Remember when “Marshals” introduced Michael Cudlitz as Randall Clegg, setting him up as a potential Big Bad for the season, only for him to completely disappear off the face of the map? Well, he returned in a big way in Episode 8, which ended on another potentially fatal cliffhanger.
The April 19 episode found the Marshals chasing after Reed Pollard, one of the most wanted bank robbers in the country who had conveniently been spotted nearby. Unfortunately, this golden goose turned out to be a lame duck; after getting ambushed at a rodeo where Pollard had allegedly been seen, the Marshals discovered that the guy had already been put away in a small-town jail five days earlier.
Even worse, Andrea’s car was purposely side-swiped while she was looking for answers on her own, and she was taken captive by her mystery assailants. Fortunately for the viewers, the person behind Andrea’s kidnapping didn’t remain secret for long. When the bag was taken off Andrea’s head, she found herself face to face with ol’ Randall, who explained that this reckoning has been a long time coming.
“After what your team has done to my family, the only thing that concerns me is an eye for an eye,” he told her. “This isn’t a negotiation. Bit by bit, I’ve watched the life sucked from this land by faraway bureaucrats who care nothing for it. I’ve seen the blood of my kin spilled by their puppets. You all take and take and take until there’s nothing left but a desert. It has been too dry for too long around here.” When Andrea asked what Randall sees as his role in all of that, he dropped this chilling response: “The spark. It’s time to burn the land clean.”
Andrea’s fellow Marshals attempted a rescue at the end of the hour, but we’ll have to wait until next week to see how it all pans out.
Cal gets bad news from the doctor
CBS
We confessed to being concerned about Cal after his doctor’s appointment last week, and it turns out we had every right to worry. He returned for a follow-up on April 18, during which he received a devastating diagnosis. What specifically, you ask? The episode didn’t actually say, with Cal barely even processing what his doctor was telling him as the weight of the news sunk in.
“I know it’s a lot to take in,” his doctor said. “I’ll loop in a couple of specialists who have experience in these kinds of cases. It’s important to know that you’re not alone.” The rest was muffled by Cal’s entire world collapsing around him, but we’re pretty sure the doctor mentioned something about “support groups” being helpful in situations like this. Cancer feels like the safe assumption here, but we won’t know more until Cal decides to share his diagnosis with his team.