Duster Season 1 Episode 2 ending explained: Jim buries a deadly secret while danger brews in the shadows

Duster pushes its bars even higher in episode 2, weaving an extremely brutal net of decisions, betrayals and…blood.

At the core of all of this chaos and mayhem is Jim Ellis, who starts to see just how sharp and pointy the price of becoming an informant really is.

With Nina, the FBI agent who demands results and Jim’s boss’ enforcers closing in, Jim finds himself killing a man just for him to stay alive – all while mistakenly leaving a witness alive.

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The Elvis shoes, a dirty deal, and a dead end in Duster

Duster takes a rather unexpected turn as Jim’s alliance with Sunglasses – the gruff Elvis frantic enforcer – leads him down to a path he can’t walk up back from.

Pressurized by corrupt a cop named Sgt. Groomes, who is very well aware about Jim’s secret of having a one on one with Nina, Jim tries to cover his tracks.

We see that Jim strikes a deal with Sunglasses. The deal being – if Jim can get his hands on the renowned Elvis Presley’s ‘blue sued shoes’, Sunglasses will be the one who would take care of the Groomes situation.

With some intel from Izzy and a plan to crash a Palm Springs party, Jim turns on his charisma and nerves and, in a way, weaponizes them. At the party, he crosses paths with Adrienne Barbeau, a star, and he manipulates her into distracting Elvis’s manager by throwing on the promise of having a connection that deals with castings.

This sham of an idea works and Jim is able to sweep the shoes away and he immediately bolts. This is Jim keeping the one end of his bargain with Sunglasses. But Duster? It does not follow through with clean and fair trades – it only rather escalates the consequences.

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A failed fix and a funeral in the desert

Back in Pheonix, Duster episode 2 spirals down the route of heavy chaos. Sunglasses and his partner Charlie confront Sgt. Groomes with some pretty good damning evidence regarding his previous crimes, believing that such a blackmail would easily silence him.

However, nothing is as easy and surfaced level in Duster. The tables quicky turn and Groomes, who is armed and unpredictable, starts a sudden shootout. Charlie falls down with one bullet and Sunglasses is forced to aim and kill Groomes…or at least, that’s what he thinks has happened.

As Jim goes on his way to deliver Elvis’s ‘blue sued shoes’, he is met not with a sense of thankfulness but with grief and sadness. Sunglasses who is now completely wasted and sad over his partner’s death, demands for more from Jim: three grand that Jim does not seem to have.

Guns are drawn once again and Jim, now desperate, throws a bowling ball onto Sunglasses’ head. This fight between the two of the ends gruesomely near a pin-setting machine. Jim never meant to kill him – but a show like Duster never shows any mercy.

Later, when the sun comes up, Jim and his father Wade bury Sunglasses in the desert and unbeknownst to them, Groomes is still clinging on to life.

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Cowboy enters, secrets resurface, and danger grows

Duster doesn’t let any of the dust settle. As Nina Hayes continues to dig through some suspiciously missing files linked to Saxon, her search brings her on route to Evelyn Breen – the ex-wife of Leland.

Evelyn coldly brushes Nina off, then makes a phone call to a man for now known as Cowboy.

Cowboy, potentially linked to D.C politics could perhaps be the show’s biggest threat moving forward. Nina’s probing and snooping for now may have caught his attention.

Meanwhile, the incriminating evidence that Sunglasses used to threaten Groomes is perhaps still out there with Groomes still being alive. If Groomes ever recovers, Jim’s secret would be out in the open and Groomes would surely make Jim’s life a living hell with his vendetta growing stronger by the second.

Jim’s already buried one enemy in the desert but who’s to say he’ll get lucky the second time?

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Duster builds on a slow-burn tension that eventually explodes into violence towards the end, leaving its characters scrambling to manage the fallout.

Episode 2 ends with a false and wrapped sense of closure – Sunglasses is now dead, Groomes presumed dead – but in the world of this HBO show, nothing seems to stay buried for far too long.

Jim has crossed a dangerous line, and as a new character like Cowboy emerges from the shadows, the worst may still be lingering just ahead.

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