If you haven’t read our Yellowstone Season 1 recap, you can read that here. Below is a Season 2 recap ahead of the new Season 4 premiere, which is being released this month on Paramount, Fubo, Peacock, and Amazon Prime.
New Enemies
We are quickly learning that the Dutton family spends their whole lives fighting against enemies of all sorts. We are introduced to a new enemy in Season 2 via the Beck brothers.
With their fitting cowboy hats and bolo ties, they have a lot of fingers in a lot of pies in, not only Bozeman but all of Montana. And they are not happy to hear about a casino being put in their backyard. Namely, a casino that is not theirs. At first, they seem like respectable men, or should I say cowboys? But as the season progresses, they are more dangerous than originally thought.
The Dutton Legacy
John Dutton continues to search for the perfect “son” to pick up the reins when he’s gone, a burden he felt the pressure of heavily with a recent cancer diagnosis. Only, we learn that he doesn’t actually have cancer. Congratulations! But he does have a nasty stomach ulcer that bursts.
The choice comes down to Kayce and Rip, who do seem to bear a little bit of ill will towards each other. Or maybe it’s just a healthy brotherly competitive spirit. Kayce is pretty badass, let’s admit it. He has elite military training, a get-anything-done kind of attitude, as well as the ability to perform under pressure.
Rip, on the other hand, is the epitome of a henchman. He’s the muscle of the ranch, and he does the dirty work without asking any questions. He also doesn’t have anything to gain when John dies, so we know his loyalty is to John and John alone.
However, Kayce, as the biological son, gets given the automatic ranch foreman position and becomes responsible for giving direction to the rest of the ranch hands. Much to Rip’s chagrin. But he doesn’t complain. Meanwhile, a rift forms between Kayce and his Native American wife, Monica, who is just simply not a fan of John and his ways of running a business, or a family.
Business As Usual
Beth, ever trying to fill the shoes of the son her father so desperately wants, does anything she can to help protect the ranch. This includes buying up as much of the surrounding land as possible.
Her plan is to zone the land for agricultural use, where the government will actually pay her to not farm it (in order to keep the big food corporations at a status quo). She uses the money from her boss at Schwartz & Meyer.
It’s pretty fun to watch Beth at work. Not only is she vicious, but she’ll have fun with you while she does it.
The Black Sheep
Jamie, the black sheep of the family, continues to further his political career in his campaign for Attorney General. Neither John nor Beth take kindly to getting ignored by him when their family is in dire need. In a rage, John cuts him out of the family. Furious and vengeful, Jamie retaliates by spilling family secrets to a local reporter.
When he goes back on his word, she informs him it doesn’t work that way. That’s true. So he decides to kill her. Maybe he shouldn’t run for Attorney General after all.
Because Jamie lacks the real world “knack” all the other men seem to possess on the show, he goes to Rip for help with the body. Like I said, ultimate henchman.
Old Enemies Make New Friends
The battle with the Beck brothers intensifies when hundreds of Dutton cattle are killed by way of eating alfalfa that was purposely placed in their fields.
Dan Jenkins, our favorite land developer from last season, discovers he was served with a liquor license ban because, of course, the Beck brothers are head of the liquor license committee. His luxury country club will lose hundreds of customers.
Chief Rainwater discovers that he was served with a cease and desist order on his new casino, also by way of the Beck brothers.
What the Beck brothers did not expect from all of this, was Dutton, Rainwater, and Jenkins forming an alliance in order to take these nuisances down. But the Beck brothers aren’t done.
A Love Story
The Beck brothers send someone to assault Beth in her office. They shoot her assistant in the head and attempt to sexually assault her, while beating her up pretty bad. But smart Beth got a text message out to Rip before they could see.
Just in time, Rip throws a chair through the glass window and kills the assailants, getting shot in the process. Rip and Beth realize they love each other. A true western romance.
The End
Still not done, the Beck brothers kill Dan Jenkins and kidnap Tate, Kayce’s son. The Duttons find out he’s being held at a white supremacist militia compound and stage an offensive attack to retrieve him, and the Beck brothers are satisfyingly and finally killed in the process.
The Duttons have managed to stave off another threat to their family, until the next season.
