'Marshals' Season 2 Episode 2 Recap & Ending Explained

The second episode of Marshals Season 2 reveals that Kayce Dutton isn’t the only parent who has unknowingly cast a dark shadow on his son. While Tate has frequently been targeted for being a Dutton, the kids of Belle Skinner and Pete Calvin suffer because of the nature of their parents’ profession. Belle’s young son, Braxton, saw the wound on his mother’s cheek (which she got while dealing with Tom Weaver’s men) and freaked out. He hasn’t been at peace since he saw the mark, as the fear of losing his mother on the job has shaken him to the core. Similarly, back in the day, Pete Calvin’s daughter, Maddie, slept clutching her doll, fearing her father might never come back home. So using the running theme of this episode, that is, the hurt the parents cause to their children, the show introduces us to a father, former Gallatin County Sheriff’s Deputy Wayne Plummer, who was dismissed from duty for disciplinary reasons. And it is his son, Boone, who pays the price for his father’s mistakes. How? Well, let’s dive deep into it.

Spoiler Alert

Wayne Targets His Former Colleagues

As the episode began, the Marshals received an arrest warrant for a former law enforcement officer, Wayne Plummer, wanted for manufacturing and selling home-made suppressors. Wayne was the same person who had shot down a man named Frank Winslow, a retired Butte P.D. captain, while he was on a nature walk with his wife. Back in 2011, Frank was Wayne’s former supervisor, who cut him loose because of his behavior, and it seemed like, after all these years, Wayne had returned seeking vengeance, and Frank was the first name on his list. When the Marshals barged into Wayne’s house to arrest him, they found the place empty; however, he had been expecting guests, which was why he’d set up an IED on the entrance to his storeroom where he hid all his secrets. Thankfully, Kayce defused the bomb and no one was hurt, giving the team the opportunity to look into what Wayne was hiding. Inside the storeroom, the team found Wayne’s manifesto, which made it clear that Wayne was looking for payback against everyone in law enforcement who had wronged him. Back in the compound, the Marshals tried to shortlist the names of every officer who had worked with Wayne in the past, but Wayne’s work history was sprawling, and he had been dismissed from every job, establishing the fact that it wasn’t the colleagues who were at fault here, but there was something wrong with Wayne himself.

In the meantime, the Gallatin Sheriff Department received a call about a suspicious vehicle matching the description for Wayne’s truck, but as it turned out, it was a trap set by Wayne to target his former colleague, Kyle Husted, who had filed an internal complaint that got Wayne fired. As soon as the department received the tip, Deputies Kyle Husted and Cheryl Lundrigen drove out to the location to investigate, where Wayne opened fire on them. Wayne had also jammed the comms so the deputies weren’t able to alert their department about the attack. Kyle died on the spot, while Andrea and  Kayce reached the scene on time and saved Cheryl’s life.

Wayne’s Seeking Justice For His Son

Belle and Miles had been scanning through Wayne’s manifesto to figure out what exactly triggered him to go on a rampage. The reason being, the sheriff fired Wayne three years ago, and it didn’t make sense that he only started targeting cops after all this time, suggesting that a recent incident might have triggered his murderous spree. After Kyle Husted’s murder, Wayne sent his manifesto to the media, trying to justify his attack and rationalize his actions. Miles pointed out that there was a line in his manifesto about preventing another generation of injustice, and that was when Cal and the rest of the team connected the dots. Wayne wanted his son, Boone, to join law enforcement, but four months ago, Boone got rejected from the training academy. All through these years, Wayne might have accepted the fact that he was at fault somewhere, which was why he was getting kicked out of every job. However, he lost his faith in the system after Sheriff Nelson rejected his boy and ruined his dream of becoming an officer. In Wayne’s court of law, the men in influential positions targeted his son for his father’s mistakes, and therefore Wayne decided to punish the lot for causing pain to an innocent. This also echoes the running theme of the episode, that a child suffers because of their parent’s past or present. 

After figuring out Wayne’s motive for targeting the officers, Cal and Kayce paid Boone a visit to find out more about his father’s plan, but Boone lied to them, telling them he hadn’t been in touch with his father for the last four months. The truth was, Boone was not only aware of his father’s plan, he was also a part of it, as he, too, wanted to seek revenge from the people who ended his career before it began. It was because of them he was forced to work as a mechanic, instead of serving the law.

Wayne Attacks Harry Gifford

The third name on Wayne’s list belonged to Cal’s boss, Director Harry Gifford, who had dismissed Wayne 18 years ago from his first job with the Montana Highway Patrol. But that wasn’t the only reason why Wayne targeted Harry. At the end of episode 1, Harry further revealed that he was the one who had dinged Boone’s application at the academy, as Harry was of the opinion that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and the son of a disgraced officer will only bring shame to the force. However, Harry had a change of heart after he met Kayce, but in Boone’s case, it was too late to make amends. Wayne had already made up his mind to execute each and every person who ruined his son’s career, and the Marshals knew that he would stop at nothing.

The Marshals Neutralize Wayne

Harry, Sheriff Nelson, and the rest of the Gallatin County department gathered at the coroner’s office to give Kyle Husted the dignified transfer to the next world he deserved. Wayne knew that the whole department would be present at the location to honor a fallen officer, which was why he used the opportunity to target all his enemies at once. He even brought his son along for the attack, so that the father-son duo wouldn’t miss anyone who had wronged them with their power and authority. But thankfully, Harry came prepared wearing a bullet-proof vest, as he expected Wayne would try to kill him during the End of Watch ceremony. And before Wayne could take a second shot at Harry or anyone else, the Marshals, who as usual had already connected the dots, arrived at the scene and located Wayne and his son hiding in the abandoned building. While Cal and Belle went after Wayne, Kayce and Andrea searched for Boone. Hiding behind a door, Wayne had planted another booby trap to blow up anyone who came looking for him, but Cal and Belle had come to grips with his playbook, and instead of going through the door, they blew up the wall and pointed their guns at Wayne, asking him to surrender. Wayne knew that he would spend the rest of his life behind bars, so he chose to die instead. He pointed his gun at Cal and Belle, leaving them with no other option but to shoot him down. Boone, however, made the right call and chose not to become a devil like his father. In the end, he put his gun down and surrendered.

Cal Updates The Team About His Health

In episode 2’s ending, Cal confessed to Cal that he was the one responsible for Frank Winslow and Kyle Husted’s death, as it was his actions (rejecting Boone’s application) that triggered Wayne’s rampage. Cal told him that had he shared this information before, they might have been able to keep a lot of people out of harm’s way, maybe saved Kyle’s life too, which was why, going forward, he expects Harry to be honest with him and the rest of the team. Coincidentally, this brief conversation with Harry made Cal realize that his own secret could put his team at risk, because he was being treated for a rare form of lung cancer (Pancoast tumor), and all those radiation treatments would weaken his body from the inside, making him vulnerable on the field. Hence it would be better if he updated the team about his health so they were ready to deal with such a crisis if Cal ever fell sick on the field. The team let Cal know that they would always stick with him, through thick and thin, and they were grateful that Cal had decided to share his concerns with them and saw them as a family, instead of treating them as colleagues at work. However, Cal was still not ready to let his daughter know about his diagnosis, as he didn’t want to burden her with his problems, especially when they had just started to bridge the gap between them. Cal told Miles that he would tell Maddie about his health once he was ready, but for the time being, he wanted him to protect his secret. Miles, however, decided to blackmail Cal with his secret, and told him that he would lie to his girlfriend, Maddie, only if Cal ended Miles’ desk duty and let him join them on the field. Well, Cal said he would think about it, but I think he has already made up his end so we might see Miles taking up the gun again for some action in the next episode. 

Rainwater and His Men Help Kayce Rebuild the Cabin

At the end of season 1, Thomas Rainwater and Mo arrived at Kayce’s cabin, looking for shelter, shortly after which Tom Weaver’s mercenaries arrived at East Camp and opened fire on the cabin, aiming to kill Thomas Rainwater. The attack had destroyed Kayce’s place, and since the beginning of the season 2, Kayce had been trying to rebuild his home, so Tate and Kayce could go back to their normal life. However, the second season began with Tate getting abducted, so you can understand Kayce hadn’t even had the time to catch a breath before another conflict showed up at his door. The second episode of the season, however, started with Kayce rebuilding his ranch, and he even enlisted Andrea’s help to set up thermal vision and radar coverage on his property for Tate’s safety. Tate, in the meantime, was still getting nightmares about the recent events, and Kayce wanted to spend every minute with him, so he could help his son recover from his wounds. But Tate told him that he understood the burden of bearing the Dutton name, and could fight his way through this, because his father and his grandfather raised him to be strong. Kayce was relieved to find out that Tate had been handling things by himself and might be able to recover on his own. Still, he didn’t want to leave Kayce alone at the cabin, but thankfully, Rainwater and his team, Bo and his nephew, Troy, arrived at East Camp to help Kayce rebuild and to look after Tate while Kayce was away.

In episode 2’s ending, when Kayce returned home, Mo and Troy had restored the house’s condition to make it feel more like a sanctuary than a wreck. Before leaving, Rainwater told Kayce that they had recovered from far worse, and he was hopeful that Kayce and Tate would be able to find peace again. He even said that Tate could live at Broken Rock for some time, if he needed a change of pace, but  Kayce wanted to keep an eye on his son, at least until Tate had figured out what kind of man he wanted to be, and if he could look after himself or not. Rainwater suggested that walking in his father’s footsteps seemed worthy to him, to which Kayce replied that no Dutton man should become like his father (subtly hinting at Wayne and Boone’s relationship in the episode). Well, it was Kayce who always believed that he was slowly turning into his old man, because he had risked his son’s life, the same way John Dutton did, but Rainwater assured Kayce that he was nothing like his father, and he was certain that he had set a great example for  Tate to follow. However, Kayce wanted a guarantee that Tate wouldn’t have to face the horrors that Kayce had witnessed in the past, and Rainwater pointed out that no one in the world could give him that assurance. He couldn’t protect Tate forever, but what he could do was to guide him to the road that he, being a father, would be the rest for him, and from thereon, it would be Tate’s journey and his destiny to face whatever came his way. I think in the upcoming episodes, Kayce himself will come to the realization that preparing his kid to fight his own battles will be better than putting him inside a cage to protect him, and I believe that’s what Rainwater has been insinuating. Coincidentally, the same goes for Cal, who thinks that by hiding the news of his cancer from his daughter, he’s protecting her, but Maddie’s an adult now, and she deserves to know the truth about her father’s health, same as everyone else. By holding back this information, Cal is only building walls between them, and once Maddie finds out the truth, she will hate Cal for keeping her in the dark, because it will make her believe that he still doesn’t consider her a part of his family. As far as Belle’s son is concerned, he’s too young to understand the nature of her mother’s job, but I think, as the time will pass, Belle will make him understand what she does, and why she does it, so that there’s no secrets between her and her kid. 

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