CBS’s Marshals episode eight opens on a peaceful note, but the tension quickly ratchets up when the team receives a tip on a wanted bank robber. However, things are not as they seem, and a team member’s in serious jeopardy.
(This is a recap of episode eight, “Blowback,” and there are spoilers.)
Tate (Brecken Merrill) and Cal (Logan Marshall-Green) join Kayce (Luke Grimes) as they inspect East Camp. There’s friendly banter as Kayce checks out the grass to see if it’ll be enough come winter. After Tate rides off, Kayce confesses being a dad is the hardest thing he’s had to deal with.
Cal’s just said he’s happy to have a peaceful morning when Tate rides back, announcing there’s a sketchy guy heading toward the house. The sketchy dude carrying a guitar case turns out to be Garrett (musician Riley Green), a guy Kayce served with in Afghanistan. Garrett is shocked to see Cal and tells Tate that they are three quarters of a group known as the Four Musketeers. Cal disagrees, and no one mentions the name of the fourth.
Cal isn’t thrilled to see Garrett and takes off instead of sticking around to talk.
Cal and Belle (Arielle Kebbel) exchange a smile at work, but he cuts her off when she wants to talk. He claims he’s fine and reminds her they agreed to respect boundaries at work. “It’s nothing personal,” says Cal.
Kayce works with Monica’s mustang as he catches up with Garrett. Kayce remembers that Garrett was in a bad place mentally when he last saw him 10 years ago. Garrett claims he’s better now that he’s making a name for himself as a musician. He reveals that Cal ended his military career, which explains why they were so cold to each other.
Over at the bar, Miles (Tatanka Means) and Maddie (Morgan Lindholm) have made it to their third date. Miles wonders if she’ll tell her dad they’re dating, and she responds by pulling him across the bar for a kiss as Cal walks up.
Miles confesses he didn’t initially know she was Cal’s daughter. Cal doesn’t say how he feels and walks away.
Andrea, Kayce, and Garrett chat over beers. They flirt, and Garrett calls Andrea his new muse. It’s tense when Cal walks up and refuses to join them. Instead, he drops off cash to pay for a few rounds.
The following morning Kayce tells Cal that Garrett seems better. Cal’s leery of his sudden appearance and doesn’t get why he suddenly showed up out of nowhere. He thinks Garrett’s damaged, and Kayce doesn’t mince words, accusing Cal of causing a lot of his damage.
Fortunately, wanted bank robber Reed Pollard has popped up nearby, which gives the team something to focus on. Pollard’s always one step ahead of the law and is in Montana scouting his next takedown. Apparently, he’s at the rodeo grounds, and Cal takes Andrea and Kayce with him to check it out. Belle and Miles stay behind to monitor the situation, and neither is happy about being benched.
Snow falls as Cal, Kayce, and Andrea walk around the cattle stalls at the rodeo grounds. They spot movement and track it when suddenly three armed men appear behind them. The team takes cover, but the marshals are ready, and after minimum gunfire, they take the bad guys down. Kayce chases after who they believe is Reed and engages in a shootout in the barn.
Reed escapes through a hole in the wall.
Cal returns to the station and reports that Kayce’s still chasing Reed but thinks he clipped him. No hospitals have reported a gunshot wound, and Cal orders a statewide search. The dead guys didn’t have IDs on them, just guns and zip ties.
Miles is sulking over not being part of the action and thinks if the full team had been there, they might have caught Pollard. Cal thinks it’s just as likely one of them would have been shot. Cal reminds them he’s doing what’s best for the team and orders them to find Pollard.
Cal confesses to Belle that he’s irritated Maddie’s dating Miles and thinks she’s doing this to piss him off. Belle throws his own words back at him and tells him to respect work boundaries.
Kayce and Andrea head to a shed where an intruder was spotted and find a dead man. Unfortunately, it’s not Pollard.
The team discusses their findings thus far, and it turns out the fourth man had no known connection to Pollard. The three other dead men also don’t have any connections to Pollard. None of the four are from Montana, and they have clean records.
Cal wonders why four strangers would come to Montana to work with Pollard when they aren’t criminals. And Pollard still hasn’t been seen, which makes the team wonder about the tip that was called in. Did Pollard call it in on his own team as a distraction?
Andrea and Cal pack up the dead men’s weapons, and Cal’s concerned that Kayce went home to check on Garrett.
Kayce finds Garrett in the middle of a nightmare, and when he tries to wake him, Garrett attacks. Kayce manages to hold on to him as he calms down. After everything’s mellowed out, they sit outside, and Garrett confesses life in a war zone made more sense than in the civilized world. Being part of the team was everything to him, and he’s tired of trying to find gigs. Music is a healthy escape, but once he finishes playing, things get dark. He’s been in jail, homeless, and in a psych ward. Garrett feels like he’s being punished for the death of the fourth Musketeer, and Kayce reminds him that wasn’t his fault.
Kayce understands loss and understands feeling hurt, but the ranch has helped him heal. Garrett’s not a cowboy, but Kayce asks him to stay as long as he needs until he figures things out. “We may not be teammates anymore; we’re still brothers,” says Kayce.
Belle and Miles continue to check on any relationships the dead men have with Pollard. At the same time, they discuss his new relationship with Maddie. Miles is worried being with Maddie complicates his relationship with Cal. Belle thinks it’ll blow over.
Cal receives bad news from the doctor and tunes the doctor out when he assures him that he’s not alone.
Andrea’s by herself transporting the guns to forensics when her map app gives her the wrong information. Just as she’s trying to figure it out, a car T-bones her at a high rate of speed.
Cal returns to the station, and Belle informs him Pollard was located in a jail in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Why did a tipster say he was in Montana? Belle has no idea since the New Mexico cops didn’t find any Montana connections. And they still haven’t found out anything helpful on the four dead men.
Cal thinks it’s a setup and asks Belle to check with Andrea on the guns. Kayce shows up as Cal is rubbing his neck, and Cal admits he thinks Pollard was bait. Kayce reveals Garrett’s doing pretty bad and is going to stay at East Camp. Cal feels responsible for Garrett’s struggles and wonders if it’s safe for him to hang around. Kayce reminds him they aren’t supposed to leave a man behind.
Belle can’t get ahold of Andrea, and she hasn’t dropped off the guns. Miles talks to the sheriff and learns that Andrea’s smashed vehicle was found two miles from the lab. They found blood in the vehicle along with the truck that hit her. Andrea isn’t in the area, and neither is whoever was in the truck.
Traffic cam footage shows the truck hitting Andrea and then a van coming up behind her and grabbing her. Cal and Kayce recognize this as a classic ambush technique. Andrea was unconscious when she was taken. Cal orders everyone to make recovering their only job.
Kayce thinks this is personal. Whoever did it has something against the team.
Andrea’s tied up and has a hood over her head in the back of a van when she comes to. She kicks the woman who’s guarding her, but the woman has a cattle prod and knocks Andrea out again.
Miles discovers footage of a cargo van registered to Treasure State Demolition. Kayce immediately recognizes the company.
The van finally stops, and Andrea’s tossed out and kicked in the ribs. Her hood’s taken off, and she’s face-to-face with Randall Clegg (Michael Cudlitz). This is his revenge for what her team’s done to his family.
It’s all hands on deck at the station now that they know it’s Randall Clegg. His family lost their contracts, and the company went bankrupt after their run-in with the marshals. Clegg still blames Kayce in particular for his family’s downfall.
Andrea’s taken into a basement and tied to a chair in front of a camera. Randall declares that he’s going to be the spark that “burns the land clean” after the government has done nothing but take it away.
It’s tense in the car with Cal and Kayce; Cal’s not happy to have Garrett back in the picture. He shows up and now they have another teammate, Andrea, in the crosshairs. Kayce hopes this situation turns out better than their last one.
The team arrives outside the Clegg compound, and backup is still an hour away. Cal explains how they’ll approach the operation, and they’re all anxious to get Andrea back. Kayce has them freeze as he eyes the main house. He signals for them to move forward just as they come under gunfire. It’s obvious the Cleggs were expecting the team and have taken up strategic positions.
The team’s outnumbered and outgunned as episode eight ends…
