In Yellowstone Season 4, Episode 1 “Half the Money,” Beth Dutton met Carter — a 14-year-old boy played by Finn Little — at the hospital. The pair quickly formed a bond. Carter’s neglectful father was dying and Beth offered him comfort. In return, Carter brought out Beth’s sensitive side, which the recently canceled Paramount Network drama rarely shows. This special dynamic between Carter and Beth led to several heartwarming scenes.
Carter later told the police that Beth was responsible for him, and he was taken to the Dutton ranch. Beth gave in and accepted the responsibility, and Beth’s husband, Rip Wheeler, begrudgingly gave Carter a job at the ranch. Beth liked to point out, to Rip’s annoyance, that Carter reminded her of somebody. That somebody was in fact, Rip himself, who landed at the Dutton Ranch at about the same age as Carter did.
Updated on April 11, 2024 by David Giatras: As Yellowstone gears up for the second half of its fifth and final season, many viewers wonder why Carter has not had a bigger role since joining the show in season 4. While his storyline certainly took a back seat in season 5, there is hope for his character to continue to grow given how Yellowstone’s future is playing out on the Paramount Network. Carter could have a pivotal role to play in the Yellowstone franchise in its sprawling future.
How Carter Could Have Been Beth And Rip’s Surrogate Son
With Beth being unable to have children and Carter recently orphaned, Yellowstone seemed to suggest that the young man was a surrogate son for the show’s main couple. Beth even told Rip, “I think he’s our kid,” when she first brought Carter back to the ranch. Carter becoming part of Beth and Rip’s family would bring joy to both their lives — and it would be particularly meaningful to Beth, given the anger she expressed at not being able to have kids. Beth’s inability to have children of her own is a major storyline in Yellowstone, and it can be argued that is how she ended up with the rough and tough exterior she has in the present day. So when Carter came along, the void Beth had yearned for seemed to be right in front of her.
He’s not our son. No matter who he becomes, he never will be. Nobody will.
But despite Beth’s comment to Rip, they have both resisted becoming Carter’s parental figures. In Yellowstone Season 4, Episode 3, “All I See Is You,” Rip tells Beth “He’s not our son. No matter who he becomes, he never will be. Nobody will.” With Rip being nearly against the idea of Carter at the ranch entirely, he makes life very hard for him. To Rip and Beth’s surprise, Carter does not break from the tough love he receives.
Throughout season 4, he becomes more and more comfortable with them. However, when Carter tested out calling Beth “Mama” in Season 4, Episode 10, “Grass on the Streets and Weeds on the Rooftops,” she heatedly responded, “I’m nobody’s mother, ever.” Beth’s emotional baggage is unsurprising considering parental strife is a common theme in Yellowstone, yet it begs the question of why the show introduced Carter into her life if he wasn’t intended to become part of her story. Whether Beth resists the idea or not, Carter is the best chance she will ever have of having her own child, as unfortunate as the situation is.
Yellowstone Erasing Carter Is Counterintuitive
Yellowstone’s still-to-be-finished Season 5 has not only abandoned Carter’s potential bond with Beth and Rip — it has abandoned Carter entirely. He has been relegated to a background character and has not been given a single scene of emotional substance yet, let alone one with Beth or Rip. Yellowstone threw a random love interest at Carter in Season 5, Episode 6 “Cigarettes, Whiskey, a Meadow and You,” but even that has only been for a couple of uneventful scenes. The series doesn’t seem to have any idea what to do with him. As a result, he has often been relegated to the background along with the rest of the ranchers at the Dutton Ranch. In one episode, Carter will have a small character moment and then in the next, he barely has any dialogue.