Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for Duster Episode 4.
AsDusterreaches the halfway point of its first season, the plot is quickly thickening. In the latest episode, “Criminalus Velocitus Super-Sonicus,” Jim Ellis (Josh Holloway) and FBI Agent Nina Hayes (Rachel Hilson) find themselves with anotherpiece of a puzzlethat seems to only get bigger —J.J. Abramsand his mystery boxes, right? This time,they each come across the name “Xavier” during their investigations into Phoenix mobster Ezra Saxton(Keith David), hinting that there’s alarger conspiracysurrounding theaffable crime lord. Although Jim and Nina each have their own personal stakes in this investigation, this shared mention to Xavier may even make working together easier for them, as connections begin to form in unlikely places.
Xavier Is Working With Ezra Saxton, but How Exactly Are They Connected?
In the series' third episode, “You’re No Good,” Jim is given an ultimatum by Nina, who needs actual leads into Saxton’s wrongdoings in order to take him down; with FBI leadership in Phoenix growing ever more displeased withher presence there, she needs to deliver, and quickly. So Jim works his way through Saxton’s operation and finagles his way into driving him to a meeting with some potential Russian partners in Tucson, which Saxton says could have “global implications.” Jim doesn’tget to hear much, only a Russian mobster telling Saxton: “When your friend, Xavier, says how much money he will pay, we set meeting fast!” So it seems that Saxton and Xavier deal together over a lot of money, and that Xavier is someone who makes offers others can’t refuse, so to speak.
In “Criminalus Velocitus Super-Sonicus,” Jim reports all this to Nina, but the name Xavier doesn’t ring any bells. She’s already in trouble herself after the agent formerly assigned to the Saxton investigation, Leland Breen (Michael Bryan French), apparently died by suicide after telling her to drop the case the night before. Still, she and her partner, Awan (Asivak Koostachin), look into everything Breen told her and find a potential lead: the burnt-out wreck of a car left in the desert inside a Navajo reservation. In the trunk of said car, they find a VHS tape, on which is a recording of Breen telling the viewer to “Expose Xavier and his network and, until then, trust no one.”
The way both Jim and Nina separately come across references to Xavier is enticing. We haven’t seen him yet, and now his name is popping up ever more frequently, so who exactly is he? Since the beginning of the series, people in the FBI have been telling Nina to steer clear of Saxton and this investigation, butno one has ever mentioned Xavier, giving the impression that Saxton himself was the big baddie. Now, Breen’s account in the VHS tape gives this a new dimension. His saying to “expose Xavier” changes everything, implying that he is the guy who may have actually been behind everything from the start, from the death of Nina’s father all the way back in Baltimore to that of Jim’s brother, Joey Ellis.
Saxton’s Mysterious Connection to Xavier Changes His Character on ‘Duster’
From the very start ofDuster, something has felt off about Saxton’s character. He just seems like too good of a person to be this vicious crime lord everyone says he is. We see how he treats everyone in his employ, how he treats his family, how organized his business is… and, especially, how he talks about Joey Ellis' death. Saxton never dances around the subject and,instead, talks openly about it with Jim, speaking fondly of Joey and saying that his death was a tragedy. It doesn’t seem like he was directly involved with it or even knew it was a planned hit. Maybe that’s guilt talking, but Keith Davidplays him so well, we just can’t be sure. He shines in the role, imprinting an affable quality on Saxton that leads us to rule him out as a real suspect right away.
Of course, there are plenty of psychopaths on TV that perfectly disguise their wickedness, and Saxton could be like that, too, but it’s just too hard to bet on anything. Jim himselfhas this impression, as well, and is starting to doubt his boss — not because of the mobster’s character itself, but because of the links and references he has found so far, with everything pointing to Saxton. In this sense, Xavier could be the missing link. Instead of revealing how evil Saxton is, however, right now it feels like he could be a pawn in Xavier’s larger network. Although Saxton is always handing out money for Jim to deliver to people on his payroll, the meeting with the Russian mobsters implies thatXavier may be the one who is actually in command of the whole operation, not Saxton.
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If that proves to be the case, it would make a lot more sense with the whole context of Joey’s death, possibly as someone who uncovered the whole scheme and found out just how deep this rabbit hole goes. With Breen knowing so much, too,it wouldn’t be surprising if it turned out that Joey was his informant all along, and died because Xavier found out about it — which would also explain why Breen went mad after the whole thing, and why his widow, Evelyn (Adrienne Barbeau), is still so fearful of Nina reopening her late husband’s case.
Beyond Paris Gilford and the Cowboy, Xavier Is ‘Duster’s Biggest Mystery Antagonist
One thing thatDusterhas in common with other J.J. Abrams productions is how it populates its world with strange and mysterious characters. These are often tied to the series’ mystery boxes — unresolved plot devices that influence the story in the present, like the deaths of Joey Ellis and Nina’s father — and Xavier has just joined these ranks, too.He is the third character we either meet or hear about, but about whom we don’t know much. In “You’re No Good,” Jim learns of a woman namedParis Gilford, whom Saxton knows personally and who had a direct hand in preparing the chemicals to explode Joey’s car. Earlier, in Episode 2, “Suspicious Minds,” Evelyn Breen calls a mysterious man known only as the Cowboy (J.R. Yenquer) to let him know that Nina has reopened the FBI case, and he tells her that he “will take care” of Nina, with the Washington, DC skyline behind him.
Right now, it feels like those three are connected. Paris Gilford is clearly aware that Joey’s death was a hit, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that Saxton is, either. She may have been hired by someone else to do it,someone who knew that Saxton had a personal connection to Joey and would oppose killing him; someone like Xavier, possibly. If Joey was indeed Leland Breen’sinformant in this investigationback in the day, it would also explain why Evelyn Breen was so afraid of it, with Xavier probably having a chokehold over her and Leland to ensure nothing about this whole case gets out, and that itremains buriedin the FBI. Whether we’re right or not, that’s one hell of a mystery box.
Dusteris available to stream on Max. New episodes air weekly on Thursdays.
