Marshals surprised viewers by killing off Kayce Dutton’s wife, Monica, which will continue to play out in the Yellowstone spinoff.
After the Sunday, March 1, series premiere, confirmed that Kelsey Asbille wasn’t coming back to reprise her role, Marshals star Ash Santos weighed in on how Monica will remain at the center of the story.
“The entire season is shaped by — at least for Kayce — his grief and it ends up affecting all the characters in a different way,” Santos exclusively told Us Weekly. “Because some of us on the show already knew him, some of us didn’t.”
Santos was grateful to see how the show honored Monica.
“I was a fan of Yellowstone, I watched every season. Monica’s character is a pillar of that show,” she continued. “For us to move on without her, she still is in the fabric of Kayce’s story in every single episode. And we watch Tate as he becomes a teenager and now he’s got his own struggles and his mother isn’t there.”
She continued: “So I think that [showrunner] Spencer Hudnut really honored her in the best way possible because you can’t continue to tell Kayce’s story without making sure that Monica is the heart. She’s the heartbeat of his journey, and I think that we’ve really honored that in the best way that we could.”
Yellowstone introduced viewers to the fictional Dutton family — who own the largest ranch in Montana — in 2018. After initially being a teacher at a local school on the Broken Rock Indian Reservation, Monica went on to become a professor at Montana State University while weathering life with Kayce, who moved them back to the Yellowstone Ranch while figuring out a past divide with dad John (Kevin Costner).
Following John’s death, Kayce, a former U.S. Navy SEAL, became the new owner and operator of the Yellowstone Ranch. Kayce and Monica ended the show alive — and together with son Tate (Brecken Merrill) — before Marshals checked back in on some of them.
Kayce is a widower when the spinoff begins, which he will continue to figure out.
“We will see him navigate single dad life while a girl may show interest in him and he’s like, ‘Wait,’” Santos teased to Us. “That was probably the most intriguing part for me is because we get this new side of Kayce that we didn’t get to see in Yellowstone.”
Outside of Kayce’s personal life, Monica will also serve as inspiration for a larger story.
“There are very high stakes and we’re dealing with parts of Montana culture that are actually happening. I love the way that we portray the issues that do affect the Native American community on the reservations,” Santos added about Monica’s death following an apparent cancer battle. “Because there is a high rate because of what’s been done on their land. We really touch on the Indigenous girls that go missing that the main media doesn’t portray as heavily as when a white girl goes missing. When you watch something like this, you want to feel like there’s so much truth behind it. I think Spencer really did a great job with that.”
Marshals airs on CBS Sundays at 8 p.m. ET.
