Justin Hartley‘s CBS series Follower was tasked with writing off a key cast member after a surprise exit — but how did the show execute the change on screen?

During the season 2 premiere, which aired on Sunday, October 13, Velma (Abby McEnany) mentioned some distance between her and her wife, Teddi (Robin Weigert), that’s why she spends more time helping Reenie (Fiona Rene).

“(Teddi) will be there for a while. She helps her mother clean up. I was in the way, you might say, and that really wasn’t good,” Velma admitted. “So I came back. Don’t worry, because I’m busy.”

In August, it was confirmed that Weigert would not return as a series regular after appearing consistently on the show throughout its first season. Weigert primarily shared the screen with McEnany as they helped Hartley’s character, Colter, solve several missing cases across the country for the reward money.

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Justin Hartley’s CBS series Tracker won over audiences for its intriguing cases – and impressive guest stars. Tracker, which premiered in February 2024, centers on a survivalist named Colter (Hartley) who travels the country helping people and law enforcement solve a variety of mysteries. As the series unfolds, viewers learn (…)

Hartley teased how the storylines would evolve in the second season, narrating TV insider in September: “At the end of last season, Reenie decided to leave her company and strike out on her own. She’s had a big life change and in a way she’s working with Velma and you’ll see a lot of them working together, which is a really interesting dynamic.

The upheaval in the story meant that Velma would be moving to a new job while her wife is away. “(Reenie and Velma) both have common goals with just some very different ways of going about their business,” the actor continued. “Bobby (Eric Graise), our computer expert, is hacking. Then we have some really cool surprises for Reenie.”

Hartley also explained how Jensen Ackles And Melissa Roxburgh would return to play his character, the Colter siblings, despite their busy schedules. (After both were introduced in the first season, Ackles, 46, booked the upcoming Prime Video thriller series Countdown while Roxburgh, 31, will lead the NBC midseason drama The Hunting Party.)

“(Melissa’s) show ends (production) long before we end so we can bring her back in the final episodes of our show,” the actor noted. ‘And then Jennifer Morrison‘ will be back on direct episode 6. I’m sure her character will come back.

Based on Jeffery Deaver’s novel The Never GameTracker premiered in February after Super Bowl LVIII and immediately found its audience as people tuned in weekly to see their favorite fictional survivalist. Following the show’s first season finale, ratings confirmed that Tracker was the most-watched series of the 2023-2024 TV season. The show has already been renewed for a second season, which will introduce new cases for Colter to solve.

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It’s never easy for fans to say an unexpected goodbye to their favorite characters – and 2024 has seen an influx of shocking departures from our TV screens. In January, viewers learned that Josh Stewart was reprising his role as William LaMontagne Jr. in Criminal Minds: Evolution. Stewart brought the role of JJ’s (…)

“We still have a whole other season to film that we have to make better than Season 1. So while we wanted to wrap up all those storylines, we also wanted those threads to lead to other questions – bigger, deeper questions – about his past,” Hartley said Term in May about future plans for the show. “So I think we did that by answering some of these questions that we had been building up all year. I think we did a good job of making sure that the answers to those questions lead to a bigger mystery, something that we can unpack in Season 2.”

Follower airs on CBS Sundays at 8pm ET. New episodes stream the next day on Paramount+.