Aahana Swrup
The Max show ‘Duster’ sows its crime thriller seeds from the get-go, as the pilot episode introduces a tale ripe with fast cars and loose loyalties. The story, set in the 1970s, centers around Jim Ellis, the getaway driver of the titular car, who has been a steadfast aide to the Southwest crime boss Ezra Saxton. Thus, when FBI rookie Nina Hayes manages to elbow her way onto a high-profile case, she plans on exploiting this close relationship by converting the driver into her own personal informant. However, her reckless and even ill-advised attempts to do so might just put her already precarious career on the line. Yet, the Agent remains determined to bend Jim’s otherwise iron-clad loyalty even if she has to dig up an ages-old case to succeed. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Jim’s Special Delivery Tips Hayes Off
Nina Hayes has been vying for a career at the FBI for a long time. Still, even after she manages to pass the academy, her superiors refuse to take her, a black woman, seriously. Nonetheless, she refuses to let that get in the way of her dreams and boldly puts in a request for crime boss Saxton’s case assignment in Arizona. Since the department is in need of a replacement for the case, they reluctantly greenlight the request. Meanwhile, in Arizona, a hotshot driver runs a pick-up job for his boss, Ezra Saxton. Simultaneously, he juggles spending quality time with Luna, a young girl who is unaware that Jim might be her biological father, by bringing the kid along for the ride. Even though the driver gets in a bit of a harmless chase with some rivals, he still arrives in time at Saxton’s marriage with his delivery in tow.
Around the same time, Hayes arrives in Arizona and starts working at the local department. Although her partner, a part-Navajo agent, Awan, is friendly and open to her ideas, the rest of her colleagues, especially superior agents, remain skeptical of her value. Regardless of their attitude, the Baltimore-hailing woman puts her best foot forward as she begins building her case against Saxton. As such, she soon learns about the chase that Jim Ellis had found himself in earlier in the day. However, higher-ups like Agent Grant make it clear that the driver would be a dead-end lead since he would never betray his employer. Even so, Hayes believes she has found the key to unlocking the whole case.
Jim Makes a Dangerous Deal
Soon after the delivery’s success, Saxton puts Jim on a brand new mission. This time, the driver has to find a way to get rid of the trouble that union man Bob Temple is stirring for the gang. In order to do so, he ends up recruiting the help of a diner waitress and longtime friend, Cassidy. However, before the duo pulls off the job, Jim receives an unexpected visit from Hayes. Despite the warnings of her superiors, the Agent is prepared to take a risk and try to sign Saxton’s trusted driver as her informant. Earlier, the package he had picked up for the crime boss contained a human heart, which he proceeded to transport over state lines. Consequently, he can easily be arrested and imprisoned for more than a decade.
Hayes is banking on Jim’s close relationship with Luna to persuade him to save his own skin by turning on Saxton. Nevertheless, he turns her offer down without hesitation, entirely unwilling to become a snitch and endanger Saxton’s business. Naturally, in the aftermath, he ends up having to make some arrangements to evade the feds and their threats of incarceration. Since Jim can no longer work or even stay in Arizona, he decides to find new employment south of the border, which brings him to Mad Raul, leader of a highly dangerous crime syndicate. Thus, he ends up pledging his newfound allegiance to the latter, even signing a contract in his own blood. Afterward, he plans to alert Saxton of the feds’ plans against him once he has taken care of Bob Temple. However, unbeknownst to him, his stepmother, with whom he has a significant contentious relationship, calls the FBI and tips Agent Hayes about his plans.
Hayes Makes a Startling Discovery About Jim’s Brother
Jim’s initial rejection of Hayes’ offer presents a significant problem for the Agent. She has more or less put her entire career on the line by going against her superiors’ advice on her first-ever case. Therefore, now that there’s a real chance the case has become compromised, she runs the risk of getting fired. Although she allows herself a moment of self-pity, she quickly comes up with a possible solution. While in Jim’s car, Hayes notices a dog tag hanging off the visor. Interestingly enough, the tag didn’t belong to the driver but rather his younger brother, Joey. This piece of information persuades the Agent to look into Joey’s death.
Consequently, Hayes discovers that instead of the war, Jim lost his brother in a freak accident while the duo was under Saxton’s employment. Alas, when she and her team attempt to dig out the traffic CCTV footage, the department’s horrible archiving system threatens to shove them into a dead-end. As such, Grant finds plenty of time to lodge a formal complaint against the newbie agent to their supervisor for going against their superiors’ orders and continuing to pursue Jim as an informant. As a result, before Hayes can find any substantial leads, she ends up receiving her transfer papers to a ghost town.
Still, fortunately for her, Awan manages to find the tapes before the end of the day. As such, Hayes is able to intercept Jim right before he can contact Saxton to make one final pitch. The CCTV footage of the car blast that killed Joey clearly showcases that the explosion began outside of the vehicle from its undercarriage. Years ago, her own father had met a similar demise after trying to leave Saxton’s gang, which compels her to believe the crime boss must also be behind Joey’s murder. Even so, Jim refuses to believe her claims. Still, a sliver of doubt lingers in his mind, which is heightened when he is reminded of his employer’s inherent bloodlust.
Consequently, Jim ends up returning to Hayes to sign the contract as her informant. He insists that he’s doing this to prove her wrong and establish that Saxton never put a hit on his brother. Yet, if the same turns out to be true, he’s prepared to kill the kingpin himself to exact his revenge. As a result, with a notable informant secured, Hayes earns back her case from her supervisor, cementing her stay in Arizona for good. Nevertheless, she isn’t entirely out of hot water yet. There is something fishy going on with Saxton’s federal case, as evidenced by the fact that all of the case files prepared by her predecessor are mysteriously missing from the departmental archives.
Read More: Is Duster Based on a True Story?
