Actress Dawn Olivieri breaks down what's next after Sarah's big plan for Jamie is revealed in Sunday's episode.
Spoiler alert! Do not proceed if you have not watched Sunday's episode of Yellowstone.
The latest episode of Yellowstone put into clearer view the true motives behind Market Equities' hired shark, Sarah Atwood, and her suspiciously-timed courtship -- if you can call it that -- of Montana Attorney General Jamie Dutton. As Sarah revealed in Sunday's hour, following a round of sex of course, she wants Jamie to run for governor, reinstate their land lease that he previously canceled and push through their airport project with an ironclad contract. In return, Jamie would accomplish the one goal he's always wanted to achieve: become governor.
Sarah being the pro that she is knows exactly how to rope Jamie in, who quickly agrees to her illicit plan to push John Dutton out as governor of Montana amid their continuing love affair. After all, Jamie's dream of a governorship was unceremoniously wiped away last season. With Sarah's ulterior motives revealed, and her veiled threats that they must unseat John before his four-year term is up and not let him show up to the fight at all, the clock is suddenly ticking on the Dutton patriarch. But is Sarah showing all her cards to Jamie or just enough to get him to bite? The gray area surrounding Sarah, whose real name may not even be Sarah Atwood, is exactly what makes her a dangerous player in the game.
"I wanted her to be fuzzy. I wanted her to be out of focus for everyone. Even for me, when I watched it, I was like, 'Oh god, I'm so fuzzy.' You build a character that is unspecific and that's what I wanted. And it plays really well in that sense that she is like that," Yellowstone star Dawn Olivieri, who previously played Claire Dutton in 1883, tells ET over Zoom.
"Beth is specific. We love watching her because there's no question as to what she wants, how she'll react, what she's going to do. But when you go toe to toe with someone like that, the danger in being the specific one is that I, as Sarah, know where you're going to fall," she explains. "I know where your weak point is going to be because you've shown me all your cards. That's Beth's downfall here. At least this is my projection. I don't know anything beyond what we've shot, so I'm guessing just like you are."
The unlikely partnership formed between Jamie and Sarah, a relationship she's cultivated over several episodes, is a fascinating one as it tees up a potential showdown that will only get messier with John's governorship in jeopardy. Olivieri broke down where things stand now that Sarah's plan is out in the open, sharing why she believes Jamie wasted no time throwing his weight behind Sarah's agenda.
"Of course he would be [intrigued]," Olivieri says. "That's what she's created. She's not going to choose a proposal that he doesn't want because that's how she gets what she wants. Whether that's her end goal or not, it's unclear because a person like this will only tell you what you want to hear."
And there's reason to worry about how far Sarah will go to ensure that Jamie is the one sitting in the governor's seat at the end of the day. Sarah's warning that she'll make sure that John isn't able to defend his office should be evidence she'll do anything and everything to win. Whether that means permanently taking John out of the picture, Olivieri wouldn't say, but we certainly wouldn't put it past her.
"All the ways that you don't let someone show up to the fight," the actress hints when asked what Sarah meant when she said that to Jamie. "It's unclear whether she knows or whether she's formulating it in the moment. But I think just hearing that you get a sense of what game she's down to play. What game is that? I don't know. Whatever the game is that ends up where he doesn't show up to the party. But how far will she go?"
As Olivieri tells it, it may seem like Jamie and Sarah are on an even playing field by the end of Sunday's episode, but that's absolutely not the case in Sarah's mind. And though there's a level of mutual attraction between the two, it also remains to be seen whether Sarah actually likes Jamie outside of using him as a pawn in her game.
"Going into this relationship with him, I want him to always believe that he has the upper hand and he has the power until I decide that he doesn't. She has the most power by building him up and lifting him up to see a different perspective. But it's her heavy lifting. She's doing that heavy lifting in his mind. He didn't get there on his own. She shows up and suddenly he sees a different way out," Olivieri says. "And I've lived this reality in my actual life where I've done this to guys. I will use my experience and my grasp on a mental landscape and I will construct a scaffolding, maybe, of thought that allows them to climb up there and see life, see their situation differently. But the second that they need to take a step, it topples, because I built it, not him."
"And as far as Sarah goes, I'm just doing it the same way I would do it in real life with a man. If he has a desire and I have a desire, I'm going to merge those two and see if we can both get what we want. But who's to say what happens here? Maybe Taylor [Sheridan] writes it differently than that," she theorizes. "But I think what makes someone so great and such a mastermind is the ability to take in and release ideas, to build the greatest structure that could ever be built. She has to be fluidly constructing this design based on the things that Jamie tells her and the new situations that come about with what Beth does. That's a mental Olympian. It's not some preconceived, 'I have an idea. I'm going to hatch my plan.' No, it's a fluid, free-forming idea that keeps changing and growing and you have to think in the moment. She's just a mastermind at that."
While the puzzle pieces are finally coming together, Olivieri noted Yellowstone hasn't even begun to scratch the surface with what Sarah is capable of. If it's felt like she's been biting her tongue since her splashy introduction in the season 5 premiere, it's all by design. The avalanche is coming.
"As a character, I feel like I've just been doing this," she says, leaning back on the couch as she mimes holding back. "I've just been sitting there. I have done nothing. Even when I watch myself, I'm like, 'Oh my god, I'm so bored with me! Can I be doing something?' But this is part of it, I think, and Taylor has purposely done this because if we sit long enough, everyone's going to be like, 'Come on already, what's going?' And then boom, it happens. Because he knows what I can do. So if he knows what I can do, he's pulling the slingshot back right now. That's what's happening."
For now, Olivieri is satisfied with where Sarah's arc is at the moment, remarking that she likes that her character has moral ambiguity.
"She's so ambiguous right now that I really like that about her. And in truth, I haven't even seen the next eight episodes. So to ask me what she's got, I honestly don't even know," she confesses. "I'm building a character based on what I think the writers will do. That's all we got. So yeah, I'd love to know. Maybe you could ask some other people and tell me what they say because I'm right there with you, sister. I would love to know."
Even if she's unclear about Sarah's next move, one thing is for certain: Olivieri believes Jamie is due.
"This is his time," she says of him rekindling his dream of becoming Montana governor. "I have watched firsthand [Wes Bentley] as an actor and as a character, step into his power. So if ever there's a time, it's now."
Yellowstone airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Paramount Network.
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