Marshals Episode 7 Shows How John Dutton's Yellowstone Death Still Haunts Kayce

This post contains spoilers for "Marshals" episode 7, "Family Business."

"Marshals" episode 7 sees Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) save a husband and father from being killed, in a moment that rekindles all sorts of unresolved feelings about his own father's death. Later, when Kayce offers words of advice about forgiveness, he appears to have a good handle on John Dutton's (Kevin Costner) demise, but the episode also suggests he's not quite ready to forgive himself.

In "Marshals" episode 4, Kayce appeared to find a surrogate John Dutton in Tom Weaver (Chris Mulkey). Since then, we haven't seen much of Weaver (partly because "Marshals" still has no idea what it's actually about), but he showed up in episode 7 and asked to buy Kayce's East Camp property. This kicked off a whole lot of reminiscing as Kayce recalled his father's traditionalist approach to ranching. Then a new case stirred unresolved emotions for Kayce, as a family came to terms with a patriarch who, like John, had plenty of skeletons in his closet. All of that combined to remind us that Grimes' widowed rancher is very much not over his father's death.

Not that you'd expect him to be. "Marshals" picks up around 15 months after the events of "Yellowstone" season 5, which revolved around John Dutton's controversial death. Though Kayce and his siblings managed to avenge their father, they were never going to get any type of closure, mostly because they were Duttons who'd been subjected to a life of unending drama and tumult. But despite Kayce seemingly forgiving John in "Yellowstone," he's clearly still haunted by his father's memory.

"Marshals" began by killing off a controversial "Yellowstone" character in the worst way, so clearly the show is just as merciless as its mothership series. Thankfully, nobody except a couple of troublemakers were dispatched in episode 7, allowing Kayce to offer some words of advice that speak to his own experience of losing a father.

In the episode, the Marshals are assigned to the case of Pauline Ayers (Christine Dunford), a federal judge who's being targeted by an ex-con — at least that's how it appears at first. We soon learn that Ayers' husband, Blake (Christopher Stanley), has been leading a double life, using the infrastructure of his non-profit to smuggle guns to South American revolutionaries. After the revelation, the couple's daughter, Fallon Ayers (Abigail Rhyne), is understandably upset.

This is when Kayce advises her to go easy. "No father is perfect," he tells Fallon. "Once you realize he was just trying to protect you in his own messed up way, your anger will fade. I just hope that if you ever do decide to forgive him, he's still around to hear it." Of course, in Kayce's case, his father wasn't around to hear it. John Dutton was killed by a group of hitmen, leaving his family reeling. At John's funeral, Kayce did at least seem to find some sort of peace, revealing to his son, Tate Dutton (Brecken Merrill), that he forgave his father while praying over his coffin.

"Marshals" episode 7 sees Kayce suggesting that Fallon to do the same for her father, who's still alive to accept her forgiveness. But while it might seem as though the Dutton scion has embraced a healthy acceptance of his father's passing, there's clearly more going on under the surface.

"Marshals" has already forced Kayce Dutton to relive some infamously traumatic "Yellowstone" experiences, and now it's done it again. After the sinister truth behind John Dutton's death was revealed on "Yellowstone," Kayce found the leader of the hit squad. Rather than killing him, however, Kayce held him at gunpoint in front of his own daughter and warned him never to come after another Dutton.

But the events of "Marshals" episode 7 suggest Kayce might be regretting his decision to be so lenient. After Blake Ayers is taken captive by two would-be assassins, Kayce and Andrea Cruz (Ash Santos) track him down. Before taking action, however, Cruz advises Kayce to wait for reinforcements ten minutes away. "You ever wish that help would have gotten to your dad ten minutes faster?" he replies, in reference to Cruz's own law enforcement father being killed on the job. But the way in which Kayce goes in guns blazing suggests that he's also reliving the events of his own father's murder, taking out Blake's kidnappers before they can hurt him in a way that he was never able to do for his own father.

While Kayce has forgiven his father, perhaps he hasn't forgiven himself for not being there to save him and may even regret allowing the hitman responsible to walk free. It would be interesting to watch this simmering guilt boil over as the season goes on, but "Marshals" seems to be a new show with every episode, so who knows what will happen. In that sense, it's a shame to see Kayce's feelings examined when we know this series has so many other storylines to address that we'll likely never really get a full exploration of his lingering "Yellowstone" trauma.