[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Yellowstone Season 4 Episode 8 “No Kindness for the Coward.”]
Don’t mess with the Duttons — in any time. That’s the lesson once again taught on Yellowstone, both in the past and present.
The Paramount Network drama opens up “No Kindness for the Coward” with a flashback to John’s (Kevin Costner) great-grandfather James (Tim McGraw) and great-grandmother Margaret (Faith Hill) of the prequel 1883. While she’s home with the kids, he’s out chasing down “horse-stealing cowards,” as his son John puts it. And while he makes an example of them — telling the one left alive (barely) to tell everyone about him — he was shot and collapses as soon as he steps foot into the family’s cabin. What we hear of Margaret’s reaction suggests that may be how he dies.
The Duttons also suffer a loss — not a member of their family — in the present. Following John receiving Governor Perry’s (Wendy Moniz) endorsement for governor, Jamie (Wes Bentley) is feeling defeated. His biological father, Garrett (Will Patton), encourages him, however, suggesting Jamie set up a meeting with John to discuss what’s off-limits. Garrett also thinks they should tell the world about him and his past so they control the narrative. John agrees to the meeting — at the ranch, which he says is a neutral site even if Jamie doesn’t agree.
But first, John takes his soon-to-be son-in-law Rip (Cole Hauser) with him to meet with Sheriff Haskell (Hugh Dillon). He knows who tried to kill him, he says, and Rip would rather he just let him handle it instead. But, as John explains, he’d like to kill him himself but he’s sitting in prison. He just wants to figure out how to make his life shorter.
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However, upon arriving at the diner for the meeting, Rip stops John when he notices no one’s eating inside. A few men are holding up the diner. And so Rip and John grab guns, and while the latter sneaks in through the kitchen, Rip walks right up to the front. John shoots one of the men, Sheriff Haskell pulls his gun, and Rip pulls a man through the window. The three of them take care of all the robbers — but Haskell is shot in the chest in the process. He has John calls his daughter, but soon after she picks up, he dies, and it’s up to John to explain to her what happened.
Elsewhere, in happier and messy news:
- Beth (Kelly Reilly), Rip, and Carter (Finn Little) officially move into the lodge with John. She takes up most of the closet space (which is fine with Rip, making him “the perfect man”) and makes everyone uncomfortable at the dinner table with talk of healthy eating for the prostate and tantric healing. “It’s that whole f**king room, it’s the stifling oppressive false f**king fantasy of a family that just doesn’t exist, never f**king existed,” she explains to Rip, who points out they can just eat in the living room. And when they do, she’s happy with her family.
- Kayce (Luke Grimes) is focused on the wolf on his property until his wife Monica (Kelsey Asbille) tells him it’s time to give their son Tate (Brecken Merrill) the sex talk. He knows everything he needs to for now from his time on the ranch, he argues. And that conversation leads to Monica telling Kayce she’s pregnant!
- As Beth secretly works with Summer (Piper Perabo), the latter moved her protests to the site of the airport — and, of course, that angers Market Equities’ Caroline Warner (Jacki Weaver) and Ellis (John Emmet Tracy). But Beth makes sure that the pieces are moved as she wants. She gets Caroline to agree to her recommendation to remove the press … but then tells a reporter exactly where to set up so her crew gets it on video when the police show up to arrest the protestors. And Beth plans to make sure that the news spreads.
- Jimmy (Jefferson White) continues to learn to be a cowboy at the 6666 — and grows much closer with vet tech Emily (Kathryn Kelly). Dinner leads to him walking her to the door to a first kiss to inside her house.
Yellowstone, Sundays, 8/7c, Paramount Network