In the early 1970s, if you needed to swipe something from Elvis Presley and you looked like Josh Holloway in that era, it was pretty straightforward. You could easily jump the fence at Elvis’s Palm Springs estate, sip on champagne by the pool, and start a conversation with Colonel Tom Parker (played by Brian Reddy) and an Adrienne Barbeau lookalike (Mikaela Hoover) all within a few minutes. The second episode of Duster continues to enjoy playing with 1970s themes, merging real-world references with stylistic nods to how that decade was portrayed on television.

Jim Ellis’s successful mission to snag the shoes Elvis famously sang about comes with two intriguing aspects. Firstly, it was Izzy (Camille Guaty), who happens to be Luna’s mother, that revealed their location. Her past with The King is cemented by a photo of them together that Ellis finds at the Palm Springs house. This adds another layer to Izzy and Jim’s relationship, which might have been more intimate than Luna realizes. Secondly, there’s the question of why Jim needed the shoes. Duster introduces Patrick Warburton as Sunglasses, a Phoenix crime figure who owns a bowling alley, wittily named Great Bowls of Fire, and combines his devoted Elvis fandom with a sinister reputation. The show might continue to introduce well-known actors in entertaining supporting roles like this one. Warburton, as Sunglasses, delivers his lines with his signature distinctive style, which is highly entertaining.

Too bad Sunglasses also gets his head crushed in a pin-setter.

Additionally, Duster seems to be a series where sudden violence disrupts its otherwise light-hearted tone. Jim needed the shoes to compensate Sunglasses for assistance in getting Sergeant Groomes (Donal Logue), a corrupt Phoenix cop, off his back. Groomes had witnessed Jim’s interaction with “that colored girl,” another reflection of the era’s prevalent racism that Agent Nina Hayes faces regularly, and demanded ten thousand dollars to stay silent. However, while Jim was in Palm Springs stealing the shoes, Sunglasses arranged a meeting with Groomes, which turned into a gunfight. Groomes shot Charlie (Peter Murnik), Sunglasses’ brother and enforcer. Sunglasses retaliated by shooting Groomes, but didn’t kill him. When Jim returned with the blue suede shoes, Sunglasses, in a drunken fury, assaulted him. This explains why Jim found himself in the desert at midnight when Wade arrived, offering help to bury Sunglasses.

Wade Ellis. And Corbin Bernsen, who plays Wade Ellis with a wizened glee that feels fueled by midday martinis and contrasted with the man’s conflicted soul. Wade is a veteran who parlayed his wartime friendship with Ezra Saxton into a life of crime, but who lost one son in a seemingly targeted hit, and is remarried to Charlotte (a terrific Gail O’Grady), who has re-christened his remaining son “Motherfucker.” (In a great line from Episode 2, Jim meets Gail’s invective with a “Stepmother-fucker” retort.) Wade is happy to help out Jim with his own criminal exploits. Now that he’s retired from the life, it excites him. But honestly it feels too convenient that the elder Ellis just appeared in the desert in the middle of the night. Not saying he’s up to something – not even sure what he’d be up to yet,. Not saying he’s gonna somehow double-cross his only surviving son. But also, we’re not not saying that. For now, we’ll enjoy the scenes with Bernsen and Holloway bouncing easily off each other.

On the Nina Hayes side of things, she and Awan are still piecing together the mystery of her predecessor, Breen. Her own meeting with Groomes, the local cop, was defined mostly by more racist commentary. But he did tell Nina that Breen told him what to write in the report on Joey Ellis’s death. And from Abbott, her superior, she learns Breen didn’t just leave the FBI, he was committed to an area mental hospital. This is not to say Abbott is necessarily helpful. He would rather characterize Hayes’s solid investigative work as overreach by conflating it with his blinkered take on Congresswoman Shirley Chisolm, who in 1972 became the first Black candidate for president from a national party.    

Ignoring Abbott, as is her habit, Nina seeks out Breen’s wife, Evelyn. (And this is another subtly cool thing about Duster – Evelyn is played by the real-life Adrienne Barbeau, who we met the portrayal of at Elvis’s Palm Springs party pad.) The woman is not having Agent Hayes’ questions, no way. She even tosses in a “from the likes of you,” just in case there was any confusion about the racism. The biggest takeaway from the encounter is what happens after Hayes and Awan depart. Eveylyn phones an unnamed man in a cowboy hat, who seems to be in Washington, DC. And that guy assures the woman he will “take care of” Agent Hayes. It’s a good thing Nina packs a switchblade in her boot. We know she plays to win, but there are larger forces looking to stop her progress on taking down Sax.

Duster: 8-Tracks

“All Right Now” is very high up on our mental list of Most Overused Songs in TV & Film. However! Free’s 1970 single is a classic for a reason, and it sounds totally fantastic blasting out of the Duster as Jim puts the pedal down on the I-10 to Palm Springs.

Also featured in Episode 2 of Duster:

Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.