‘Yellowstone’ Cast on Kayce vs. Monica, the John-Rainwater Alliance, and More

The Dish on the Duttons

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Now that the first two episodes of Yellowstone Season 4 have aired, we know who survived that potentially devastating attack on the Duttons (everyone), but the aftermath of it will continue to be felt.

After all, there’s the matter of who was behind it all. If you ask Beth (Kelly Reilly), it was Jamie (Wes Bentley), on the outs with the family who (as he learned last season) adopted him. Kayce (Luke Grimes) isn’t so sure. But with Chief Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) with information about the attacks, could that extend the tentative alliance with John Dutton (Kevin Costner)? It’s possible. For now, that’s just one more thing where they may be on the same side.

“We’re going to get into some interesting gray areas in terms of how we’re going to give John information, participate in activities that we haven’t done before and then how we justify that and let the audience kind of determine if that’s something they would do as well,” Birmingham previews for TV Insider.

Any sort of alliance between the two exists at all “because they both have an appreciation [and] a respect for each other and understanding that how vital and important the land is,” Birmingham says. “It might be different for Thomas Rainwater who wants just natural land and stewardship responsibilities for it. Dutton very much wants to keep the land the way he inherited and leave it for his legacy to try to keep it from development. It’s a desire and a love for the same thing for different reasons.”

But that has to change eventually, right? What would an inevitable Dutton-Rainwater face-off look like? “It depends on the alliances that are made on either side,” Birmingham says.

While Rainwater may sort of be on the side of the Duttons at the moment, Kayce’s wife Monica (Kelsey Asbille) wants to pull away from the family after everything that’s happened, which includes the attack on the ranch and her son Tate having to defend the two of them. “This season, she tries to get as far away from the Duttons as possible and their f**ked up family drama,” Asbille says.

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“It’s one thing when she struggling herself to fit into the Dutton world, but when she sees her son struggling, it’s game over,” she continues. “One of my favorite scenes in the season is Kayce and Monica really having it out and they’re both in the ring, like “let’s go,” which I think was long overdue. They needed a shouting match. They need to say some things to each other.”

For Asbille, “when I read it in the script, I saw it one way. Then when we got to actually shooting it, we spoke a lot with [creator] Taylor [Sheridan] and one of our producers, Michael Friedman, of how this should go, and it was so different to my expectation of the scene. There’s a fine line between love and hate, but they have to fight with each other for each other, and also it was just like a different kind of energy between the two of them that we haven’t seen.”

As for what else is coming up for Kayce and Monica in the aftermath of him surviving the attack and getting shot, they’re “in a position that we haven’t seen them in before.”

But while we can see Kayce and Monica reconciling after that fight, one relationship that is probably beyond repair is Jamie’s with the Duttons, at least most of them and especially Beth.

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“It’s complicated, but he can’t help but feel connected. You see a great scene with Kayce where they still commit to each other as brothers,” Bentley says. “So, that’s still gonna be there, but now there’s a lot of danger and peril involved when you’re not a Dutton and you know that much, your life’s in danger.”

When it comes to the person Jamie fears the most, it’s Beth, the actor confirms. “He wouldn’t admit it,” he adds. “She may not know the same things he does, but she is as clever and as smart as him and can do the kind of damage he knows lasts.”

Yellowstone, Sundays, 8/7c, Paramount Network