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"Imagining yourself a hero? One final act to make you the martyr you've always seen yourself as."
Marcus, for not being a main character, has to be one of the best written characters on the show. Introduced to us as the cliche 'lose cannon partner' to his level headed counterpart, we as viewers immediately found reasons to view him as unlikable.
In act one, Marcus is portrayed as pompus and arrogant. Blatantly disrespecting Vander and resorting to acts of violence even though Grayson had been openly against it. So when the council had suggest they be more forceful in their search, he practically jumped on the opportunity to prove himself a hero to Piltover. His arrogance and thirst for violence eventually leading him to cross paths with Silco.
It's worth noting that Marcus didn't act on his own accordance by making a deal with Silco just because he was money hungry. He did it because he truly believed himself to be worth more, to be able to do more, than what Grayson was restricting him to. He respected Grayson, he never wanted her to get hurt, much less killed. Everything he did was to prove to her that he was just as capable as her when it came to doing his job as an Enforcer.
Yet, his pursuit for recognition and heroism blindsided him from seeing just how stupid and dangerous his deal with Silco really was. And because of that, it was no surprise that his seemingly good intentions backfired.
Marcus was now a man with blood on his hands, with no escape from his agreement with Silco. It's a cliche take on a deal with the Devil, something that could've been easily avoided had the person not been consumed by their desires. I find it ironic how his last act of heroism was saving Vi, even though everything he had done, everything that led to all that bloodshed, was to apprehend her and her family.
Marcus is now left a jaded man, an empty husk of what he used to be. He's a good man at heart, but his selfishness was inevitably his downfall. He truly did regret what he did, and it is shown that those regrets haunted him at every step in his life.
He wants to be a hero, wants to escape Silco's ever strengthening hold. But he's scared. Scared of the consequences. Scared that even more people are going to get hurt again, because of him. Scared to loose his daughter, the one thing that gave him the strength to press forward.
When Marcus was given the opportunity to undo all the evil he had actively played a part in allowing to strive, he doesn't act. Silco even eggs him on, encouraging him to be the hero he had always wanted to be; because he, Silco, knows he wouldn't do anything, and he's confident enough in that fact. And as it turns out, he is proven to be correct. Marcus simply let's it be. He's tired, he knows what happened the last time he played hero. He already wasted his youth, sold his life. Why should he risk it when he still had so much left to lose?
