SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers from “Встречают по одёжке (Meet by the Clothes),” the sixth episode of “Duster,” now streaming on Max.
If the reluctant duo at the center of Max’s “Duster” didn’t consider themselves partners before, then surviving a hail of gunfire and a lethal Russian crime boss surely cemented them as partners now.
In the sixth episode of the Max 1970s crime drama from creators LaToya Morgan and J.J. Abrams, FBI Agent Nina Hayes (Rachel Hilson) followed through with her dangerous plan to infiltrate Saxton’s (Keith David) crew by posing as his Russian interpreter. This was against the wishes of her informant Jim Ellis (Josh Holloway), who didn’t much care for her being this close to his day job as Saxton’s driver. After gaining Saxton’s trust with her fluent Russian –– something Hilson learned for the role –– Nina is quickly called up for a meeting where he brokers a deal to secure a mysterious case from a Russian gangster.
For the first time, Nina and Jim get to work together out in the open instead of in the shadows, marking a huge change of pace for Hilson and Holloway.
“I think the stakes were always high, but they were completely upped in this episode,” Hilson tells Variety. “This episode has a huge arc because they are butting heads in the beginning, but by the end, we feel more like pals and allies than we ever have been.”
“Like real partners,” Holloway jumps in to say. “Up to that point, it was kind of like rehearsal, and they even say that. But this is not rehearsal anymore; she’s entering into my world now. There’s a whole new level of trust that has to be there –– or not. But after this deal, I think they do have a mutual trust for each other that is deepened through this experience.”
“For that day, at least,” Hilson adds, cracking both of them up.
Courtesy of Max
Morgan says one of the priorities of the episode was to show Nina and Jim reckoning, maybe for the first time, with just how deep in this mess they are. Before she goes undercover, Nina gives her real FBI partner Awan Bitsui (Asivak Koostachin) her locket to return to her mother if her cover is blown. Later, when they are facing probable death, Jim gives Nina the keys to his Duster for his daughter Luna should he not make it out alive.
“They know they’ve kind of dipped a toe across the line before, but now it’s getting real,” Morgan says. “She’s going undercover, and all bets are off. It’s not like in the modern days where you can have an earpiece in and the cavalry is going to come running to save you. They literally have no one but themselves and each other to get them out of this.”
Saxton brings Nina, Jim, his son Ben (Benjamin Charles Watson) and his hothead, baseball bat-wielding bodyman Billy (Evan Jones) along for the deal, and things go smoothly at first. Until the Russian asks everyone present to share a shot of vodka with him, a show of camaraderie before they get down to business. Unfortunately, Ben is still recovering from heart surgery, and the shot of straight liquor mixed with his medication causes him to freak out and spook the Russian. Thankfully, Jim intervenes to defuse the situation, spinning Ben’s recent health issues into a rousing tale about how he survived an attempt on his life from his enemies. Filtered through Nina’s impeccable Russian, the crime boss respects Ben’s perceived fortitude and agrees to Saxton’s terms.
Speaking of Hilson’s Russian, even Holloway was impressed as he watched her deliver it during filming. “You spoke so much Russian,” he says to her. “I could not believe she was able to pull that off. All I was thinking was, ‘Thank God they didn’t ask me to do that.’”
Hilson doesn’t remember when in the audition process Morgan and Abrams told her that Russian would be part of the character’s skill set, but when she learned about it, she immediately began working with a tutor.
“I knew she had to be fluent,” she says. “Not only be able to say these lines, but also sound like she really knew what she was saying and be able to ad lib here and there. I wanted to really get that right. So I started that pretty soon, and then we had a dialect coach on set who was amazing.”
All that preparation led to this deal, which Hilson had to play with confidence and a touch of fear when the Russian initially interrogated her about why she knew Russian. It rattles Nina for a moment, before she finds her footing.
“That was so fun to film, but it was even more fun to finally have that come to fruition and kind of be done with it,” she says.
With the Russian — both the language and the gangster — out of the way, the episode crescendos into the real action. In the previous episode, Jim made an enemy of Sal (Jack Topalian), a Greek mobster, who was left fuming when Jim helped Saxton’s daughter Genesis (Sydney Elisabeth) crash Saul’s daughter’s wedding and steal the bride (and her girlfriend) away from a financially advantageous arranged union. Saul is now out for blood, and he sends his henchmen to spy on Saxton’s deal and then kill Jim once the Russian leaves. The two men shoot first and ask questions later, leaving Nina to show off her skills with a gun, something bloodthirsty Billy immediately clocks as suspicious for a simple interpreter.
Courtesy of Max
During the shootout, Jim and Nina finally have their hands on the all-important briefcase Saxton came for, which Nina believes might hold enough evidence to bring him down. But in the chaos, they don’t get the chance to crack it open and see what all of this was for. Instead, they have to “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” their way out of this situation, without doing anymore damage to their covers.
“Billy is my main concern, because he’s already suspicious and I can feel him honing in on us,” Holloway says. “So we can’t do anything here in front of Billy, because he’s gonna sniff that out immediately. But one of my favorite movies ever is ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,’ so replaying this scene was fantastic. And the dialogue of the moment was so quick and witty, and I just love that they’re still arguing in that moment as they are being shot at.”
Ultimately, Nina saves Ben’s life, forcing Billy to holster his suspicions about her — for now. But the consequences of her new immersion in Saxton’s operation have to reveal themselves. To get her here, Jim’s father Wade (Corbin Bernsen) and stepmother Charlotte (Gail O’Grady) helped coach the undercover agent on her acting, something that should concern Jim.
“Not only is their relationship deepening, but now my father is involved and my stepmother is involved,” he says. “There’s this evolution of knowledge, because we are also finding out my father had doubts about my brother’s death too. To have him on board really gives Jim permission to trust Nina a little more.”
The episode ends on a quieter note with Nina nursing Jim’s bullet wound, a moment of lingering glances that seems to confirm the simmering romantic tension fans have already clocked between them. Hilson says she thinks it is up to the audience to determine how to read the scene, which doesn’t include a kiss, but certainly gets close to it.
Holloway, meanwhile, was worried a possible romance wouldn’t feel appropriate for the characters or the era. But history, he realized, is on their side.
“I wondered if this was gonna be weird, but if you put it in the world of the ’70s, not so much,” he says. “People were more fluid around most issues. Was the age difference a big thing? Is the race difference a thing? Not really. It makes sense, because in the beginning, before he realizes she’s FBI, it’s very flirty. This is just a man and woman flirting. Their actual professional relationship has been antagonistic —but who knows where that could grow later.”
Morgan says the adrenaline from the wild shootout dropped their defenses, leaving them both more vulnerable than ever.
“They survived and they’ve lived to tell the tale,” she says. “To me, there’s nothing sexier than helping someone when they’re hurt. They’ve had a little tequila, and tequila can go to your head. But it’s there. There’s this thing between them and nobody else understands but them.”
But how sexy can a moment really be when Richard Nixon is playing on the TV in the background?
“You don’t know what people’s kinks are!” Hilson says with a laugh.
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