‘Marshals’: Kayce Channels Monica Dutton in Search for Missing Indigenous Girls

Marshals put a spotlight on the real-life plight of Indigenous families searching for missing women and girls in Season 1 Episode 5, which aired on Sunday, March 29, on CBS. Tate Dutton (Brecken Merrill) called it a fitting way to honor his late mother, Monica Dutton (Kelsey Asbille), who fought to find a missing Indigenous woman and child in Yellowstone Season 3 Episode 6 and remained an advocate for this cause in the time after. This episode gave an update on Monica’s advocacy in the final months of her life. As revealed in the series premiere, Monica died of cancer before the plot of Marshals began. Warning: Spoilers for Marshals Season 1 Episode 5 ahead.

Tate was at a Wyoming gas station with Kayce (Luke Grimes) when he saw a friend from the Broken Rock reservation, Hailey, for the first time in a long time. There was something suspicious about the teenager being there, and Kayce noticed right away. He brought up the issue to his fellow Marshals at work, which immediately sent Miles (Tatanka Means) into action. Belle (Arielle Kebbel) and Andrea (Ash Santos) wanted to help. Team leader Cal (Logan Marshall-Green) wouldn’t allow it, because the U.S. Marshals aren’t supposed to interfere with criminal activity on the reservation being investigated by Broken Rock’s local police force.

The problem with that is that the police force is severely lacking in resources, so many missing Indigenous women and girls stay missing for years. With Belle and Andrea’s help, Kayce and Miles went rogue to find the man who was using social media to groom teenage girls from the res and deliver them to a man called Bledsoe, who was suspected of running a sex trafficking ring. They hid their Marshals badges in their car, captured the middle man, and passed him off to Mo (Mo Brings Plenty) for punishment.

The team found Hailey at another gas station, and Kayce tried to convince her to go with him to safety. She wouldn’t because the last time one of the captive girls (there were 10 total) tried to get away, Bledsoe murdered one of them. That girl was Ava, another missing teen from Broken Rock who had been missing for longer than Hailey. Ava’s mother (below, with Kayce and Miles) revealed that Monica was going to help her organization, dedicated to finding their missing women and children, before she died.

Sonja Flemming / CBS

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Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) was reluctant to let the Marshals help find the teens because those promises of help have typically resulted in wasted hopes in the past. He let them help this time because he trusted Kayce. The team located the camper vehicle that was transporting the nine surviving girls, including Hailey. They got into a shoot-out on a highway only to find that Bledsoe had already taken the girls somewhere else in another vehicle.

Kayce and Tate were only at that gas station in Wyoming because Kayce was trying to sell Monica’s stallion. The untamed horse hurt Tate earlier in the episode, prompting Kayce’s decision to sell. Tate was against selling the animal because it was his mother’s, but after the Hailey ordeal, he felt like his late mom was trying to help find the missing Indigenous girls “from above” by guiding Kayce to Hailey’s location.

The episode ended with a “To Be Continued” title card. Hopefully, this storyline has a happy ending, with the girls being returned home.

Marshals, Sundays, 8/7c, CBS