“Where I come from, we call that counting coup. It means I took a piece of your soul. And I aim to keep it.”
Moves are being made in the hours after Sarah Atwood was murdered by private sector corporate assassins. Rory Cochrane, the always fantastic character actor, is getting his best chunk of Yellowstone screen time as Detective Dillard, who would probably just laugh at Jamie Dutton’s outrageous denials of his obvious impropriety and completely toothless threats if he wasn’t also Montana’s attorney general. As it is, Dillard simply declares Jamie a suspect in the Atwood killing and prepares a search warrant for his premises. But while a frantic, freaking out Jamie desperately shreds incriminating paperwork, we have to talk about the bulk of Yellowstone episode 12, and its considerable emotional breadth. As Taylor Sheridan gallops his western epic to its end, he continues to kill off characters, and the latest one is a real heartbreaker. Jamie was seduced and manipulated by a maneater named Sarah Atwood. But it’s a horse known as “Maneater” who mauls Colby Mayfield (Denim Richards) when the easygoing Yellowstone cowboy defends a cornered Carter in the stables.
Colby wasn’t the most vocal guy in the bunkhouse, but his romance with Teeter was a quiet series highlight. Which just makes it so much more terribly sad that this episode begins with them exchanging “I love you”’s over the phone. “He was a cowboy; suffering’s part of the job,” Teeter says through tears as the Texas crew heads back to Montana. “I just wish he could’ve suffered a little longer so I could say goodbye.” Yep, the Texas operation has concluded, because Rip Wheeler’s put the word out that most of the Yellowstone’s cattle and show horses are now up for sale. He’s got guys getting killed on the job, and he’s still dealing with the dark energy of John Dutton’s demise hovering like smoke over the ranch. But Rip’s also trying to save the nut of their business. “Uncle Sam wants his pound of flesh,” the ranch boss tells Lloyd. “And we don’t wanna give it to him in land.
