Aw, man! ‘Marshals’ kills off (*SPOILER!*) in heartbreaking twist

Garrett showed up on Marshals at just the right time. Played with quiet Southern charm by Riley Green, a country singer by trade and first-time actor, Garrett walked off a bus in Episode 8 with a guitar case and bad memories, dating from his time in the SEALs with Kayce Dutton and Pete Calvin. Garrett was a walking, talking, singing reminder of the lasting trauma shared by all three of them, and his arrival juiced the revelations about those deployments Marshals had teased since the opening of Episode 1. He might have been born dangerous, but in Montana, Garrett, aka “Double-G,” was looking to rebuild his life and fragile mental state.

As he worked with Kayce’s horses, building a bond with a wild stallion owned by his friend’s late wife Monica, Garrett also became an invaluable adjunct member of Team Jock Up. So much so that by Marshals Episode 9, he joined Cal, Kayce, Belle, and Miles as they navigated a dangerous standoff with an anti-government white supremacist. With Garrett’s help, the team recovered Andrea Cruz from the clutches of Randall Clegg, and he brought them together with a campfire rendition of Green’s “My Way.” Isn’t it cool when your itinerant ex-SEAL and current honky-tonk haunter is played by a real-life country and western singer?

So why’d Marshals have to go and kill off Double-G, just when we were getting to know him?

What happened to Garrett on Marshals?

Episode 11 (“On Thin Ice”) is the show’s strongest, most emotional outing yet. In harrowing flashbacks to the war in Afghanistan, it reveals the mission that killed Roner (Jay Reeves), the fourth member of Cal, Kayce, and Garrett’s tightknit squad. And in the present, during a massive mountain storm, it forces into the open all the unaddressed emotions that incident caused. 

The circumstances of the storm and an escaped convict situation tore Kayce from Garrett’s bedside, where he had stood vigil since Double-G suffered severe burns to his throat and lungs, saving East Camp’s horses from a barn fire. But while Kayce’s argument with Pete resolves the bad blood that marred their SEAL brotherhood, it can’t bring back Roner. And tragically, their loss just piles up. While they were stuck in the mountains, and the rest of the team – including Cruz, who’d just begun a romance with Garrett – was scrambling to nab prisoners on the loose, Double-G succumbed to his injuries at the hospital in Bozeman. It’s sad we never got any more moments with or songs from the charming Southerner on Marshals. As Kayce says, “The best of us don’t come home.” 

Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.