Sonja Flemming/CBS

Spoilers for “Marshals” Episode 10 to follow.

With its 10th episode, “Marshals” introduced a former Yellowstone ranch hand who knows the Dutton family’s dark secrets. Though we’ve never actually met this onetime Dutton associate before, it turns out he’s pretty important since he knows all about the family’s misdeeds and, as such, could become Kayce’s undoing.

“Marshals” Episode 10 channels classic “Yellowstone,” and it’s one heck of a ride. In what might be the show’s most ridiculous chapter yet, we get a hostage situation inside a drug store, an explosion on Kayce’s (Luke Grimes) ranch that imperils the life of Riley Green’s Garrett, and a prisoner transfer gone wrong that results in three dangerous criminals escaping. That’s not to mention some major revelations about Belle Skinner’s (Arielle Kebbel) past and the usual attempt to progress the multiple other storylines this series has set up. It’s bewildering, to say the least, and you’d be forgiven for getting whiplash when the show ultimately reveals that one of the escaped criminals was actually a former ranch hand from the Yellowstone Dutton ranch.

Not only was Sterling Jones’ Neil Lamb an ex-ranch hand, he was a branded member of the Dutton clan, which means he was one of the most trusted members of the team and effectively owned by Kevin Costner’s John Dutton. Of course, Lamb and his “owner” never actually met because the former was created by the “Marshals” writers and ret-conned back into the “Yellowstone” timeline. But while Lamb is never mentioned on this franchise’s mothership series, he’s suddenly become very important as he threatens to reveal secrets that could destroy everything Kayce has worked for.

CBS

“Marshals” Episode 3 proved this show has no idea what it’s about, and that’s been the case ever since. What’s so frustrating about it is that there is a good series underneath all the confusion. Specifically, “Marshals” could simply be about a man with a dark history who suddenly finds himself working for law enforcement while simultaneously trying to keep his past a secret. That would be a solid premise with a great central tension, but thus far, “Marshals” has burdened itself with so much other nonsense that this promising “Yellowstone” spin-off hasn’t been allowed to flourish. With its 10th episode, however, we briefly return to that unrealized Kayce Dutton crime thriller show.

Like with the central villain of the show, Michael Cudlitz’s Randall Clegg, “Marshals” has once again rewritten the history of the “Yellowstone” universe. Neil Lamb is a prisoner who escapes when a bus carrying him and several other inmates is hit by a rock slide. It’s highly convenient that Lamb has a connection to Kayce, is one of the three criminals who manages to flee, and that Kayce happens to catch a news broadcast featuring Lamb’s face — but that’s what happens.

As it turns out, Lamb was a Dutton ranch hand before he was locked up, and when Kayce catches up to him in the Montana wilderness (again, a very convenient development), Lamb reveals that he was branded with the “Y” — something reserved only for the most trusted members of the Dutton circle. Suddenly, we realize why Kayce looked so worried when he saw Lamb’s picture on the news. The Duttons did some terrible things on “Yellowstone,” and Lamb know all about them.

CBS

When Kayce Dutton finds Neil Lamb, he’s immediately put in a tough position. As Kayce holds Lamb at gunpoint, he says, “Word is you’re trying to cut a deal with the prosecutors. Makes me wonder what you’re offering in return.” While Lamb acknowledges the controversial death of John Dutton when he replies, “The only one I could drop a dime on is gone,” he also adds, “I probably got enough on the Duttons to keep me from doing hard time.”

Why he would say that when Kayce has a gun pointed at his head is a mystery, but this is “Marshals,” after all. What’s more, Kayce was clearly aware that Lamb knew too much and that he was trying to make a deal with the government. Wouldn’t that be one of his biggest concerns? Considering Kayce was intimately involved with his family’s shady dealings and literally knows where the bodies are buried (i.e. the infamous Train Station from “Yellowstone”), you’d have thought that the majority of this show thus far would have revolved around Kayce trying to solve the Lamb problem. Again, “Marshals.”

After Kayce and Lamb’s back and forth, the former is left with one choice: kill Lamb and make sure his family’s past stays hidden. “Even as a boy, you were a different sort of man than your father,” Lamb pleads. “You don’t have to solve this problem the way he would.” But just as it seems as though Lamb is done for, Logan Marshall-Green’s Pete Calvin arrives to witness Kayce holding the escaped criminal at gunpoint before the episode cuts to black. How’s he going to explain this one? We’ll just have to wait and see what unlikely plot twist “Marshals” resorts to this time.

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Long-time Paramount hit-making machine Taylor Sheridan will eventually make the move to NBCUniversal, where he’ll no doubt churn out more beloved shows such as “Yellowstone,” “Landman,” “Lioness,” “Tulsa King,” and “Mayor of Kingstown.” Of course, television isn’t the only space Sheridan has occupied. Some of his best stories have been on the big screen instead of the small.

Before we even knew who John Dutton was and what it meant to be “taken to the train station,” Taylor Sheridan was making a name for himself writing movies before really having a go at directing them. As with his television output, there have been some weak misses and some massive hits among the movies, and some you might be surprised he even played a part in helping create. Here’s the ranking of every Taylor Sheridan movie project to which he has a writing or directing credit attached, beginning with his first time behind the camera when he dared to dabble in the horror genre.

Every director has to begin somewhere, and for Taylor Sheridan, it was in a genre miles away from where he’d eventually find his footing. “Vile” is his only dip into horror, and we should be thankful for that. A ropey watch from beginning to end, this “Saw” replica cuts like a rolling pin as a group of friends finds themselves trapped in a house with six other strangers and are forced to torture each other to survive. Trust us when we say you, the viewer, are the only one who’ll genuinely suffer.

Shot on a shoestring with some dreadful performances to support it, “Vile” doesn’t necessarily live up to its name, but if the camera sits still long enough, it can be an eye-rolling watch at times. While Sheridan might’ve stitched some wince-inducing moments into his stories in the years that followed, the ones he handles here lack any kind of terror. In a Rotten Tomatoes interview, he described “Vile” as “an excellent opportunity to point a camera and learn some lessons that actually benefited me on ‘Wind River,'” the film he deems his true directorial debut. With that in mind, we can just be glad that whatever nuggets of knowledge he took from “Vile” put him leagues ahead of where he started.

Amazon Studios

Though he might have been up to his cowboy boots in building his “Yellowstone” universe, Taylor Sheridan helped Paramount flesh out another film in 2021, co-writing with Will Staples an adaptation of the 1993 Tom Clancy novel “Without Remorse.” The film sees Michael B. Jordan as John Kelly, a U.S. Navy SEAL and eventual leader of the fictional special forces team, Rainbow Six. In Clancy’s books, Kelly (later renamed Clark) is a recurring ally of Jack Ryan, who had been brilliantly rebooted on Amazon Prime Video by this point. The streaming service nabbed the movie from Paramount, releasing it during the pandemic to tee up another franchise, but unfortunately it doesn’t start with a great introduction.

“Without Remorse” has all the tools to be a hit but feels dated and frustratingly dull with the story it’s spinning. Sheridan, who is no stranger to handling heroes with vengeance on their mind, plays this far too by the book as Jordan’s hero aims to settle a score after his pregnant wife and members of his team are murdered. Directed by Stefano Sollima, the film lacks the same energy and suspense that audiences were otherwise binging on with “Jack Ryan” and other Sheridan projects by that time. Even the movie’s final big shootout is considerably stale and fails to make a case for what was supposed to be Jordan’s all-new franchise. “John Wick” director Chad Stahelski is set to helm the sequel, “Rainbow Six,” and will hopefully give Kelly the jolt that Sheridan and Sollima simply couldn’t.

Warner Bros.

Whereas “Without Remorse” fights to break free of ’90s clichés, “Those Who Wish Me Dead” proudly owns them, making for a fun, old-fashioned cat-and-mouse movie starring Angelina Jolie. Besides directing this one, Taylor Sheridan has a co-writing credit alongside Charles Leavitt and novelist Michael Koryta, who wrote the book from which the film is adapted. Jolie plays a heroic smokejumper (initial wildfire responder) who takes a stranded young boy under her protection from two hitmen (Aidan Gillen and Nicholas Hoult), hoping to cover their tracks from a job gone wrong.

Running on the fumes of films like “Hard Rain” and “Cliffhanger,” “Those Who Wish Me Dead” really doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel and is all the better for it. Aiden Gillen, who filled a corner of the market for lethal and logistical bad guys thanks to “Game of Thrones” (and would later be in villain mode for Sheridan’s own “Mayor of Kingstown”), does what’s needed. Nicholas Hoult, meanwhile, has an early stab at being a bad guy, which works as an okay warm-up act for whatever he has in store in “Superman” as Lex Luthor. They don’t make them like this anymore, but it’s great to see Sheridan keeping the fire burning for them with this entertaining watch.

Lionsgate

After such a massive hit with “Sicario,” it was hardly a surprise that Taylor Sheridan would deliver a second chapter revisiting that world, narrowing his focus even more on Benicio del Toro’s steely-eyed killer, Alejandro Gillick. In “Sicario: Day of the Soldado,” del Toro’s hitman is sent across the border once more following a terrorist attack in Kansas City that links back to Mexican drug cartels. Just as before, our heartless hero is laser-focused on his mission, until he draws in a young bystander to this dark and lawless land along the way.

While it’s a decent follow-up mapped out by Sheridan, there’s no doubt that “Day of the Soldado” lacks Denis Villeneuve’s brilliant direction and Roger Deakins’ haunting cinematography, which filled every frame of its predecessor. The only winning element is del Toro, trying but not entirely elevating the film to the heights of what came before, no matter how cool he might look gunning down crime bosses.

Director Stefano Sollima bravely fills the chair as Villeneuve’s stand-in (when Sheridan might have been a better option), trying to lend a hand in what feels like the “Yellowstone” creator’s attempt at big-screen world-building. Since then, producers have promised a third movie is in development while Sheridan has been busy making a dynasty out of the Duttons, but the wait has been a long one. For now, there’s no ETA on when Gillick will return but given how deathly silent he often is, we’ll never hear him coming anyway.

Lionsgate

In Taylor Sheridan’s film and television projects, some of his best work often features a perfectly matched pair at the center. For “Hell or High Water,” which Sheridan penned for director David Mackenzie, Chris Pine and Ben Foster are just such a double act. Toby (Pine) and Tanner Howard (Foster) are brothers who start robbing banks in order to hold on to the family home. Unfortunately, hot on their tail and handling one last case is Jeff Bridges’ seasoned Texas Ranger, Marcus Hamilton.

It might carry classic tropes of some superior heist movies, but Sheridan still manages to add his familiar tone and unflinching management of mortality to a thriller cooking in the West Texas sun. Bridges delivers the classic model of the perma-frowning lawman close to retirement, even with a trustworthy partner along for the ride (the always-welcome Gil Birmingham). However, the one place that he plays with the formula in particular is with the Howards themselves.

Foster, who has often stepped in as the short fuse in films like “3:10 to Yuma” and “Alpha Dog,” is just as unpredictable here but often equally as chilled as his on-screen sibling from Pine. Their chemistry is encapsulated perfectly in a memorable trip to the gas station as Toby lets rip on a pair of naive thugs while Tanner doesn’t even leave the car. When listing the best heist movies of all time like “Heat,” “The Town,” and “Point Break,” “Hell or High Water” easily deserves to steal some time in the conversation.

The Weinstein Company

The 2017 film “Wind River” is undoubtedly Taylor Sheridan’s best example of handling the double duty of writing and directing, culminating in a simple but sinister detective story. Elizabeth Olsen is an FBI agent sent to handle the murder case of an 18-year-old girl and member of the Northern Arapaho tribe on the Wind River Indian Reservation. Joining her on the hunt is U.S. Wildlife Service Agent Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner), who has a dark past that he’s forced to revisit. Together, both find themselves on the trail of a grisly cover-up, a pulse-pounding shoot-out, and a cold but tearful bit of justice being paid at the end of it all.

While its final act rests on an unsettling flashback, there’s no doubt that Sheridan masterfully builds mountains of tension getting there in this sub-zero detective story, with Olsen and Renner putting in the work. By this point, both stars had already established a flawless dynamic thanks to their work together in the MCU as Hawkeye and the Scarlet Witch. Here, the film lingers on emotional scenes that are only strengthened when they handle them individually. Olsen delivers a commendable Clarice Starling-like performance as the brave woman in a man’s world, but Renner offers what might be some of his best work as a father dealing with grief in his own way. By the time the truth in “Wind River” gets out, you’ll have chewed your fingers to the bone if they haven’t been frozen off already.

Lionsgate

The best film from Taylor Sheridan might not be one he directed, but it’s the movie that put his name on the map more than anything else, and rightfully so. Under the impeccable direction of Denis Villeneuve, who was another up-and-comer at the time, Taylor Sheridan’s “Sicario” delivered a cold-blooded blockbuster that perfectly merged both artists’ handling of unforgiving terrain and gripped its audience from beginning to end.

Boasting an outstanding selection of talents, including Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, and an early appearance from Daniel Kaluuya, the greatest asset in “Sicario” is Benicio del Toro as the terrifyingly cool Alejandro Gillick. As the titular assassin, or “Sicario,” in this murky battle against drugs and gang warfare, Gillick is the immovable, stone-faced killer from which many of Sheridan’s future characters would be cut.

When del Toro’s killer steps into a scene, a chilling atmosphere comes with him, making him something to be feared and fascinated by for both the audience and Blunt’s Kate Macer, who “is lost in a land of wolves.” Play that out in the searing cinematography from Roger Deakins and one of the greatest gunfights in cinema history and “Sicario” is still Taylor Sheridan’s finest work, even if someone else called the shots.