‘Yellowstone’: Jamie Scares Beth With His Confession (RECAP)

Meredith Jacobs July 24, 2019, 11:00 pm

Wes Bentley as Jamie Dutton in Yellowstone — Paramount Network

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Season 2, Episode 5 of Yellowstone, “Touching Your Enemy.”]

If Beth (Kelly Reilly) is scared, you know you did something very, very wrong.

That’s the lesson Jamie (Wes Bentley) learns on Wednesday’s episode of Yellowstone, as he tries (and fails) to get out of being quoted on record in an interview with reporter Sarah.

Nothing’s really going the Dutton family’s way in “Touching Your Enemy.” John (Kevin Costner) is so certain he knows who’s behind his cattle’s deaths, but Kayce (Luke Grimes) uncovers information that proves him wrong. But hey, at least the sheriff is reminded who he works for when he receives bourbon and a bullet on his doorstep. He then holds a press conference admitting his men didn’t back up Kayce and Livestock Agent Steve Hendon in “Only Devils Left.”

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Jamie’s mistake comes back to bite him — hard

Jamie finally answers Sarah’s calls after his father calls him out on being distracted during a meeting with Cassidy. All Sarah needs is for him to verify some of his statement before she talks to his father to give him a chance to respond. Avoiding her won’t keep the article from coming out, she warns him, and neither will his threat to sue if she quotes or refers to him. All he can do is talk to the legal department about his “lack of options.”

At the end of the episode, Jamie tells Beth that he needs advice. John kicked him out of the house and abandoned his campaign, so he was angry, Jamie says. So, he gave an interview to a reporter. About? “Not what, who,” he admits. Beth slaps him and calls him selfish, he pushes her into a wall, and she knees him before dragging him out to their father.

(Paramount Network)

Beth suggests John find her after Jamie confesses, just to make sure he tells him everything before leaving the two men alone. Jamie whimpers his way through the entire scene. His father asks what he did to make Beth angrier than he’s ever seen her and scare the only person he knows who doesn’t get scared. When his son doesn’t answer, John throws his glass against the wall and demands, “What the f**k did you do to me?”

The ranch has an unknown problem

Still seeking answers about their cows, John sends Kayce and Ryan (Ian Bohen) — who does the most he’s done in the series yet — straight to the source. They show up at Dan’s (Danny Huston) house just after his first shooting lesson with Torry (Wolé Parks). Soon after, Kayce disarms Dan and leads him inside, Torry takes Ryan’s weapon and radio, has him cuff himself, and sticks him in the back of his car.

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Kayce sits there calmly as Dan yells at him until he tells him he killed their cattle. But Dan insists he doesn’t know how to kill cattle, though he does know how to crush empires, and he plans to do just that to John’s. Torry joins them, and a fight ensues between him and Kayce — until Ryan joins them as Torry left him with the keys to the cuffs.

Kayce pins Dan to the railing of his balcony and insists he tell him the truth. Dan reasserts that he doesn’t know how to kill cows, but he wishes he did since he sees the pain it’s caused his family. Kayce believes him, as he later tells his father.

(Paramount Network)

And John finally gets Kayce to open up about the war. Kayce reveals that, in Pakistan, he had to kill an entire family when a man used his wife and child as a shield while opening fire on Kayce’s unit. “Soldiers don’t tell war stories anymore, Dad, because wars these days, it’s just about trying to live through them,” he explains.

Jimmy really can’t catch a break

Jimmy (Jefferson White) needs to make money, but he can’t earn it working overtime at the ranch because he’s salaried. He can win it, however — if he can win a competition horse sliding against visiting cowboys. Rip (Cole Hauser) basically sits back and watches him lose and encourages the others to take Jimmy’s money.

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Bonding over pain

A flashback to Beth and Rip’s childhood sees their flirtation begin. The two bond over the guilt they each feel for deaths in their families and share their first kiss.

And in the present, Beth confronts her father about Rip living in the bunk house and cleaning out stalls while Kaycee gets the foreman house. “Rip living in the bunkhouse is an obstacle you can overcome, if that’s what you choose to do,” John tells her. This isn’t a punishment, but a sacrifice Rip is making, and John will reward it how he sees fit.

(Paramount Network)

Monica’s flirtation

Martin brings Monica (Kelsey Asbille) and her class to the race track for a rundown of a traditional Indian horse relay. After they exchange smiles that could be platonic but aren’t really (yet may not necessarily go anywhere) during his presentation, he invites her to Sheridan, Wyoming, to get a better idea of the relay — and he’s not inviting the class.

Yellowstone, Wednesdays, 10/9c, Paramount Network