Luke Grimes Officially Confirms What’s Next for ‘Marshals’ After Season 2’s Brutal Premiere Twist and Death

Editor’s note: The following contains major spoilers for the Season 2 premiere of Marshals.

Summary

• In the Season 2 premiere of the CBS drama series ‘Marshals,’ Kayce Dutton risks everything to save his son.
• The second season return is cranking up action, with a river fight, horse chase, a helicopter, and one character’s tragic death.
• Kayce battles inherited trauma while trying to be a father, and quiet moments on his horse offset the violence.

In the Season 2 premiere of Marshals, the CBS Yellowstone spin-off, Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) showed just how far he’ll go to keep what’s left of his family together by saving his son. When Tom Weaver (Chris Mulkey) revealed his nefarious plan at the same time the Marshals team uncovered a powerful criminal operation tied to the East Camp land grab, a violent showdown, including a horse and a helicopter ensued, putting everyone in danger. But as Kayce fought alongside the team that has become his family, he was able to prevail while the Weavers paid the ultimate price.

Collider recently got the opportunity to chat with Grimes about the events of the Season 2 premiere and what’s still to come. During the interview, he discussed the fate of Dolly Weaver (Ellyn Jameson) and what he thought of her action in the episode, how there’s no higher stakes for Kayce than having his son’s life be threatened, trying to be the best father he can be to Tate (Brecken Merrill), his favorite moment from the premiere episode, the most challenging aspect of the big action sequence while confronting Tom, why he loves the quiet moments he gets to spend on a horse, whether there’s the possibility of romance in Kayce’s future, and how they’re not taking the foot off the gas, even with a 20-episode season.

COLLIDER: Before the events of the premiere play out and before Kayce learns exactly what Tom Weaver has been up to, what do you think he was thinking about Dolly? Do you think he saw real possibility with her? Do you think that’s something he had actually considered?

LUKE GRIMES: I think he saw someone with some interest in him and obviously had trepidations about getting involved with anyone. It probably felt a little too soon. Thinking about how the audience felt, I think Kayce felt the same way. I think we were all supposed to feel that way. She was very kind to him and there when he needed someone. I don’t think it was out of the question for him until it was.

Kayce Dutton Was Going To Do Whatever It Took To Get His Son Back in the ‘Marshals’ Season 2 Premiere

“If you think about it, there’s really no higher stakes possible for Kayce at this point in his life.”

We, as the audience, knew that Tate was essentially being kidnapped in the finale last season, but it took until the Season 2 premiere for Kayce to learn that bit of information. Things get violent pretty quickly in the premiere, once he realizes that he’s being threatened with Tate’s life. Do you feel like that is always closer to the surface with Kayce than it seems?

GRIMES: Yeah. If you think about it, there’s really no higher stakes possible for Kayce at this point in his life. He’s lost everyone but his son, and obviously his son is the most important person in his life. And this has happened to him before. He’s lived this nightmare before, so instead of sitting around and worrying and trying to figure it out, it’s just zero to 100. There was just no other choice and no other way to play it than, “This isn’t going to happen again.”

Do you think that Kayce would have actually let Tom Weaver walk away with his property if he had just handed his son over?

GRIMES: No, absolutely not. No. I think we all know him too well at this point. That was not ever going to happen. Maybe not that day because he knew he was a little outnumbered and there was a pretty long shot of him being able to do anything at that moment. But no, he would have gotten his revenge one way or the other.

Parenting is obviously never easy for anyone, and you never know if you’re making the right decisions. And with someone like Kayce, he’s also always trying to fight against his own family’s history. How challenging is it going to be for him to try to help his son, and is Tate going to at least see that his father is trying?

GRIMES: Yeah, that’s a big arc this season. Kayce is really buckling down and trying to be the best father he can be while having all these other things going on, and they butt heads a little bit. Tate’s about to turn 18. He’s becoming his own man and figuring out what he wants to do. Deep into the season, you’ll figure out what that is and that causes a rub. Trying to repair years of trauma while also trying to have a father-son relationship without the matriarch is very complicated. The audience is going to feel for both of them and understand why they’re having a hard time finding common ground.

Especially when you’re trying to help someone heal from trauma while your own trauma has trauma.

GRIMES: Kayce is just a ball of trauma. He’s trying his best. He tries a few different things in this season to see what works and what sticks, and sometimes he gets it wrong. It’s been really great to watch Brecken [Merrill] have a lot more to play and a lot more to sink his teeth into as an actor this year has been really fun.

It’s really interesting to see how Kayce, Cal, and Belle are all trying to navigate different stages of parenting. Did you even realize that was happening this season?

GRIMES: Yeah. One of the things we talked about, really early on, when it came to what this show is about is this team of marshals being really human. They’re not superheroes. They’re very relatable because they’re very human. It’s very messy. Everybody has got their own problems. This isn’t just a team of people who have the answers. We were hoping that them being really human would give the audience something to relate to as they’re watching these people try to be heroes.

Luke Grimes Reveals the Most Challenging Scene To Shoot in the ‘Marshals’ Season 2 Premiere

“That was tough.”

From the moment that Kayce shows up at Tom Weaver’s property to get his son, a lot happens. The team shows up to have your back, and you’re swimming in water, riding a horse, and shooting guns. What were the biggest challenges of the premiere episode?

GRIMES: The biggest challenge was 100% doing the fight in the river. We shot that in May, so the river was still snowmelt. It was very, very cold. I’d never done a river wrestling scene before, and it turns out that it’s really hard to move your weight around in water like that. That was tough.

Do you have a favorite moment from the premiere?

GRIMES: I think my favorite moment of the first episode is the very end when Kayce is cleaning the blood off his floor after everything that happened and finds that photo. That was just a really special moment. That’s Kayce in a nutshell. It’s violence and family and love and sorrow all at once.

Kayce makes the decision to go after Tom when he’s trying to escape with Dolly, and that all ends pretty tragically. What was your reaction to Dolly’s fate? Was that always where that character was headed? How did you feel about how all that played out?

GRIMES: I didn’t know she was going to die in the first episode until I read it. It was also ambiguous whether she actually knew what her father’s plan was or not. I think it’s still in a gray area. The way that we played it is that she didn’t, but how could she not? There were even moments when we were driving in the car that she’s still trying to tell me that she had no idea, and Kayce is very confused about how that could be possible. It’s just very messy. It turned out to be a pretty great storyline.

With her denials, you definitely wonder if maybe she was just willfully ignorant about it all, but then she does actively make the decision to go with her father, knowing what he’s done by that point, that gets her to the place that she ends up in.

GRIMES: Sure, and I think we had to do that. Otherwise, the way that she dies would have been pretty hard to stomach if you didn’t think she was also a bad person.

Did you also appreciate Kayce’s decision to make Tom live with the guilt of her death instead of just killing him, especially after he kills a lot of other people in this episode?

GRIMES: In that moment, it’s the worst thing he could have done to him. It’s like, “Now you’re going to have to sit in jail for the rest of your life and think about this. I’m not going to put you out of your misery.”

Luke Grimes Loves the Moments in ‘Marshals’ When He Gets To Just Chill Out on a Horse

“One of the main characters in ‘Yellowstone’ was the West and the beauty and the quiet.”

I’ve always thought that horses are really special, magical creatures. There’s something beautiful and majestic about them, and they can also be very intimidating. What does it feel like to have days on this show where you’re either getting to just take a leisurely ride on a horse or you get to do an action scene on horseback? When you have those big, loud action scenes with the shootouts, does it feel very different when you then just get to share a scene with a horse?

GRIMES: That’s a great question, and absolutely, yeah. There are days when I’m doing stuff on East Camp, like taking a ride with Tate or something like that, where I look around and pinch myself and I’m like, “Man, I can’t believe I get paid to do this. This is amazing. People pay big money to be able to do this stuff and be in places like this on horseback and have people teach them how to ride and cowboy, and I get paid to do it.” And then, also, there are days when I’m having to chase down an SUV and shoot guns off horseback, and it makes me very nervous. I’m not as grateful in those moments. One of the main characters in Yellowstone was the West and the beauty and the quiet. There’s something about the mysticism of the West that was such a big part of the show, and we get to keep that in this show, which is nice because it’s a good break from all the action and all that kinetic energy and everything being so tense. You get these nice breaks with these beautiful views and these nice family moments. It’s a nice offset.

Do you think Kayce is actively trying to redefine what the Dutton way can mean now?

GRIMES: It seems like it. His whole thing has been trying to fight against whatever that family legacy is and whatever that thing in his father was that felt like was handed down to him. He was trying to escape it as best he could, and I think he still is. Every time he gets a little closer and takes a step forward, he gets knocked three steps back.

By the end of the premiere, Andrea decides to stay in Montana. There has been some talk about the chemistry between Kayce and Dre. With Dolly gone, do you see Kayce ever having something with a member of his team, or do you feel like that’s a place he wouldn’t go?

GRIMES: I feel like he’s a guy that lets his heart lead the way. I don’t think he wouldn’t do it because it was someone he worked with. It would have to happen really organically and it would have to be something very true. I don’t think he’s a guy that gets too messy, involving himself romantically with people for no reason. I think if it’s meant to be, it will be.

You’ve talked previously about how he’s going to be hanging out with the team more this season and maybe going to the bar a little bit more. Has it been fun to actually be included on some of those team bonding moments that are not big action scenes?

GRIMES: When I have a scene where we’re all in the bar and it’s light and I’m having an okay time, it feels very uncomfortable for me, as an actor, because I don’t know who this guy is anymore. I just feel like, “Who is this? What is this?” I spent six seasons of Yellowstone never doing anything like that. We’re only in Season 2 of this show, so I’m sure it will get better and I will get more used to it. Whenever I’m sitting in a crowded bar, I don’t know if it’s me or Kayce or a mix of both, but I feel very awkward about it. It’s always like, “What show am I on?”

“Nothing feels recycled.”

What else can you tease about Season 2, as far as what’s to come after the premiere? What are you most excited about fans getting to see? What do you think will most surprise people about this season?

GRIMES: What has surprised me is just how many great twists and turns (showrunner) Spencer [Hudnut] has been able to come up with. Nothing feels recycled. There was so much great stuff in Season 1, and then we found a whole new batch of great stuff in Season 2. I’m just constantly surprised by some of the great action stuff that he comes up with. We didn’t take our foot off the gas at all with Season 2. It’s a hit show and we’re doing 20 episodes now, so you think there would be plenty of filler, but I’m not feeling any of that, so that’s really nice.

That’s when you hope that you’ll get to break things up with a scene where you’re leisurely riding a horse.

GRIMES: There’s a term with these kinds of network shows called a bottle episode. When you’ve done a lot and you need to save a little bit of money, you do a bottle episode, which is just two people in a room and your budget can stay really small. We’re on Episode 14 of Season 2, and we still haven’t had one of those. I think that’s a good sign. I’d like a bottle, to be honest, for me, personally. It’s probably not what’s best for the show, but it’d be nice to just tone it down for five seconds. Spencer and I have also talked about this. We were like, “Let’s never let quantity overtake quality. If they order 20, let’s make all 20 of them really count.”

Marshals airs on Sundays on CBS and is available to stream on Paramount+.