One of the fun things about Duster is that you never know exactly where the show is going to take its increasingly interconnected plot. This episode starts with a Butch Cassidy And the Sundance Kid-inspired cold open in which Jim and Nina have to blast their way out of a warehouse shootout. After a winking freeze frame, it then jumps back in time 11 hours to show how they got there. And there are a delicious number of red herrings along the way.
Could the problem stem from Agent Chad Grant crashing Nina’s undercover mission and setting off the suspicions of Saxton’s bruiser Billy? Or what about that pointed mention of how Royce shouldn’t mix his new pain meds with alcohol? Or the Russian Mafioso’s ability to spot holes in Nina’s backstory? Or Greek Sal’s men tracking Saxton’s crew to Red Rock? Or Izzy’s trucker protest sparking more Snowbird news coverage than Bob Temple or Saxton are comfortable with?
It’s exciting to have so many balls in the air without knowing which ones are actually going to lead to the inevitable chaos. Some things go better than you’d expect. (The actual meeting with the Russians is surprisingly seamless, despite Royce’s vodka-fueled emotional breakdown.) And others go much, much worse. Because in classic Duster fashion, it’s not just one thing that goes wrong—it’s intersecting chaos involving Billy’s paranoia and Greek Sal’s coked-up, trigger-happy men.
It’s a savvy way to add tension to what’s otherwise one of the most straightforward episodes of the series yet. Other than a few cutaways to Izzy’s protest, we’re rooted in Nina and Jim’s dual mission this week. That means the highlight of this episode is the great chemistry between Josh Holloway and Rachel Hilson—although I spent the final scene absolutely terrified the show was going to have them hook up. That’s decidedly not what I want from their partnership, mostly because it would feel really cliché. (Plus, Holloway is old enough to be Hilson’s dad.) So I’m hoping their burgeoning friendship continues to stay in Paul Newman and Robert Redford territory from here on out.
Perhaps because I was so locked in to trying to figure out what was going to go wrong with Jim and Nina’s mission, though, this was the first episode of the season where plot holes and contrivances started to niggle on me a bit. Obviously, Duster is aiming for high-octane fun over gritty realism, and I’m mostly willing to get onboard with that. But it’s at least worth acknowledging how silly it is that a fresh-out-of-the-academy agent who’s been on the job for what feels like just a couple weeks would be thrown into this massive undercover mission with basically zero support from the FBI.
This episode also ramps up Agent Chad as a threat in a way that felt pretty contrived to me. Though he tries to maintain absolute stealth when he’s snooping around Nina’s desk at work, for some reason he then just shows up to openly confront her the morning of her undercover mission. He’s clearly using the cover of racism and sexism to push things further than he would with a white male co-worker. But if he actually is a double agent working for Xavier, he seems pretty terrible at his job.
Even worse, I thought it was really dumb for Nina to make up a lie about Chad being a past client rather than just playing him off as a random creep who was harassing her in the parking lot. True, it does lead to the great moment later where she spins a bigger lie about Chad being the abusive ex-husband who inspired her to take up firearms training. But instead of coming away from that scene thinking about how good Nina is on her feet, I was mostly left thinking about how unnecessarily complicated she’s made her entire undercover identity. Why is she even dressing up as a sexy leather-pantsuit wearing tough gal, anyway? Wouldn’t it make more sense to be, like, a nerdy Russian professor or something?
The messy Agent Chad stuff makes it hard to tell whether we’re supposed to view Nina as an inexperienced agent who still needs to grow or a competent one whose biggest hurdle is the bigoted co-workers who undermine her. While Nina’s improvised cover story just about plays, it’s really Royce’s crush on her that saves the day. And that’s not even a crush she actively nurtured as a backup plan (although, hey, maybe that’s what the pantsuits are for). At least we get the hilarious detail of Billy coming across delusional and paranoid when he’s actually 100-percent correct about Nina.
From a character point of view, though, I thought this was actually a stronger episode for Jim. When he told Royce that he wanted to take on more responsibility within the Saxton organization, he was really just looking for an excuse to snoop on his boss. But it turns out he’s got a real knack for smoothing things over as a criminal representative. Where Billy goes full hot-head at the first sign of trouble, Jim takes a softer, more diplomatic approach that earns him the nickname Henry Kissinger.
It’s another example of the show using the character’s age and experience as an asset. During Royce’s breakdown, Jim spins a quick story about Royce being such a badass that he once fought a guy with his chest cut open, using his heart surgery scar as proof to impress the Russians and save the deal. While Duster introduced Jim as an unambitious deadbeat who hadn’t made much of his life, it turns out he’s got far more natural talent for leadership than he realizes.
Jim gets a chance to demonstrate his chutzpah again in the climactic shootout, which is the real highlight of the episode. What’s great about the scene is how it builds character through action. Jim claims he wouldn’t take a bullet for Nina (and technically he gets grazed grabbing the Russian’s case), but he still saves her life during the fight—a favor she returns shortly after. And though I didn’t really expect either Jim or Nina to actually die, the fact that she gives Awan her mother’s necklace and he shares some final words for Luna helps amp up the stakes.
The fight is also the first time Jim and Nina have each other’s backs as true partners, which is a major evolution of their reluctant collaboration. Throughout all the mid-battle somersaults and leaps, they’re genuinely looking out for one another rather than just using each other as pawns. While their informant deal was always high-stakes physically, now it’s starting to become high-stakes emotionally too. Charitably, you could say the post-fight motel room scene is there not to set up any sexual tension but to emphasize that newfound comfortability with one another. (At least that’s the plausible deniability I’m clinging to.)
Speaking of closeness: One of the big ironies of Duster is that in order to take down Saxton, Jim and Nina have to get closer to him emotionally first. Jim’s now even more deeply embedded with the man he thinks killed his brother. And there’s fascinating subtext to the scene where Nina jams out to The Spinners’ 1970 hit “It’s A Shame” with Royce, Saxton, and his driver Norman. It’s the first time we’ve seen her have more than just a one-on-one conversation with another Black person, and there is a real sense of communal joy to the singalong—one that stands in sharp contrast to how badly Nina is treated at the FBI. Yet the FBI is ostensibly Nina’s “home,” and Royce is the man who killed her father.
In other words, there are an awful lot of conflicting loyalties in the mix, especially now that Saxton has turned his sights on Izzy as a thorn in his side. Despite some plot contrivances, this episode knits the world of Duster even closer together. That means things could get really messy heading into the final two episodes of the season.
Stray observations
- • This week in “It’s the 1970s!”: We get a glimpse of a classic jar of Sanka instant decaf coffee as Jessica-Lorraine quotes their 1972 ad: “If it’s going to be one of those days, make it Sanka.”
- • Opening-credits watch: A briefcase full of money falls out of Duster as it makes its vertical loop.
- • In true Pulp Fiction style, we don’t actually get to see what’s inside the Russian case that Saxton buys for one million dollars. All we know is that it “wields profound power” and it’s “the real deal.” Oh, and Xavier is involved somehow.
- • After Greek Sal’s men call Jim and Genesis’ wedding heist Bonnie And Clyde, Billy counters that it was more like The Graduate. “Show some respect to American cinema.”
- • Royce’s “Pam Grier, eat your heart out” is maybe a little anachronistic since she wouldn’t have her breakout Blaxploitation role until 1973’s Coffy. But, hey, maybe he was just a big fan of her early women-in-prison work.
- • While it’s been fun to see Nina embed herself in the crime half of the show these past two weeks, I hope Awan gets some meaningful screen time again before the season is over. I’ve been missing him lately.
- • “Daphne and Genesis are true love, you fucks!”
