Entertainment
‘Marshals’ Pushes ‘Yellowstone’s Kayce Dutton Into New Soapy Territory, for Better and Worse
As U.S. Marshal Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) continues to make waves on Marshals, the neo-Western procedural takes a sharp turn into the political realm as the team deal with an assassination attempt in “Family Business.” Several plotlines converged this week as the plot itself served as a backdrop for genuine character development and an expansion of the world as it continues to ride further away from the Taylor Sheridan series that sparked it. Here’s where Kayce and the team went on this week’s Marshals.
“Family Business” Begins With An Offer and An Assassination Attempt
This week’s Marshals opens at Yellowstone East Camp, with Kayce once again trying to tame the unruly stallion that was Monica’s before her death. Just then, Dolly Weaver (Ellyn Jameson) rides up asking for a tour of Montana. As they ride across Paradise Valley, the two not-quite-yet-lovebirds speak about how Kayce grew up with “the world’s greatest backyard.” Afterward, Dolly and Kayce are met by her father, Tom (Chris Mulkey), who offers to make Kayce dinner. Elsewhere, Pete “Cal” Calvin (Logan Marshall-Green) is dealing with neck pain from his years overseas. But upon leaving the hospital, he runs into Belle Skinner’s (Arielle Kebbel) husband, Jared (Eddie Aguirre), who appears to be in the middle of an affair. Pivoting to the Bullet ‘n Barrel Saloon, Belle, Cruz (Ash Santos), and Miles (Tatanka Means) enjoy a night on the town. Miles’ cousin Sabrina (Chelsea Gray) shows up and spills some Broken Rock lore before scamping off with her boyfriend. This prompts Cruz and Belle to ask Miles if he’s interested in anyone, but he vaguely notes that it “probably isn’t meant to be.” That night, the team’s latest case becomes clear when Federal Judge Paula Ayers (Christine Dunford) and her nonprofit director husband, Blake (Christopher Stanley), narrowly avoid being blown up in a car explosion.
Enjoying a nice elk dinner, Kayce and the Weavers discuss the world of ranching. While Kayce asserts that the “old ways are the right ways,” Tom notes that the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch never quite made a profit by following those ways. “The way of life is a true reward when it comes to ranching, sir,” Kayce notes. But a good evening turns sour when Tom explains his aim to secure more land and more cattle by using modern technologies and expanding his reach, which means he hopes to see East Camp fall under the Weaver umbrella, too. Unsettled, Kayce dismisses his house guests, though Dolly was clearly uncomfortable with her father’s proposition in the first place. When Tom leaves, Kayce confronts her about their ploy, though she insists that she had no idea of her father’s intentions. “We were having fun until he ruined it, weren’t we?” Dolly asks. Though he agrees, he refuses her further romantic advances before she walks out the door.
The next day at Marshals HQ, Cal and the team find themselves with the new case involving the aforementioned judge. Cruz’s first suspect is a man named Clint Gallow (Joshua Dov), who threatened revenge a decade earlier for bombing a women’s health center. With the team tasked with keeping the Ayers family safe, Cruz suggests that she and Kayce go after the ex-con who may be responsible. “Last thing we need is an open season on judges,” Cal remarks. It isn’t long before Cal, Belle, and Miles set up shop at the Ayers home, and the judge and her husband aren’t terribly thrilled to be brought into protective custody. Neither is their daughter, Fallon (Abigail Rhyne), who is clinging to the hope that she could go to an upcoming music festival. Meanwhile, Kayce and Cruz find Gallows just in time for him to make a break for it. In the pursuit, Cruz body slams the suspect while Kayce hogties him. All in a day’s work.
‘Marshals’ Leans Into the “Family Business” Of It All As the Truth Comes Out
Back at the Ayers home, Paula and Belle discuss how their respective husbands give them a hard time for going after society’s worst, with the latter noting that she and Jared always find common ground. The whole thing is clearly unsettling for Cal, who debates his next move. Things get even more complicated when he asserts to Belle that the best thing that they can do for the family is to tell them what they know. The problem is that Belle believes that family drama ought to remain in the family. At Marshals HQ, Gallows claims his innocence, noting that he is nowhere near the only enemy of the judge who dreamed of taking her out. But back at the Ayers’ house, tensions are high as the team observes some passive-aggressive comments made between husband and wife. Belle and Cal have a quick sidebar about how putting work before family can fracture relationships, with the former brushing it off as a problem that Cal is having with Madison (Morgan Lindholm) rather than the other way around. Things get heated, however, the moment Fallon gets too close to a nearby window. As gunfire hails into the Ayers’ home, the marshals spring into action and protect those in their charge.
Soon after, Belle and Miles check the perimeter but come back empty-handed. A nearby parking garage appeared to be the best vantage point, but they didn’t find any bullet casings. “The only thing certain is that the assassin knows where the judge is,” Cal remarks, and he’s right. Gallows clearly isn’t the would-be killer, and the whole thing has gone back to square one. Cal sends Blake and Fallon “off grid” with Kayce and Cruz to East Camp while he takes Paula with him to Marshals HQ. Blake is familiar with Kayce and believes that their family is in good hands. According to an FBI analysis, the type of bomb that was used in the assassination attempt is often associated with domestic terrorism, with the group concluding that the suspect must be military. Back at the Ayers home, Miles speaks with Lt. Colleen Park (Reesa Ishiyama) about the shooting and discovers that Blake had been hiding passports in the walls with an alias. At Marshals HQ, Cal and Belle investigate Blake’s phony IDs. Belle believes it all has to do with him having finances that pivot from shell corporation to shell corporation across different countries, including Equatorial Guinea in South Africa, which happens to be where the FBI traced the bomb as having come from.
Part 2 of the “Lost Girls” storyline takes the Marshals well off the reservation.
Cal believes that Blake would rather collect on a life insurance policy than face a judge in divorce court. Things at East Camp, Cruz fails to cheer up Fallon by explaining that both her and Kayce’s fathers were killed as a result of their jobs. But when Fallon reveals that she wants something terrible to happen to whoever is behind the attack on her mother, Kayce notes that there’s “a big difference between craving vengeance and getting it.” Upon receiving a call from Cal, Kayce goes outside to find Blake, only to discover that he is nowhere to be found. Of course, this enrages the judge, who blames the marshals, but when they reveal her husband’s alias, “Joseph Peddit,” Paula starts to wonder what’s going on. To make things worse, the team has security footage from a nearby ranch of Blake being abducted, which means that he was the target all along. According to his hard drive, he had been aiding a resistance group in Equatorial Guinea by using his nonprofit to smuggle weapons — weapons that the oppressive government regime now wants to find, using Blake to track down the recipients.
This Week’s ‘Marshals’ Ends With a Kiss and Hope for Kayce’s Future
On the way to bring Fallon to her mother, Cruz and Kayce get a call about the men who abducted Blake: Ryland Hightower and Nate Porter (Gabe Rios). These men are private contractors who have been hired by the forces coming after Blake. When Kayce asks if these men came from a group out of Texas, Cruz wasn’t sure, but those of us who remember those last few episodes of Yellowstone certainly know what he’s thinking. The property is only a few miles from their location, and knowing that Blake doesn’t have much time, they decide to take the risk with Fallon in the truck. Leaving Cruz with the girl, Kayce jumps into the line of fire and finds the contractors torturing Blake for information. A firefight breaks out, unsurprisingly, and Kayce takes out one of the guys. The other gets the upper hand on Kayce, nearly choking him out before he wrestles back control and kills the man responsible. Blake is soon returned to his family, with Paula welcoming him back despite all the lies. “Is my dad a monster?” Fallon asks the marshals, looking on at her father. Kayce tells her that, in his own messed-up way, he was just trying to protect her.
Later, Belle invites Cal to the Bullet for a drink, but he decides to pass. Needing a buffer between work and her home life, Belle pours them some drinks, and they enjoy them from the comfort of the break room at HQ. After a few drinks, Cal finally asks if her marriage would last if, like Blake and Paula, she discovered that Jared had a secret life. But Belle pushes back, believing that she knows everything about her husband — at least until he tells her that he caught Jared with another woman. “He’s supposed to be discreet,” she says. It turns out, Belle and Jared have gone their separate ways romantically, but have kept up appearances for the sake of their son, Braxton (Koah Williams). Then, after they’d been dancing around it for some time, Cal and Belle kiss. However, after some quick steam, she pulls away, and they call it a night.
Meanwhile, at the saloon, Kayce, Miles, and Cruz enjoy a night on the town. Cruz tries to encourage Miles to ask out the girl he’s interested in. When he takes a drink of liquid courage and stands up, they’re shocked to learn that the girl in question is actually Madison, who he doesn’t know is Cal’s daughter until she reveals as such. Kayce and Cruz hang back while Miles and Madison hit it off, with the latter wondering about Kayce’s love life post-Monica. According to our favorite Dutton cowboy, being with Dolly felt like cheating on Monica, despite her death. But when Cruz challenges our hero on whether Monica would want that for him, he wonders if maybe he ought to give her another chance. The next day, Dolly returns to East Camp and asks for another Montana tour, to which Kayce obliges.
Marshals airs Sundays on CBS and is available for streaming the next day on Paramount+.
- Release Date
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2026 – 2026
- Showrunner
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Spencer Hudnut
- Writers
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Spencer Hudnut, Tom Mularz, Dana Greenblatt
- The twist that Blake was running arms was much better than him being the mastermind behind the assassination attempts. Glad it went in that direction.
- The parallels between Kayce and Cruz offer a really interesting perspective on John Dutton and the results of mismanaged family legacies.
- I disliked Dolly a lot less after her father’s presumption, so that’s a score in her book.
- We’re diving into this Cal/Belle romance plot real quickly. If Marshals wants this to happen, the show needs to take its time.
- We’re not at all concerned about Tate’s middle-of-the-night whereabouts?
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