Episode 4 saw Jimmy arrive in Texas, Beth butting heads with Caroline Warner, while a major revelation left Jamie in a compromising position.
Major spoilers follow for Yellowstone episodes 1 to 4. Turn back now if you’re not caught up. There was something inert about last week’s episode of Yellowstone. Low-stakes scenes played out with almost no impact on the wider story as a whole, while potentially explosive encounters and revelations came and went in a brief and perfunctory manner. It was a bit like Teeter’s inedible sounding “Sum Bits”: a dish that included every part of the cow, eyeballs and all; a lumpy stew of storylines that didn’t quite mesh into an appetising whole. Part of the problem was repetition. We were instantly reunited with Travis and Jimmy on the road, showcasing top-quality horses in a bid to create a lucrative revenue stream for the Yellowstone and provide John Dutton with an enduring legacy. Even the song that the incompatible duo had departed the ranch to last episode, All I See Is You by Shane Smith and the Saints, played over the soundtrack again, but this time without the emotional weight of Mia and Jimmy’s poignant farewell. Dramatically speaking, the episode began at a trot and didn’t pick up the pace. Jimmy looked on in awe as Travis displayed his riding prowess, executing all kinds of spectacular tricks while the up-tempo chorus of All I See Is You played and judges murmured appreciatively. It conveyed Jimmy’s yearning to be up there on horseback himself, and his love of the rodeo lifestyle. But it didn’t feel like much more than pure cowboying spectacle and wasn’t anything we hadn’t already seen multiple times in season 4. It’s understandable that Sheridan wants to establish the new life that awaits Jimmy in Texas: an intense whirlwind of horse shows and rodeos at the Four Sixes ranch and which will be the focus of the Yellowstone 6666 spin-off. But it would have been more satisfying to see Jimmy in some more high-stakes scrapes. Every time the possibility that Jimmy might land himself in a compromising situation – for example, his impromptu decision to mail cheques for insane amounts of money back to the Dutton ranch without being certain of the address, or offering to take the wheel of a top-of-the-line trailer with irreplaceable cargo late at night – nothing happened. John received the cheques and Travis and Jimmy arrived in Texas incident-free. Meanwhile, the post-introduction scene was nearly a verbatim re-tread of the one in episode 3, and the obsessive interest about whether 14-year-old Carter was first to the stables every morning continued (it’s the third such interaction between Dutton Snr. and Carter in as many episodes). Finally, he was! But that didn’t stop Rip treating him like dirt throughout the episode. Let’s just hope this fascinating detail becomes relevant to the story at some point. And there was Kayce waiting for his father again before riding to “the rock”: a beautiful spot whose history was bound up with pivotal moments in John’s life. It was here that his father had died, where he’d proposed to his wife Evelyn, and also where he’d – regretfully – buried her ring. “Our cemetery might be by the river, son,” he lamented, “but make no mistake: this is our graveyard.” Talk turned to business and John handed Kayce the information on T. Riggins. Currently incarcerated at Deer Lodge prison, Riggins had passed on the order to hit the Dutton family to ex-con Chester Spears. But the question on our and Kayce’s lips – given that no one recognised the men involved in hiring the militia – was, well, who ordered the hit? We got a tentative answer later on in the episode. John asked his son to speak to Jamie to arrange an interview between Kayce, Riggins, and the Sheriff. He wouldn’t approach Jamie himself though because – quelle surprise! – he remained suspicious of his involvement. While John remains happy to exploit Jamie’s position for utilitarian purposes, his attitude is generally one of indifference. Jamie hadn’t featured much so far this season, but that all looks to change. We first found him gazing over the expansive clearing that was now officially his, alongside his biological father Garrett.
