‘Yellowstone’ recap: Cowboy’s death punctuates this meditation on life and nature

Season 5, Episode 6, “Cigarettes, Whiskey, a Meadow, and You”

Spoiler alert: You’re going to find out soon that Episode 6 didn’t have a lot of action — but what there was, wouldn’t you rather find out from the show rather than us? Go watch if you haven’t, and then come on back.

Nicole Russell, opinion writer: Well, Episode 6 was like a lazy morning on horseback. There was little action, tension or violence. It all seemed mostly like a setup for the next episode.

Episode 6 opens with a gorgeous scene of the Montana mountains, with cowboys on horseback moving cattle along. Almost every episode has at least a portion committed to showing us the purity of the Montana rancher’s lifestyle, but this one trumps all others in that regard. Most of it is focused on the cowboys doing their cowboy thing: moving the cattle to be branded.

The only real controversy in this entire episode is the scene that comes next: Mo Brings Plenty, the trial security chief, is earnestly questioning why Secret Service agents are securing an area on the nearby Black Rock reservation without the approval of his boss, Chairman Tom Rainwater. We soon learn that the president is visiting the reservation.

Most people won’t be intimately familiar with the Secret Service, but I happen to know a few agents personally, and I can’t say I’ve ever heard of them shooting stray dogs on site, nor would they arrive anywhere, beforehand, without not only receiving permission but background checking everyone who would have been even near the president on stage (as the chairman soon was).

Ah, well.

Ryan J. Rusak, opinion editor: Yep, this was another insane bit of unrealistic action. A presidential visit is generally coordinated weeks in advance, down to the smallest detail. It wouldn’t be possible to arrange it without Rainwater and Brings Plenty knowing about it — if someone even tried, many people would be fired.

Nicole: We move then to the steamiest part of this episode, the budding relationship between Jamie and the opposing counsel in a pending lawsuit, Sarah. And it’s hardly that steamy. After waking up with her at his house, Jamie tries to figure out why she’s really in a relationship with him. She pretends to act offended at the implication that she’s using him — which I was pretty sure she was. She gaslights him further by suggesting she actually is sort of using him as a tool to push him to be the governor, instead of his father.

Ryan: Jamie has always been weak, albeit with flashes of brilliance, cunning and ability. In this case, he knows he’s being played and his ambition wins the day — along with his libido.

ENVIRONMENTALIST SUMMER LEARNS ABOUT THE DUTTON RANCH

Nicole: Summer Higgins and Monica Dutton have a brief encounter as Monica helps prepare for a large dinner the next day: It’s like Summer’s in an elevator, waiting to play a more important role. We know something will come of her relationship with John Dutton, we just don’t know exactly how. Until then, we’re subject to random scenes with her doing little. In this conversation, it certainly looked like the environmentalist had never peeled a potato before.

The scenes bounce to the cowboy’s pushing cattle, the president’s visit, then back to Monica and Summer. “If you want to know John Dutton, you’re in the right place,” Monica says, as Summer is inspecting the family’s graveyard.

Ryan: Monica is becoming a very cliched character. As we noted before, she’s the trauma queen. In that role, it finally dawned on me who she reminds me of: Kim Bauer from “24.” Kim (Jack’s daughter) seemed to be in peril in every episode, reaching the height of ridiculousness when she suddenly had to face down a cougar. Monica’s trauma has been more poignant, at least so far, but I fully expect her to be chased by a bear soon.

In this episode, however, she is the wise woman who Explains The Truth Of How It Is to the newcomer. It’s unfortunate that an American Indian character is put into this cliched role.

RIP AND BETH FIND A COZY SPOT

Nicole: Rip and Beth continue to be madly in love, and Rip continues to be the man of every woman’s dream. He’s not only a handsome, rugged cowboy but he is constantly planning ahead and doing nice things for her. Here, he shows her to a plot of land that looks just like she has imagined paradise will be, a beautiful meadow complete with whiskey and cigarettes (which he brought) her man — and (implied) sex.

Ryan: Beth is starting to make my teeth itch. Get her back in the boardroom, where her crazy has a purpose and a target.

Nicole: The next scene is the most touching: John and his friend, seasoned rancher Emmett Walsh, who has obviously known John a lifetime, fall asleep under a tree, looking at the stars, their horses tied up nearby. John makes a crack about Emmett snoring, only to realize the next morning that his old friend has quietly passed away. “Like a cowboy should,” John observed. When he later tells his friend’s widow, he lowers on bended knee to hold her and we see that John too is not just gruff, fierce and protective but also compassionate, kind, and loyal to those whom he loves.

Ryan: This scene is the capstone to the message from the “Yellowstone” team in this episode. It’s a none-too-subtle meditation on the right way to live life: in touch with nature, loyal to friends, appreciative of beauty and protective of the things that matter. So, what the episode lacked in action, it made up for in meaning.

Sheridan is trying to tell us something about what the modern world is doing to us and what it will take to fix ourselves. I wonder how much of this was always the plan and how much was amplified by the pandemic, our diving every deeper into screens, and our disconnect from the world around us. It’s ironic, of course, that he’s doing it through a TV show that many people are streaming on internet devices, but storytellers work in the media of their times.

Nicole: The tender moment around Emmett’s death is followed by an odd exchange between John’s old friend, the former governor/now senator, Lynelle Perry, and himself where she points out the political incorrectness of him commuting Summer’s sentence to his house and adds that she actually might be a bit jealous. The episode ends with Jamie and his lover watching a news clip of John at the ranch, holding the grieving widow. Jamie marvels at how opportune the moment was for good PR.

Ryan: Lynelle gets runner-up for line of the night when she tells John, who insists he’s just trying to help Summer through a rough patch: “You know, I’ve noticed that there’s never any ugly women in bad spots around you.”

Random observations about Episode 6

From Nicole:

• The Montana landscape is stunning. Truly. This episode made me want to go to a semi-working ranch for the week and ride horses. Anyone have any suggestions?

• Sarah walked around for a minute with lingerie on, but it struck me that this show has little nudity and personally, I favor that.

• I heard in an interview with Sheridan that he knew it was difficult to train horses for films and so he actually supplies all his own horses for filming. That’s incredible.

• Did anyone catch a moment when the cowboys are herding cattle and the scenery almost looked identical to a similar-looking scene in “Dances with Wolves?” Except with cattle instead of buffalo. John Dutton’s horse even looked similar to Lieutenant Dunbar’s beloved Cisco. If you haven’t seen Kevin Costner’s masterpiece, which won 7 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay, consider this your sign (ahem, Ryan). (Ryan: Yeah, it’s on the list.)

• Line of the night: Monica sees Summer looking around the Dutton grave site and points out her son’s fresh burial. “When I say we give everything to the land, I do mean everything.”

From Ryan:

• When Beth and Rip went off to the meadow he found for her and leaned up against a tree, I was struck that it seemed like the same tree from the conclusion of the spinoff ‘1883,’ where settler James Dutton took daughter Elsa to die from her arrow wound. If it wasn’t the exact same tree, it sure seemed meant to evoke that scene (albeit in a happier way).

• This episode was heavy on great country music. Pretty sure I heard some Chris Stapleton in the background. And if Lainey Wilson isn’t a superstar after her turn as ranchhand Ryan’s rockin’ girlfriend, I’ll be stunned.

• We’ve told you all the ways in which politics is distorted in “Yellowstone.” But for good measure, this episode includes an insane moment in journalism, too. As Jamie and Sarah are watching the report on Governor Dutton’s plan to snub the president, an anchor casually notes that she thinks “the governor is right where he should be.” Barf. Doesn’t happen, folks, unless you’re watching the talking-head types on cable news.

• Whiskey notes: Not much to report brand-wise, but, as Nicole noted, Rip supplies Beth on the trail from a lovely leather-wrapped flask. I couldn’t help but think that most flasks that size hold, say, 6 or 8 ounces, and I’m not sure that would get Beth through lunch. At the barbecue that celebrates the successful branding, there’s a lot of Coors — the original “banquet” beer, not the atrocity that is Coors Light — going around.

• Line of the night: Summer complains that “everywhere I go, I get a lecture on this place.” Monica replies: “Well, now you know what it feels like.” If you’ve ever had a vegan harangue you over your meat choices, you appreciated this.

This story was originally published December 11, 2022 at 8:01 PM with the headline "‘Yellowstone’ recap: Cowboy’s death punctuates this meditation on life and nature."