Warning, spoilers below for the first episode of Yellowstone season 5.
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Yellowstone is back with a bang for its fifth season. As expected, given the season five trailer, this season opens with the revelation that John Dutton has, in fact, been elected governor of the great state of Montana. He's not taking the news all that well: Beth is crying tears of joy, while John tells her, "joy ain't how I'm feeling." After a concession speech from opponent Scott McMullen and a surprisingly thoughtful intro from Jamie, John takes the stage to much applause from the "Dutton For The Land" sign-waving faithfuls. He tells the crowd that what makes up Montana isn't just the water and the trees, but also the farmers and ranchers that "live with the land and not on it." He says he's never sought to be a leader, but he'll take the job because, "protecting you now is how Montana still looks like Montana when none of us here tonight are here to see it."
The Dutton foes are still at it
Meanwhile, at the Casino, Thomas and Mo are watching the speech on television and lamenting the fact that Dutton will surely kill both their new hotel plans and the airport project, which is arguably probably pretty far into construction already. It's a similar scene over at the evil mega-corporation, where Jacki Weaver's Caroline Warner declares war on Beth, John, and the whole Dutton clan. She made her intentions pretty clear at the end of season four when she told Beth she'd make the ranch into a public toilet, but it seems like she's even more committed to the cause now. She might get some help, too, after her henchman noted how stone-faced Jamie was on the podium. If they can get to him and work him without Beth finding out, they could get some leverage in the Duttonsphere. "Get Sarah Atwood out here," Caroline tells henchman Ellis. "I'm tired of playing with these f***ing hillbillies."
Beth + Rip
Next, we get a revealing look at the origins of Beth and Rip's romance, with the pair going out the night before she left for college. Even at 18, Beth was still Beth, meaning she played him from the get and used her feminine wiles to get a martini at the local bar. (Who drinks a martini when they're 18? Oh, Beth.) Rip, who has never even driven, is unnerved by her life view and leaves her at the bar. He sees some other hands go into the bar when he leaves, and hours later sees them coming back to the ranch with Beth. One even gets into the back of a truck with her, no doubt for some heavy petting at the very least.
2022 Beth is so appalled by a dream of how she treated young Rip, though, that she jolts awake and apologizes. Rip seems nonplussed at her "blanket apology to cover the past," and he tells her that she "needs to find somebody new to fight or [she's] just going to sit around this house and beat the s**t out of" herself. He's off for some cattling, and he tells the hands not to shoot a bear unless it's actively chasing livestock, which is either just a tidbit of random information that the writers liked or some foreshadowing for the season to come.
The Duttons get political
In Helena, John is preparing to be sworn in and looks genuinely pretty glum. Lynelle tells him that there's great power in not planning to run again. "You won't have to compromise. You could build a legal wall around this state," she explains. Still, she tells John, he has no friends in the statehouse, so he'll have to bring his own.
In this episode's big action scene, we see a really incredible horse chase up near the U.S.-Canadian border. Some camo-sporting rustlers are trying to run horses through the Milk River Valley, but Kayce and the rest of the livestock agents have arrived to intercept the thieves. They run them all the way up to the border, where Canadian mounties are waiting, and while there's some back and forth about who's on what land, ultimately Kayce and co come away with the bad guys and the horses. They head back to pen them up, but not before the young Dutton gets some digs in at the expense of the left-leaning mounties. It felt a little unnecessary, but if there's anything Yellowstone can be counted on, it's unsubtle political statements said with extreme conviction.
Bells toll at the governor's swearing-in ceremony, where John does a whole bunch of pregnant pauses and hesitation before taking the oath, just to let us viewers know he's really not sure about this whole gig. He gives another nice speech in front of an adoring crowd, and announces his isolationist plans to shut down the airport construction effective immediately and ask for a bunch of non-resident taxes and fees, including on every purchase made in the state. How they'd enforce that, I'm not sure—a driver's license check every time anyone buys anything?—but he wants it, so here we are. Jamie, on the other hand, isn't even sure it's legal, but Beth tells him he's got to make it legal because she's "about to work [him] like a rented mule." He's certainly made his bed, but gosh, if he's not paying for his sins in spades.
In the car, Jamie, John, and Beth have a candid conversation about doing what's good for the ranch above the needs of the state, all while the driver listens. The driver appears to be on their side and John tells him he wants him to always drive him, but there's a part of me that wonders if the driver isn't working for someone else, like evil corporate Caroline. We'll see!
Tragedy strikes the Duttons yet again
Back at the ranch, Shane Smith And The Saints are playing "Fire In The Ocean" while everyone arrives for the big governor's ball. The ranchhands are all partying, while John laments the fact that before the campaign, he hadn't spent a night away from the ranch in 30 years. (That's nuts, right? Not even Disney World?) Later at the party, Beth meets new cast addition Lainey Wilson, who's playing a singer named Abby. She appears to be a love interest for Ryan, but only time will tell on that, I suppose. They do a little flirting, a little roping, and then they dance.
That's when things really go south for the Dutton clan, as good, sweet Kayce gets a call from his wife who's—surprise!—very, very pregnant. The baby's coming, she says, and she's going to have to drive to the hospital. She packs her older kid into the car and off they go. Along the way, though, she starts cramping and weaving, and it becomes pretty clear something terrible is going to happen. Add to that a creeping buffalo and another distracted driver and—boom—disaster. Next thing we know, John and company are whisked away to Billings where Monica is laid up in a hospital bed and Tate laments things in the hallway, telling his grandpa that he had a little brother for about an hour, and that they'd named him John. Things are so, so awful for that sweet little family now, and we have to think it's an omen for what's to come for the rest of the season, especially after the conversation Rip and Beth had earlier in the episode about how he thinks John's about to lose the ranch and how his quest for governor is akin to Nero fiddling while Rome was burning. Luckily, we won't have to wait too long to see what's next, because there's another episode of Yellowstone to come this week.
Stray observations:
- I understand that former governor Lynelle Perry is a big Dutton booster, but wouldn't she have her own parties to attend to on election night?
- My name is Marah Eakin, and I'm thrilled to be recapping Yellowstone episodes going forward for Wide Open Country. I'm over on Twitter if you want to hit me with your thoughts and theories, and I look forward to it.
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