SPOILER ALERT! The following story contains plot points from the midseason finale of Yellowstone.
Well, it’s war. Again.
Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley) followed through with his threat by calling for the impeachment of his dad John (Kevin Costner), who blocked the construction of an airport that would have brought jobs and tourist dollars to Montana. John learns about his son’s betrayal while speaking against the planned installation of a pipeline through the local reservation –John’s latest attempt to keep progress from reaching his beloved home state. Someone seems to be fighting a losing battle.
In fact, that’s the very message that Jamie gives to Beth (Kelly Reilly), who broke into her brother’s home in an attempt to get him to reverse course on the impeachment. After futilely threatening to make public that Jamie killed and disposed of his real dad in season 4, Jamie enlightens his sis about how he’s not the only Dutton to discard a body at the so-called Train Station. Beth finally learns another deep family secret: John Dutton has been chucking corpses on the Montana border for years; in fact, the episode began with a young Rip (Kyle Red Silverstein), who at the urging of a young John Dutton (Josh Lucas), discards the body of a cowboy who got a little too lippy about his beloved Beth.
“There are centuries worth of our family’s secrets at the bottom of that canyon,” Jamie explains to Beth. “Ask your husband where the train station is and how many times he’s been there.”
She can’t right now: Rip just left with his fellow cowhands to transport the herd down to the Mexico panhandle. So she confronts her father, who confirms her worst fear.
“It’s a trash can for everyone who’s attacked us,” Dutton explains. So Beth has an idea: she’d like to add one more body to this “jurisdictional dead zone in a county with population of exactly zero.” She wants to kill her brother Jamie before he kills her dad’s governorship.
“What do you think, daddy?” Beth asks.
Turns out Jamie is one step ahead of her. He’s already predicting that Beth will want his head on a platter so he asks his galpal Sarah (Dawn Olivieri) to cut his sister off at the path. He asks Sarah to reach out to some professionals who can make it look like Beth suffered a heart attack or was in a car accident. Oh boy.
The episode did feature a few sweeter moments. John asks Monica (Kelsey Asbille) to keep an eye on the ranch while he’s off governing. Teeter (Jen Landon) tells Colby (Denim Richards) she loves him before she heads off with Rip and the other cowboys to Mexico. And we got to see Jimmy Hurdstrom (Jefferson White) as a changed and happy man: he’s got a himself a purty brunette at home while he works the herd for the 6666 Ranch. Will he ever return to Montana?
Answers aren’t coming anytime soon. Paramount announced Sunday night that the show won’t return until the summer.