Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Tracker Season 2, Episode 16.This week’s Tracker saw the long-awaited return of Eric Graise's Bobby Exley after a number of episodes in which Chris Lee's Randy had replaced him as Colter Shaw's (Justin Hartley) resident "guy in the chair." While we couldn’t be happier that Bobby is now back on the show (seemingly for good), now seeing him and Randy on screen together has presented us with an idea that we hadn't quite pieced together before… What if Bobby and Randy became official full-time partners on Colter's team? After "The Mercy Seat," it may just be a good idea.
Perhaps a Partnership Would Make the Most Sense For These 'Tracker' Characters
Image via: CBS
While Randy's charm could never replace the place that Bobby has in all our hearts (case in point, everyone's outcry over Graise's absence from the show), it seems that Colter's original tech guru still has a lot on his mind. We'll get to some of that in a minute, but the gist is that Bobby needs a boost of some kind to better jump back into Colter's ever-growing caseload. Considering Bobby's cold shoulder in "The Mercy Seat," Randy felt like the breath of fresh air between them. Their time working together here to help find Colter as he's missing in the mountains of Montana makes it clear that there's a chemistry between Graise and Lee that we hadn't had the chance to explore before. Even if Bobby kept mostly to himself, these cousins have a connection that Tracker could benefit from.
No doubt, we're ecstatic that Bobby Exley has finally returned to the show. The character was long missed and had many of us scared that Eric Graise had left Tracker for good in the same way that Robin Weigert abandoned the show. But now, seeing Bobby and Randy together in Bobby's tech lair, we finally see what we've been missing out on since Season 1's "Chicago." Maybe it would benefit the series if Bobby had a consistent scene partner. Season 2 kicked off by uniting Reenie Greene (Fiona Rene) and Velma Bruin (Abby McEnany) in the season premiere, and ever since, the pair have worked together nicely. This may be the direction Tracker should consider, as it would potentially offer Bobby more dynamic material to work with (aside from just talking to Colter over the phone) and would undoubtedly add some additional conflict.
We're Glad That Bobby Is Back, but Something Seems Off About Him
Image via CBS
Again, seeing Bobby back in his chair was a much-needed sigh of relief for many of us who were worried that the show was going to slowly write him off and full-on replace the character with Randy. There's a lot to love about Bobby, from his shorthand with Colter, to his loyalty and general upbeat demeanor. The aforementioned "Chicago" episode offered us a deeper glimpse into Bobby's life that we hadn't seen much of before (or since), and implies that there's a lot more to his world than we can see from behind a computer screen. By adding Randy into the mix, giving Bobby some family to rely on in times of trouble, Tracker allows us to venture even further beyond said screen. The problem is, now that Bobby is back, something feels off.
It could just be that Bobby is still grieving the loss of his friend. In "The Grey Goose," we learned that Bobby was attending a funeral for a friend of his who was more like a brother. We know very little about this friend or about Bobby's general whereabouts since he helped Colter take down the Teacher (Nicholas Lea) in the mid-season premiere, but this whole thing rings a little suspicious. Whoever this friend was (if there was even a friend at all), Bobby is clearly defeated over whatever went on in the weeks or months he was away. Considering the way this show works, it's sort of hard to tell how much time has passed. Either way, Bobby is colder now, not at all his usual, upbeat self, and hardly interacts with anyone on Colter's team, including his cousin.
In this sense, bringing in Randy was a smart play, because he can act as an agent in Bobby's life that may help Colter and Reenie (and us in the audience) uncover what is really going on with him. Does this have something to do with the mysterious U.S. government agent (Matt Passmore) who detained Colter back in "Ontological Shock?" Could Bobby somehow have been involved with Reenie's new boss, Leonard Shar (Pej Vahdat)? Perhaps he was investigating something else entirely that has yet to be revealed? Of course, we could be reading too much into things. Maybe Bobby really is just grieving and needs a friend like Randy around to help him through it… Still, Tracker is a show that deals in secrets, and it seems that Bobby Exley may have one or two of his own.
Randy Wasn't the Best Replacement, but Works Much Better With Bobby Around
If we're being honest, we may not have been all too fair to Randy. Because he wasn't Bobby, many of us (this author included) gave him a bit of a bad rap. Sure, he wasn't as charismatic as Bobby, and he didn't have quite the same on-screen chemistry with Colter as his predecessor, but "The Mercy Seat" proved that Randy working alongside Bobby may be the best way to utilize this new addition to the Tracker cast.
Even if he doesn't stick around forever, Randy has been an important part of the last batch of Season 2 episodes, and it would be a shame if the series wrote him off too quickly from there. Who knows, maybe Randy could become an extension of Bobby whenever Colter needs tech support in the field? The possibilities seem endless. We only hope that Chris Lee will stick around for at least a little while longer so that we can see Bobby and Randy help save the day together.
New episodes of Tracker air on Sundays on CBS and stream on Paramount+.
