Sunday’s Yellowstone on CBS marked the end of the beginning, the finale to the Paramount Network hit’s Season 1. No one could say that it didn’t go out without a bang, either — or should we say “a hang”?
Picking up where “The Unraveling, Part 1” left off — read that recap here — “Part 2” starts off with John discovering that Sheriff Haskell is no longer Team Dutton. Nonetheless, the rancher is still able to get Rip cleared of charges that he killed an endangered species without cause. “I’m starting a list,” John warns Donnie. “You just made your way on it.”
Next on John’s agenda is forcing Jamie out of the race for attorney general. When Lynelle refuses to be strong-armed — in fact, the governor wants John to step down as Livestock Commissioner — he orders Beth to take her brother off the payroll. (Cue Beth gleefully repossessing Jamie’s credit cards in three, two… )
Taking Jamie’s bad day and making it worse is Sarah, who reveals that she’s actually a journalist. Christina suggests that perhaps she and loverboy can work this one-two punch to their advantage — by having Jamie expose his father’s corruption, thereby setting himself up as the smiling face of the “new Montana.”
‘THE ONLY WAY TO PROTECT MY FATHER’S LEGACY IS TO DESTROY THE MAN’
In other developments, John orders Beth to put the ranch in a trust with her as beneficiary. “Don’t ever sell it,” he tells her. “Don’t let Kayce sell it.” Feeling trapped, Beth commiserates with Walker, who’s dying to leave the Yellowstone himself. They even share the kind of kiss that, if Rip saw, it’d likely hasten Walker’s demise a whole lot.
Off his arrest for pummeling a drifter, Kayce is deposited on John’s doorstep and asks to come home. Not home-home, though; he wants to stay in the bunkhouse. There, he immediately catches the eye of Avery, a stripper Rip paid to spy on Dan and Rainwater before being hired as the ranch’s new groomer.
Upon sharing with John the intel that Avery recorded, Rip teams up with Kayce and Lloyd to kidnap Dan. In the middle of the forest, they tie a noose around his neck, and Rip forces the developer to reveal his underhanded business practices. Now that Kayce’s done “learning,” as his father puts it, Rip orders Dan cut down. Kayce has a better idea: “Let him hang.”