In the “Yellowstone” recap, John starts stepping on landmines as governor and takes action to find some support and Beth deals with the repercussions from her arrest…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
If there’s one thing we’ve learned about the Dutton children through five seasons of “Yellowstone,” it’s that they really struggle to get out of their own way.
After Beth successfully outplayed Market Equities with her latest move that saw her claim land owned by her now former company at Schwartz and Meyer before putting it into a conservation easement, which prevents anybody from developing on that property, she promptly decided to celebrate with a trip out to a local bar.
When a tourist got a little handsy with her husband and then approached her on the dance floor, Beth made the woman pay with a beer bottle across the head, which then erupted into a huge bar brawl involving all the cowboys from the ranch.
The woman who was assaulted decided to press charges, which meant Beth was going to spend a night in jail.
All of this happened as Beth’s father is still attempting to get his footing down as the new Governor of Montana — a job that he never really wanted in the first place.
John Dutton is discovering that governing an entire state is a lot harder than maintaining the largest ranch in the contiguous United States.
As for Jamie, he’s still doing his sister’s bidding while disagreeing with the moves his father is making as governor because he’s long believed that selling off part of the Yellowstone-Dutton ranch is the only way his family will ever truly prosper. But now that Beth has him under her thumb, Jamie doesn’t have much choice but to do whatever she tells him — and even when he gets a moment of triumph, that gets ruined by his own bad decision making.
Meanwhile, Kayce and Monica are still dealing with the aftermath of the car accident that took their son away from them. Kayce has largely been wandering without much purpose for the last few episodes and it remains to be seen what path he ends up on during the second half of the season.
With that said, let’s get to our full recap for the latest episode of “Yellowstone” titled “Horses in Heaven”…
Sibling Rivalry
As expected, Beth wakes up in jail where she’s currently awaiting the arrival of her brother Jamie, who just so happens to be the Attorney General of the state. Despite that fact, Jamie doesn’t really hold any legal power over Beth’s case since it’s a local crime as she’s facing aggravated assault charges stemming from the bar fight.
Jamie attempts to warn his sister that what she’s done is serious not to mention the bad press it will create for their father if the news gets out that she was arrested. Beth — never one to let a moment pass to stick it to Jamie — reminds him that John Dutton isn’t actually his father.
With limited options, Jamie decides to visit the officer in charge of the case while reminding him that there is no such thing as self-defense in a bar fight, which means the woman who engaged in the fight with Beth could also potentially face charges from the previous night.
When the woman arrives at the police station to give her statement, Jamie lays down the law and informs her that she could also face charges if she moves forward and because she’s from California, they’d have no choice but to deny her bail because she’s a flight risk. Jamie then reads out the statement given on the night of the arrest where the woman in question goaded Beth into a fight by telling her that she could watch her and Rip have sex or she could join in if she wanted.
A second later, the woman took a beer bottle across the head.
Jamie tells the woman that assault doesn’t necessarily need to be physical and she’s looking at similar charges as Beth if she continues pressing the case. The woman decides she’s seen enough of Montana and just wants to get the fuck out.
As a result, Beth avoids the felony for assault and instead only faces a disorderly conduct, which appeared to be Jamie’s idea just to stick it to his sister.
On the way out of the police station, Jamie prepares to return to Helena to get back to his real job but Beth has no way home so he’s forced to give her a ride. While in the car, Beth starts tossing his case work and papers into the backseat when something catches her eye.
Beth realizes that Jamie has a car seat for a child.
Remember, Jamie’s real father was the one who helped reunite him with his ex-girlfriend and their baby, which means that the Dutton family has no idea that he even has a son.
The car seat forces Jamie to reveal the news to his sister that he has a son — and that leads to her beating the shit out of him from the passenger seat as the vehicle swerves to a stop.
Beth erupts in anger after learning that her brother has a child while she’s unable to have any of her own after Jamie got her sterilized in an attempt to hide an unexpected pregnancy when she was still a teenager. Now years later, Beth still holds him in contempt for that decision — one that Jamie calls the biggest regret of his life.
“God gave you a boy. You have my womb cut out of me and God gave you a boy!”
~ Beth Dutton
Beth continues her tirade until making a solemn promise to Jamie that she’s going to find a way to take his son away from him. In fact, Beth goes as far as telling Jamie that he should kiss his little boy goodbye because he won’t have a son much longer once she gets through with him.
When Jamie gets back to his car, he takes off and momentarily appears to think about just plowing his sister over on the side of the road but decides against it. As for Beth, she’s forced to hitch a ride with a stranger as she starts her journey home again.
Good Governor vs. Bad Governor
Governor John Dutton is still attempting to get his feet wet as a non-politician in the most powerful position in the state. He’s already declared that he’s not all that interested in attending meetings that have no real bearing on his administration and John doesn’t make much time for advisors that don’t seem to advise but rather make policy decisions for him.
The latest strike against the people surrounding the new governor comes when John arrives at the state building and finds a meeting happening with his policy advisors — a meeting he’s not attending and wasn’t even invited to attend.
So John takes it upon himself to join the meeting where he immediately starts scrutinizing plans being rolled out in his name. In fact, John decides that he’s done listening to other people telling him what he should do when he’s supposed to be the one running the state.
“I think tops of my agenda today’s going to be budget discipline. You’re all fired. I’m very mindful of our taxpayers’ money and you’re all wasting it. I’ll advise myself on policy.”
~ John Dutton
With that, John fires his entire advisory board and as a result, he’ll actually save the state of Montana over $1 million per year.
As he returns to his office, John is greeted by officers from the Fish and Wildlife team that have arrived to inform him about the wolves that went missing after spending significant time on his ranch recently.
The officers tell John that GPS tracking shows the wolves bedding down on his ranch for several days before just suddenly traveling 30 miles to return to the state park. In other words, the Fish and Wildlife team knows that somebody likely killed the wolves and returned the trackers to cover up a crime that could get them several years in prison for snuffing out a protected group of animals.
In response, John calls home to the ranch where Rip tells him the same story he told the Fish and Wildlife officers — they’ve had no problem with wolves and don’t know anything about any of the animals being killed on the property. In John’s mind, that’s the end of it but the Fish and Wildlife team remind him that they’re not the ones he’s got to worry about.
The wolves are protected and tracked by an environmental group, who will undoubtedly reach the same conclusion about the fate of these animals once they start investigating the GPS tracking. The last thing that Governor Dutton wants is an environmental group going after him just days after he’s sworn into office.
Defiantly, John sticks to his guns but he also places a call to former governor Lynelle Perry to meet for lunch so he can continue getting advice on what it’s going to take to run the state.
At lunch, Lynelle can’t help but laugh a little bit at all the misfortune befalling John since taking over her office because she’s tried to warn him about all the pitfalls of this particular job. John first tells her about Beth’s arrest and she tells him that’s an easy one to handle — just decline to address it and tell the press how much he loves his daughter.
The problem with dead wolves, however, is not one that will go away quite as easily.
Lynelle tells him that the environmental groups protecting wolves and buffalo were the bane of her eight-year term as governor and that’s one battle he doesn’t want to lose in his first week on the job. First things first, John needs to hire somebody as an environmental advisor and not just one of his rancher buddies.
John needs somebody who understands what the environmentalists want or he’ll never be able to truly deal with them. Lynelle reminds John that he needs to be proactive in his role as governor or he’ll fail reacting to everything happening around him.
“Good governors initiate action and bad governors spend all their time reacting.”
~ Lynelle Perry
It’s during this conversation along with the discussion about Beth that John mentions issuing a pardon or clemency to a prisoner serving time in Montana. Lynelle tells him that it’s part of his rights as governor that he can do that at any time — it doesn’t need to be just at the end of his term as so many outgoing governors and presidents tend to do.
While that could make for more problems than it solves, John gets an idea about how he can find the right person to help advise him on environmental issues.
That’s when Summer Higgins makes her triumphant return.
The defiant environmentalist, who ended up in prison on assault charges after she made the bad decision to trust Beth Dutton, has spent the last year behind bars while serving time following her conviction. On this day, however, Summer gets some much awaited good news after she’s granted early release and as soon as she leaves the prison, she’s greeted by the new Governor of Montana.
Her release isn’t without conditions, however, as John tells her that she’s under his personal supervision for the next six months because he needs Summer to serve as his environmental advisor. John needs somebody that not only thinks like the environmental groups but who can then explain it all to him while also offering solutions on fixing whatever problems arise.
Of course, Summer will have to reside on the ranch, which raises her reservations considering Beth also lives there but John promises they won’t run afoul of each other.
Summer ultimately agrees to join his administration but promptly tells John that despite spending the past year behind bars, she won’t be celebrating by jumping in the sack with him.
The Perfect Life
Back at the ranch, Rip leads the cowboys out for work when he discovers Mo Brings Plenty — Thomas Rainwater’s right hand man — digging a grave meant for Kayce and Monica’s son. After learning that there’s also a horse set to be buried on the ranch, Mo asks if they could put the animal next to the boy as part of their ritual.
Rip has no issue with that request and even tells the rest of the cowboys to go get shovels so they can help with the digging.
Later that day, John returns home to find Beth standing nearby the funeral where Kayce and Monica are laying their boy down to rest with a traditional Indian burial. Beth prepares to leave when John reminds her that even if they can’t actually stand alongside her brother for the funeral, he can at least know they were there for him.
John then informs Beth that they need to have a long talk later about her arrest and she responds that she’ll be asleep for the rest of the day. As a result, John decides to have a rather short conversation with his daughter instead.
“Impulse control. Find some.”
~ John Dutton
After the funeral is finished, John finds Monica sitting by herself near the grave and he decides to sit with her and share a story.
It turns out, John actually had a younger brother named Peter but sadly he was born with a heart defect and died almost as quickly as he was born. As a result, his parents never had another child.
Years later when John and his wife Evelyn welcomed their first child to the world, he watched as his parents held the baby when his father was reminded about Peter. He offered some words of comfort to his wife — the same ones that John then shares with Monica.
“My father got white as a ghost, looked at my mother and said ‘Peter lived a perfect life. All he saw of this planet was you and all he knew was you loved him.’ That boy lived a perfect life, Monica, we’re the only ones who know it was brief. All he knew was you and that you loved him.”
~ John Dutton
Monica breaks down in tears and embraces John before he gets up to speak to Kayce, who is still attempting to deal with grief of his own.
John thanks Kayce for naming his son after him — an honor that meant the world to him — and he also hands back the Livestock Commissioner badge. John tells his son that this is no time to stop collecting a paycheck so hold onto the badge for now and he’ll continue looking for someone to replace him.
Kayce insists that this is still what’s best for him and his family as he gives up that role in order to spend more time at home with Monica and Tate.
John also has a moment to catch up with Thomas Rainwater, who requests a meeting to discuss some very unhappy people living on the reservation after 300 jobs were taken away with the airport project cancelled. in fact, Thomas asks that John make a visit to the reservation to show the governor still cares — and he agrees to make that happen.
After a very long and hard day, John goes back to the house where he’s joined by Rip for a sit together as the sun goes down. Rip spent his day digging graves — including one for a horse that he believes will be an animal for John’s grandson to use in heaven — or at least that’s what the best idea he could figure after Mo asked him to bury the animal next to the boy.
That produces the title of the episode as John marvels at the idea of horses in heaven.
Meanwhile, Rip tells John the truth about what actually happened with the wolves while promising that no one will ever find the animals, although that doesn’t necessarily solve the problem about the environmental groups that will come gunning for the new governor.
For now, John got his honest answer and he’ll deal with the fall out tomorrow.
As for Rip, he spends the next day helping a local rancher brand his latest herd of cattle as they lament about the world that’s changing and the legacy they’ll leave behind for the next generation. Even Rip believes that stopping the airport from being built is a short-term answer because no one can truly stop progress and it’s only a matter of time before the fields they’re standing on will be turned to asphalt.
Identity Crisis
Following his tense encounter with Beth in the morning, Jamie goes to dinner that night with Sarah Atwood — the legal shark hired by Market Equities to tear the heart out of the entire Dutton family.
They share drinks together but neither are interested in dinner as they discuss next moves for the ongoing battle between the Duttons and Market Equities. Sarah is quick to remind Jamie that Market Equities will do whatever it takes to either build the airport as planned or get back the millions already invested in the project.
Jamie knows that the conservation easement will pretty much nullify the airport plans and there won’t be much else for them to win in court. Still, Sarah is confident that assassinating John Dutton’s character will get the job done until they can support the next gubernatorial candidate to take his job in the next election and then he or she will be beholden to the powerful special interest group.
Before things get too chippy, Jamie and Sarah decide to move the conversation to the bar, which results in both of them slamming drinks and getting much more familiar with each other.
In fact, Sarah decides she wants to do something wholly irresponsible so Jamie leads her into the private bathroom at the club where they start having sex. Little does Jamie notice that his sister Beth has been sitting in an opposite end of the restaurant the entire night scoping out the clandestine meeting.
While Jamie has sex, Beth sneaks into the room and snaps photos of Sarah’s driver’s license as she prepares her next move against both her brother and the company trying to destroy her family.
Back at home, Beth does her research on the woman having sex with Jamie and she soon discovers that Sarah Atwood isn’t who she says she is. In fact, Sarah Atwood isn’t even her real name — and that definitely adds a layer of intrigue to her addition to the show moving forward.
Before Beth can do more digging, she notices somebody walking into the kitchen behind her — a female somebody.
When Beth opens the kitchen door, she’s stunned to find Summer Higgins rooting through the refrigerator for something to drink while once again wearing one of her father’s shirts. It seems despite Summer’s declaration that she wasn’t planning on having sex with John, that changed in rather dramatic fashion once they got home together.
Beth then takes a shot at her by offering to drive into town to get some medicine for whatever diseases she might have contracted while in prison but this time Summer fires back with confidence to prove she can give as good as she can get.
“Could you also get me a toothbrush? I’d hate to keep using yours. Oh well, back to work.”
~ Summer Higgins
Even Beth stands in silence with that response and that leads to her grabbing a bottle of Tito’s vodka and starting her day with a drink on the porch. Because after spending a night in jail, finding out Jamie has a son and he’s being pursued by a mysterious woman not to mention running into her father’s mistress in the kitchen, there’s no way Beth is going to endure this entire day while sober.
“Yellowstone” returns with a new episode next Sunday night at 8 p.m. ET on the Paramount Network.
