Jensen Ackles is coming back to Tracker with more screen time than Russell Shaw has ever had on the show. CBS has set the Supernatural alum for a multi-episode run in the final stretch of season 3, with Russell appearing in episodes 21 and 22, “Chrono Stasis” and “The Best Ones.”

That matters because Russell has only shown up once in each of Tracker’s first two seasons. This time, he is part of the climax, joining Colter in a search for a victim of a nefarious research project in the season 3 finale. For a series built around Colter’s work as a tracker and the unresolved death of Ashton Shaw, bringing in his older brother for a bigger run gives the show a more personal angle right when it is closing out the season.

CBS also released new images from “The Best Ones,” and they show Russell nursing a gnarly injury. That visual leaves open a hard question the episode does not answer in advance: whether the brother who has helped Colter before will survive this case. The show has not confirmed any death, but the injury adds real weight to a finale that is already leaning into danger.

The move also fits a pattern for the network. Tracker has changed its cast several times in its short run, while other CBS and broadcast dramas have been making sharp cast shifts of their own, including NCIS season 23 killing off Director Leon Vance after nearly 20 years and ABC’s High Potential season 2 and Will Trent season 4 writing out Nick Wagner and Amanda Wagner. Against that backdrop, Ackles remains a reliable draw years after his stint on Supernatural, and CBS is using that pull at a moment when the show needs the finale to land.

What comes next is straightforward enough: Tracker will finish season 3 with Russell in the story in a way it never has before, and the final answer will not be whether he turns up injured but whether he and Colter make it out of the search in one piece.