My favorite show continued last Sunday for the second week with the latest release of Episode 3. Read below for a recap of where the Dutton family stands. I’ll break them out into sections based on character storylines, rather than a chronological one as everyone seems to be battling different things.
The Bunkhouse Boys
Our favorite bunkhouse boys (and girls) are now back to their regularly scheduled programming -- you know, cowboy stuff. Although, there’s still some bad blood circling with the Lloyd/Walker/Laramie love triangle.
Jimmy and Mia discuss the bump in the road of their relationship. Strong-headed Mia doesn’t see how Jimmy can continue working for the Yellowstone in light of everything he’s been through, and especially when she was the one at his side by the hospital. But Jimmy wears the brand on his chest. He can’t simply walk away. So Mia walks out on him.
Travis is back with the grade A horses for show and tell -- oops, I meant show and sell. When they pack up, Jimmy goes with them.
The … Wheelers
Well, they’re not the Wheelers per se. Beth and Rip haven’t had their nuptials, but they’re on the way to becoming a happy, slightly dysfunctional family.
Chubby (or Carter, or “boy”), doesn’t know a whole lot about being a cowboy, but he’s doing his best with the job he’s been given. He seems to work hard at least, which is all that you can ask of a kid that’s been arrested multiple times for robbery and assault.
Beth sees that and wants to take him shopping. For boots, jeans, and a hat specifically. But Chubby takes advantage of her generosity so she lays down the law. I don’t think she’s too bad at this parenting thing actually. It might be tough love, but there’s only one way to get through to some people.
She teaches Chubby some valuable life lessons about working hard in life and not taking anything for granted.
Kayce
Kayce heads back into the Livestock Commission office for a normal day. A local ranch owner, Emmett Walsh, confronts him about a troublesome neighbor. The neighbor recently moved there from California, and put cattle gates all over his easement road--the road he uses to push the cattle up to the summer pastures. It’s made his business operations a lot harder.
Kayce decides to pay the neighbor a visit -- a rough visit. The neighbor complained about the cattle poop on the road … the road that doesn’t belong to him. He thinks raising animals to eat is barbaric. How progressive. I suppose the beef he ate back home in California magically appeared at the grocery store?
Because the cattle gates violate Walsh’s easement, Kayce wants to be a good law enforcer and simply teach this guy a lesson -- by locking him underneath the cattle gate and leaving him there. I would say there’s probably something slightly illegal about this, but it seems his patience is hanging at the end of a rope here. And when he gets home, we see why.
Monica and Tate, his wife and son, are locking themselves sorrowfully in the bedroom upstairs and refusing to eat, still shocked by the trauma for the militant attackers in the season premiere. Monica sobs into her arms as Tate hides underneath the bed and refuses to come out.
Kayce won’t stand for his family hiding and not facing their fears like this. He pulls Tate out from the bed and forces him to eat his dinner. And he tells Monica that their attackers are the bad people, and the Duttons aren’t bad people for trying to protect themselves. But Monica seems to have her mind made up about the place.
John Dutton
John is still hellbent on figuring out the mystery of who ordered the attack on his family. He orders Kayce and Rip, with the help of the sheriff’s office, to “take care” of the rest of the remaining militia members. Yes, they put them on the “long black train”. (They killed them).
Thomas Rainwater and his henchman, Mo, still have the drunk from the casino who claimed responsibility for the Dutton attack tied up, and present him to John, along with extra information. They have a mugshot of a current inmate at the state prison who seems to be behind the attacks.
Apparently him and the drunk were old cell mates. The hit comes to the guy in prison, and the drunk (still don’t know his name) is responsible for coordinating the hit--hence his hiring of the local militia. But who came to the guy for the hit?
I guess we’ll have to wait until further episodes to find out. In the meantime, John takes the trash out. (He takes the drunk to the train station for a ride on the long black train).
