If you ever wondered what would happen if a Fourth of July parade collided with an espionage thriller and a pride parade, with a side of moonshine and fireworks pilfered from Dad’s garage, then Duster Season 1 Episode 5 has your answer.
It’s called “Ravishing Light and Glory,” and it lives up to that title in ways both patriotic and totally unhinged. There’s a car chase, a crashed wedding crash, and a performance of a lifetime. And oh yeah — Richard Nixon drops an F-bomb.
Welcome back to the best show no one is watching. I guess I get it. You prefer the reality-adjacent life-and-death stakes of The Pitt to the pulpy ones of Duster. But really. You should reconsider.
Let’s start with the obvious: they gave it a title this time. Maybe someone at Max finally decided the episodes deserved names before people watched. Perhaps the AI that generated Nixon’s face was demanding a union break. Either way, this one felt like the midpoint explosion we’ve been circling for a few weeks now.
Jim and Nina are still dancing around trust issues, as if they’re on a sweaty ’70s disco floor, but they finally start to sync up. They don’t do it because they suddenly believe in each other, but because they both have no other choice.
It’s like watching two rival contestants on The Amazing Race realize they’ve been handcuffed together. They’ve got somewhere to go and can only get there if they walk in lockstep.
Nina? She’s been training for a high-stakes con job like she’s Rocky preparing for a title fight. Only instead of Adrian, she’s got Charlotte schooling her in the art of performance with Carol Channing name-drops and stage-fright pep talks.
I never took her for a serious actress, but if you told me tomorrow that Charlotte once understudied for Cabaret (or The Cherry Orchard) while undercover for the CIA, I’d believe you.
Meanwhile, Jim’s been fired. But this is Duster, so naturally that leads to him crashing a mob wedding in Elvis’s shoes and starting a fight by not accepting a blowjob.
Genesis is with him, with a promise and a dream. Daphne, the bride, is her girlfriend. It’s basically The Graduate but gayer, grittier, and with more punchlines.
And in the middle of all this, there’s Nina, now reborn as Nina St. James, infiltrating the belly of the beast in full-blue leisurewear.
She’s up against Billy, the lovable idiot who couldn’t pass a Duolingo lesson in Russian if his life depended on it, and eventually — Saxton himself — the same man who likely ordered the deaths of her father and Jim’s brother. Nina doesn’t flinch; she just crosses her fingers in her lap and waits.
It’s ridiculous, and it’s awesome. Charlotte taught her well.
But it’s not all fun and games. Somehow, Duster is also sneakily emotional. This episode in particular manages to juggle wedding heists, federal conspiracies, and a shocking amount of character introspection without ever feeling like it’s trying too hard.
It knows it’s pulp. But it’s prestige pulp, like if Quentin Tarantino directed an episode of Scandal with AI-assisted deepfakes and a killer vintage soundtrack.
The highlight? Proud Mary blaring over a fight scene and a car chase involving fireworks, a navy blue tux, and Genesis shooting from the passenger seat of the getaway car. Well, the Duster. Duh.
If your patriotism didn’t spike during that sequence, check your pulse.
There’s also a genuine thread of sadness running through Jim’s scenes, especially when he watches Luna enjoying fireworks with another man to the tune of Simon and Garfunkel’s America.
He wanted to be there. But instead, he’s busy trying to get back in Saxton’s good graces by pulling off the chaos equivalent of a trust fall. David, whom I still don’t fully trust due to casting, is naturally filling Jim’s blue suede shoes.
Nina carries the emotional weight, too. That moment when she shakes Saxton’s hand? It gave me chills. Not just because she’s face-to-face with the man who may have ruined her life, but because she doesn’t break under the weight of it.
She channels every bit of pain into poise. Her fake story about a knife to the throat is delivered with eerie calm. It’s a lie, sure (I think), but it’s laced with something true. That’s what makes her dangerous — and ready.
And then there’s Nixon. Yep. Tricky Dick himself. He’s introduced via hyperrealistic AI, casually dropping an F-bomb in a scene that absolutely no one asked for or expected, but that I’m so glad we got.
It’s a sign that the show isn’t afraid to lean all the way into the absurdity of its world. This is not your dad’s Watergate drama, but it’s creeping in on it. I’m just not sure what it has to say yet.
By the time we reach the final scene, Jim and Nina are reunited at Saxton’s HQ, acting like they’ve never met. The layers of performance are stacking up fast, and the tension is delicious. It’s only a matter of time before it all explodes — again.
Oh, and Cowboy’s back. He’s got the plain-faced (sorry, dude), practically background character FBI agent Grant in his pocket, because of course he does. It wouldn’t be Duster without a bit of corruption frosting on top of the conspiracy cake.
This episode didn’t just move the plot forward. It practically fired it out of a cannon and lit the fuse with fireworks. If Duster keeps up this pace, we’re in for an awesome finish.
But what about you? Are you playing along? If not, what the hell are you doing here? And if you are, say something.
There’s so much good content being created, and people are over at Netflix binge-watching dubbed Spanish soapy dramas instead. Quit killing my TV and get with the program!
Watch Duster Online
Duster Season 1 Episode 5 Review: Ravishing Light and Glory
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