Congratulations. Rip Wheeler is your boss now. 

It’s 4:30 in the morning when the bunkhouse boys at Beulah Jackson’s 10-Petal Ranch see the silhouette of a black hat on their porch. These cowboys, and especially Chet, the hotheaded dummy whose days are done as patsy ranch foreman, are confused. But as Rip drinks their coffee, it’s not his job to explain anything. As he told Beulah during an interview in her den, he managed the Yellowstone for 25 years, and the 10-P isn’t even a quarter the size of the Duttons’ legendary Montana ranch. Recognizing the value of a seasoned vet like Rip — and still scheming for her own play, but we’ll get to that — Beulah hired him to put her place in order. So now it’s meet the new boss, who is definitely not the same as the old boss. Rip finally speaks as the cowboys warily circle. “We got calves to wean. Quit fucking talking and go get them pairs.”   

Paramount+

This is what we came to Dutton Ranch for. Everything else about Yellowstone’s sprawling TV saga being burned away, leaving Beth and Rip as immutable force. And after putting down their diseased herd in Episode 4, they’ll begin their rebuilding season by applying their talents to Beulah’s operation. It’s cool to see a different side of Rip Wheeler in that talk with Beulah. Cole Hauser and Annette Bening play it where they’re both talking business but also feeling each other out – both searching for an angle without saying so. And with his wealth of experience, Rip also softens her up with comparative flattery. Who is Beth Dutton? “Beautiful, intelligent, fierce, tender, raw. A bit like you.” They shake on it, and Rip becomes the foreman of both her ranch and his currently fallow pastures at home. 

But there are two prongs to Beth and Rip’s plan. While he whips the 10-Petal’s cowboys and cattle into shape, she digs into Beulah’s past, learns all the facts, and appears at the country manse with a bottle of pricey scotch. First Beth gains trust with an admission of the destroyed Dutton Ranch herd. Then she lays it out. The 10-Petal is “over-leveraged and under-capitalized.” The Jackson ranch has survived almost 200 years, but weathered rough patches with tacky shit like welcoming rich guy game hunters onto the land. She says the operation is held together with tape and baling wire, which Beulah does not dispute. Hiring Beth frees her of the ranch’s burden, and streamlines it for a profitable, recession-proof future. 

“I’m offering you an exit.” (This is classic Kelly Reilly as Beth; her forthright style is always closing.) “Rip is foreman. I take your steaks to market. We manage everything for you. But I will want 20% of the profits. And in five years, Rip and I are out.” Because Beth Dutton’s last name, legion in ranching, is not part of the deal. Beulah agrees while silently salivating over taking that ranching legacy as her own.

Paramount+

“Listen to your mama and don’t be like Dwight! Adios!” Ah jeez, why did Dutton Ranch have to introduce the terrific Ray McKinnon to the Sheridan-O-Verse, and make us like him instantly, only to have Sheriff Handy Wade shoot Dwight White, his beery old cowboy character, right in the back? That’s what goes down after Carter skips school again and shows Oreana his new buddy’s exotic spotted pet. It’s later, his girlfriend’s gone, and the cooler is empty when the cops show up to chase Dwight down. Carter is cuffed on the ground, panicking, as he watches his friend die right next to the leopard enclosure. All the sheriff says is “Smart people don’t ask dangerous questions.” 

Maybe Dwight really was an insurance fraudster, like Wade told Carter. But this feels like a targeted killing, meaning it might have something to do with the sheriff being elected with Jackson money. Carter is tore up over Dwight’s death; the man was a friend to him. We think the kid’s gonna look for his own answers inside that clan, and Oreana might help him do it.

Paramount+

The time has come for Rip to tell Beth about the fate of Wes Ayers. Especially considering their respective new jobs. “About three weeks ago, I found a dead body on our property. It floated over from the 10-Petal. I took care of it. But we need to be careful with this family.” Beth acknowledges her husband’s reticence as a factor of their partnership. But she does ask why, and Rip exhales thoughtfully as he considers. He discovered a corpse, buried in a shallow grave on their ranch, and moved the body offsite to a brand-new Train Station. And he didn’t say anything about anything to anyone — not Beth, not the law, and not Wes’s wife and kids —  because he wanted peace. That’s a pureform continuation of Yellowstone logic, and Beth readily accepts it. This is just a new piece of their new place, as they rebuild from inside the 10-Petal and Beulah’s business and life. Peace? Beth Dutton’s eyes narrow. “Peace will have to wait.”

The Beth Parts for Dutton Ranch Episode 5 (“Peaceful Find Peace”): 

• Everett McKinney sings! Again! Rip Wheeler is likely not a hum-to-the-radio guy, so he gives the veterinarian a weird look in the pickup as Everett drops him at Beulah’s and murmurs along with “The Grand Tour,” a classic country lament by George Jones.

• We priced the scotch Beth Dutton brings Beulah Jackson. Rare in the US, a 750ml bottle of Oban 18, Beulah’s fave, will set you back anywhere from $160 to $400.

• And this development will not be good for the 10-Petal’s new Dutton-Wheeler-Jackson axis. Summarily fired by Rip, Chet is stewing with beers and a bag of coke at a seedy Rio Paloma motel when Rob-Will Jackson knocks on the door. Apparently he jumped his forced rehab stint in Sedona. One tuned-up cowboy grins greasily at the other. “I’m back in the saddle.”

Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.