Did <i><em>Dutton Ranch</em></i> Just Kill Another Character in Episode 7?

There is no peace for the Dutton Ranch. Rip (Cole Hauser) and Beth (Kelly Reilly) move on a dime in this Yellowstone spinoff, and plots change every other episode. Remember their ranch in Montana? Gone. Wildfire took it. What about their ranch in Texas? Decimated. A hundred-year-old disease returned. How about their latest endeavor—working for rival rancher Beulah Jackson (Annette Bening)? That’s done, too. She’s retiring now.

Amidst all this drama, however, most of episode 7 is still played for laughs. It’s the 10-Petal Ranch’s grand 190^th anniversary party, which means every character in the series appears in the same location for the first time. Beth makes Rip wear a suit: "I feel fucking ridiculous,” he says. Carter (Finn Little) drinks himself silly and embarrasses everyone when he finds out that Oreana (Natalie Alyn Lind) is seeing another man, Rob-Will (Jai Courtney) returns to threaten everyone like a Batman villain, and it all ends with Beulah tumbling down from a heart attack.

Where do we even begin this week? Let’s start with the opening flashback.

Will Joaquin (Juan Pablo Raba) reconnect with his father after this episode?

It’s clear after this episode that Beulah is more a victim of her situation than the real villain of Dutton Ranch. Robert William Jackson III—the man with three first names and the third in his family to represent them—is our true antagonist.

We learn a little about his father during a trip to the past. A young Beulah (Rebeca Robles)—chaperoned by Joaquin’s (Juan Pablo Raba) father, Mariano Reyes (Bobby Soto)—dances at a bar with a cowboy who looks like he is wearing one of the worst wigs of all time. He’s also a creep. He pays the bartender $20 to distract Mariano while he takes off with Beulah, who looks like hell when Reyes eventually finds her stranded and abused at a rest stop.

You can pick up the gist from here. After Beulah finds out that she’s pregnant, she asks Mariano to drive her to the man’s house where she shoots him dead. So, Rob-Will’s a bastard son of a bastard, and now he’s escaped from rehab to terrorize the family that was ready to leave him behind.

Seven episodes wasn’t a lot of time to establish Rob-Will’s motivations. He initially felt like the reckless hitman—doomed to die in the series by now, before the first major death went to his own accomplice, Chet (Hart Denton). But Rob-Will’s a great foil for Rip. Both characters kill to protect their family. Both men believe that their crimes were somewhat necessary for survival. But unlike the Dutton’s righteous mindset to preserve their generational land, the Jacksons are less justified in Yellowstone logic. Rob-Will and his family are tangled up in illegal activity—presumably across the border—even if it’s all in service to keep the ranch alive.

Meet the true villain of Dutton Ranch: Rob-Will (Jai Courtney).

So, as we race toward the finale in two weeks, Rob-Will lays down the hammer. Beulah prepares to announce her retirement at the party and leave everything to Joaquin. Rob-Will doesn’t like that. He threatens her that he’ll kill Joaquin and make her life a living hell if she doesn’t leave him what’s rightfully his.

When Beulah succumbs and makes the announcement, Joaquin Is blindsided. He holds up his mutilated hand to Rob and states, “You can’t say I’m not willing to bleed for the ranch.” Then, he storms off.

The party attendees are quite stunned at Beulah’s announcement. Zane Nash (Marlon Young), the new restauranteur that they just struck an agreement with last episode, states the obvious for us. “I give you a deal, and all of a sudden you decide to retire?” he asks Beulah. “Your son’s a drug addict.” He’s not wrong!

Carter (Finn Little) is more “in the basement” of this upstairs-downstairs relationship, Sheriff Wade (Josh Stewart) jokes in episode 7.

There’s another major development here at the 10-Petal party. The love-blind Carter learns that he doesn’t know much about his new girlfriend, Oreana. She comes from a far wealthier family, after all, and he’s surprised to find out that she’s also seeing a fellow stuffy college grad named Harrison (Matthew Erick White). Sheriff Wade (Josh Stewart) teaches Carter about upstairs and downstairs relationships, joking that Carter’s more “in the basement.”

Feeling like she’s just been using him to play cowgirl, Carter gets drunk and confronts Oreana about having two boyfriends. He makes a lousy situation even worse. “I bet his daddy’s money turns you on,” Carter says. I’ve truly never heard him speak like this before. Oreana responds, in fashion, with even stronger venom. “Harrison’s a bull, not a steer,” she says. “If you want any part of this ranch, if you want me, quit acting like a fucking steer and grow a pair.”

Is this Annette Bening’s last episode as 10-Petal ranch owner Beulah Jackson?

Carter is 19 years old, mind you, and we’re reminded that when he drunkenly stumbles out with a mounted bulls head from Beulah’s office and breaks it in front of the entire crowd just a few minutes later. But Oreana’s right. Carter quit school to drink beers with some scamming cowboy loser. He has nothing to show for himself and it’s wrong for him to walk around like they’re a couple when he’s not exactly putting any effort in.

To close it out, Beulah grabs at her neck when the mounted bulls head hits the dirt. She winces in pain before falling over, as Everrett (Ed Harris) runs to the rescue. I can’t think of a more terrible time to have a heart attack than when you’re going through a succession crisis. Is this the last we’ve seen of Annette Bening on Dutton Ranch? I won’t believe it until I see it.