Warning, spoilers below for the second episode of Yellowstone season 5.
Why does it feel like things are about to get really dire for Yellowstone's rodeo gang? We're just two episodes into the series' fifth season, and already the Duttons are dealing with the death of a child, environmental catastrophes, precarious romantic situations, laid-up horses, and, oh yeah, the threat that they'll lose the ranch all together and get nothing for it. No big deal, right?
Yellowstone's kids are growing up
Things certainly aren't rosy when "The Sting Of Wisdom" opens and we get a quick look at the accident that resulted in the tragic death of Kayce and Monica's infant son. Their older son, Tate, is very brave and is trying to keep everything together, but it's clear the couple is in a world of pain. Tate's suggestion that the pair try again so he can have another brother is meant to be sweet, but it's perhaps a little soon for that kind of optimism.
Speaking of kids: Carter is so, so old looking now. It's amazing how much a child actor can grow up in a series' hiatus. Yellowstone joked about it in the season premiere, but he's old enough now that Rip has him out riding John's horse and getting cowboy lessons. He's got a button down, hat, chaps, and the whole rig, so things look okay for him—until they're not, and he rides Dutton Sr's horse into a gopher hole. The horse shatters his leg, and Rip has to put him down in the field, which is just terrible. especially for a show that clearly loves horses so much. It's part of ranching, I guess, and John seems to get over what happened, but that doesn't make it any less traumatic. It also doesn't make it any less emblematic because it does feel like the loss of that horse is suggestive in terms of the loss of the ranch and the loss of the Duttons' way of life. John's not even going to be around the ranch enough right now to break a horse in and find a new mount, so is he going to be more politician than cowboy?
First impression of John Dutton as a politician
He's certainly not a very good politician, as we learn in the scene where John fires his chief of staff for not telling him anything about some new education plan. While we're meant to think that Dutton is some sort of firebrand governor, it's a little disappointing that all of his interests for the state seem to be intrinsically tied to his own personal interests, making him exactly the kind of politician that we all love to hate. Regardless, he makes Beth his chief of staff and uses Jamie to cancel the lease Market Equities has on the airport land, even though Jamie thinks it's a bad idea. There's some talk about how the land is zoned agricultural, and the company never got a zoning override, and later we see John talk some other board members into going along with his plan, but I can guarantee this won't be the last time we hear about zoning, leases, and lawsuits this season.
Ex-governor/current senator Perry is still hanging around and offers to pick up some of John's politicking slack, though she tells him he can't get laws changed without doing a few favors. He seems to take the message to heart, though he will want to go around all the normal business if he can, because that's who he is. Meanwhile, Beth is being a class-a asshole to Jamie who, admittedly, is a bad guy who does terrible things, but come on, Beth. You don't have to be such a sadist about it. With that attitude, there's no wonder he's going to try to find some way to get back at the family post haste, even if Beth is forcing him to live on the ranch for the weekends. Beth claims she's just using him until Market Equities "tucks tail back to New York" and then she'll just "quietly put [him] out to pasture," but if you buy that, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'm looking to sell you.
Death is looming everywhere
Kayce and Monica have a sad heart-to-heart about their loss, with Monica telling Kayce she'd like to bury the baby on the ranch so they can always visit him. There's some question that, when Kayce saw the end of the couple, if this is what he meant, but he says no. I re-watched his season four vision semi-recently, and I'm still not entirely sure what it meant, but hopefully, we'll get some more clarity on what "the end of us" means as the season goes forward.
There's some bad shit going on out in the fields, too, both in 2022 and in the past, given Josh Lucas' presence later as a young John Dutton. On the modern ranch, Rip and company find a dead calf, though there's some question as to what killed it. It's unclear, seemingly, but wolves have been to the pasture to feed on the carcass and now, Rip says, they've got a taste for beef. There are suggestions that they should get a state hunter out to take care of things, but no one wants to do that with the ranch being the governors and all, so they get tags to let them kill the wolves who have come onto their property. More on that later, though.
A very 'Beth' rival for Beth
Dawn Olivieri's Sarah Atwood arrives in Montana on a private jet, and it seems like she's a bizarro brunette version of Beth. She wields her sexuality like a weapon, revels in ruining people and being a corporate fixer, and instantly focuses on Jamie as someone in the Dutton world that she can exploit. That's good for her, because the governor called a press conference in which he repealed all state funding and permits for the Paradise Valley Ski Resort, saying "building a city in the middle of pristine wilderness strains air and water and forces you to decide if you can even live in a place you call home." There's disappointment at the casino as well, where Angela Blue Thunder seems ready to burn the tribal elders to the ground.
In a meeting with some board members, John tells everyone he's planning on putting the Yellowstone into a conservation easement, which Google says is "a voluntary, legal agreement that permanently limits uses of the land in order to protect its conservation values." Beth panics a little and tells him that this means that really limits what they can do at the ranch in the future, saying they couldn't sell off a little piece to pay taxes or develop anything further, but he tells her that he doesn't care. "It'll be whole," John says, "and that matters more than any name on a deed."
Why does it feel like things are about to get really dire for Yellowstone's rodeo gang?
Back to those wolves, though: Hunting at night and using thermal goggles, Colby and Ryan take a few out as they feed on that calf carcass. They sidle up to dispose of them, only to find out that they're wearing government tracking collars. These wolves, Ryan says, are from Yellowstone National Park, and they're so beloved that they have actual Facebook pages. If it comes out that they shot and killed them, even if they had the proper tags, there'd be game wardens on the property within hours and it would be a huge national scandal, particularly because it happened on the governor's land. They call Rip out to help them and he tells them to remove the tags and tie them loosely to logs that they float down a river. The goal, he says, is that they'll fall off in the river along the way, making rangers and fans believe that a bunch of wolves just accidentally all lost their collars in a short period of time. It seems unlikely, but whatever. Ultimately, though, this plot appears to be a terrible idea either way, because one of the tags and its log gets stuck in a jam, meaning that at some point, rangers are going to come find it and realize there's some dirty business happening one way or another.
In a flashback, we see young John Dutton have a run in with the phone company after he discovers some dead animals on his ranch. The construction company has been spraying for mosquitos with some sort of DDT thing, and it's killing the land. The EPA might say it's fine, but John knows differently and asks for the foreman's car. He and his crew come back later that night to take all the repellant and wreck all their gear, and I have to imagine that Yellowstone shooting an excavator getting totaled was a pretty expensive stunt, so bravo for that move, because it looked pretty sweet. Next thing we know, they're covering the foreman's house and land with the chemical and when he comes out to complain, they clock him with the containers. He wakes up hours later in a patch of yellow grass with dead birds and trees all around him and very, very painful skin. He's learned a terrible lesson, and we're reminded that, above all, John Dutton is a steward of natural living and of his land.
From the preview of next week's Yellowstone it looks like Sarah Atwood is about to go head-to-head with a glum-looking Jamie, so that's something to look forward to!
Stray observations:
- Sweet Bentley, Beth! I wonder how it does on snow and ice. This is also where I mention that Beth drinks an awful lot for someone who immediately gets into a car and whips around town, but this is TV, so rules don't apply. If they did, Carter would probably be in high school or something, and who needs that?
- Speaking of Beth, I really enjoyed the way she read that professor to filth in the bar. I still want to go to Bozeman, though, even if she hates it.
Speaking of Sarah Atwood: The actor playing the new fixer this season is Dawn Oliveri, who also played Claire Dutton on 1883, should she look familiar to any Yellowstone fans.
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