‘Marshals’ Thrilling Two-Parter Drops an Explosive Cliffhanger | Review

Image via CBS Published Oct 25, 2026, 9:00 PM EDT Michael John Petty is a Senior Author for Collider who spends his days writing, in fellowship with his local church, and enjoying each new day with his wonderful wife and precious daughters. At Collider, he writes features, reviews, recaps, interviews, and breaking news on select occasion. In addition to writing about stories, Michael has told a few of his own, from supernatural thrillers to historical fiction. His Western short story, The Devil's Left Hand, received the Spur Award for "Best Western Short Fiction" in 2025 from the Western Writers of America, of which he is a member. Michael currently resides in North Idaho with his growing family. Sign in to your Collider account Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Marshals Season 2, Episode 4.As Marshals continues to unpack the post-Yellowstone world of Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes), this week's episode, "Blast Radius," calls back to a mystery left behind in the first season. When Tom Weaver (Chris Mulkey) took over Kayce's world last year, a fugitive got away from our heroes — but he has never been too far from view. Beginning a new two-part episode, Marshals does what it does best by focusing on simple fugitive takedowns that allow for more intimate measures of character development. 'Marshals' Brings Back a Forgotten Fugitive for Round 2 This week's episode begins with Kayce waking up from a dream — well, more of a nightmare flashback — of his younger self, dealing with the pain of the inflicted "Y" brand that his father placed upon him. Wondering if Andrea (Ash Santos) is awake (which, of course, she is), the pair decide to go to work rather than try to sleep. Together, they go on an all-night spree of hunting down fugitives and serving warrants that, frankly, would have made for an even better episode than this. Watching these two tackle criminals together while working through their personal demons is exactly what a show like Marshals should be. The only shame is that it limits itself to the teaser. After the opening credits, morning time comes as Belle (Arielle Kebbel) is out with her son Braxton (Koah Williams). Things are all fine until they come upon their car, which now sports a shattered back window. Just then, a mysterious suit (Walker Hale) arrives, informing Belle that she has only 48 hours to make her full payment to the casino she owes money to (with interest). We wondered where that plot line went... Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz Which Taylor SheridanShow Do You Belong In? Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn't write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for. 🤠Yellowstone 🛢️Landman 👑Tulsa King ⚖️Mayor of Kingstown FIND YOUR WORLD → 01 Where does your power come from? In Sheridan's world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind. ALand, legacy, and a name that's been feared and respected for generations. BKnowing the deal better than anyone else in the room — and being willing to walk away first. CReputation. I've earned it the hard way, and everyone in the room knows it. DBeing the only person both sides will talk to. That makes me indispensable — and dangerous. NEXT QUESTION → 02 Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan's universe is always absolute — and always costly. AFamily — blood or chosen. The ranch, the name, the people who carry it with me. BThe company — or whoever's signing the cheques. Loyalty follows the contract. CMy crew. The men who stood with me when it counted — I don't abandon them for anything. DMy community — even when my community is a powder keg and I'm the only thing stopping it from blowing. NEXT QUESTION → 03 Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it's crossed. AQuietly, decisively, and in a way that sends a message to everyone watching. BI outmanoeuvre them legally, financially, and politically before they even know I've moved. CDirectly. Old school. You cross me, you hear about it to your face — and then you deal with the consequences. DI absorb it, calculate the fallout, and find the move that keeps the whole system from collapsing. NEXT QUESTION → 04 Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan's worlds are as much about place as they are about people. AWide open land — mountains, sky, silence. Somewhere you can see trouble coming from a mile away. BThe oil fields of West Texas — brutal, lucrative, and indifferent to whoever happens to be standing on top of them. CA mid-size city where the rules haven't quite caught up yet — fertile ground for someone with vision and nerve. DA rust-belt town built around a prison — where everyone's life is shaped by what's inside those walls. NEXT QUESTION → 05 How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt. AI do what has to be done to protect what's mine. I'll answer for it eventually — but not today. BGrey is just business. The line moves depending on what's at stake, and I move with it. CI have a code — it's not the law's code, but it's mine, and I don't break it. DI've made peace with it. Keeping the peace requires compromises most people don't have the stomach for. NEXT QUESTION → 06 What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they're defending. AA way of life that the modern world is doing everything it can to erase. BMy position — and the leverage that comes with being the person everyone needs to close a deal. CRelevance. I've been away, I've been written off — and I'm proving that was a mistake. DWhatever fragile order I've managed to build — because without it, everything burns. NEXT QUESTION → 07 How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan's world is never given — it's established, maintained, and constantly tested. ABy example and force of will. People follow me because they believe in what I'm protecting — and because they know what happens if they don't. BThrough negotiation and leverage. I don't need people to like me — I need them to need me. CBy being the smartest, most experienced person in the room and making sure everyone quietly knows it. DBy being the calm centre of a situation that would spiral without me — and accepting that nobody thanks you for it. NEXT QUESTION → 08 Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you. AThey'll learn. Or they won't. Either way, the land was here before them and it'll be here after. BI figure out what they want, what they're worth, and whether they're an asset or a problem — fast. CI was the outsider once. I give them a chance — one — to show they understand respect. DNew players destabilise everything I've built. I assess the threat and manage it before it manages me. NEXT QUESTION → 09 What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal. AMy family's peace — maybe their innocence. The ranch demands everything, and I've let it take too much. BRelationships, time, any version of a normal life. The job eats everything that isn't nailed down. CYears. Decades in some cases. Time I can't get back — but I'm not done yet. DMy conscience, mostly. And the ability to ever fully trust anyone on either side of the wall. NEXT QUESTION → 10 When it's over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan's characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind. AThat I held the line. That the land is still ours and everything I did was worth it. BThat I was the best at what I did and that no deal ever got closed without me at the table. CThat I built something real, somewhere nobody expected it, and I did it on my own terms. DThat I kept the peace when nobody else could — and that the town is still standing because of it. REVEAL MY SHOW → Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you're complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes. 🤠 Yellowstone 🛢️ Landman 👑 Tulsa King ⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world's indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you're willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family's weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what's yours, you don't escalate — you finish it. You're not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone's world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn't make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it. You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You're a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they'll do to get it. You're not naive enough to think this world is fair. You're smart enough to be the one deciding who it's fair to. You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you're not above reminding people that the two aren't mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they'd be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they're more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don't need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land. You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you're the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky's world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You've made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ At the Bullet n’ Barrel, Miles (Tatanka Means) continues to hide Cal's (Logan Marshall-Green) diagnosis from Maddie (Morgan Lindholm), which seems to be going alright so far, but the whole thing is clearly weighing on him. At Marshals HQ, Cal tells Belle that he has come clean to Chief Deputy Harry Gifford (Brett Cullen) about his diagnosis, giving Brett Cullen another excuse to be in this week's episode (but we're not complaining). Things begin to get interesting, however, when Kayce and Andrea return with a fugitive who offers something of value in hopes of escaping federal time. Just as Gifford is speaking with Cal about who may be his replacement when he goes on medical leave, Andrea walks in and reveals that they have news on long-lost fugitive and bomb-maker Rudy Carpenter (Braxton Hale). If you don't remember Rudy, that's okay. He first appeared in Season 1's "The Gathering Storm" (ironically also the fourth installment of that season), the same episode Tom Weaver first showed up in. He was the wild man on the mountain whom Cal and Kayce were forced to let go — something Gifford won't let Cal live down. Cal and Andrea give Gifford the lowdown on the domestic terrorist, who was last seen at a gun show at a local convention center. They wonder why Rudy is still hanging around Montana after encountering the U.S. Marshals last year, though it's possible it involves his ex-wife, Audrey (Nicole Zyana), who moved here from the South after leaving him. Although Andrea wants to partner with Kayce and hunt Rudy down, Cal decides to take Miles, partner Kayce and Belle to go speak with Rudy's ex-wife, and have Andrea coordinate from HQ. This gives Andrea some time to be molded by Gifford as Cal relishes the opportunity to still be out in the field. It isn't long before Kayce and Belle arrive at a nearby country club and golf course to look for Carpenter's ex. Taking horses on the course, they ride out and find Audrey, now surrounded by bodyguards. Audrey warns them that Rudy won't go back to prison, telling them that he always has an escape plan. Kayce and the Team Are Hot on Rudy's Trail in This Week's 'Marshals' Image via CBS Elsewhere, Cal and Miles go over the footage of Rudy from a nearby gas station. They watch him put a bag down behind the building and go see if they can find it for themselves. When they do, they find a strange piece of paper with a series of markings and a broken shotgun — the same shotgun that Cal and Kayce lost to the fugitive when they encountered him last season. This confirms that it's Rudy they're chasing, but they're still no closer to finding him. That night, the team unwinds at the saloon, playing pool with some beers. Madison wonders why Cal isn’t there, but Miles continues to run interference on his behalf. It's an awkward position, and one we still feel will come back to bite everyone involved. But Kayce uses it as a chance to share that he believes Cal is handling it all well, remembering how his late wife, Monica (Kelsey Asbille), was the strongest person he knew, even when battling cancer. Next morning at HQ, Andrea has found (via local dark web chatter) that a local gang called “The Disciples” may have inducted Rudy into their group to up their weapons game. Cal adds that the group’s leaders, Paul (Keenan Henson) and Nick Soler (Zach Livingston), have outstanding warrants for "grand theft auto," so the team heads to their nearby garage to take them in. Naturally, a firefight erupts, but when the dust settles, Rudy is nowhere to be found. Cal questions Paul about Rudy, but the gang leader refuses to play ball without a lawyer. Meanwhile, Andrea and Kayce get Nick to talk by going beyond the book, learning that Rudy is building a bomb. Cal isn't too happy about this, though, needing everything to stick legally to redeem his failure from last year. Still, as the team discovers a new lead on Rudy, Cal and Kayce wonder about how far is too far. “Nobody wants violence until they need violence,” Kayce tells his friend. But Cal shifts gears toward his cancer diagnosis, wondering how long he has to atone for his own mistakes. It's here we begin to understand just why this has to be done by the book. Arriving at a nearby crime scene, Cal and Kayce discover that eight barrels of industrial explosives have been stolen from a nearby construction site. This isn't just a small bomb. This could take out an entire city block. Of course, this puts everyone on high alert, and back at HQ, Gifford and Cal argue about whether they are doing enough. It doesn't help Andrea either, as her budding PTSD continues to get worse, with her now seeing things (or rather, members of the Clegg family) that aren’t there. Fortunately, those fears are interrupted by Kayce, prompting a discussion about who might best lead the team in Cal's absence. Andrea would rather keep a low profile and follow Kayce's lead, but the cowboy believes she would do the job well. This Week's 'Marshals' Ends on an Explosive Cliffhanger Image via CBS After wondering how they could possibly find Rudy in time, the team gets a lucky break when Cal spots something peculiar in the footage that Miles reviews from around town. On an old farm just outside Bozeman, he sees a blast zone — due to his work as a Navy SEAL, Cal recognizes this as an obvious testing site for a bomb. Seeing this as enough probable cause, the team heads in — though, for some reason, despite Gifford's decision to call in other federal and state agencies, only our five main cast members head out. It feels a little inconsistent, but we'll let it slide since it's such a quick, time-sensitive operation. Arriving at the scene, the marshals slowly head in, staying out of sight as Rudy begins to load up his white van. But once they have a clear visual, they call out to their target, who fires on them. Another gunfight ensues, with Kayce getting a few hits on the fugitive before he escapes into the barn. As Kayce and Andrea enter to confirm Rudy's status — he's clearly wounded — the bomb-maker arms one of his devices. Kayce pulls Andrea clear as the bomb goes off, ending "Blast Radius" with a classic "To Be Continued..." It seems like Rudy has been taken out by one of his own devices, and with that in mind, we have to wonder how much further this potential domestic terrorist plot goes... Release Date 2026 - 2026-00-00 Network CBS Showrunner Spencer Hudnut Pros & Cons Kayce and Andrea are probably the best team on the show. Lots of great character moments from our main cast. Everyone had something to do or work through. Rudy was an interesting character last season. It's too bad he didn't get any real material here before blowing himself up.