because they get to see Justin flex different muscles every week. We did episode 16, which was a bonkers episode I wrote, and I was like, "Alright, we need something lighter after that." It's about being able to sort of mix and match those things.

Colter’s Siblings Will Be An Integral Part Of Tracker Season 3

“Russell Always Knows More Than Everybody Else”

ScreenRant: I know you probably can't answer where Russell is, but will we find out where Russell is next season?

Elwood Reid: Yeah, we will. I text Jensen [Ackles] all the time. He's busy on The Boys right now, but I think we can steal him back. He's a fun character, and what Colter has learned at the end of the season is going to warrant him at least seeing or getting face time with both of his siblings. He needs to tell them what he's learned about his mother and see how they react.

I don't want to give too much away, but I think Russell always knows more than everybody else in the family.

ScreenRant: What about Velma? Will we see her play a bigger role in season 3?

Elwood Reid: A little bit. I think the main character we want to build out is Reenie. What does her world look like, and how do we build out that world a little bit more and include Randy or whoever else in that world? Those are some of our ideas, but I've not sat down with the writers yet.

In about two weeks, we'll start talking about all this stuff, but those are the bigger puzzle pieces. The big mess that I have to clean up is what he learned about his mother, and how does he then deal with his brother and his sister? Then we'll go into all those other storylines and try to figure out how those fit into the season.

ScreenRant: Do you guys have a filming timeline? It sounds like you're going back to the writer's room in two weeks.

Elwood Reid: Yeah, we will be back in two weeks, and we start filming in July. I think it's the 16th or something like that.

ScreenRant: Looking back on season 2, what was your favorite moment?

Elwood Reid: Of course, I'm really proud of the last scene in the finale, but I can't take much credit for that because it was mostly just Alex Fernandez. He plays Otto, and he's a guy I've worked with before. That scene was really underwritten, and intentionally so, because I knew that if I put Justin in that scene, he would bring so much emotion to it. Ken Olin, who's one of our executive producers and the director of the episode, knew exactly what it was. Justin was locked in. I was there on set that night, and it was really exciting to see. It was a five-page scene, and they did two takes of it.

Normally, you cover your ass, but they just did two takes. Justin was right there from the first take, and a lot of that scene is from the first take. I've been doing this for a long time, and usually it takes actors a long time to warm up. But Justin came in ready to go, so I'm really proud of that scene. It was shot beautifully, and I think it was really fun.

I'm also oddly proud of episode 16 because it was so crazy with the weird serial killers out in the woods and the blizzard. We filmed that practically; that wasn't fake snow. There's a scene where he falls, and he hurt his wrist. The snow was that deep. There was no snow when we started filming, and we were worried about it, but then a huge weather front hit and dumped two feet of snow. Our crew filmed, and we didn't manufacture one ounce of snow. That was all practical.

I'm really proud of some of the emotional moments in the show, which I think really resonate. I do like when Colter comes into town and has interactions with local cops or characters. That's the heart of the show. There's a humanity to it, and it's fun. There's an element of emotion in each of those scenes.

Elwood Reid Addresses Whether Reenie & Colter Should Or Shouldn’t Romance

“I Think It’s All There, [But] Colter’s Just Not Good Boyfriend Material”

ScreenRant: Reenie is my personal favorite character, but she had a pretty traumatic time in a recent episode. Is this the last that we have seen of Leo?

Elwood Reid: One of the challenges the writers had was the fact that Reenie's a lawyer, but we never see her doing any lawyering. So, we got her involved in this case. Justin suggested Pej [Vahdat], since he'd worked with him before, and he's a great actor. We wanted to build out her world a little bit more, and given where we left her in season 2, we're going to build out that world even more in season 3 and have her question some things.

At the end of episode 19, Colter gets to see this woman who's really broken, and he's the guy who kind of came and saved her. She's a very confident person, but we get to see the softer side underneath. I think we're going to continue to build out Reenie's world with her boyfriend and possibly with this business that she's building out. I think that's where the show will succeed, if we're able to build out those other secondary characters.

ScreenRant: I love Reenie and Colter, and that's why I'm so conflicted. I'm always like, "Do I want them to be together, or do I want it to be just a strong friendship?"

Elwood Reid: Why can't you have both? I think it's all there. But you've got to , Colter's just not good boyfriend material. He lives out of an Airstream. He is never in one place for any period of time, and we got to see him at the beginning of the season with a girlfriend that he probably drove through and saw three times a year. We get to see him with Billie.

What's been interesting and gratifying for the writers is being able to build out the relationship between him and Reenie on a deep, emotional, friendship level. You get the sense that these two care for each other, and they respect each other. Justin's been really good about modulating that relationship.

ScreenRant: Do you think it benefits the story to not pair Colter up at this point in time, simply because of his lifestyle?

Elwood Reid: I think it's hard because I don't know if people judge or not, but when every episode starts, there's a clock ticking. We know that there's someone missing. If he's out at bars trying to pick up people or having hookups, you're like, "What is this guy doing? He's got to go rescue that person."

But I do think as the season goes on next season, there are more chances for Billie to come into it, and there are more chances to deepen whatever the Reenie relationship is.

It plays into Justin's strengths because when Colter is often the straight man, but when he lets his guard down and you see him talk about his family? It's so surprising. Or when you see him in emotional moments, like that scene at the end of episode 19, when he gives Reenie that hug and she just breaks and falls apart. That only works because he's not a guy who's sitting in therapy every week. He's the strong and silent type, and I think that really works. Justin plays it really well.

All episodes of Tracker season 2 are available to stream on Paramount+, and the show will return for season 3 on CBS.