CBS
The March 29 episode of “Marshals” marked an important step forward in the relationship between Cal’s team and the Broken Rock reservation, even if the two-parter ended on a bummer of a cliffhanger.
The Marshals found themselves on the hunt for human traffickers this week after Tate bumped into a friend from school, a teenage girl who was recently reported missing from the reservation. But when Thomas Rainwater caught wind that Kayce & Co. were giving his people “false hope,” he turned down the Marshals’ offer to intervene; local authorities have a history of promising to help, only to drop the case shortly thereafter. That’s when Mo offered his two cents, encouraging Thomas Rainwater to reconsider.
“Mo definitely trusts Kayce,” actor Mo Brings Plenty tells TVLine. “Mo and Kayce have the warrior spirit. They’re brothers, and Mo knows that it’s going to be more difficult for the reservation to get the proper funding to bring in more law enforcement. It would be easier for these guys to just do their jobs. We’re taxpaying people as well, so these departments should be working for us just as hard. I think that’s the space that Mo is coming from.”
Thomas Rainwater eventually put his pride aside, paying Cal a visit to ask for help. Children going missing from the reservation has become an “epidemic,” and he doesn’t believe that local law enforcement respects their people enough to look into the matter properly. Mo’s words clearly had an effect on him.
“Thomas Rainwater didn’t grow up on a reservation, but he’s highly educated in many aspects, and then Mo, who did grow up on a reservation, is highly educated in the traditional way,” Brings Plenty points out. “Those two elements together make for a powerful force that can end up righting a lot of wrongs for their people, so they really need each other. I love that relationship, and I’m thankful that we’re bringing to light what happens when people can work together.”
Unfortunately, the Marshals ended the hour empty handed. After a deadly shootout with a van full of traffickers, Kayce and Miles entered the vehicle… only to discover that the girls were gone.
Marshals star hopes this episode will be a ‘wake-up call’
CBS
Despite the episode’s incredibly serious subject matter, actor Mo Brings Plenty calls it a “delightful moment, especially in this day and age” for a major TV show to be covering a very real issue happening between reservations and law enforcement today.
“For a long time in my life, I’ve felt like we were a forgotten people, and now it seems like we’re finally being recognized,” Brings Plenty, who was raised on a reservation in South Dakota, tells TVLine. “We’re actually getting the opportunity to bring to light a lot of the stories that I’ve witnessed in my own life.”
And Brings Plenty says there’s even more to this issue than we saw in the episode: “It’s just not our missing females, there are also young males that have been murdered,” he says. “[Local authorities] write them off as no foul play, so no appropriate investigations are done. We’re taxpaying people, so we fund these programs as well. They should work for us just as much as they work for anyone else.”
Overall, Brings Plenty says he’s “thankful that CBS has given us this opportunity for [‘Marshals’ showrunner] Spencer Hudnut and the writers to actually incorporate these stories [into the show]. We’re bringing to light what is happening, and hopefully this will be the wake-up call for society and for a lot of these departments to step up.”
Are you on the edge of your seat after that classic “To Be Continued”? Drop a comment with your thoughts on “Marshals” Episode 5 below.