The Dutton siblings faced off in dramatic fashion on Sunday's new episode, which saw the return of an old familiar face.
Spoiler alert! Do not proceed if you have not watched the fourth episode of Yellowstone season 5.
The fireworks were nonstop on Sunday's episode of Yellowstone. In the latest installment of the Paramount Network drama, titled "Horses in Heaven," the aftermath of Beth's (Kelly Reilly) arrest following a violent altercation at the bar comes to a head, and brings Beth and Jamie's (Wes Bentley) tense relationship to an all-time high as she discovers a stunning secret that changes the game forever.
After getting arrested and spending the night in jail for aggravated assault, Beth calls Jamie to help get her out of the precarious situation she got herself into in the first place. Though one can argue Beth was within reason to give the woman (from California, apparently) who was openly flirting with her husband, Rip (Cole Hauser), a taste of her own medicine, the fact is, it puts the Dutton family -- namely her father (Kevin Costner), the governor of Montana -- in a very difficult position.
Once Jamie arrives at the jail, he tells Beth exactly why the situation she's in spells trouble and pre-emptively declares that there really is no way out for her this time. It's an anger-filled meeting between the two siblings, who haven't exactly had the smoothest of relationships. In the heated conversation, Jamie tells Beth her arrest is "an embarrassment for our father," which opens the door for Beth to remind him that he's adopted. "Your father's out of chances to be embarrassed, isn't he, Jamie?" she snarls, referring to Jamie killing his own biological dad, Garrett, last season.
Beth tells Jamie he has to stop the woman from officially pressing charges. Jamie asks how and she replies with a signature Beth comeback, "It's not my f**king problem, Jamie." Soon after, Jamie meets with the woman, who looks a little worse for wear with a serious black eye, and essentially threatens her if she formally presses aggravated assault charges against Beth. Whatever he says gets the job done because in the end, Beth is only charged with disorderly conduct, spends a night in jail and is free to leave.
Of course, that's just the beginning of the drama as tensions between Beth and Jamie get turned up tenfold. Thinking Beth will find her own way back to wherever she needs to be, Jamie gets ready to go about his own business in his car. But Beth being Beth has no ride, instead forcing her way into his SUV -- a split-second decision that proves to have incredible consequences down the line.
As Beth gets into the passenger seat of Jamie's car, she notices a baby seat in the back. But Jamie has no kid, she must be wondering, does he? It slowly dawns on her as she repeatedly asks if he has a child and his unwillingness to answer that it's the answer she did not want to be true. And to stick a knife deeper into her wound, he has a son. This stunning revelation, which Beth only now discovers, was revealed to viewers in season 4 of Yellowstone -- the question being at the time when the other members of the Dutton family would find out and what their reactions would be. The existence of Jamie's son will also complicate matters as Tate was the lone seventh-generation Dutton, but now he won't be alone.
If anyone thought Beth, who cannot bear any children thanks to Jamie, would happily embrace the news of Jamie's son, you're sorely mistaken. "You have my womb cut out of me and God gave you a boy?!" Beth angrily screams, punching Jamie as he's driving. "F**k you!" The confrontation only intensifies when she jumps out of the SUV in the middle of the road, unable to process the shocking turn of events.
Beth and Jamie have one of their most crucial moments to date on the series, as Jamie takes responsibility for Beth being unable to bear any children. "Taking you to that clinic was the greatest regret of my life," he says as they face off in the road. But Beth is filled with hate as she spews, "Of all the awful sh*t you have done in your 45 years on this planet, Jamie, that is really saying something. What did you name him?" Beth asks, getting even angrier and more disgusted after learning his son was named after him.
In an empty desperate plea for Beth to keep this a secret, Jamie begs her to not say a word. Ha, nice try. Beth has other plans as her new mission has crystallized and she makes it known to her adopted brother what she intends to do now. "I'm going to take him from you. I'm going to rob you a fatherhood, Jamie. You don't deserve it and he deserves better than you," Beth bitterly warns. "Next time you see him, you can kiss him goodbye because he is as good as gone."
The first person Beth tells of Jamie's secret son is her dad, of course, but as they're both watching the funeral ceremony take place for Kayce and Monica's son from afar, now's not the time and place to plot their next steps with this new vital piece of information.
As Beth and now her father digest the information, Jamie has a drink with Sarah Atwood (guest star Dawn Olivieri), the executive Market Equities brings in to gain some traction in their fight against the Duttons. Even though Jamie's pretty much screwed now that Beth knows about his son, it doesn't stop him from having a grand old time with Sarah, who's been working him ever since he laid eyes on him at the start of the season. Obviously attracted to each other, they make their way to the bathroom of the bar, not knowing that Beth is in a back corner booth watching their every move.
As they have sex in one of the shower stalls, Sarah stupidly leaves her purse, with her cell phone in it, outside as she and Jamie get busy. They don't stop knowing that someone else is also in the bathroom. Beth turns the faucet on, and true to her inciting words to Jamie before that she's going to make his life a living hell, she takes a photo of Sarah's ID to get more dirt on her. Beth later discovers that Sarah Atwood isn't actually Sarah Atwood. "What a surprise," she says under her breath after a Google search turns up websites not associated with this woman. So who is she actually? And what does Beth have planned for Jamie?
Elsewhere in the episode, Kayce (Luke Grimes) and Monica (Kelsey Asbile), with newly cut-off short hair following the loss of their baby, bury their newborn on the Dutton ranch after John gives his son permission to do whatever Monica wishes.
In a sweet moment of connection between Monica and John, he tells her that he understands the grief she is going through and will continue to go through as she navigates life after losing her child. He tells her he buried his own son near where she said goodbye to her baby and that he once had a brother named Peter for a mere 18 hours decades ago. Peter, he shares, died because his heart ultimately wasn't strong enough.
"That boy lived a perfect life, Monica. We're the only ones to know it was brief," John comforts her. "All he knew was you, that you loved him."
Later, John speaks with Kayce -- who turned in his badge as Livestock commissioner in the previous episode with the intention of focusing on his family -- and returns the badge to him even though his son seems quite sure he's content with his decision to quit. "It's what I want," Kayce tells him after John asks him if he's sure he really wants out.
There's also the issue of the collared wolves that were accidentally killed by Rip's cowboys, who mistakenly thought they were wild wolves and not those being tracked. Turns out, the Fish & Wildlife park rangers are onto John and his ranchers as they pay a visit at the governor's office to tell him they suspect his men killed the rescue wolves on his ranch and dumped the collars into the Yellowstone River before they were discovered five miles upstream.
And they have ample evidence to support their theory. (We also know that's exactly what happened.) The park rangers warn John that others are going to come to the same conclusion after he denies their theory is valid. John later asks Rip the truth about what happened with the killed wolves and he comes clean about the actions of that evening. Rip admits he tried "to outsmart them but I guess I didn't," he tells John. When John asks where the wolves are, Rip assures him they're "in a place where no one will be able to find them."
To make matters even more complicated, jailed environmental protestor Summer Higgins (guest star Piper Perabo) reappears in the final minutes of the episode in a clemency deal that John, as governor, was able to strike. See, he needs help dealing with the growing problem of the accidental kills Rip's cowboys made on his ranch of the collared wolves, that have park rangers circling and to get a leg up on some environmental group headaches.
When Summer gets out of prison, she reunites with John -- their relationship still continuing to toe that blurry line of professional and inappropriate -- as he was waiting for her in a SUV right outside the gates. "What took you so long?" she asks with a smirk. Her freedom, he reveals, isn't without strings. A supervised release for six weeks and, ahem, she'll be overseen by him. (We'll see how that goes.) John tells her he needs to know how she thinks as an environmental activist and during this period, she'll be staying at the ranch, which drudges up past tensions between Summer and Beth.
Whether she's grateful to be free or not, Summer makes it clear she's not going to sleep with John. After going one year without sex in prison, Summer tells him quite pointedly she's "still not f**king [him]." "Our relationship will be purely professional," John agrees. But why is that so hard to believe?
At the ranch, following a whole mess of a day, for Beth especially, she hears someone scurrying out of one of the rooms late at night, taking her away from her investigation into fake Sarah Atwood. When she sees that it's her nemesis, Summer, raiding the fridge in the kitchen, their combative back-and-forth sets up what's sure to be a confrontational six weeks as the two women hold steady on their opposing sides.
"You're not starting this day sober," Beth mutters to herself, reeling from a traumatizing and eventful day as she downs a glass of tequila and has a smoke in the early morning hours. Chaos, if Beth has anything to do with it, is about to ensue.
Yellowstone airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Paramount Network.
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