Yellowstone had one big villain per season. The Marshals spinoff on CBS has had one per episode through Kayce Dutton’s (Luke Grimes) work with the Montana U.S. Marshals, but the Marshals Season 1 finale ended on a major cliffhanger that revealed the show’s first big bag villain. It left two Marshals’ fates left hanging in the balance and put Kayce and Tate’s (Brecken Merrill) lives in danger, too. Below, Logan Marshall-Green explains the shocking ending and what to expect in Marshals Season 2, which has already started filming. Warning: Marshals Season 1 finale spoilers ahead!

In “Wolves at the Door,” an assassination plot against Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) led to a deadly shootout on East Camp. Kayce’s team arrived in time to help, and none of their team members were injured, but Kayce, Mo (Mo Brings Plenty), the Marshals, and even young Tate had to kill a lot of people to end the fighting. The person behind the attack turned out to be one of Rainwater’s political rivals, and his death appeared to be a suicide at first. But Andrea (Ash Santos) learned intel that implied he was murdered.

When Cal (Marshall-Green) and Belle (Arielle Kebbel) went to chase a lead, they got ambushed instead. The man who came to East Camp with Tom Weaver (Chris Mulkey) earlier in the episode drove up, gave Cal and Belle a menacing look, and then drove away to reveal two armed men behind his car. Gunshots went off, but who was shot wasn’t shown. That man arrived at an airport tarmac to let Tom know that the job was done, revealing Tom as the man behind the attack and Marshals‘ new villain.

Tom had Tate with him; he was taking him on a fishing trip that was passed off as a means of protection for the kid on Kayce’s behalf. Kayce, meanwhile, was off on a horseback ride with Tom’s daughter, Dolly (Ellyn Jameson), who smiled as if she knows something we don’t.

Marshall-Green shares how he first reacted to the Cal and Belle cliffhanger and the Tom twist.

“I didn’t see it coming, to be completely honest,” he tells TV Insider. “I think [showrunner Spencer Hudnut] overall does a great job of doling out story and it keeps even the cast guessing, which is the best part about TV.”

 

Chris Mulkey as Tom Weaver and Ellyn Jameson as Dolly in 'Marshals' Season 1

“Between theater and film and TV, TV’s the closest thing to real life when it comes to portraying or being a human being,” Marshall-Green continues, “because you just get the script and you don’t know what’s going to happen next and anything can happen in this life. And so I think Spencer does a great job of keeping everybody very organic in how the river unfolds in front of them.”

Tom seemingly concocted this plan after Kayce declined his offer to buy East Camp. How much danger will Tom pose in Marshals Season 2, premiering this fall?

“Well, I’ve only read the first script and he will be right there in the top of Season 2,” Marshall-Green reveals. “He will be the big bad, and there’ll be a lot of consequences.”

Marshals Season 2 started filming in mid-May. Marshall-Green says that the Season 2 premiere will answer this finale’s burning questions.

“We pick up right where we left off, I mean literally and figuratively,” Marshall-Green says. “No rest for the wicked.”

It seems unlikely that Marshals is killing off Cal and Belle, but it’s possible that could be gravely injured when Season 2 begins. Before the danger revealed itself, Cal’s personal life was expanding. He was recently diagnosed with a rare form of lung cancer and was heading to Utah with Belle to seek treatment. Seconds before their cliffhanger ending, they shared a moment that implies they’re both interested in pursuing their feelings for each other more seriously. Cal also made strides in his relationship with his estranged daughter, Maddy (Morgan Lindholm), who’s dating his team member, Miles (Tatanka Means). Maddy finally gave Cal a chance to talk and called him dad in their conversation.

Marshall-Green teases what to expect with Cal in Season 2 after those important moments with Belle and Maddy.

“I think Cal’s like three trash cans and two lids. The second he gets two lids on, he’s got one open and that’s going to be more of the same,” Marshall-Green says. “There’s never really been a chance to breathe, pun unintended, in a way for him. That’s why he finally allows Belle into his fold. It’s not over.”

“There’s always something and the next phase is going to be this cancer,” he continues. “And if he survives this attack that you leave him on, I hope that Spencer and the writers will take him to task. I don’t want to, as someone who has been through a lot of cancer in my family, other people, not my own, I don’t want a pussyfoot around it. I want the stakes to be as high as possible and that’s something I always talk about on set every day, every sentence, every scene. Stakes are high and keep them high. So even though it was great to hear my daughter say the word dad, there’s always something coming down the road with life. And I think that Spencer does a great job dolling that out.”

Marshals, Season 2 Premiere, Fall 2026, CBS