Before 'Marshals,' Here's What You Need To Remember From 'Yellowstone' About Kayce Dutton

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Luke Grimes as Kayce Dutton on horseback in Marshals

Published Feb 27, 2026, 12:01 PM EST

Michael John Petty is a Senior Author for Collider who spends his days writing, in fellowship with his local church, and enjoying each new day with his wife and daughters. At Collider, he writes features and reviews, and has interviewed the cast and crew of Dark Winds. In addition to writing about stories, Michael has told a few of his own. His first work of self-published fiction – The Beast of Bear-tooth Mountain – became a #1 Best Seller in "Religious Fiction Short Stories" on Amazon in 2023. His Western short story, The Devil's Left Hand, received the Spur Award for "Best Western Short Fiction" from the Western Writers of America in 2025. Michael currently resides in North Idaho with his growing family.

With CBS diving into neo-Western territory with Marshals, there is no better time than the present to revisit the original Taylor Sheridan-made Yellowstone, which concluded on Paramount Network back in 2024. With Luke Grimes returning as Kayce Dutton on Marshals, his story is going in a brand-new direction after years under his father, John Dutton's (Kevin Costner) thumb. So, whether you're intimately familiar with the Duttons or you've never seen an episode of Yellowstone in your life, here's what you need to know about Kayce Dutton and his family before Marshals airs on CBS.

Kayce Dutton's Began as the "Prodigal Son" on 'Yellowstone'

Long before the main events of Yellowstone, the 10-part prequel series 1883 chronicled the migration of the initial Dutton pioneers from Fort Worth, Texas, to the land that would be known as Paradise Valley, Montana. Upon making a pact with a local Lakota tribe, they found themselves settling beside America's future Yellowstone National Park. However, the Lakota chief, Spotted Eagle (Graham Greene), prophesied in the 1883 finale that the land would eventually return to the Native people seven generations later. Building the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch took just about that many generations, and by the time John Dutton took over from his father, he tried to prepare his sons, Lee (Dave Annable), Jamie (Wes Bentley), and Kayce, to take over — with help from their sister Beth (Kelly Reilly). But Kayce didn't exactly want the ranch, especially after falling in love with neighboring Broken Rock Indian Reservation resident Monica Long (Kelsey Asbille).

Kayce and Monica soon discover that they're pregnant, leading to their quick nuptials. As we learn in "Coming Home," this went directly against John's wishes, especially since he ordered his son to force Monica into an abortion and leave her in the dust. Kayce refused, and the rift between father and son only grew — especially after John personally branded his son with the "Y" brand. In the end, Kayce ran away, married Monica — who soon gave birth to their son Tate (Brecken Merrill) — and joined the military, becoming a U.S. Navy SEAL. During that time, he operated alongside men like Pete Calvin (Logan Marshall-Green, first introduced on Marshals) and Jack McLaughlin's Cade McPherson. For a decade, Kayce stuck with the teams until coming home to Montana with PTSD, choosing instead to settle on Broken Rock near Monica's family, namely her grandfather Felix (Rudy Ramos) and brother Robert (Jeremiah Bitsui).

But things change for Kayce and his family when he finds himself on the wrong side of a cattle dispute in the Yellowstone series premiere, "Daybreak." Under the orders of tribal chairman Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham), Robert asks Kayce to help him round up some cattle that appeared on the Rez. However, it turns out that these cattle are actually from the Dutton Ranch, and so John (then Montana's acting Livestock Commissioner) visits his son on the Rez to try and talk him over to his side. More than anything, he wants a relationship with Kayce again and to get to know his grandson for the first time. Uneasy about the whole thing, Kayce and Monica agree, but things go from bad to worse when Kayce finds himself again in the middle of a conflict between the Dutton family and the Rez. After his brother-in-law, Robert, kills his brother, Lee, in the cattle rustling commotion, Kayce kills Robert in return. After losing two brothers, things get worse at home, especially as John convinces Kayce to move his family back to the ranch.

Kayce and Monica Struggled to Find Their Destiny on 'Yellowstone'

Kayce and Monica talk as Monica sits in a wheelchair with a bandaged head in Yellowstone Season 1, Episode 8.

Much of Kayce's arc throughout the rest of Yellowstone follows the youngest Dutton son as he wanders through his place in the world. Throughout Season 1, tensions rise between Kayce and Monica as she begins to see a genuine change in him the longer he's around his family. No longer fully welcome on Broken Rock because of the events of the cattle dispute, though not entirely accepted on the Yellowstone either — especially as Kayce gets on the wrong side of ranch foreman-turned-surrogate brother Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) — Kayce and Monica are only torn further apart. After Monica is on the receiving end of an unrelated attack, she comes to the decision that, despite loving her husband, it's best for Tate to grow up away from the Dutton family entirely. In Season 2, the pair reconcile.

Upon reuniting with Kayce, Monica and Tate return to the ranch, which, after some time of asking, John has finally convinced Kayce to inherit from him. After a confrontation with ruthless businessmen named the Beck Brothers, who battle against John in hopes of claiming the ranch as their own, Tate is kidnapped, forcing Kayce to return to his old SEAL ways to bring him home. The ordeal puts genuine strain on Kayce and his family during Season 3, causing them to spend the summer on a reclusive portion of the ranch away from prying eyes. Things get a bit more complicated, however, when Kayce is convinced to take over as commissioner of the Livestock Association. Now a lawman with a badge as well as a rancher, Kayce struggles to split his time — and to protect the interests of Yellowstone with his newfound authority.

The third season finale, "The World is Purple," ends with a powerful attack on the Dutton family as John, Beth, and Kayce are all nearly killed in a coordinated assassination attempt against them. The whole event (and his subsequent time as Livestock Commissioner) rattles Kayce quite a bit. By the Season 4 finale, "Grass on the Streets and Weeds on the Rooftops," Kayce takes up Rainwater and Mo's (Mo Brings Plenty) offer to be formally inducted into the tribe through a ceremony that would force him to go four days in the wilderness without food or water. In that time, Kayce has a vision of "the end" of his family, though he is unsure what that fully means. He only knows that there will come a time when he has to choose between his legacy (the ranch) and his family (Monica and Tate). It's around this time that Monica reveals that she is pregnant again.

'Yellowstone' Concluded With Kayce and His Family Settling on East Camp

If you haven't already guessed, things don't go according to plan for Kayce. In the Season 5 premiere, "One Hundred Years Is Nothing," Monica loses the baby, whom they name John in honor of Kayce's father, signifying a burying of the conflict that once existed between them. They bury the son on the Yellowstone, blending Native traditions with a typical burial ceremony, once again proving that Kayce is the bridge between peoples. John, in turn, gifts Kayce and Monica the Yellowstone's East Camp, a section of land that had been unused for years. Together, Kayce, Monica, and Tate fix it up and prepare to start a new life for themselves, believing that this is the way out of the fated vision. But everything changes in the second half of the season.

After John Dutton — who has since become Governor of Montana — is assassinated in "Desire Is All You Need," Kayce goes on the warpath to find out who killed his father. After confirming that Jamie is somehow involved, Beth and Kayce uncover the truth, using Kayce's former SEAL connections to help tie up loose ends. Kayce discovers that Sarah Atwood (Dawn Olivieri), Jamie's current girlfriend and the pitbull behind Market Equities' several attempts to take over the ranch, hired a hitman named Grant Horton (Matt Gerald) to kill their father. In "Counting Coup," Kayce crosses the line by threatening Horton's child, all in the name of keeping the Duttons safe from any future recourse. After burying their father, Beth kills Jamie, an act hidden from the public by Rip (now her husband), who tosses Jamie's body down the Duttons' secret body dumping ground: the Train Station.

In the end, the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch is saved from Market Equities by Kayce, who instead sells the entire ranch (save the East Camp) to Broken Rock, thus fulfilling the prophecy long foretold from 1883. Brokering a deal with Rainwater, the two men become ceremonial brothers, with Kayce and his family getting 5,000 acres of Dutton land in return for the rest of the Rhode Island-sized patch, which the Rez can now use as they see fit. The series finale, "Life Is a Promise," comes to a close with Kayce, Monica, and Tate running their own small family-based ranch operation on East Camp, free from the Dutton "Y" brand and Kayce's former duties as Livestock Commissioner. Although the rest of the world has no idea who killed John Dutton or where Jamie might be, Kayce knows the truth — but he's happy to put that part of his life behind him. It's with all this in mind that Marshals begins, putting Kayce Dutton on a brand-new path as a lawman once more.

Marshals airs Sunday, March 1 on CBS and is available the next day for streaming on Paramount+.