This story contains spoilers for “Marshals” Season 2, Episode 1.
“Marshals” had a lot of loose ends to address after the Season 1 finale, and of course the Season 2 premiere chose the path of tragic resistance.
Sunday’s premiere, titled “All Hat No Cattle,” followed the immediate aftermath of Kayce (Luke Grimes) being betrayed by Tom Weaver (Chris Mulkey) and threatening to kill Tate (Brecken Merrill) if Kayce didn’t sell him his land. Caught in the middle was Tom’s daughter Dolly (Ellyn Jameson), who had started a flirtatious relationship with Kayce and was with him when he was ambushed by her father’s goons.
“I had thought throughout last season that Dolly was always in on it — in my mind at least — so when we finished production last year, she was much guiltier than she actually turned out to be,” showrunner Spencer Hudnut told TheWrap, adding that her being in the dark of her father’s plan made her fate all the more tragic.
After using Dolly as leverage to secure a meeting with Tom, and him further betraying his own promises, Kayce was able to rescue his son from the brink of death. Tom and Dolly weren’t so lucky, as they drove off a cliff while running from Kayce. Dolly ended up dead.
This Sunday kicks off another 20-episode adventure for the “Yellowstone” spinoff, which is also gearing up to be a big season for Tate — who, after being rescued, reminded his father that he’s about to turn 18 and is ready to be more involved in helping protect his family.
“Tate is feeling — having nearly had his life taken from him — I think he’s going to start to resort to trying to make sure that never happens to him again, in ways that are alarming and somewhat scary to Kayce,” Hudnut teased.
Below, the showrunner breaks down the Season 2 premiere’s biggest moments, hints at what’s ahead and touches on why Tate growing up might be Kayce’s biggest fear. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
What an eventful Season 2 premiere, delivering an action-packed and tragic resolution to all those cliffhangers from Season 1. How did you crack how the story would unfold with this episode?
This was the hardest episode of “Marshals” I’ve had to break, because we really painted ourselves into a corner. I was very fortunate to have a room around me that was helping figure it out.
We always knew that the drive was how far Kayce would go to get his son back. As we made very clear in Season 1, Tate is really the last thing in Kayce’s life that he cares so deeply about; it’s the last way the world could still hurt him. So we knew he would be a man on a mission and go to any lengths to get his son back. And then it was the question about what to do with Dolly and what does that look like. How is the team figuring it out? So it took a while to put all the pieces in place, but I was very gratified by the way it came together.
Kayce had a lot to grapple with rescuing Tate and the Weavers’ betrayal, ending with Dolly’s death after they drive off the road. Why make that her fate?
I had thought throughout last season that Dolly was always in on it — in my mind at least — so when we finished production last year, she was much guiltier than she actually turned out to be.
There’s so many tragic elements to this episode, but there’s the tragedy of she and Kayce actually starting to have a better understanding of one another, because they come from these very dysfunctional families with these fathers who maybe aren’t the best examples in the world. So as the episode lays out, you start to realize, “Oh, there’s a deeper connection here that maybe they could explore.” And, Oh, is this actually an incident that, while tragic in nature, could potentially bring them closer together?” So it did feel like it was either going to bring them closer together, or we were going to have to figure out a way to keep them apart. Unfortunately, it’s in Kayce’s nature that anything he grows close to tends to be taken away from him. And we felt like Tom Weaver also needed to pay the ultimate price. Death would be a relief to Tom, but seeing his daughter pass away felt like the worst punishment that we could give to him. That story needed to end with a tragic note and that’s where we went.
How does this set up where Kayce is heading in Season 2?
For Kayce, Season 1 was really about finding his next purpose, his next team, this newfound family. And Season 2, at the end of the episode, he’s gotten his son home safe. He’s in this destroyed home that he and his son share, and Kayce’s really confronted by all the trauma and tragedy that Tate has dealt with in his life. And on top of that, he is reminded by his son that Tate’s going to be 18 soon.
So all of a sudden, we have this question of what kind of Dutton man Tate is going to be, and how Kayce is going to help him. What kind of Dutton is he putting out into the world? And he realizes he only has a short amount of time to try to get his son on the right path. Without Monica around, Kayce was really the protector and provider in that relationship, and Monica was the parent. Kayce has never felt on solid footing as a good parent, so he realizes that Tate is in need of parenting right now. How he is going to help him figure out what Tate’s next path is is really a big engine for Kayce this season.
Tate almost loses his life in the premiere, but later seems eager to grow up so he can join his dad in the fight and not be kept in the dark after he turns 18. How is all that has happened so far setting up his journey for Season 2?
Tate has been through so much trauma. He’s endured so many losses, including his mother, and now he’s almost been killed in this past episode. The last time Tate was taken — which is crazy that he’s been taken multiple times now — but the last time, he really struggled in the aftermath as a kid, and his mom was there helping him through it. So Kayce is trying to figure out. In a way, he’s trying to diagnose: is there a problem? But how can we help the problem? And he’s going to actually go to some very undoubted-like methods to try to get his son help.
At the same time, Tate is feeling — having nearly had his life taken from him — he’s going to start to resort to trying to make sure that never happens to him again, in ways that are alarming and somewhat scary to Kayce.
But I think ultimately what Monica wanted for Tate is very different than what Kayce’s path was. Kayce’s biggest fear is that Tate’s going to try to walk in his footsteps, and so that will bring some tension this season between the two of them. It’s really Kayce wanting to parent his son and protect his son, but also a kid who’s on the verge of manhood, maybe resenting that type of treatment from his father.
It’s going to be a little bit of a rocky road for this season in trying to figure out where Tate’s going. The choice that Tate will make will be surprising to a lot of people.
Now that the dust is settling a little bit, will there be a time jump or are we staying in the immediate aftermath?
We’re going to pick up pretty quickly after the second episode, because we want to feel the consequences of what happened in the premiere. We want to feel the concern about Tate. We want to feel Kayce’s guilt that he has over his son. Even Belle, who almost got seriously wounded in the first episode, we’re going to want to deal with the consequences of that in her home front, because her son’s going to start to pick up on the dangers of what his mother does for work.
Cal and Belle survived their tense confrontation, and seem to be getting even closer despite the boundaries they had set on their relationship. How much longer can they hold back?
They definitely grew very close during Season 1. Obviously, about halfway through the season, they had their first kiss.
At the end of Season 1, they acknowledged that this is more than just a team leader and teammate situation. For Belle, what Cal has brought to her is the realization of what a real partner looks like and what it looks like to have someone in your life who supports you and encourages you, which is unfortunately not what she has on the home front. So the two of them navigating these growing feelings, particularly with Cal in a vulnerable situation with his own health, is something that we get into right away.
That’s a dance that they’re going to have to do for much of the season. How do you have feelings for somebody that you work so closely with? Particularly in a job as stressful and dangerous as the one they do.
Andrea was getting ready to willingly leave Montana before the finale’s big twists struck, but she chose to stay with the team in the end. What’s next for her?
All last season, every opportunity she got, she said how she wants to get out of Montana and get back to the big city in her old job. And when she’s presented with that opportunity, it feels like she’s a little reluctant.
But this first episode, she really gets a glimpse of, and a reminder of, what this team pulls together and the lengths they’ll go to for one another. She starts to realize that maybe this isn’t a group of people you should take for granted. This is the type of family that she hasn’t had since really her own family, before her father was taken from her, so the decision to go back to her “dream job” becomes a lot more complicated and a lot more difficult.
By staying in Montana, however, she is going to stir up some ghosts from Season 1 that are going to be hard to shake. So that’ll be one of her battles this season.
“Marshals” is officially the No. 1 scripted show in broadcast. What are some of the lessons you took from making Season 1 in crafting this new chapter in the story?
Well, we started writing the season before it actually aired, so we didn’t take a lot of lessons from critical response or anything like that. But this show is very ambitious, much like “Yellowstone,” in terms of what we’re trying to do. We have a very limited budget and schedule, and so at times we’re biting off more than we can chew. But a lot of our lessons were learned on the production side. It was great to see the way the audience reacted to some of these relationships, and that they really are on board with Cal and Belle. We’re excited for the journey that we have for them.
Getting to see what we had hoped that people would really buy into, Kayce and Andrea’s friendship, and seeing those relationships accepted the way they were was pretty rewarding. We always knew that the Broken Rock storylines are really what helped set this show apart from other network television shows. So just leaning into those characters and really trying to give Rainwater, Gil Birmingham and Mo Brings Plenty even more to do. Maybe even more, if it’s not always in the Marshals’ purview, we are going to jump out and tell their stories separate from Marshals a little bit more than we did last season.
The success of the show is tied to, obviously, the “Yellowstone” part of the show. It was a relief to see how well it did. We’re all feeling the pressure to do it again in Season 2, but we’re excited and grateful for the opportunity.
You mentioned the Broken Rock storylines. What can you tease? What should we be keeping an eye out for?
Rainwater’s storyline was very central to the Marshals storyline in Season 1, and he was under physical threat for most of the last season to the point where we even put a gun in his hands, which I know Gil enjoyed. Season 2 is really about showing the challenges that Rainwater faces and that Broken Rock faces: challenges that he wants to solve on his own.
One of the fine lines that we try to walk is not having the Marshals just show up and save the day for Broken Rock. We will continue to weave those storylines together. At the same time, we’re really going to show Rainwater’s attempt to try to pull his community forward this season. That’s going to come with a number of challenges that will probably put his job in jeopardy at a certain point. He’s not going to be lacking for drama this season either.
“Marshals” airs Sundays on CBS and streams the next day on Paramount+.
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