Is this finally the season of Yellowstone where everything between Beth and Jamie comes to a head? This week's new episode, "Horses In Heaven," certainly makes it seem as though that could be the case — especially if Beth has anything to say about it.
But let's come back to that. When "Horses" opens, Beth is in jail, where she spent the night after being arrested for hitting that "b—— from California" over the head with a beer bottle. ("It's always some b—— from California," her cellie remarks.) After being called out of her cell to meet with Jamie, Beth tells her brother that her bar fight was no big deal and that fighting should "be on the Bozeman brochure." She tells Jamie to sweep the whole thing under the rug — which, frankly, seems a little privileged for someone who claims to be of the people and so on. But Jamie tells her that he might not have any pull, given that it's an issue for the county attorney. Beth balks and tells him he'll fix it one way or the other.
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Of course, Jamie ultimately does, elbowing his way into the county attorney's office and literally threatening the complainant with jail time if she presses charges. We're all supposed to like Beth and think that girl deserved it and everything, but sheesh! I don't personally love the way the family runs roughshod over the law sometimes, even if the county attorney does say it saved him a bunch of paperwork.
Meanwhile, in Helena, John Dutton is going through governor growing pains, facing down his policy adviser over a solar power company getting rights to put up 7,000 acres of solar panels in areas where sage grouse are endangered. The lesson we're supposed to take here is that fracking could be just as good for animals as solar power — and that could be true, but I would say the better argument could be that these decisions are always hard to make and that you have to weigh a lot of things and see what will do the most good with the least harm overall. Dutton doesn't seem super interested in that, generally, as he seems to be the kind of man (and governor) who sees the world in black and white. He ends up firing his whole board of advisers, thus saving the taxpayers $1.6 million in salary and benefits. This surely will not come back to bite him in the behind or gridlock anything getting done in the state.
Back in his office, John meets with representatives from U.S. Fish And Wildlife, who let him know about the wolves that have died presumably on his land. They seem pretty OK with the fact that it was probably just one big mistake, but Rip denies it on a speaker call; and USFW tells him that, either way, it's not their problem, because those collars are actually monitored by an non-governmental organization — and when the environmentalists come to the same conclusion it did about what happened to the wolves, there will be hell to pay. John asks his assistant if there's a crisis manager on staff, and she says that since he's never hired a press secretary, it's probably her. John then calls up now-Sen. Lynelle Perry, who happens to be in town, which we knew, because she was supposed to be at the educator luncheon without any educators.
Later, when Dutton meets with Perry, she tells him that he's "in it now" and that he "might as well just accept it." He still doesn't seem to understand what being governor actually means, and I wonder how he actually won. Were there rallies? Did he give speeches? What were his platform points? Did he debate anyone? Either way, he's governor now — and as Sen. Perry reminds him, what that really means is that he's CEO of Montana, a company with 12,000 employees and 600,000 customers. She gives him advice on Beth getting pinched, whether or not he should pardon prisoners, and avoiding environmental groups at all costs. It also becomes pretty clear that he plans to pardon Summer Higgins, who will come work with him. This is not, I think, the savviest political move, but nothing bad ever seems to stick to Dutton, so I'm sure it will all be fine in the end.
The most important message of John and Lynelle's lunch is, I think, that there are plenty of other things to clean up in Montana other than airports. "This is as much your legacy as your ranch," Lynelle tells John, and I hope he takes it to heart. There are other good things he could do for the state, and he does have four more years to get it all done.
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When Beth gets out of jail, Jamie is there to meet her. She forces him to drive her home; and while she's throwing items around in his car, she sees that there's a baby seat in the back. She asks him about it, and he tells her that he has a son. Understandably, she freaks out, saying, "God gave you a boy? You have my womb cut out of me, and God gave you a boy?" She lunges for Jamie as he drives, and the pair almost get in a crash, ultimately spinning out on a feeder road. When Beth runs from the car, Jamie goes after her, saying, "Taking you to that clinic is the greatest regret of my life," which she thinks is really "saying something" given "all the awful things you've done in 45 years." Jamie tells her that no one knows about his son, not even their father, and pleads for her to keep it quiet. Instead, Beth tells him she's going to make sure his son is taken away from him, saying, "you don't deserve him, and he deserves better than you." She hammers her point in even further: "Next time you see him, you can kiss him goodbye because he's as good as gone." Jamie sprints back to the car and almost runs Beth down.
I wonder if Beth is writing her own obit in a sense, because taking someone's kid is truly a very messed up thing to do. Jamie did something awful to her, to be sure, but he does seem to feel genuine remorse. And hasn't she ruined his life for long enough? He's going to break, I think, and how could that not affect Beth? But given what we see later in the episode, maybe Beth really is one step ahead. Also, is there no Uber in Montana? Because why did Jamie have to give Beth a ride at all? But I digress.
By far, the most emotional moments of "Horses In Heaven" came during the funeral of Kayce and Monica's infant son, John. When Rip and company come across members of Monica's tribal family digging a grave, they offer to help, especially after the tribe says it will bury John's recently deceased horse next to the baby. Later, we get to see bits and parts of the native ceremony, from the way the tribe uses a blanket to wrap the little body to the placing of Monica's shorn hair on top of the coffin.
As things wrap up at the funeral, John goes to approach and runs into Thomas Rainwater, who tells him, "Grief isn't meant to be shared, but comfort is, and they could use some now." (He also tells John that he needs to come show his face at the Rez because there are 300 lost jobs and he's in a world of crap, but we'll see what happens there in future episodes.) John sidles up to Monica and tells him that he, too, buried a son in that clearing and that he knows how she feels. "I wish I didn't, but I do," John says. He then tells her something he says he's never told anyone before, which is that he, too, had a little brother who died in infancy. His name was Peter, and he lived for about 18 hours after being born too early. The only consolation, he says, is that his father told his mother that Peter lived a perfect life because "all he saw of this planet was you, and all he knew was that you loved him." He tells Monica the same goes for her and little John, and it's heartbreaking and tear-jerking — and I hope it will help real people find solace if they ever go through the same horrible situation in their lives in the future.
On his way out, John stops to talk to Kayce, giving him back the badge and telling him that it's no time for him to stop drawing a paycheck. He'll find someone to replace him eventually, he says, if that's what Kayce wants, which he tells his father he does.
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Later that night, after Rip and John have a chat on the porch about the funeral, what actually happened to the wolves and the concept of horses in heaven, we learn that the people over at Poison Creek need help branding. The next morning, Rip and the crew pack up all of their gear and head over to help, and we get one of those long "glory of ranching" scenes that Yellowstone is so good at. The hands in the scene herd, rope, brand, tag and maybe neuter (I think? Did I see that?) — all while Zach Bryan's "The Good I'll Do" plays as a soundtrack. Later, Rip and the Poison Creek owner muse about how their way of life is disappearing, what with diesel prices and corn, and Rip says that even though the airport project has been nixed, it won't change the way things are going in the long run. It's a sad moment, one that should make us glad that at least some people are out there ranching the old way, even now.
In a move we absolutely knew was coming, Summer gets released from prison, having been pardoned by John. She's on a six-month conditional release and has to stay up at the ranch. She's going to work for John as an environmental consultant to help him understand how her kind thinks. And though she tells him she's absolutely not going to sleep with him — and he agrees that their relationship will be purely professional — what we see later suggests that perhaps it's maybe not, as she and Beth have a run-in at the house while Summer sports only an old chambray shirt.
That run-in comes, I should note, because Beth is up in the middle of the night after having seen Jamie and Sarah flirting at the fancy club bar after Sarah gave him some fancy rosé. Jamie and Sarah are drunk, and she's clearly working him, and she tells him that she's "feeling a little irresponsible" and asks him to take her somewhere to prove he is as well. They end up having sex in the club bathroom as Beth listens in and digs through Sarah's purse, taking a picture of her ID. I wish she'd had more time to dig and see what was in there; but after a quick Google, Beth realizes that Sarah is using a fake name on her ID and that there has to be more there than meets the eye.
Here's my prediction for what we're going to get going forward: Jamie will pretend to put up a good front against Sarah, but he'll clearly be lovestruck, especially if she promises to help him take down Beth. Beth will covertly work behind both their backs and will attempt (and probably succeed) to ruin Sarah. Before all that happens, though, everything will get super messy and weird, because that's Yellowstone, and we all love it.
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