Did Russell Shaw Die on ‘Tracker’?

The short answer is…kind of?

Tracker Season 3, Episode 2 was packed with dangerous and near-death moments, but the good news is that Russell Shaw (guest star Jensen Ackles) survived them all. That said, surviving isn’t easy, even requiring him to fake his own death.

The episode, titled “Leverage,” was a continuation of the premiere episode, with Colter (Justin Hartley) and Russell having now become a target of “The Process.”

Through a series of unfortunate events, the Shaw brothers became suspects in the case they were hired to solve in the first half of the two-part episode, which only fueled their desire to bring an end to the entity behind the sinister game.

Never ones to be spooked or shaken, the brothers split up to help victims entangled in a complex scheme that used leverage against them, forcing them to do the dirty work or risk getting their secrets exposed.

One suspect, Harith Holmes (played by Omid Abtahi), was tasked with taking down Russell, which isn’t an easy feat considering Russell was “trained for this.” He immediately clocked that someone was following him and Reenie, taking matters into his own hands.

While he and Reenie walked away unscathed, the same can’t be said for her newly leased vehicle and Harith, who woke up tied up to a chair in a safehouse far off the grid. Russell interrogated Harith, who admitted to following him because if he didn’t do what “The Process” asked, his son’s life would be at risk.

Colter, who was digging into the case to try to find a lead, arrived at the safehouse to question the suspect, and the brothers realized that the only way to go undetected was to play along so as not to interrupt the chain of command.

They had to give “The Process” what it wanted—Russell…dead.

And thus, fans saw Russell playing dead and serving the camera his best “dead” pose that the suspect then sent to the people blackmailing him.

Turns out, ketchup as a substitute for blood is convincing enough, getting them additional information about how to proceed, while buying enough time for Colter to track down a lead—a former behavior psychology professor who created “The Process” as a classroom experiment, and immediately pulled it when her students began showing concerning behavioral changes.

A few of her grad students continued her work, not in the way she anticipated, launching it into a self-sustaining operation that eventually, Colter and Russell—looking very much alive for a dead guy—put an end to in a glorious fashion.

The first two episodes of the season saw Colter ditching his “lone wolf survivalist” ways for an epic team-up with his brother, but after episode 2, Russell is (sadly) returning to forging his own path… for now. As for Colter, what kind of trouble will he get caught up in next?