Yellowstone‘s Marshals spinoff kept the deaths coming with another crucial character getting killed off in a shocking twist.
During the Sunday, May 10, episode of the hit CBS series, Kayce (Luke Grimes) was still dealing with the aftermath of the attack on his ranch while navigating a new threat from his past. The episode picked up from the fallout of the prison bus crash as Kayce and Cal (Logan Marshall-Green) tracked down the last remaining inmate still on the loose.
Kayce and Cal’s journey led to them reliving their time as US Navy SEALs, which included Garrett (Riley Green) as part of their group. It was through those flashbacks that viewers — and Kayce — learned that Cal wasn’t the one who declared another member of their group dead during a mission, which prevented him from getting lifesaving help. Instead, it was Garrett who made the call that ultimately resulted in their friend dying anyway.
Garrett, for his part, was recovering in the hospital after the fire at Kayce’s ranch. He seemed to be on the mend despite sustaining second-degree burns and inhaling a lot of smoke. But when Kayce, Cal and Andrea (Ash Santos) returned to the hospital at the end of their shift to check on Garrett, they were informed he had died.
Marshals marked Green’s acting debut — with him appearing in multiple episodes earlier this season.
“I’m so excited to be joining the cast of Marshals. Being on set with my buddy Luke Grimes made the experience even more memorable,” Green said in a statement in February. “This is my first go around in the acting space and I couldn’t have asked for a better introduction to this world.”
Garrett’s death wasn’t the only big surprise this season on Marshals. When the series premiered in March, Yellowstone fans were shocked to learn that Kayce’s wife, Monica (Kelsey Asbille), died off screen after battling cancer.
“Kayce had such a perfect ending in Yellowstone,” showrunner Spencer Hudnut told TVLine in March. “His dreams had finally come true. As we were trying to figure out how to tell the next chapter in Kayce’s story, it felt like he really needed to be shaken out of that. Unfortunately, tragedy tends to find Kayce, so something bad was going to happen for him one way or the other. It just sort of played out that it was going to be Monica.”
Hudnut said Monica’s death will continue to drive Kayce, adding, “To me, Monica is really guiding Kayce through this first episode, trying to help him find his new path. And if you actually break it down, Tate is at that rally to honor his mother, and Kayce goes there to protect Tate. So if not for Monica, Kayce never would have been in that position and may not have found this path.”
He concluded: “We really wanted to be respectful of the way that we said goodbye to her. I also didn’t want to step on the ending of Yellowstone, because what they had was a beautiful ending. Unfortunately, real life intervened.”
Marshals airs on CBS Sundays at 8 p.m. ET.
