In the “Yellowstone” recap, John finds out the awful truth about his children and Monica decides it’s time she fights back against the evil in the world…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Through the first three seasons of “Yellowstone,” John Dutton has been desperately clinging to the legacy of his family’s ranch, which is all he wants to pass down to his children.
He fought tooth and nail to bring his youngest son Kayce back into the fold after he fled the family business by joining the military. As time passed, John came to realize that Kayce would ultimately be the person to carry on the Yellowstone-Dutton ranch when he’s finally dead and buried.
But as much as he loves his son, John started to realize that the battle he’s fighting to save this land is an eternal struggle that won’t just go away in the next 50 years. That means Kayce is going to have to pass down this ranch to his son Tate one day but he may not have anyone standing alongside him when the next land developer comes along trying to take the ranch.
Jamie fathered a child that may never know him and Beth has never shown any interest in becoming a mother. Sadly, John didn’t learn the truth about his daughter’s woes until this latest episode and to say it’s heartbreaking would be a massive understatement.
Elsewhere this week, John also confronts an old enemy who has returned as a thorn in his side once again. Over on the Broken Rock Reservation, a missing persons case wakes up Monica to the atrocities her own people are facing just a few miles away from where she’s sleeping in the lap of luxury every night.
With that said, let’s get to our recap of the latest episode of “Yellowstone” titled “All For Nothing”…
All the Evil in the World
Chief Thomas Rainwater wanted nothing more than to give his people on the Broken Rock Reservation a better life but for all the ways he’s tried to change things, more has just stayed the same. The latest incident haunts a local family after their eldest daughter Sila fails to return home from the previous night and she’s declared missing.
Later, her car is found 10 miles away from the family’s house, bone dry without a drop of gasoline in the tank. The reservation police know that Sila either attempted to walk home or she tried to hitchhike back — either way she’s probably in trouble.
Sadly, Chief Rainwater knows Sila is probably dead.
But he won’t rest until the girl is found and her family is given some kind of peace so he organizes a search party to go hunting for her.
Meanwhile back at the Yellowstone-Dutton ranch, John is preparing a group of Livestock Commission agents under Kayce’s charge to confront their new neighbors, who have moved a group of buffalo right along the fence line separating their two properties. John knows the buffalo will eventually tear through the fence and likely harm the cattle being raised on the ranch, which is ultimately the exact purpose of putting the animals there in the first place.
Tensions are raised even further by the arrival of Wade Morrow — an old cowboy, who John knows from the past as a ranch hand and half a criminal.
When the two sides finally come together, John warns his men to keep cool heads but he immediately calls Wade a son of a bitch. Kayce wonders what happened to cooler heads but John tells his son that warning never extended to him.
Cutting through the initial confrontation, Wade produces paperwork for the buffalo to prove they are disease free, which solves one potential problem of infecting the Dutton ranch living on the other side of the fence. He also explains how the new owners acquired the buffalo as a tourist attraction because rich folks flying into town will pay big money to have their photos taken with the majestic animals.
The other problem can’t be solved so easily, however, because eventually the buffalo will storm through the fence line but Wade won’t be bothered with stopping them. He tells the Dutton family that’s an issue they’ll have to deal with on their own.
Kayce decides to break his father’s decree and flex his muscles as the new Livestock Commissioner while issuing a rather unfriendly warning about those buffalo to his new neighbors.
“I’ll keep ‘em out, but you’re gonna fucking hate the way I do it.”
~ Kayce
After returning to the office, Kayce receives a call from Chief Rainwater asking for his assistance. It seems the Broken Rock Police simply do not have the manpower to engage in a full on search to find the missing girl so they need Kayce to use the power of his office to help them.
Kayce sends several agents and makes a call to his wife to gather some volunteers to help look for the missing girl.
Once they arrive on the reservation, the search party is given instructions as they head off into the wilderness to see what they can find. It’s not long before Chief Rainwater’s right hand Mo discovers a coyote sniffing around a nearby ravine. Along with Kayce, they ride over to discover Sila’s broken body laying dead at the bottom of the ditch.
It’s a heartbreaking end to a missing persons case but one Chief Rainwater knew was coming the minute Sila didn’t return home.
Later that night, Monica is facing the reality of the horrors her people are facing everyday on the reservation while she’s sitting in a bathtub the size of a small swimming pool. Kayce tries to remind his wife that there are monsters everywhere in the world and all you can do is kill them when you get the chance.
He tries to convince her that not every evil act is a problem she can solve but Monica has other ideas in mind.
Kayce: “You can’t stop the world from being bad”
Monica: “Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try”
The next day, Chief Rainwater finds Monica in the field where Sila’s body was found as she looks for any kind of clues that could lead to the capture of the people who murdered the young girl. She’s desperate to do something to help but the chief has another idea in mind.
He explains to Monica how nobody ever seems to come help the Native American people no matter how much they’re hurting. The government doesn’t give a shit — Chief Rainwater knows they always wanted Native Americans to assimilate into cities and eventually give up the lands that were adopted as reservations.
In order to effect real fundamental change, Chief Rainwater says the first job is getting people to pay attention to the problems their people are facing.
So he’s organizing a task force on crimes against women on reservations with hopes that it will eventually transform into a movement that will get some much needed attention. He asks if Monica would like to lead that fight — and she’s more than willing to do it.
A Better Life
Back at the rodeo, Jimmy is watching his girlfriend Mia practicing her barrel racing while her friend Laramie continues to flirt with Lloyd, who is now sitting in the stands watching.
Lloyd warns Jimmy that eventually Mia’s going to want a life that he can’t give her living in a bunkhouse. He thought rodeo was his way out but now after suffering such a catastrophic injury, Jimmy may never get the chance.
Considering John paid for his medical bills under the guise that he’d never get on a bucking bronco again, Jimmy has also made promises he doesn’t want to break.
But Lloyd tells Jimmy that he made a similar promise many years ago after the Dutton family paid for similar medical bills from his own rodeo career. He knows nobody can really pull him out of that life unless Jimmy is actually ready to go.
Lloyd explains that he finally gave up the rodeo when his own body forced him to quit. While Jimmy seems willing to learn a new skill, Lloyd tells him that he’s never seen anyone ride horses with as much skill during all his years in the rodeo.
Later that night back at the bunkhouse, the entire crew is drinking and watching an old time show where a cowboy is riding on the back of a buffalo. Lloyd tells them that riding a buffalo is a lot different than sitting on a horse or even a bull.
It seems a buffalo can’t buck so you’re not in as much danger of being thrown off but that doesn’t mean the giant animal won’t roll with you on his back. Everybody decides with a herd of buffalo living at the ranch next door that they should try to see what it’s like to ride one.
So Lloyd, Mia, Laramie, Teeter and the rest of the bunkhouse boys head out into a field and see what it’s like to ride on the back of a buffalo.
The Only Thing Worth Fighting For
With Jamie cemented as attorney general, he’s finally feeling vindicated for everything he’s done in his life but Beth isn’t about to let him forget who he truly is deep down inside.
The bad blood between them finally boils over when Jamie lashes out at his sister over the hatred they’ve held for each other ever since Beth asked him to help her get an abortion and he complied while failing to warn her that the procedure would also sterilize her from ever having children.
Beth tells Jamie that ultimately he’s not any measure of a man but rather he’s just seeking the approval of their father. That’s all he’s ever wanted. To make matters worse, Beth knows that Jamie is even more terrified of John’s disapproval. She says ultimately Jamie was just obsessed with becoming whatever his father wanted of him.
That confrontation sent Jamie off to work where he had an important meeting on the books with Market Equities.
For this sit down, Roarke Morris welcomed Market Equities CEO Willa Hays into town where she will speak to the sitting attorney general about acquiring the Dutton ranch so they can finally build an airport.
At first, Jamie shoots down every request by throwing up a series of legal hurdles including a lengthy process to get the local townspeople to vote on the state acquiring the land under the rights of eminent domain. He also reminds Willa that the jobs she’s promising to bring to Montana will largely be low paying wage positions with most of the skilled jobs going to out of state talent that the company will undoubtedly recruit.
In other words, the people of Montana are highly unlikely to vote John Dutton off his land.
That’s when Willa makes a counter offer — instead of the state buying the ranch, she will pay $10,000 per acre to acquire the land herself. That means the Dutton family stands to make $500 million to sell the ranch to Market Equities.
That absurd figure stops Jamie dead in his tracks and he tells Willa that he’ll get back to her once he speaks to his father.
As they leave the table, Willa smiles because she knows that ridiculous amount of money not only got Jamie’s attention but she’s quite certain he would eventually be willing to close the deal. Roarke then warns her that Jamie’s not the one she has to convince.
Back at the ranch, John speak to Beth about the fight they have coming with these latest land developers. As much as his daughter has transformed into a corporate assassin, this is not a fight she can win by herself and that means she needs to turn to Kayce while learning to trust Jamie so they can take on this problem as a family.
Of course, Beth has no interest in ever trusting Jamie, which finally prompts John to ask his daughter why she has so much hate and contempt for her brother.
Later that night when Jamie returns home, John confronts his son with the truth about the abortion and Beth’s sterilization. He wonders if Jamie understands the atrocity he committed towards his family by ensuring his sister would never have children.
The battle to save this ranch isn’t going to end any time soon but all Jamie has done is guarantee that Kayce’s son Tate might be the last Dutton alive to fight for it.
The rage in John’s eyes has Jamie terrified and Kayce arrives at home just in time to intervene between his brother and father. Jamie finally lashes out and tells his father that he hates him as he punches through a plate glass window and cries on Kayce’s shoulder as he finally expels all of the anger he’s been holding inside all these years.
In Jamie’s mind, all he did was protect the family when Beth asked him for help. To hear him tell it, he was only doing as his father taught him from birth.
John finally leaves the room and heads outside as he vents to himself after realizing that the family he raised will almost certainly let the legacy of the Dutton family die once he’s gone. As the title of the episode says, John mutters under his breath that his constant fight to save the ranch was “all for nothing.”
The Dutton family is splintered and nearly broken and you have to wonder if they’ll ever be able to come together in time to stave off the wolves at their door.
“Yellowstone” returns with a brand new episode next Sunday night at 9 p.m. ET on the Paramount Network.
