@glennganges Published March 15, 2026, 9:00 p.m. ET Where to Stream: Marshals Powered by Reelgood More On: Marshals ‘Marshals’ Star Arielle Kebbel Felt The “Weight Of” The ‘Yellowstone’ Legacy: “We All Understood The Assignment” ‘Marshals’ Episode 3 Recap: The Mudsucker Proxy What Time Is ‘Marshals’ On Tonight? How To Watch ‘Marshals’ Episode 3 On CBS And Online Where Is ‘Marshals’ Filmed? Kayce Dutton calls it “getting mudsucked.” When your team is stacked up and clearing a room, always make sure you take the real estate and hold it, or else. It’s a technique Pete Calvin encourages his old SEAL buddy to transport from the Teams to their US Marshals crew, because learning how to move in unison – and more effectively watch each other’s six – can only help endear them to the new guy, who Cruz has dubbed “Cowboy.”
But in a larger sense, Episode 3 of Marshals (“Road to Nowhere”) has the whole team getting mudsucked. (And the series itself, but we’ll get to that.) The marshals have been forced into mitigating the dispute between the Broken Rock people and competing local interests, and it’s hard ground to hold, for them and Kayce himself, who knows a thing or two about being pulled in two directions.
By blowing a hole in the main highway, Thomas Rainwater diverted truck and heavy equipment traffic for area mining operations onto an access road controlled by the reservation. It’s his latest push back against the federal government and the mine, which as we know has leaked cancer-causing toxins onto the reservation – RIP Monica! – and the marshals have been called in to conduct crowd control at the point of the resulting protest. While the Black Rock people call out Miles Kittle for wearing a federal badge, the marshals get flak from the locals, who think they should be on their side. Kayce himself is also confronted by someone he knows well, Randall Clegg. (Clegg, with his glowering and glorious goat beard, is played by Michael Cudlitz, hard guy from Southland, who is always welcome.) “You caused this, Dutton.”
Clegg’s family has deep roots around here. As deep as the Duttons. Kayce calls the family “Montana’s cockroaches.” And at the protest, Clegg and his sons further place blame. These disruptive moves by Rainwater have hurt their family business, which relies on the mine. But according to them they’re actually Kayce’s fault, because the deal he brokered that concluded Yellowstone – returning the ranch’s land to the reservation – only empowered the Black Rock chairman. And hey, how about a little casual racism to further characterize this shaky theory? Clegg: “Rainwater forgot the rez’s place on the totem pole in these parts.”
In actuality, it is the Cleggs who are the problem. They end up shooting up the protest, wounding random innocents, and spray bullets from an SUV at Rainwater, Mo, and Kayce as they stand outside a business on the reservation. After the drive-by, the marshals pursue two of Randall’s sons into the forest, which gives Kayce another chance to mentor Miles during a dangerous operation, but also to shoot down his latest bad guy – Marshals loves killing three or four people an episode and then never mentioning it again – which this time around is one of those very Clegg brothers. Kayce taking out the son of a guy with generational beef? Surely that won’t be a problem going forward. Right?
But this episode also suggests that what might be getting most mudsucked around here is Marshals itself. From its structure to its casting to its “Let’s jock up!” go-get-em brio, this series very much functions as a weekly procedural. But it also can’t stop tunnelling into longstanding Dutton and Yellowstone lore. Kayce and Miles both call out the parallels between Thomas Rainwater causing trouble by confiscating mining equipment with his capturing of wayward Dutton cattle, a dispute that occured way back at the very beginning of Yellowstone. That fracas involved Kayce’s brother Lee Dutton (Dave Annable) being shot by Kayce’s brother-in-law, who was then killed by Kayce. Pretty heavy! And yet it is only an allusion in Marshals. None of that is even mentioned, only that the past showdown was “painful.” This series might assume much of its audience already knows this backstory, with so many viewers following the character of Kayce to CBS. But it also kind of feels like stolen valor, to keep tweaking past Dutton fam fights into the present, just enough to add current structure to Luke Grimes’s character.
Can Kayce Dutton ever really use his US Marshals gig to move on, to truly embrace the new beginnings of his “Piya Wiconi,” if Marshals itself always has half an eye on his past?
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.
