Tracker season 3 episode 5 ending explained: Who was Jayden talking to via computer?

Tracker centres on Colter Shaw, a skilled tracker who solves missing-persons cases for rewards while grappling with his family's dark history. Justin Hartley stars as Colter, raised in isolation by survivalist father Ashton Shaw, whose unexplained death drives the series' core mystery. 

Created by Ben H. Winters and adapted from Jeffery Deaver's The Never Game, the CBS show premiered in February 2024. Season 3 began on October 19, 2025, airing Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT, with deeper dives into Ashton's secrets, including possible ties to a hired killer. 

Episode 5, "The Old Ways," aired November 16, 2025. It follows Colter into California's Santa Cruz Mountains to locate four missing teens: siblings Jayden and Sara Canfield, plus friends Brooke and Charlie. The family's relocation to Hong Kong for mom Nora's job heightens tensions. 

The plot reveals a kidnapping by the kids' biological father, Richard, an off-grid eco-activist. In the ending, Colter uncovers that Jayden was secretly messaging Richard via computer on the Wiisp app for months, idealizing him as an escape from his uprooted life. 

Tracker season 3 episode 5 ending explained: The secret messages and a planned abduction

The episode starts with the four teens trekking through Laurel State Park. Jayden, the reserved coder, urges caution due to Sara's dwindling asthma inhaler supply. Sara, outgoing and legend-obsessed, insists on chasing a 1930s train heist tale—rumoured buried gold coins worth $100,000 hidden in the hills. No phone signal turns their adventure risky.

Nora and stepfather Michael hire Colter in town after the group misses the check-in. Jayden resents the Hong Kong move most, while Sara's health looms large. Colter joins forces with Luke Parsons, a local search coordinator who knows the terrain's hazards like dead zones and steep drops.

Colter finds initial signs: trampled brush, a discarded backpack. He locates Charlie, collapsed from a blow to the head, revives him, and learns a camo-wearing man in a 1978 Ford pickup took the others."They were yelling for help," Charlie recalls faintly before medics airlift him out.

From his Denver setup, Randy scans socials. Sara's posts confirm the treasure hunt, but Jayden powered off his phone early. Randy recovers deleted Wiisp app data, an encrypted messaging tool, revealing coordinates to a secluded area. Colter follows boot prints alone, leaving Luke to coordinate broader searches.

The trail leads to an unauthorized marijuana operation. Two guards ambush Colter: one with a machete, the other with a shotgun. He uses the undergrowth for evasion, subduing them without lethal force. A teenage lookout, Kenny, describes the truck's route to a hidden cabin in exchange for Colter steering authorities away from the site.

Meanwhile, Reenie juggles a client's non-compete dispute in her office, bantering coded warnings with Mel. A call from Nora raises flags that the hike was Jayden's idea, planned around a private meetup he kept secret.

Colter and Luke close in on the cabin at dusk. Inside the dim cabin, corn warms on a wood stove. Sara slumps in a corner, struggling to breathe, her asthma flared without proper meds. Jayden hovers protectively, while Brooke sits dazed. The open laptop screen displays Wiisp chat logs, with a time stamp for over five months.

Randy's remote trace pins the IP to the cabin's jury-rigged solar internet. Jayden initiated contact after digging up old family photos, venting frustrations about the move and romanticizing his absent dad as a wild free spirit. 

Richard Sandford, who abandoned Nora and the newborns a decade ago, replied from his eco-radical hideout. Affiliated with an Earth Liberation Front offshoot, he shuns technology and pharmaceuticals, embracing "old ways" like foraging and bushcraft.

The chats escalated showing how Jayden shared hike details, and Richard planned the intercept as a forced family bonding to "harden" them against urban decay, especially before Hong Kong. No extortion motive, just a misguided bid to reclaim time lost. But Sara's crisis hit when Richard replaced her inhaler with a herbal poultice that inflamed her airways further.

Richard emerges from the shadows, axe in hand, bearded and feral in camo gear. He resists at first, preaching self-reliance over "poison pills." Colter disarms him methodically, then says that the kids need real care, not ideology. 

Colter shares fragments of his upbringing: the endless drills, the emotional voids left by a dad's rigid "Process." It cracks Richard's resolve; he confesses the fear of permanent loss drove the grab, but Sara's decline exposed his limits. Colter proposes a deal: release them now and vanish for good, no police involvement. Richard agrees, retreating into the treeline as night falls.

Luke extracts the teens. Sara was stabilized by arriving paramedics, Jayden and Brooke checked for shock. Colter carries Sara the last stretch, her breaths evening out en route to the hospital.

Back in town, Nora processes the truth via Reenie's briefing, adding to Colter's fee from grateful parents. She regrets burying Richard's past, hoping open talks heal the rift. Jayden, disillusioned, absorbs the raw reality that his online hero was just a man too fractured to commit.

This resolution advances Colter's arc, blending empathy with pragmatism. Randy uncovers another lead on David Pearson from Ashton's archived files, signalling escalating family threats. The episode underscores how unchecked ideals can fracture bonds, a lesson Colter applies to his own unresolved grief.

Stream Tracker Season 3 episodes on Paramount+ a day after the CBS broadcast. Watch live on Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

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