Aside from the question of who ordered the hit on the Duttons, the other big dramatic question of Yellowstone Season 4 is what Market Equities are up to. After Josh Holloway’s Roarke was unceremoniously killed off in the premiere by Rip, our main point of contact for the company is now its CEO, Caroline Warner, a take-no-prisoners corporate mogul who is basically Beth’s final form. While she has cropped up earlier in the season, she really made her presence felt in “Winning or Learning” when she did something truly unexpected – she offered Beth a job.
Yellowstone Season 4: Who is Caroline Warner?
Caroline, played by the great Jacki Weaver, is the CEO of Market Equities, as we learned in the second episode of the season. But we didn’t get a sense of how she likes to do things until this week, when she declared to Beth, “The big dog’s off the porch now, Beth. And I will tear you to f*cking pieces.”
Caroline’s long-term plan for Market Equities and Montana is to create a resort destination in every valley; to modernize it, essentially, to divorce it from its lingering fantasy of “the West” and turn it into a hip, highly profitable tourist trap. She’s already working with Jamie to construct an airport on land he has leased to the company, but she wants more. And Beth might be her way to get it.
Yellowstone Season 4: Why does Caroline offer Beth a job?
As we’ve already seen with how Caroline negotiated with Thomas Rainwater, she’s direct. Given what we already know of Beth from innumerable scenes of her terrifying boardrooms across the state, that hardly seems like a problem, but Caroline also has seemingly bottomless pockets, a great deal of evidence she can play hardball with, and an uncompromising attitude. Even Beth is quickly backed into a corner.
But Beth has something to offer Caroline. She’s an insider, and she can scope out land in Montana that Caroline can develop on without threatening the Yellowstone. Caroline just wants to make money; she has no particular grudge against the Duttons. But the Duttons are famously unwilling to play ball with anyone, so Caroline has to make it clear that she can tie Beth up with accusations of insider trading and market manipulation if she doesn’t agree to a deal. Caroline is also smart. When she realizes that Beth absolutely will not consider selling the land trust she set up for the Yellowstone under Schwartz & Meyer, at least not while John is alive, she immediately changes tactics and offers her an official position with Market Equities.
Beth agrees to take the position on a condition that she doesn’t believe Market Equities will agree to – giving her Caroline’s controlling share in Schwartz & Meyer so she can ruin Jamie. But it seems like she’s kind of interested in the job, and Caroline’s unconventional business strategies suggest she might well give in to Beth’s demands in order to use her to further her own interests. She believes that Beth is the monster that Market Equities needs. And she might be right.
