@glennganges Published March 9, 2026, 12:00 p.m. ET Where to Stream: Marshals Powered by Reelgood Kayce Dutton kicking doors again means less time spent with Tate on their land, so Episode 2 of Marshals (“Zone of Death”) features father and son fly fishing for trout, roasting the catch in foil near a bend in the river, and eating with their everyday carry blades. It’s idyllic! Throw in a few tracking shots of these Duttons galloping on horses against a glorious Montana backdrop, and Marshals is finding ways to thread broad Yellowstone vibes into its procedural bent. Other ways, too, like the dark lore of the Duttons and the “Train Station” – literally where all the bodies are buried. But we’ll get to that. For now, as they finish their meal, Marshals gets its first mention of Rip Wheeler. The Yellowstone’s longtime foreman found a few hands to watch East Camp while Kayce jocks up with Pete Calvin and his US Marshals team.
Belle and Cruz show Kayce around the marshals’ compound. It’s an old mill converted into team rooms, data support, and gun ranges. When Kayce notes the centerpiece fireplace and its tumble of massive flagstone granite – “Subtle” – Belle says Calvin wanted his unit to remember it was forged in fire. There are also groups of people at desks, apparently in charge of liaising with all of the local, state, and federal agencies we never see on this show. Seems like the team’s latest operation, a deal for drugs and explosives going down in the Montana-Wyoming “Zone of Death” border region, between violent Aryan Brotherhood and Latino gangs, would be coordinated across many groups with different initials on their windbreakers. (You know, a Task force.) But on Marshals, it’s just Team Jock Up doing the door kicking and thug-apprehending.
Pete Calvin definitely believes in his people, who he picked by hand when Gifford, the big boss, tapped him as team leader. Cruz from the Bronx, Belle from ATF, Miles from a reservation police force. But he’s also displaying a hands-off management style that can cause questions. Like when Cruz wonders if Calvin’s “war buddy” will be a hit against the marshals’ dynamic in the field. Pete scowls at her suggestion. He just wants Kayce to make the tip of their spear sharper, not be the cause of drama. Cruz: “What’s got this SEAL in his feels?”
Kayce, officially the team’s FNG, or fucking new guy, is also nowhere near its most green. He does a headspace check on Miles, who says he isn’t dwelling on the perp he killed last episode, but then freezes up during an op. Quietly, but seriously, Kayce is taking on an at-work mentor’s role. Instead of teaching him to catch and eat fish in the wild like he does with Tate, he’s telling Miles where his head should be during a firefight. And if he can’t calibrate, maybe a job with the marshals isn’t for him.
Gifford just wonders if having a Dutton around at all is in the US Marshals’ best interest. At HQ, in his big hat, he makes no secret of swaggering and grousing about the family’s history. Isn’t it curious Kayce is pinning on a badge again, “when the two biggest cold cases in the state are his dad’s death and his brother’s disappearance?” Is Kayce out to serve the public? Or to seek some kind of vengeance for his bloodline?
In a fashion typical for Kayce Dutton, he doesn’t say shit to this. And Luke Grimes just lets the Duttons’ mysteries be mysteries as they wash over Kayce’s features. Even though we know he knows the answers to both Gifford’s queries. And later, when Kayce kills an SUV with a rifle and dumps the dead AB gunman inside in the Zone of Death/Train Station, he’s still playing his personal life close to his US Marshals vest. The skeletons Kayce’s trying to keep in his family’s closet, as he puts it to Calvin. Who seems hurt that his war buddy might really need more seasoning when it comes to the team’s chemistry.
So Marshals, at least with its second episode, is keeping Yellowstone as an undercurrent to its go get the perps and call it a day, CBS-style pace. We do wonder if there could be more to it. Like the same external forces who marked John Dutton for death could now be watching Kayce’s very visible return to the badge. At the site of another thug retrieval by Team Jock Up, Kayce is on “squirter duty” outside their operation when he notices a vehicle with a suspicious lurker. Is that dude watching them? New target! But Calvin stops him. “We’re in Montana. Not a war zone.” Alright buddy. But the Duttons have been fighting battles around these parts for a century.
Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.
