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Marshals · Season 1 · Episode 1

Piya Wiconi (Season 1, Episode 1)

Premise: A bombing at a mine announcement near Broken Rock leaves Thomas Rainwater fighting for his life, and Kayce Dutton joins his old SEAL leader’s Marshals unit to find who was behind it.

Air date
Season/Episode
Season 1, Episode 1
Case
Bombing at the mine announcement
Starring
Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes), Pete “Cal” Calvin (Logan Marshall-Green), Belle Skinner (Arielle Kebbel), Andrea Cruz (Ash Santos), Miles Kittle (Tatanka Means), Tate Dutton (Brecken Merrill), Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham), Mo (Mo Brings Plenty), Harry Gifford (Brett Cullen)
Yellowstone ties
Andrea is filled in on the Dutton backstory: Kayce sold the family ranch to Broken Rock, his father was killed while governor and his brother Jamie went missing as attorney general.
Guest stars
Chad Michael Collins as Owen Kilborn, Loren Anthony as Jim Kane, Chris Brewster as John Decker, Tish Daniels as Secretary Clarkson, Hayley Archuleta as Tiva Kane
Director
Greg Yaitanes
Writers
Spencer Hudnut

Summary

The Case

“Piya Wiconi” finds Pete “Cal” Calvin, Kayce Dutton’s old SEAL team leader, asking Kayce to join the small U.S. Marshals unit he now runs in Montana. Kayce declines, but he leads Cal’s deputies, Andrea Cruz, Miles Kittle and Belle Skinner, on horseback into the hills after two fugitives accused of preying on women from the reservation. Cal then deputizes him for one day to help secure a mine announcement where Secretary of the Interior Clarkson is speaking. The team spots a possible bomber moments before a blast rips through the crowd. The secretary is unharmed, but Thomas Rainwater, chairman of Broken Rock, is gravely hurt, and Navy-trained first aid at the scene keeps him alive until surgery.

Belle traces the pressure-cooker lid to a hardware store near Broken Rock, and Miles finds footage of Jim Kane, a Broken Rock oil-rig worker, carrying the backpack. Andrea finds an injured Kane in the hospital, and his former co-worker John Decker, an Army veteran, is killed after turning up there. Decker’s phone holds images of Kane’s wife and daughter, and Kane admits Decker had seized Tiva and Lucy to force him to plant the bomb. The real target was Rainwater, whose campaign to reclaim tribal land angered an anti-government militia called the Trail Keepers.

A tracker on Tiva leads the team by helicopter to Glacier National Park. Andrea then learns that Owen Kilborn, who heads Fish, Game and Parks, was Decker’s Army commanding officer, and he already knows where the team is going. The marshals fight through an ambush and find Lucy, but Kilborn has taken Tiva. A captured militiaman names Cracker Lake, where Kayce stops Kilborn and brings the girl back unharmed. Kilborn turns out to have been paid $250,000 from an offshore account.

The Team

Kayce, a widowed former SEAL, is still haunted by a botched mission and by the death of his wife, Monica, while his teenage son, Tate, would rather join a Broken Rock protest against a new rare-earth mine than work their East Camp spread. At the rally Kayce sends a reluctant Tate home and catches up with Rainwater. U.S. Marshal Harry Gifford warns Cal that the Duttons bend the law, but Cal stands by Kayce.

Spoiler, the ending: At the celebration, someone recognizes Belle as Isabel Turek, from a family that bred cutting horses, and she asks for it to stay quiet, since the team knows her only as Skinner. Rainwater, recovering, tells Kayce he is a protector rather than a killer, and that the world needs sheepdogs. Kayce apologizes to Tate and tells him he is free to choose his own path. At Monica’s grave, Kayce tells her he is changing course for himself and their son.

Why it stands out

Themes

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