Marshals took the Yellowstone Universe in a different direction throughout its controversial first season, but it wasn’t until the season finale, “Wolves at the Door,” that it all came to an anticlimactic head. As it turns out, the threat to both Broken Rock and East Camp is one and the same: someone whom Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) trusted when it appears that he should not have. It’s a shame that Chris Mulkey‘s Tom Weaver was exposed to viewers (though not our heroes themselves) to be Marshals‘ secret “big bag,” and the half-hearted reveal alone reminds us that this Yellowstone spin-off needs to get its act together.

‘Marshals’ Reveals That Tom Weaver Is the “Big Bad” All Along

In “Wolves at the Door,” we discover that the attack against Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham), leading to an intense shootout at the Dutton home at East Camp, is none other than Tom Weaver. The former Wall Street stockbroker-turned-Montana cattle baron has been working hard for a while now to swipe Kayce’s land. To his credit, he’s done so in a way that he never tipped his hand at being the criminal mastermind behind everything that’s happened in Paradise Valley since the pilot, “Piya Wiconi.” Even though Kayce rejects Tom’s offer, there appears to be no bad blood as Kayce and Tom’s daughter, Dolly (Ellyn Jameson), grow closer, and Tom takes Tate (Brecken Merrill) on a fishing trip to Texas (just don’t expect a Dutton Ranch crossover). It’s here, as Tom takes Tate aboard his private jet, that we learn that Weaver’s man, Jeb (Kevin McNamara), was behind all the attacks — the same man who set up Cal (Logan Marshall-Green) and Belle (Arielle Kebbel) on a date with some armed gunmen, leaving their fates up in the air. The whole thing tries to play the reveal off as a cool Yellowstone-ish twist meant to get the blood boiling, but it comes across as just a mediocre letdown.

For one thing, there was no hint, no suggestion, that Tom Weaver was anything but sincere in his dealings with Kayce. From the moment the Dutton lawman saved his life in “The Gathering Storm,” he has only shown Kayce and Tate kindness. The Weaver Ranch offered some cowboys to help Kayce keep up East Camp while he’s been working with the U.S. Marshals. Even when he offered to buy the remnants of the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch out from under the widower, Tom never pushed or pried. When Kayce rejected said offer, there wasn’t an intense showdown between the men like what we saw on Yellowstone with characters like Danny Huston‘s Dan Jenkins, but rather a mutual respect. Sure, characters lie, and had Marshals actually built up to this reveal rather than shoehorning it in at the very end of the season, we may have accepted that. But considering all that, the whole thing feels terribly rushed; it’s hard for us to see this as anything but a lackluster bait-and-switch that doesn’t feel in step with the story that Marshals wanted to be telling.

Tom Weaver Worked Better as the Anti-John Dutton Than the Next Dan Jenkins…

Of course, that’s part of the problem too. Marshals isn’t quite sure what it wants to be, and it’s because of that lack of direction (which, ironically, is on brand for Kayce Dutton) that this clear attempt at another Yellowstone-flavored “I want the Duttons’ land” plot is nothing more than recycled material. This is why Tom’s initial appearances were far more interesting by comparison. When we first met him, Tom came across as the type of man who wanted to be John Dutton (Kevin Costner) but didn’t quite have the same resolve. Instead, he appeared to genuinely care about Kayce, grateful that he saved his life and willing to invest in him as a result. In some sense, Tom Weaver became the anti-John Dutton, and it’s from this point of view that the character (despite his infrequent appearances) best thrived. By subverting those expectations and ignoring a perfectly interesting and compelling villain in Michael Cudlitz‘s Randall Clegg (who should have spent all season trying to dig up the skeletons in Kayce’s closet), Marshals went with the “safe” and uninspired choice.

“Wolves at the Door” leaves us with several questions about the future of Marshals, namely what Tom plans to do with Tate (if anything) and if Dolly has been in on her father’s plan this whole time. It also reframes the events of previous episodes. Could it be that Weaver’s men are responsible for purposely burning the barn that killed Kayce and Cal’s former SEAL brother, Garrett (Riley Green)? It seems likely now that we know the truth, all in a prolonged effort to demoralize Kayce into selling. Even so, the whole thing comes off as quite underwhelming. After all, Weaver is the obvious choice, the “dark force” behind Kayce’s recent pain, the threat who wants his land as his own. There’s nothing particularly shocking or surprising about this reveal, only disheartening, as Tom’s previous function as the anti-John Dutton would’ve made for a more interesting long-term character arc.

Had Tom Weaver slowly moved toward villainy through a series of unfortunate happenstances, that may even have been acceptable. But as it stands now, we don’t have a clue as to his motivation for attacking Rainwater or the U.S. Marshals. Maybe he’s invested in the oil pipeline project? Maybe he’s just out for blood? Either way, this reveal is just another reminder that Marshals doesn’t know where to go next, which is par for the course with the Yellowstone Universe.