In the “Yellowstone” recap, Jamie confronts his father, John wakes up to trouble and the battle between Lloyd and Walker finally boils over…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
In the world of “Yellowstone,” there is no compromising when it comes to loyalty and several characters had that tested in the latest episode — none bigger or more important than Jamie Dutton.
After serving as his family’s legal muscle when the series first started, Jamie has since murdered somebody, covered it up, lost his girlfriend and child, been humiliated by his sister (on numerous occasions) and then his entire world caved in around him after discovering that he was actually adopted.
Jamie then sought out to meet his real father, who just so happened to go away to prison for several years after killing his junkie mother.
Fast forward to “Yellowstone” season 4 and Jamie has discovered the awful truth that his birth father Garrett Randle was behind the assassination attempt that nearly killed every member of the Dutton family. Jamie was horrified to learn that Garrett could even possibly be behind such a horrific act but now his worst suspicions have been realized and he’s got to reconcile those feelings in his own mind now as he figures out who truly deserves his trust and devotion.
Elsewhere this week, the animosity between Lloyd and Walker finally boils over and there was plenty of bloodshed before the fight ended.
Kayce got a fresh start with a new home he’ll share with Monica and Tate but he also ran into a familiar face while investigating some horse thieves on the Broken Rock reservation.
There’s a lot to dig into this week so let’s recap the latest episode of “Yellowstone” titled “I Want to Be Him”…
Summer Nights, Winter Mornings
Mornings are an interesting time on the Yellowstone-Dutton ranch.
While Beth says goodbye to Rip as she tells him that she wants them to go on a ride together without any further details about where they’re going means that he’ll spend the whole day thinking about her and the mysterious plans that rattle through her beautiful head.
Of course there’s nothing nefarious about this particular journey as Beth is really just asking Rip to find a spot where neither of them have ever been before so they can get married there and start all new memories together.
Back at the main house, Summer Higgins is getting some coffee after she ended up spending the night with John Dutton, which was quite a change from how they first met as she was protesting factory farming at Kayce’s livestock commissioner’s office. After offering her the chance to see how a real ranch works, John somehow ended up getting much closer with Summer than he expected but an even bigger shock was his new lady friend encountering Beth in the kitchen the next morning.
With a butcher knife in hand ready to draw blood, Beth believes that Summer is a prostitute, which is probably not the introduction that John wanted. He does his best to calm the choppy waters before Summer gives him quite a passionate kiss as she heads back upstairs to get dressed.
At his age, John doesn’t have the time or desire to explain to his daughter who he chooses to spend time with much less the myriad of issues she’s dragging around about a woman in her mother’s house.
John: “I’m just too old for all of it.”
Beth: “Not too old for some of it”
Breakfast doesn’t end up going much better after Summer’s choice of food is whittled down to almost nothing, especially after Gator has no idea how to make her something vegan. Beth finally heads off to work while Summer asks John to take her back to town.
Along the drive, John spots a calf standing outside the fence line at the Yellowstone ranch and he stops to tend to it just as Rip and the other cowboys are wrangling the rest of the herd. Summer watches as John and Rip take care of the animal and make sure it gets back inside the fence without any harm coming to it.
She seems genuinely confused by the compassion displayed by the owner of the largest ranch in the United States. Rather than asking any more questions, Summer decides to be alone with her thoughts after telling John that she’ll walk back to town all on her own.
Meanwhile down in Texas, Jimmy is still acclimating to life on the Four-Sixes ranch, which includes an early morning wake up for breakfast where he barely gets a bite before he’s being told it’s time to leave for work.
After a day riding a bucking bronco and working on the ranch, Jimmy returns home and his new cowboy handler tells him that he’s still got a lot to learn and he rides for shit but at least he doesn’t complain about it. He then tells Jimmy that it’s high time that he learns how to rope because that’s the only weapon he’s got out there when it comes time to wrangle a herd.
Jimmy demolishes his dinner after being famished all day while also hiding the fact that his entire body has been tormented by this trial by fire at the ranch. Still, Jimmy refuses to give up and he instead stays outside most of the night teaching himself how to rope so he’ll be ready for work the next day.
It remains to be seen if he’ll return to the Yellowstone before the season is over, especially now that he’ll be returning to a ranch that no longer houses the woman he loves. More on that later.
Family Home
Kayce is determined to make a new home for his family and he’s happy with the house that Monica found for them that’s close enough to both the Yellowstone and the Broken Rock reservation. It doesn’t take long for Kayce to realize they’ve found the right place after he sees the joy in Tate’s eyes after he makes a new friend with a stray dog that apparently comes with the house.
Before Kayce can truly celebrate the new house he gets a call to come help with a problem on the reservation.
It seems a family raising horses on the reservation had a fence cut and all of their animals were stolen. While Kayce has no authority there, he still offers his assistance and he soon realizes that the horses were corralled by men riding on dirt bikes.
Sadly the trail stops before he can figure out where the horses ended up so he insists on talking to the family to see if he can discover the culprits behind this crime.
When the family emerges from their house, Kayce is reunited with Avery — a former ranch hand at the Yellowstone-Dutton ranch that he got to know when he was first trying to assimilate himself into the business that his father built. Avery was last seen back in season 2 when she helped Jimmy avoid some nasty people from his past who were seeking money owed to them.
Avery helped Jimmy get out of trouble but then just as it appeared that perhaps they were going to get together, she just sort of disappeared from the ranch.
Now she’s been reunited with Kayce under different circumstances and that’s not a friendship that his wife seems is all that happy about.
In fact later that night, Monica is angry in bed just thinking about the woman who flashed a smile at her husband but Kayce reassures her that he’s only got eyes for his wife. They kiss and fall asleep together but Avery’s return isn’t an accident by any means, especially considering it was her family who had their horses stolen off the reservation.
I’m Something Bad
A conversation with Terrell Riggins in prison told Jamie everything he needed to know about the attack on the Dutton family and the person responsible for ordering the hit. While his plans to confront his father about the attack fell apart after his ex-girlfriend Christina returned with their baby son, Jamie didn’t completely forget about the murder-for-hire plot that he managed to unravel.
So this week, Jamie returns home with a gun in his hand ready to confront his father over the assassination plot that he put into motion.
After storming into the kitchen with a gun drawn, Jamie demands that his father put his hands behind his back because apparently the Attorney General of Montano is going to make an arrest. Of course, Garrett has no intention of being taken into custody by his own son so he begins to chip away at the mountain of turmoil that’s been growing inside Jamie thanks to his tumultuous relationship with the Dutton family.
Garrett not only confesses to the crime that he wanted John Dutton and his entire family dead but he explains that his reasoning was to his son back the life he should have claimed long ago. Garrett believes that John was nothing more than a user taking what he needed from Jamie rather than actually being a father to him and he wanted to pay him back for that more than anything in the world.
Garrett also wonders why Jamie is holding on so tight to the family who didn’t stand by his side, particularly when it comes to his sister Beth and a brother in Kayce who he barely knows. Instead, Garrett reminds Jamie about the legacy he’s already started to build since they got together including the purchase of his own house and the land it’s sitting on not to mention the return of Christina and his child.
Needless to say, Garrett has no regrets about trying to have the Dutton family killed and when the time is right, he promises to do it all again.
“I have no agenda but giving you back the family that you never had and a legacy he robbed from you. Did I try to kill them? You’re goddamn right I did and I’ll keep trying until I get it right. That’s how much I love you.”
~ Garrett Randle
Rather than shoot him or take him into custody, Jamie falls into his father’s arms while bawling tears as he continues to figure out what it means exactly to become his own man rather than just being John Dutton’s son. It appears Jamie has decided to show loyalty to the father whose only concern has been his legacy and the life they’re building together now.
The next day, Jamie heads into work for his morning meeting with the head of operations at Market Equities and he’s stunned to find Beth sitting at the conference room table waiting for him. Beth is there to serve notice that she’s now leading the charge for the company that was once determined to take the Dutton ranch except now she’s got the power to point them in every single direction except for the one that compromises her father’s land.
She’s also there to serve as a huge thorn in Jamie’s side because Beth won’t be satisfied until he’s left with nothing.
Beth: “You ever hear the saying wherever something good is trying to happen, something bad is trying to stop it?”
Jamie: “I’ve heard it.”
Beth: “I’m something bad.”
Beth has been the only one who suspected Jamie from the start as a person responsible for the hit taken out on the Dutton family but she hasn’t actually been right until now. Jamie wasn’t involved in the actual plot to kill every family member he’s ever known but now the Attorney General of Montana is willfully protecting his father, who would do anything possible to eradicate the Dutton clan once and for all.
Last Man Standing
Back at the ranch, Lloyd is out in the barn teaching Carter how to rope a steer because that gives him some kind of purpose that doesn’t end with spit in his face while watching Laramie all over Walker back at the bunkhouse. Lloyd feels like an outcast these days and he knows Carter is just the same, even if the boy doesn’t agree with him at first.
Then Lloyd reminds him that he’s sleeping in the barn when an offer of an actual home was made to him before Carter screwed that up by embarrassing Beth when she tried to buy him some new clothes. Carter scoffs at the idea that he should remain banished from Beth’s house because he’s already apologized to her but Lloyd is quick to point out that it may not have been the best possible way to say ‘I’m sorry’ because clearly she hasn’t actually accepted it.
Instead, Lloyd suggests that Carter needs to come up with a different kind of apology and truly mean it so Beth will actually forgive him this time.
As for Lloyd, he’s got to settle some of his own business as he heads back to the bunkhouse where the rest of the cowboys are playing poker while Walker plays a song on his guitar.
It seems like Lloyd has come back to issue an apology of his own after breaking the Yellowstone rules by starting a fight with another cowboy but he just can’t sit there and watch Laramie drool all over Walker while he pays her no mind while fiddling with his guitar.
Lloyd finally snaps, grabs the guitar and smashes it into toothpicks much to the chagrin of Ryan and the rest of the cowboys in the bunkhouse. Walker rises to meet him and reminds Lloyd that he’s nothing more than a bully who’s just been itching for another bully to come along and stop him.
Before a fight can break out, Lloyd has heard enough and he grabs a knife from his belt before tossing it directly into Walker’s shoulder. As Walker starts to bleed, the rest of the cowboys freak out as they grab Lloyd and handcuff him while calling for the veterinarian to come help tend to Walker.
In the midst of all this, Mia has seen more than enough and she packs her back to leave the Yellowstone-Dutton ranch for good.
While the vet is able to patch up Walker following a very intense and painful scene where he’s trying to get a knife out of his shoulder — Laramie helps with that part — the rest of the cowboys have taken Lloyd to Rip to deal with his latest attack that’s now ended in bloodshed.
Because Lloyd has spent the past 30 years as part of this ranch and the Dutton family, John isn’t ready to give up on him just yet but he also knows the animosity shared with Walker can’t keep happening because one of them is eventually going to end up dead. John knows if this had been Walker in the same position, Rip would have already killed him and thrown him in a ditch at the bottom of a canyon in Wyoming.
In this case, John decides to give Lloyd one last chance to prove himself but another incident will lead to his dismissal from the ranch. John also orders Rip to get rid of all the women living in the bunkhouse to hopefully stave off future problems just like this one.
John then tells Rip to let Lloyd and Walker settle things between them once and for all but then make sure the winner realizes nobody is walking away from this ordeal unscathed.
“Rip — I want you to make an example out of the last man standing.”
~ John Dutton
The next morning, Rip arrives at the bunkhouse and after gathering all of the cowboys, he informs them that Laramie and Teeter have been fired effective immediately. Teeter is understandably upset given the fact that she’s done nothing wrong but at this stage, she’s just collateral damage.
He then orders Lloyd and Walker out to the horse pin where they will fight until there’s no fight left in them.
The two of them engage in a bloody back and forth battle until Lloyd finally gains the upper hand as he starts pounding Walker with punches that he’s not able to defend. Still, Walker refuses to concede as he keeps swinging while Lloyd just continues to punish him over and over again.
Finally, John arrives to dish out the last bit of justice in order to settle this grudge for good but Rip refuses to let him get his hands dirty. Rip knows if John is the one to deliver a savage beatdown that the rest of the cowboys will hate him for it.
Instead, Rip understands that the cowboys hating him is all part of the job he’s been given so he walks into the ring and finds Lloyd standing as the victor over Walker’s broken and busted up body. Rip hugs his old friend and tells Lloyd that he loves him before delivering that savage beating required to make a statement to any of the other cowboys getting out of line.
Rip then stomps on Lloyd’s hand as a final bit of retribution for letting all of this get started in the first place.
Lloyd stumbles across the pin and actually helps Walker back to his feet as the cowboys appear to put the past behind them while both prepare to embark on a new future together as part of the Yellowstone ranch.
As for Carter, he watched this incredibly painful fight because Rip knew it was a lesson that the boy had to learn. With the cowboys dispersing back to the bunkhouse, Carter turns to one of the other ranch hands and declares that he knows what he wants to be when he grows up.
He doesn’t want to be like Rip — he wants to be like John Dutton, the man who ordered Rip to dish out a little bit of ranch justice in order to make right what was once wrong. Carter has learned rather quickly that in the power structure of the Yellowstone ranch that Rip is like a guardian angel but ultimately John is God.
And who doesn’t want to be God?
“Yellowstone” will return for a brand new episode next Sunday night at 8 p.m. ET on the Paramount Network.
