In the “Yelllowstone” recap, Jamie finds out a secret his father has been keeping from him, Beth makes Rip a proposal and Kayce hunts for cattle thieves…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Jamie Dutton has been the cause of his own problems for a lot of the time we’ve spent with him on “Yellowstone” but even he didn’t deserve the kick to the chest he received in the latest episode.
The drama built up between Jamie and his father as well his growing tension with his sister Beth have led the recently appointed Montana Attorney General to once again start making questionable calls regarding his family. It seems those matters will only get more severe after Jamie learned a secret about his past that could change everything forever.
Elsewhere this week, Rip decided to teach Jimmy a lesson about the rodeo but he had to survive a long car ride with Mia to actually get there. Needless to say, car karaoke with Mia, Jimmy and Rip might just be the spinoff “Yellowstone” has been waiting to make.
As for Beth, she’s preparing to the upcoming battle against Market Equities and she meets her new partner in this fight while also making some major changes in her personal life. Beth has never loved any man as much as she adores Rip and after they finally took steps to be together this season, the two of them are now prepared to spend the rest of their lives together.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of “Yellowstone” titled “The Beating”…
Cow Tippers
The latest episode began with a midnight raid of a Dutton family field where a herd of cattle were stolen by some unknown assailants. Now we can guess at the identity of the mastermind behind this theft — the person in charge was never revealed — but the daring move put Kayce into action in his role as Livestock Commissioner.
After teaming up with Ryan and Steven Hendon, Kayce sends his troops out to the different cattle auctions to try and track down his family’s missing stock. Ultimately, it’s Kayce who heads to the Billings auction where he spots a truck and a trailer along with a pair dogs on board, which is the exact signature of the person who stole the cattle from his family’s ranch.
Kayce ends up giving chase on a horse before throwing a lasso over the driver’s neck to finally get him to stop. After dragging him from the truck, Kayce beats him with a branding iron until he gives up the name of the person who ordered him to steal those cattle.
After calling for backup, Kayce arrives at the trailer belonging to the person who allegedly ordered those cattle stolen. When no one answers the door, Kayce orders his men to check the different exit points in the house as he suspects somebody is inside but they aren’t leaving without a fight.
Sure enough just as Kayce repeatedly tells Ryan to turn his chest towards the house — a defensive maneuver in case a gun blast comes rocketing out that will hit him in his bulletproof vest versus cutting him down on the side of his body where there is no protection — shotgun blasts ring out. Ryan is hit square in the chest and Steve takes a scatter shot to his arm but Kayce is able to get past the bullets until the gunman opens the backdoor. Kayce then unloads a barrage of bullets in his chest, killing the man instantly.
After checking on Ryan and Steve while also calling for additional support and emergency services to tend to his agents, Kayce hears a scream from inside the house.
He rushes through the front door and there he finds a little girl staring down at the dead body of the gunman who was shooting at them. We have to assume this is the assailant’s daughter, who just witnessed her father gunned down by Livestock agents.
Considering Kayce witnessed the kind of torment his own son endured last year after he was kidnapped, there’s no telling the kinds of nightmares this incident will give this little girl after seeing her father killed.
That said, Kayce still hasn’t figured out the reason why these cattle were stolen or who was the person ultimately behind the crime.
The Proposal
As Rip prepares for a day he already knows is going to suck, he says goodbye to Beth laying in his bed but she’s not ready to let him go just yet. After unbuttoning her dress, Beth is able to lure Rip back into bed with her for a little while longer before he goes to work.
Once he’s finally ready to face the day, Rip heads over the bunkhouse where he’s irate to find Mia, her friend Laramie and the rest of the boys cozied up like they just got up from a slumber party. Even Lloyd has fallen for their charms but as he tells Rip about Laramie — she’s old enough to vote and buy bullets, and that’s enough for him.
Rip’s business today involves taking a bucking bronco from the ranch to a local rodeo to see if they’d be willing to buy him because no one seems to be able to break this horse to ride him. He calls on Jimmy to go with him for the day and Mia volunteers her own services to help as well considering her boyfriend is still recovering from surgery.
Rip is beyond annoyed but he finally relents and the three of them are off to a rodeo school of sorts where they will attempt to sell the horse.
Along the way, Mia is yammering in Rip’s ear at a mile a minute, talking about the song she’d listen to forever if stranded on a desert island — it’s “Turtles All the Way Down” by Sturgill Simpson, in case you’re curious — and basically talking at this point to her herself speak. Before arriving at the rodeo, Rip leans over and tells Jimmy that once they make it back to the ranch, he’s going to kill him with his own bare fucking hands.
Once they finally make it to the rodeo, Mia is star struck to find a multi-time rodeo world champion awaiting them. As Rip describes it, there are rodeos for fun, rodeos for competition and then rodeos for business — and that’s what’s being done at this place.
New bull riders and bronco busters are being trained everyday under the tutelage of the world champion.
After bringing the horse out of the trailer, a young boy probably no older than 15 is put on its back and let out of the chute. The horse tries to buck him off but the boy goes nowhere until the other cowboys pull him off. Unfortunately, the lead cowboy tells Rip that the horse has a good buck to him but not enough for the rodeo.
Jimmy is astonished — that horse bucked every single person off from the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch, him included. That’s when Rip tells him the life lesson that Jimmy’s been missing with this little sojourn — the people who go onto become world champions are trained that way from a young age and those are the ones who make a living riding bulls and horses for a living. He also reminds Jimmy that young boy, who has been riding since before he was old enough to walk, still risks the threat of death every time he mounts an animal.
Rip isn’t telling Jimmy he can’t keep trying his hand at the rodeo — but he also needs to understand the difficult and dangerous endeavor he’s taking if he attempts to continue.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, Beth sits with her father as they talk about her growing relationship with Rip. John doesn’t beat around the bush at all because he immediately brings up marriage and wonders if that’s what his daughter wants.
Beth confesses that’s exactly what she dreams about when it comes to Rip but John knows he’ll never propose marriage because that would require his permission — and Rip would never dare ask for it. But if Beth wants to marry Rip, John will gladly give his blessing because all he ever wanted was for his daughter to be happy.
Before leaving, John also apologizes to his daughter for making her feel like she couldn’t tell him about her pregnancy when she was a teenager because she was either ashamed or terrified to reveal that news to him. John says his entire job is to protect his children and the only shame he feels is that Beth couldn’t come to him for help.
After going to work that day, Beth finds Angela Blue Thunder waiting for her arrival.
Angela warns Beth that this fight against Market Equities is going to get ugly and it’s going to get dirty. Beth replies that she stays in the dirt so she never has to worry about getting dirty.
It appears this ferocious duo is ready to go to war to protect the land belonging to Dutton family and the Broken Rock reservation.
Later that night when Rip finally returns from his hellacious day, he finds Beth waiting for him on the front porch. After shotgunning a couple of beers to wash away that car ride with Mia, Rip finds himself handed a box with a ring inside.
Beth tells Rip that she wants to marry him and knowing that he’d never dare ask John for his permission, the Dutton family patriarch has already given them his blessing. Of course, Rip accepts her proposal but reminds Beth that he has no birth certificate or any kind of record that he even exists.
Beth replies by telling Rip that all she ever wanted was him — and if they can stand together on one of these nearby mountains, pledging their love for each other in front of friends and family, that’s all she could ever want for a wedding.
Fathers and Sons
Following his morning with Beth at the ranch, John heads into town to a local diner for breakfast but he’s soon confronted by Wade Morrow and his henchman son.
John knows this meeting is no coincidence and after talking down Wade, he’s forced to smack his son with a coffee container after it appears a fight might break out.
With the son laid down on the ground, John reminds Wade about their past together and how he gave the cowboy a place to live and a job at his ranch. But it seems Wade threw all that away when he betrayed John by stealing something so valuable that it’s continued to grow the rift between them.
A guess would be Wade was one of the ex-convicts recruited to work at the Yellowstone-Dutton ranch and he was branded after arriving. As Rip explained a couple of season ago, only certain people receive that brand and once you do, that means you’ve found your home for life. The only people who have left the Yellowstone-Dutton ranch after receiving that brand are dead now — with the exception of Walker, who was allowed to leave under the condition that he would never returned.
Something tells me, Wade Morrow might be the second person to leave the Yellowstone-Dutton ranch with that brand still on his chest.
As for Jamie, he’s still reeling from the fight with his father over the revelation that he took his sister to get an abortion and ultimately had her sterilized.
Before leaving for work, Jamie rifles through his father’s desk to find a piece of paperwork pertaining to the ranch. At his office, Jamie then speak to his assistant about some power of attorney documentation for the ranch — and on the surface it certainly seems like he’s once again preparing to betray his family.
Prior to a meeting, Jamie is asked to submit a notarized copy of his birth certificate so he can officially take office as attorney general. So he goes to the records office where he submits his request but when the clerk finally returns, she offers Jamie a piece of information that’s been hidden from him since birth.
It turns out Jamie Dutton was adopted.
Jamie reads through the paperwork along with a criminal complaint attached to the same file. It seems his birth father was a man named Garrett Randall and he went to prison on second-degree murder charges after killing Jamie’s mother. Jamie was then adopted by John and Evelyn Dutton, which are the only parents he’s ever known.
After ordering his assistant to track down Garrett Randall either in prison or where he’s living after being paroled and Jamie heads home to have a conversation with his father.
When Jamie arrives, he reminds his father about the speech he always gave them about being truthful and how that will always serve as the ultimate measure of a man. He wonders then if John’s wise words were do as I say, not as I do.
Without saying anything else, John knows what Jamie discovered but rather than getting angry or apologizing, he instead tells his son the truth.
Jamie’s father was an awful person and everyone at the ranch tried to convince his mother to leave him but she refused. After Jamie was born, his father beat her to death with a shower head before he was arrested and sent to prison.
As for Jamie, he was adopted by the Dutton family in order to give him a better life.
Whether he likes it or not, John has been the only father Jamie has ever known and it doesn’t matter that he was adopted — this is his family regardless of blood relation. He then tells Jamie that he now has a choice to make — he can accept this answer and understand that John is the father he wants or he can choose to return to Garrett Randall.
It’s Jamie’s decision to make but it was John’s job to protect his son — and that includes shielding him from the monster who killed his mother. Even if he decides to contact Garrett Randall, John promises that no matter what Jamie will always be his son so that’s what he’ll call him.
“Yellowstone” returns for a brand new episode next Sunday night at 9 p.m. ET on the Paramount Network.
