'Marshals' Is Still Haunted by the Ghost of 'Yellowstone's John Dutton | Review
Michael John Petty is a Senior Author for Collider who spends his days writing, in fellowship with his local church, and enjoying each new day with his wonderful wife and precious daughters. At Collider, he writes features, reviews, recaps, interviews, and breaking news on select occasion. In addition to writing about stories, Michael has told a few of his own, from supernatural thrillers to historical fiction. His Western short story, The Devil's Left Hand, received the Spur Award for "Best Western Short Fiction" in 2025 from the Western Writers of America, of which he is a member. Michael currently resides in North Idaho with his growing family.
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Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Marshals Season 2, Episode 2.After a pulse-pounding season premiere, Marshals continues with the action as Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) carves out his destiny. But not just his alone, seeing the Dutton name as something of a curse, Kayce is still trying to change that legacy for the sake of his own son. The best way to do that? Uphold the law rather than breaking it. But what happens when those meant to uphold the law are targeted directly by those now outside it? That's what this week's episode, "End of Watch," explores.
'Marshals' Reunites the Full Cast Just In Time for a Dangerous String of Killings
"End of Watch" begins with a man being shot by an unknown assassin in a parked car just outside a trailhead. The show then pivots to East Camp where Kayce is setting up new security cameras around the perimeter. Andrea (Ash Santos) wonders if he's trying too hard to keep Tate (Brecken Merrill) safe before telling her teammate that he ought to go and get closure by attending Dolly Weaver's (Ellyn Jameson) funeral. "You city folk and your psycho-babble," he says. Marshals pivots again to downtown Bozeman (well, really Utah, but who's keeping track?) as Cal (Logan Marshall-Green) and Madison (Morgan Lindholm) reflect on his failures as a father. Cal reminds her that he's trying to atone for those mistakes now, but Maddie adds that she has made some of her own. "Do I have to worry about you breaking one of my marshal's hearts?" Cal asks, but she reminds him that she's the one whose heart is often broken by men who don't stick around. Considering Cal's cancer diagnosis, it's unlikely she'll take that news terribly well.
Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz
Which Taylor Sheridan
Show Do You Belong In?
Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown
Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn't write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for.
🤠Yellowstone
🛢️Landman
👑Tulsa King
⚖️Mayor of Kingstown
01
Where does your power come from? In Sheridan's world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind.
02
Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan's universe is always absolute — and always costly.
03
Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it's crossed.
04
Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan's worlds are as much about place as they are about people.
05
How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt.
06
What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they're defending.
07
How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan's world is never given — it's established, maintained, and constantly tested.
08
Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you.
09
What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal.
10
When it's over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan's characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind.
Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…
The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you're complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.
🤠 Yellowstone
🛢️ Landman
👑 Tulsa King
⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown
You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world's indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you're willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family's weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what's yours, you don't escalate — you finish it. You're not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone's world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn't make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.
You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You're a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they'll do to get it. You're not naive enough to think this world is fair. You're smart enough to be the one deciding who it's fair to.
You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you're not above reminding people that the two aren't mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they'd be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they're more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don't need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.
You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you're the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky's world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You've made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.
Back at East Camp, Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) and Mo (Mo Brings Plenty) return to lend a hand in repairing the ranch after what happened at the end of last season. But the reunion is cut short when Kayce hears a cry from elsewhere, believing it to be Tate's. However, when he goes to look, his son is nowhere to be found. Getting on horseback, Kayce visits his wife's grave only to find a bison staring back at him — it's clear that, like the wolf on Yellowstone, this is meant to be some sort of vision. What it means has yet to be determined, but we'll likely be seeing this spirit beast again. When Kayce eventually does find Tate, it's at his grandfather's grave. "I know you're worried, but I don't need rescuing anymore," Tate tells his father, who struggles with the idea that his son will no longer need him. "Our family legacy was never about land," Kayce tells the boy, "it was about always having to fight." Tate considers his father and grandfather's influence to be enough to keep him strong, but Kayce doesn't seem so sure.
Meanwhile, at home, Belle (Arielle Kebbel) promises her son, Braxton (Koah Williams), that she'll be home later, much to the chagrin of her husband Jared (Eddie Aguirre). By the time she returns to Marshals HQ, it's just in time for Cal to give the team a new target: Wayne Plummer, a former Gallatin County deputy who was dismissed for disciplinary reasons. And, no, Miles (Tatanka Means) is still not off desk duty, despite his actions in helping take down Tom Weaver (Chris Mulkey). By the time the team springs into action, they storm Plummer's place and find it empty — well, except for one explosive left behind. Belle steps on the device, thus triggering it. Fortunately, Kayce disarms the bomb as Cal reminds us that he knows IEDs after their time in the SEALs. Breaking into Plummer's workshop, they find a manifesto and plenty of evidence of other weapons.
"End of Watch" Throws the Team Into a Cop-Killing Conspiracy
At Broken Rock, Rainwater encounters resistance to his leadership. Having stopped the mine, he also stopped plenty of jobs, making life on the Rez a bit more difficult. Apparently, folks will start to rally votes against his position as chairman if he cannot come up with a proper solution to their economic problems. Meanwhile, on the ride home, Belle confesses to Cal that she's rattled because of her promise to Braxton. Apparently, after seeing her cheek wound after last week's episode, the boy freaked out a little — and understandably so. Cal believes that Belle is doing the right thing, the sort of thing he wishes he had done with his daughter. Shifting gears, Belle brings the conversation back around to Cal's cancer diagnosis, believing that he needs to loop in the rest of the team.
Back at HQ, Miles, Cal, and Belle go over Plummer's work history. It looks like he was dismissed from all of his previous law enforcement-related positions. It's then that Chief Deputy Harry Gifford (Brett Cullen) arrives and wonders why that warrant hasn't been cleared yet — Kayce and Andrea are still in search of their suspect. Just then, a call arrives from the Gallatin County Sheriff's Department about a suspicious vehicle that appears to be Plummer. Belle believes it could be a trap, seeing as how the responding officers were the same who filed the internal complaint against Plummer. Still, the marshals converge on the position; Kayce and Andrea find the officers shot up in their squad car — one dead, one on death's door. It's not a pretty sight, and, naturally, it spurs a reaction from Gifford and the rest of the U.S. Marshals. Miles notes that Plummer's manifesto wanted to "prevent another generation of injustice." Cal doesn't believe Plummer is done here, though, and it seems that the killer's son, Boone (Ryan Paynter), was also rejected from the police academy a few months back.
Arriving at Boone's workplace, Kayce and Cal speak with the young man, who believes that his father was a good cop. He explains that Plummer was incredibly disappointed that he was rejected from the training academy, but that it was more his father's dream than his own. "He hasn't taken my calls in a while," he adds, noting that Plummer wanted to "keep his distance." At HQ, Miles discovers that Plummer's old LLC was reactivated a month ago — a business all about restoring old cars, the sort you don't think twice about seeing on the road. Just then, Belle reports what we saw back in the teaser: Plummer's former Butte PD supervisor was murdered this morning — it turns out that this guy, Frank Winslow, also cut Plummer loose over a decade ago. Frustrated, Gifford meets up with Kayce and Cal in the parking lot only for the trio to be shot at by someone hiding in the trees. Kayce and Cal rush off in pursuit, but Gifford is more focused on honoring the brave men who have already been killed in the line of duty.
'Marshals' Concludes With a Firefight and More Off-Duty Secrets
After finding Plummer's abandoned vehicle (with an engine still hot), Kayce and Cal link up with Andrea and Belle before pursuing any further. Miles calls and reveals that Plummer first "spun out" all those years ago after a joint exercise with the Flathead Training Office went sideways — and, as Cal points out, Gifford was once part of that team. In fact, it was Gifford's signature on Plummer's first dismissal, meaning that Kayce and Cal weren't the targets of the previous shooting in retaliation for speaking with Plummer's son — Gifford was the target all along. A few blocks away, Gifford and some of Plummer's other targets are nearby, honoring the falling officer from earlier. Unfortunately, the team doesn't quite get there in time, and Gifford is shot (though wearing a bulletproof vest). Cal and Belle close in on the shooter's position, and they realize that Plummer's son is there as a second shooter.
A firefight ensues as the marshals surround and eventually overpower the shooters. Cal takes out Plummer when he refuses to give up, but Kayce and Andrea give Boone a choice. "Let today be his legacy, not yours," Kayce tells him. In the end, they make the arrest without much trouble. That night, Cal confronts Gifford, who admits to cutting Plummer's son from the academy before Kayce proved his prejudices about bad familial apples wrong. "Full disclosure going forward," Gifford tells him, recognizing that he put the team at risk. Afterward, Kayce tries to comfort Andrea, whose own father was killed in the line of duty. She admits that taking down Plummer makes her feel a bit better, but that it still doesn't even the scales. Still, she turns the conversation back around to Kayce and Tate, wondering if how Boone turned out makes him feel better about his own son. However, Kayce just sees it as "proof of how a father can contaminate his own son."
Hoping to lean into that full disclosure that Gifford was talking about, Cal gathers the rest of his team together and comes clean about his cancer. Right now, he can still be in the field, but that may change as he begins treatment. Not wishing to make it a big thing, he suggests they take off to the Bullet N' Barrell for some beers. "Whatever you need, brother," Kayce tells him, familiar with this part of the fight. Leaving HQ, Belle is blindsided by her family. Braxton insisted that they pick her up, or he wouldn't go to sleep, so she goes with them back home, leaving Cal disappointed but understanding. Arriving at the saloon, Maddie uncharacteristically hugs her father, and although Miles believes that the cancer news will help distract her from the weight of his job, Cal refuses to do so. In fact, he tells Miles that he has to keep the secret from Maddie entirely until he's ready to tell her. Miles reluctantly agrees, but only if he's taken off desk duty.
"End of Watch" ends with Kayce returning home to find Tate, Rainwater, and the rest finishing up the repairs. A Native ceremony is conducted to clear the place of "bad energy," which Kayce believes is for the best. "Not sure there's enough sage in Montana to change the energy around here," he says. Still, Rainwater believes that Kayce's footsteps are worth following, despite Kayce's protest that "no Dutton man should become his father." Although Rainwater asserts that there are no guarantees his son will go through life unscathed, all Kayce can do is what's best for his son.
- Release Date
- 2026 - 2026-00-00
- Network
- CBS
- Showrunner
- Spencer Hudnut
- Directors
- Christopher Chulack, Greg Yaitanes
- Writers
- Spencer Hudnut, Tom Mularz, Dana Greenblatt
-
Kayce Dutton
-
Ash Santos
Andrea Cruz
Pros & Cons
- Kayce is struggling with his role as a single father, and that's a better place to be than John Dutton ever was.
- Marshals has learned to take its time with certain plotlines, wisely refusing to rush things between Cal and Belle.
- As someone who has lived in Bozeman, such a large trading of bullets in downtown feels a bit far-fetched.
- Cal is once again getting in the middle of things between Miles and Maddie ? this will not go well.
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