Kelly Reilly has managed to make Yellowstone's Beth Dutton an instant fan favorite with her sharp tongue, no-nonsense attitude, and impeccable outfits. She's a woman in a man's world but she never lets anyone doubt that she's fully capable of holding her own. Creator Taylor Sheridan is a master storyteller with endless entertaining content for Reilly as she stars opposite Oscar-winner Kevin Costner. Beth is equally cool, calculated, and terrifying, and Yellowstone fans can't seem to get enough of her.
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Here are eight moments on the popular TV show where Beth was truly ruthless.
8. She goes undercover to a prison ready to kill
Yellowstone season 4 really was peak Beth Dutton. We saw her reach some seriously savage places while managing to also take in an orphan and tie the knot with her true love. But she also was willing to do whatever it took to uncover the truth about who attacked her family in the season 3 finale/season 4 premiere. After finding out that a random man in prison had called the hit, she gets all dressed up so that she can show up at the prison, convince them to give her and the prisoner a conjugal visit, and kill him while they are alone.
Granted, she doesn't end up pulling the trigger. But she was clearly more than ready to kill someone when she stepped into that room and got the truth about who was after her family.
7. She rips apart a man's business in the very first episode
While we have had countless crazy Beth moments in the past 4 seasons, let's not forget that she's been ruthless since the very beginning. In the very first episode of the series, we see Beth in a boardroom tearing apart a man's business that he tells her he had built up from his garage. She doesn't have an ounce of sympathy when she tells him that it doesn't matter and that it's being bought and sold for scraps. Brutal, Beth.
6. She sacrificed Summer Higgins to bring down Market Equities
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There's pretty much nothing that could come between Beth Dutton and her father since the two have an incredibly close relationship. But she came really close to getting kicked off the ranch when Summer Higgins (Piper Perabo) got arrested and called John Dutton (Kevin Costner) for help. In season 4, we met animal rights activist Summer Higgins who was protesting outside the livestock office. Though John initially had her arrested for trespassing, he bailed her out of jail and the two formed a connection. He was not pleased when he heard that Beth convinced her to protest at the Market Equities construction site and cause a scene that led to her arrest (and potential prison sentence).
Beth really didn't care about any casualties in this situation and knew she was throwing Summer under the bus. She needed Summer to take one for the team so that the entire situation would catch the attention of national news outlets and she succeeded. Poor Summer.
5. She ruined Bob's life after he double-crossed her
If we've learned anything from watching four seasons of Yellowstone, it's don't mess with Beth Dutton. Sadly for Bob Schwartz, he underestimated her. Beth had been working for Bob's company Schwartz & Meyer where she had been buying up all of the land around the Yellowstone Ranch. When Market Equities came to town and took ownership of his company, he didn't do anything to stop them from firing her so, naturally, she wanted revenge. He basically kicked her to the curb without realizing she protected herself in case things went sideways and named herself co-owner of all that land she bought up for Bob. Good thinking on her part.
In season 4, she takes a job with Market Equities in exchange for controlling stakes in Bob's company and promptly fires him, driving all the way to his office to deliver the news in person.
4. She made the boutique owner strip down as punishment for humiliating Monica
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This was definitely one of the best sibling moments for Beth as she stood up for her sister-in-law, Monica. But Beth really took things to another level. As a reminder, this was season 2 when Monica was just getting familiar with the Yellowstone and Dutton family in general since up until that point, she and Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) had raised their son on Broken Rock Reservation with her family. She tries shopping at a downtown boutique and the shop owner treats her like trash, hiding a valuable ring and blames Monica for stealing, calling the police who proceed to strip search her and utterly humiliate her for no reason.
When she calls Beth for help, Beth dismisses the cops away after revealing Monica is married to Kayce, but she has more planned for the rude shopkeeper she clearly visits regularly. She proceeds to smash things throughout the store and makes her strip down herself while belittling her with vicious words, Monica watching from the sidelines. She finally convinces Beth to stop, but it gave us a clear look at what she's capable of. And it's scary.
3. She drags Jamie by the hair to John Dutton's feet
Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley) had a rough time in season 2. Remember when he gave that deep dive interview about his family to a reporter and then instantly regretted it? For whatever reason he admitted this mistake to the one person in the family who hated him the most, Beth, and boy did she let him have it. Beth slapped him in the face and dragged him by the hair all the way into their living room to admit what he did to their father. As we know, none of the adult Dutton children like messing up in front of their dad and this was no exception. Jamie looked truly miserable and Beth enjoyed (at least she looked like it) watching him suffer and admit to messing up. This could be why he thought the only solution was to literally eliminate the threat of the article coming out.
2. She told Carter she wasn't, and would never be, his mom
When we found out the devastating news that Beth would never be able to have her own children, it was a heartbreaking revelation. It finally explained why Beth hated Jamie so much and why she had felt initially conflicted about Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) since it was his baby she was pregnant with prior to the abortion that made sure she never got pregnant again. When she met Carter at the beginning of season 4, it seemed like she might have her shot at being a mom after all. He's a teenager with no home and no good options kind of like Rip was when he first joined the Yellowstone.
But at the end of the season, when Carter tries calling her mom, she sets the record straight. It's a brutal moment that is hard to watch and actually brings Carter to tears when she tells him that she'll never be his mother or anyone else's. Didn't see that one coming.
1. She makes Jamie kill his Dad
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It's safe to say that easily the worst thing Beth has ever done (and ever will do) is making Jamie kill his birth father. It was a massive revelation in season 3 when we all found out that Jamie was actually adopted by the Duttons as an infant. He connects with his birth father, Garrett Randall, who went to prison for murdering Jamie's birth mother. Randall works behind the scenes trying to help Jamie claim the Dutton fortune he believes he deserves, but Beth discovers he called the hits on her family.
At the end of season 4, she gives Jamie pretty much no other option but to kill Randall and blackmails him with a photo of him dumping Randall's body at the "train station." It's horrifying and dark and I think we're all scared to see what's in store for Jamie now that Beth is definitely calling all the shots.
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