Are you ready for more DUSTER? The contract has been signed. Jim Ellis is now an informant for the FBI and is assisting Agent Nina Hayes from the inside of Ezra Saxton’s crime syndicate. What kind of hot water will Ellis get into this week?
Oh, plenty, and so will Hayes. Ellis has to keep up appearances as a Saxton loyal, right? So, as the episode opens, we see him hauling a body out of the Duster’s trunk and commencing on digging a shallow grave, as a beat-up vehicle drives up on him. He is in hot water already. But this is one of those episodes where we roll back to see how the day played out. Appearing on the screen are the words “15 hours earlier”, and off we go. The day ends badly, but it starts just as badly. While filling his car with gas, Sergeant Groomes rides up. He tells Ellis flat out that he is aware that he and Hayes were in conversation and that Groomes was well aware also that Hayes is a Federal Agent, and the only thing that is going to shut him up about it is a good payout. The corrupt cop is setting up a blackmail. We already know that Saxton pays him to look the other way, because we’ve seen Ellis deliver the package, but now Ellis is playing him off to stay quiet. What a hustle.
Hayes is having a bad day as well. She keeps getting stonewalled at the field office because not everyone is happy that she is there and making some slackers look bad. Any little roadblock they can throw her way, they do. One thing was to make Agent Breen’s files (the previous agent on the Saxton case) magically unattainable. But Hayes’s most pressing problem is that Ellis hasn’t produced any evidence against Saxton. If she doesn’t show results, she loses favor real fast. She meets up with him to pressure him for evidence on his brother’s death or anything. In turn, he informs her of the 
pressure Groomes is giving him. Ellis can’t proceed until the Groomes’ issue is resolved. Ellis opts not to just pay him off, but to silence him or blackmail him right back. To do so, he has to utilize someone not from Saxton’s crowd. Thus, we meet another kingpin who goes by Sunglasses, because he always wears them, even in the bowling alley where he has a sit-down with Ellis. Ellis needs Sunglasses to deal with Groomes. And Hayes needs another way to obtain info regarding Breen’s time on the case.
Hayes’s job might be easier than Ellis’s. Ellis says he can’t pay the high price Sunglasses is asking, but he can promise the Elvis Presley fanatic that he can put Elvis’ blue suede shoes in his hands. What? Why make a wild promise like that? But he does because he’s Jim Ellis. Sunglasses takes him up on it because he liked his brother. Izzy helps Ellis with the layout of Presley’s Palm Springs pad because she’s toured it, and he races for his prize. Truthfully, I wasn’t going to go into all the details to keep this post a bit shorter, but when I saw how it all went down, I changed my mind. I should have known it wasn’t a quick little robbery. When he gets there, a big party is going on, and he has a moment with Colonel Tom Parker right in front of those iconic shoes. While there, the young actress Adrienne Barbeau was pointed out to Ellis. She was up for a role in Maude, and Ellis told her if she could lure Parker away from the room where the shoes were, she just might get the TV gig because Parker let loose that he knew Norman Lear.
Ellie’s investigation starts with a meeting with Groomes in the field office, fleshing out what he knows of Breen’s case and Joey’s death. She also has a chat with Supervisor Abbot, and it all leads her to another plan. She seeks out Evelyn Breen, Agent Breen’s wife. It doesn’t go well, we should have expected it wouldn’t be so easy. Hayes and Awan’s next play was to hit the Impoundment yard. They find residue from the van that blew up, killing Joey Ellis. With that evidence, perhaps she can prove that it wasn’t a propane accident but a planted incendiary device. She and Awan exchange pride in each other for being such a good team.
Ellis’s day remains more fucked up. Oh, yeah, he got the shoes, but Sunglasses’ blackmail of Groomes did not go so well. He got him for child porn but Groomes pulled his gun and took out Sunglasses’ right-hand man who happened to be his brother. Sunglasses shoots Groomes. So, by the time Ellis gets back with the shoes, Sunglasses has upped the payment, which Ellis doesn’t have. Only one of them walks away from the altercation.
At the end of the day, it is Sunshine’s body that Ellis is trying to bury. Luckily, who pulls up is his Dad. A little heart-to-heart ensues. But this is DUSTER – everything does not tie up in a neat little bow. Groomes is alive and manages to call on his walkie-talkie that there is an ‘officer down.’ Plus, Mrs. Breen makes a phone call to someone saying that ‘the agent Hayes has been snooping around and I’m calling to inform you.’ We don’t know who the man is, but it is revealed to be someone big in Washington D. C. Plenty of trouble is still abrewin’.
Quick fun note: Patrick Warburton plays Sunglasses; Brian Reddy played Colonel Tom Parker, Mikaela Hoover played Adrienne Barbeau, and Adrienne Barbeau played Evelyn Breen!
We continue the ride next week.
