Summary
Marshals turns up the intensity in “Blowback”, reintroducing the Big Bad and building to a major cliffhanger.
If you were worried that all the romantic subplots in the previous episode of Marshals were getting a little too soap opera, worry not. Episode 8 ups the intensity in several key ways, not least of which by almost killing one of the team and ending on a major cliffhanger. There’s also a mysterious figure from Kayce and Cal’s past to consider, a potentially worrying medical diagnosis for the latter, and the anticipated return of the Big Bad, who was established earlier in the season. Phew.
With so much going on, “Blowback” feels like Marshals firing on all cylinders, though it remains to be seen how it’ll all shake out. In the meantime, we might as well get on with unpacking it, since there’s plenty to go over.
Brothers in Arms
One of the key threads this week, even though it doesn’t have anything to do with the main plot, is the sudden arrival of Kayce and Cal’s old SEAL teammate, Garrett (played by acting debutant and country music star, Riley Green). Here’s a brief overview.
Cal, Garrett, Kayce, and a fourth teammate named Roner were all part of the same tight unit. However, their last operation together went wrong, resulting in Roner’s death and Garrett’s ouster from the Teams. He still blames Cal for both of those things and hasn’t gotten over it, whereas Kayce also blames Cal but has learned to let bygones be bygones.
Garrett is nursing a ton of mental health issues to go along with his resentments, and it seems like his presence in the show will be an avenue through which to explore Cal and Kayce’s military pasts. For now, he’s going to be sleeping on Kayce’s couch and having nightmares about war. Something to keep an eye on.
There’s Something About Cal
Cal’s dealing with a laundry list of problems in “Blowback”. He has just found out that Miles is dating his estranged daughter, and he’s still smarting from being rebuffed by Belle after their kiss. Despite agreeing to move past it and keep things professional, Cal can’t do either and ends up deliberately sidelining the pair of them during the case of the week.
As well as being stressed about these two things, not to mention Garrett, Cal also has a health issue. We don’t get to hear what it is, but Cal’s reaction suggests it’s serious and is something that he’s going to have to be careful dealing with in the future. Again, I’m not sure if the pill addiction has been Cal’s efforts to mitigate this problem, or whether that’s something else he needs to consider. But there’s enough for him to worry about at work.
It’s A Trap!
The A-plot of Marshals Episode 8 finds the team investigating Reed Powell, a notorious bank robber on the Most Wanted list who, according to a suspicious anonymous tip-off, is planning a heist in Montana. However, when Cal, Kayce, and Andrea storm his supposed hiding place, they walk right into an ambush.
There are multiple layers of obfuscation around all this, but for anyone who has ever seen an episode of TV before, serious alarm bells will be ringing. Pollard was supposedly rolling with a totally anonymous crew who have no prior connection to him or each other, Pollard himself seems to have disappeared, and the Marshals’ only potential lead is dead. Something funny is going on.
This is confirmed when Cal sends Andrea to drop some guns off at the lab for analysis while he attends his doctor’s appointment, and she gets T-boned by an SUV in an obviously deliberate smash-and-grab.
Randall Clegg, Welcome Back
All the Pollard stuff turns out to have been a deliberate ruse orchestrated by Randall Clegg, the patriarch who is still annoyed about the Marshals having rumbled the mass shootings at Broken Rock, landing one of his sons in jail and the other in a grave, and losing him the lucrative mining contract. Now professionally and personally ruined, Clegg is out for revenge and used Pollard’s name as bait to lure the Marshals into his trap.
Once the others discover that Andrea was pulled from her vehicle and kidnapped, they suit up, ready for action, with nothing on their minds except bringing their teammate home. Thus begins a heated shootout on Clegg’s compound, with the Marshals once again ambushed by a small army of Clegg loyalists, who have them pinned down under heavy fire as the episode comes to a close.
Will everyone make it out alive? We’ll have to wait and see.
