Kayce rescues Tate from Monica’s wild Mustang as CBS’s Marshals episode five opens. Tate’s arm and pride are hurt, and Kayce warns him to stay away from the wild horse. Tate insists he just wanted to connect with his mom. Kayce comes to the decision that the horse needs to find a new home, and Tate accuses him of erasing Monica’s memory.
(The following is a recap of episode five, “Lost Girls,” and there are spoilers.)
Maddie (Morgan Lindholm) gives her dad a hard time while he eats at the bar. She brings up that he was skinny in her baby pictures, and Cal (Logan Marshall-Green) recalls he was just 19 when she was born. Maddie won’t let him forget that he took off when she was five and that they were never close.
Tate (Brecken Merrill) and Kayce (Luke Grimes) take Monica’s horse to Wyoming to sell, but no one wants it after it bit a buyer. Tate spots an old classmate from the rez in the parking lot and she seems antsy. The girl, Hailey, claims her boyfriend likes road trips and that’s why they’re in Wyoming. But Tate thinks something’s up.
Cal shows up at work and Belle (Arielle Kebbel) insists he needs to let Maddie have time to heal. It’s not going to be easy, but he needs to be patient. Andrea (Ash Santos) and Miles (Tatanka Means) play foosball while discussing rent, and Miles admits they’re kicking him off the rez. Kayce arrives and Hailey’s on his mind. He wonders if Miles thinks it’s weird that she would have been in a truck stop parking lot in Wyoming, and Miles remembers she was reported missing four months ago. Tate thought she was acting strange, and Miles suspects she’s a victim of sex trafficking. Miles thinks looking into it would be a great way to help the tribal police.
They ask Cal if the team can investigate, and unfortunately, they can’t right now because they’ve just been given a new assignment. They need to protect Sam LaChance, a homicide suspect, who’s a key witness in a federal case. Kayce volunteers to go with Miles to talk to Hailey’s mom, while Cal, Belle, and Andrea babysit LaChance. Cal agrees but warns them to “tread lightly.”
In addition to three murder cases, LaChance has a record of domestic abuse, loan sharking, and aggravated assault. The fed’s case LaChance needs to testify in involves a construction company that defrauded the government. Neither Belle nor Andrea is happy about using their time and resources on this, and Cal agrees Belle can check out the truck stop.
Kayce and Miles speak with Hailey’s mom, Ellie, and she’s relieved her daughter’s alive. The boyfriend might be someone she was texting. Hailey stole her car, which was recovered, and the cops have been useless. Miles thinks someone online groomed her and took her away from Broken Rock. Hailey’s friend Ava went missing a year ago. Miles was working that case until his last day on Broken Rock’s force.
Ellie asks them to promise they’ll remain on the case until Hailey’s brought home.
Andrea, Belle, and Cal babysit LaChance at a luxury hotel, and Belle doesn’t think the public would be happy about how they’re spending their taxes. Belle gets an update from the Wyoming State Troopers and there haven’t been any sightings of Hailey. Andrea issued an AMBER alert, and it’s obvious everyone would rather be working that case than watching over LaChance.
Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) and Mo (Mo Brings Plenty) arrive just as Kayce and Miles are leaving, and Thomas warns them they’ve given Ellie hope. And since they haven’t reached out to the Tribal Police, Thomas knows they’re there in an unofficial capacity. Miles suggests maybe the marshals can lend a hand if the tribal police ask, but Thomas doesn’t think the authorities are willing to do anything. They always declare missing rez girls and women runaways.
Miles thinks it’s possible this time will be different, but Thomas doesn’t see the point of requesting help again. Their superiors would never allow it.
Belle and Andrea ignore Cal’s orders to stop working on Hailey’s case. Since Miles learned that Hailey and Ava were targeted online, Andrea volunteers to investigate the girls’ social media and discovers they were both talking to greeneyes44. His first name’s Noah but he’s wearing a hat and sunglasses online, so his face isn’t visible. But as they’re investigating, Noah posts a new update.
Andrea texts Miles with news about Noah and it looks like he’s hunting for another girl to traffic right now. Kayce recognizes the area in Noah’s photo, which went up half an hour ago. They decide to head to the spot, even though they’re not officially on the case.
A motorcade arrives to pick up LaChance to take him to court, and Cal, Belle, and Andrea are more than happy to turn him over.
Miles is not sure how they’ll get Noah to talk, and Kayce assures him it’s okay to break the rules for the right reasons. Kayce puts his badge in his glove compartment; he’s just a dad looking for Tate’s friend right now. He offers Miles a chance to leave, and Miles put his badge in the glove compartment too.
Thomas Rainwater’s in Cal’s office when the team returns, and he apologizes for showing up unannounced. Thomas thanks Cal for giving Kayce a “new beginning” before addressing the elephant in the room. The tribal police’s resources are limited, and outside help has never been offered. Missing girls are an epidemic on the rez, and Cal says he understands the pain parents must feel as a father himself. Thomas is worried that Kayce and Miles offered false hope and asks again for help from the marshals. He doesn’t like seeking help from the government but can’t let his pride get in the way of finding these missing girls.
Kayce and Miles find Noah fishing and Kayce hits him in the head with a metal tackle box. He and Miles demand to know where Hailey and Ava are, and after a little torture involving fishing lures, Noah admits he had fun with them and then tossed them aside. Miles accuses him of using photos and videos to blackmail the girls into sex work. His phone reveals he’s talking to dozens of girls, but it’s not until Kayce threatens to gut him that Noah agrees to talk.
Gifford agrees to let the team assist the tribal police. Cal’s only mildly surprised that Belle and Andrea have already been working on the case and that Kayce and Miles have got a name to check out. Kurt Bledsoe has a lengthy rap sheet for pimping and pandering, and now they believe he’s a sex trafficker. Cal has them send out an alert to other agencies to be on the alert for Bledsoe. Belle’s going to start looking up Bledsoe’s relatives and other possible contacts where he could be hiding.
Miles and Kayce deliver Noah to Mo. “You preyed on the rez, now the rez is going to prey on you,” growls Mo. Noah begs to be let go as he’s loaded into Mo’s SUV.
The following morning Tate’s looking through Monica’s stuff for something to read during her remembrance ceremony. Kayce’s not sure if he’s going since tracking down Hailey is priority number one. Tate’s surprised Hailey is actually missing but knew there was something weird about how she was acting. Kayce promises they’ll bring her home, and Tate believes Monica’s trying to save Hailey by making them cross paths with her while trying to sell her horse.
“If you won’t make it to the ceremony, bringing Hailey back is the best way to honor her,” says Tate.
Andrea and Belle haven’t had any luck locating Bledsoe, and Andrea suggests that they catfish him as men looking for girls. Cal likes the idea but wonders what Kayce and Miles are up to. Andrea reveals they’re getting ready to kick some doors. Cal joins them and warns them not to cross any lines; they need solid evidence collected the right way to secure wins in court.
Andrea discovers Kurt Bledsoe’s got a new name and a credit card with it just bought gas half an hour ago. Fortunately, Kayce and Miles are already heading that way. They split up at the truck stop to search for Bledsoe and Kayce spots Hailey, but she’s terrified. Kayce swears he can protect her, but Hailey is scared Bledsoe will hurt the other girls if she leaves. He already killed Ava to teach the girls a lesson. Hailey says she’s being held with nine other girls, but they aren’t all there.
Kayce swears he’ll come back for the others, but Hailey refuses to put the girls in jeopardy. She tells Kayce to find them at the next stop with all the trees; they should all be there together.
Kayce fills the team in on what he learned, and Miles is furious he didn’t pick up Hailey. Cal reminds him the other girls would have been in danger if Hailey left them. Andrea thinks they’re using a large vehicle and tries to figure out the place with all the trees clue.
Thomas calls Kayce and thanks him for leading the charge on finding the girls. Kayce doesn’t tell him what he’s learned about Ava and promises to do his best.
Andrea’s discovered the place with the trees is the Ponderosa Truck Stops. (Its logo has trees.) Security footage from one 15 miles from where they spotted Hailey shows an RV pulling up with the girls. They stopped at another one 40 minutes ago. The team can track the camper if it sticks to public highways, but Miles is still upset that Kayce let Hailey go.
An alert pops up on the RV’s location, and the team heads out in two vehicles to intercept it. They spot the RV and Cal orders them to hold back but Miles won’t listen and speeds up. Bledsoe’s men spot their tail and also speed up, and Cal changes the plan and orders Miles to get ahead of them to lay a spike strip.
One of Bledsoe’s men aims at them from a window as they attempt to pass and Miles has to drop back. They can’t shoot back because of the girls, and Kayce makes a move, telling Andrea to force the gunman to put his head back inside. They pull up along one side while Miles pulls past the RV and Belle lays a spike strip.
It explodes the tires and the RV’s forced to stop. The team kills all three men in the RV and then discovers the girls aren’t inside. Miles glares at Kayce as the episode ends with a “to be continued” banner.
