Abby McEnany's absence from Tracker Season 2 has me worried about Velma’s fate

I can't help but despair at Velma's reduced importance in Tracker season two. Ever since Tedi's exit from the CBS show, Abby McEnany's Velma has been consistently given plot points of decreasing importance on the second season of Tracker. The fact that Velma's been largely missing or virtually absent when the pivotal developments in Colter's cases take place is indicative of the fact that Abby McEnany's Velma might be the next character to be written out from Tracker.

Nevertheless, I still believe that her arc could have been given some more closure in a definite and dignified way by the CBS show.

Tracker season 2: Why does Abby McEnany's Velma continue to remain an important character?

Velma has known Colter ever since the time period portrayed by the events of the show. She started off on the show as one of Colter's handlers alongside her husband, Teddi. Together, the duo would hand out Colter's cases to him. Things were going well until the exit of Teddi, played by actor Robin Weigert. This reduced Velma's narrative importance to the showrunners of Tracker, somehow, I believe.

The second season of Tracker has largely disappointed me when it comes to giving Velma more space to shine. Throughout the sophomore season of the CBS show, Colter has somehow managed to find and take up his own cases. He has also been assisted by Reenie. This, in turn, led to Velma being largely absent from many of the episodes and not being heard from until the end of the nineteenth episode, when Reenie received a call from her.

It's no wonder that Velma's reduced screentime comes across as a cause for complaint, since she was more than just a handler for Colter. Velma also doubled up as the mother figure who is integral to Colter's own arc. In times of sorrow or disillusionment, Colter could turn to Velma for advice and counseling. It seemed to me that with Teddi gone, Velma could assume greater importance on the show and even forge a lasting friendship with Reenie that could come to define their relationship. Alas, the showrunners thought differently.

Abby McEnany opens up about her character

Speaking exclusively with CBS, McEnany had previously stated that she loves portraying Velma and is particularly proud of the fact that playing the character enables her to have traction, which she then uses to spread awareness about mental health issues and body shaming. McEnany remarked:

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"I feel like we don't do it on purpose and obviously the character is based on me. We are just showing life and what life looks like. We were so lucky this year that we got to have writers. Last year when we started writing, we didn't have a budget. This year we were lucky enough to get a bunch of wonderful writers, but we don't go in and say these are the 12 topics we're going to tackle. Hopefully it does resonate and there are no heroes and no villains. Everyone is a complex person and everyone is just trying to do their best."

Tracker is exclusively available on CBS.

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