Summary
Marshals finally allows Kayce and Cal the space to work through their issues and trauma in “On Thin Ice”, which also explores the fateful circumstances of the fateful mission that everyone has been talking about.
It was obvious that Kayce was going to have some difficulty explaining why he was planning to extrajudicially murder a prison escapee, but even I didn’t think that his justification for that, or indeed how it might relate to his relationship with Cal and their long-standing trauma over that fateful mission in Afghanistan, would create such a downbeat and emotionally resonant episode. But Marshals really plays to its strengths in Episode 11, and “On Thin Ice” proves to be appropriately titled, in more ways than one.
Multiple ongoing subplots are resolved here in an exceptionally dour way, and while it leaves some other characters, such as Belle and Andrea, feeling a little underserved, it needed the focus that the structure gives it. With Kayce, Cal, and Neil holed up in the wilderness during a brutal storm, and multiple flashbacks explaining the mission that caused such a lingering rift between them, there isn’t a great deal of time for anything else. Maybe someone will bring up Belle’s gambling issues next week.
Against the Elements
It’s obvious to Cal what Kayce is up to, especially when Neil basically explains it outright. He’s trying to cut a deal, and he knows more than Kayce would like about the Dutton family’s secrets. Cal isn’t stupid, and he intuits pretty much immediately that Kayce was planning to silence him for his own sake. When he later sees Neil’s brand, the penny drops.
Unfortunately, Cal isn’t quite the survivalist that the other two are. He gets them lost on the way back to the car, forcing them to take shelter in a rickety old hunting cabin, and when he goes out to get firewood, he falls through the ice and is lucky to escape with only hypothermia. But his condition incapacitates him, leaving Kayce to split focus between keeping him alive and keeping Neil secured while they continue to argue about the past, especially given Garrett’s words when he briefly came to after his surgery in the previous episode.
To go over what really happened in Afghanistan, Marshals deploys an old faithful gimmick that it hasn’t relied on much throughout the season: Flashbacks.
We Now Know What Happened to Roner
Kayce has always blamed Cal for ordering a retreat during a mission-gone-wrong, resulting in the death of their brother-in-arms, Roner. That much we knew. But thanks to the clarity provided by the flashback sequences, we understand Kayce’s problem a little better.
Kayce, Cal, and Garrett all retreated, believing that Roner was dead. They were already taking it hard, but then they were shown thermal satellite imaging of Roner’s last stand, which occurred after they had been extracted. They left their comrade alone to die on a mountain, and Kayce blamed Cal for giving the order to retreat.
This is unveiled during flashbacks that intercut Neil’s various present-day efforts to escape, so Kayce and Cal have to keep working through their problems to decide whether they’re going to go after him or allow him to escape. Since Cal knows about the train station, he knows that helping Kayce is also putting his own career in the Marshals at risk. But he also knows that to do nothing would be betraying a brother, something that, based on the flashbacks, he believes he has already done.
Garrett’s Apology
Eventually, Kayce and Cal split up to search for Neil. Cal, still on death’s door, finds him, but his condition allows Neil to get the drop on him. When Kayce eventually catches up, Cal is almost dead, but Neil is nowhere to be seen.
It’s at this point in Marshals Episode 11 that Cal finally explains what Garrett’s apology meant. In another flashback, we see that it was Garrett who told Cal that he had seen Roner die with his own eyes. This is what compelled Cal to retreat. It was only after they saw the satellite footage that Cal realised Garrett had lied to save his own skin, which is why Garrett seems to be taking his time overseas even harder than everyone else.
But despite knowing the truth, Cal allowed Kayce to believe it was his fault, since he didn’t believe that Garrett would have survived with the weight of that falsehood being common knowledge. He was protecting his brothers the whole time, in his own way.
The Best of Us Don’t Come Home
Having agreed to let bygones be bygones, and with Neil nowhere to be seen, Kayce and Cal make it off the mountain with a last-minute assist from Belle and Andrea, who spent “On Thin Ice” pursuing Neil’s accomplice. As they leave, we get a final aerial shot of the icy lake that Cal fell into, with blood spreading beneath. We know what happened to Neil after all.
After this, Kayce, Cal, and Andrea race back to the hospital to check on Garrett. Sadly, his bed is empty, and the only thing remaining is an austere bag of his possessions, including a phone with a picture of the Four Musketeers as his wallpaper. He died from his injuries a few hours after Kayce left.
“The best of us don’t come home,” Kayce says, echoing an old motto from their time in the Navy.
Miles Is a Weapon
While it’s wedged in a little awkwardly, it’s worth pointing out that Miles has something to do in Marshals Episode 11. After his success in liberating the trafficked girls, Rainwater has rather shrewdly decided to use him as a bargaining chip in his endless battle to get the dangerous mineral mine moved away from the Broken Rock reservation.
Using Miles’s reputation as a local hero, loyal Marine, and dedicated U.S. Marshal, he’s able to schmooze a state senator into potentially hearing out his proposal for relocating the mine. She’s swayed by Miles, and she also thinks that the chairman of the subcommittee overseeing the mine would be, too, if he were able to meet him in person. Convincing the rest of the politicians would be Rainwater’s job, but that’s kind of what he does.
Miles isn’t thrilled about the idea of being used as a prop, but Rainwater clarifies that he isn’t – he’s being used as a weapon to defend his people against their oppressors. And for that purpose, I think he’ll be a bit more willing.
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