Summary
Dutton Ranch relocates Beth and Rip to South Texas in “The Untold Want”, where it becomes obvious quickly that they’re going to get up to no good.
We’ve had no shortage of entries in the so-called Duttonverse lately. After the success of 1883 and 1923, we had to wait a while for anything new, but then, a bit like buses, several came along at once. We’ve had The Madison, which I’ll grant you was more Dutton-adjacent than strictly related, and the CBS procedural Marshals, which follows the exploits of Kayce Dutton. But it’s only the latest, Dutton Ranch, that really feels like a proper Yellowstone sequel, bottling the same neo-Western vibe and soapy sentiment as, in Episode 1, Beth and Rip relocate to South Texas and immediately run afoul of the locals.
Before they get to Texas, though, they’re in Dillon, living their best lives on the ranch Beth bought them towards the end of Yellowstone. Everything’s going well. Carter is growing up, the ranch is successful, and the happy couple has plenty of time to ride out into the middle of nowhere and say soppy things to each other while dozing against a tree. Then, a wildfire rather inconveniently burns the place down.
Of course, being the stoic cowboy that he is, Rip heroically saves the animals while Beth gets Carter out of there. And equally predictably, Beth later leaves the motel that is being used as a temporary refuge to go and pick up Rip, who’s carrying a baby calf and inhaling tons of smoke. She promises they’ll rebuild their dream home, and the next thing we know, it’s six months later, and they’re in Rio Paloma, Texas, without any real explanation (don’t worry, we’ll get a bit later).
The inciting incident of the Texas plot isn’t initially anything to do with Beth and Rip. Instead, it concerns the 10 Petal mega ranch, which controls the local area, particularly one of its wayward sons, Rob-Will. He accuses one of the 10 Petal cowboys, Wes, of being a snitch and then shoots him in the head, dumping his body on what later turns out to be Beth and Rip’s new ranch. Rob-Will is an off-the-rails drunk and drug addict; when he happens to bump into Rip at a gas station while harassing Rip’s ranchhand, Azul, Rip socks him in the mouth just to let him know who’s boss. You know how Rip can be.
But Rob-Will happens to be the son of the 10 Petal family matriarch, Beulah Jackson, whom Beth immediately takes a disliking to after she tries to hardball her over the price of having some steers slaughtered. Beulah has a tight grip on the entire industry in South Texas, so she can make a dangerous enemy, but Beth’s gonna Beth. Luckily, she meets, quite by chance, a friendly veteran veterinarian named Everett, who agrees not to euthanize a mare badly injured in a road accident on the proviso that Beth pays an arm and a leg for the horse’s treatment. When she gets home, Rip knows better than to ask too many questions, and besides, Everett is ingrained enough in the local culture that he probably has a few friends who can help Beth and Rip get around their new rivalry with the 10 Petals.
And then there’s Carter. Dutton Ranch Episode 1 spares a surprising amount of time for him as he tries to adapt to a new school and is immediately ensnared by one of the pretty girls. Naturally, though, she’s just exploiting the fact he’s a little older than everyone else to secure her and her pals some beers. As luck would have it, though, their rodeo “date” means that Carter is in situ when a cowboy starts getting a little too rough with his girlfriend. Carter intervenes and beats the guy senseless, but he’s arrested.
Thankfully, this is Texas, so beating someone up is a small affair. Sheriff Wade seems pretty relaxed about the whole thing. And it helps that Oreana, the girl Carter leaped to the defense of, put in a good word. Carter is immediately smitten by Oreana, and she seems kind of keen on him, but… she looks like trouble to me.
“The Untold Want” ends with a few things in play. Beulah turns to her other son, Joaquin, to deal with the Rob-Will problem. He proposes sending him away to rehab, though that means dealing with the problem that he created first. And that problem is currently on Beth and Rip’s front door, so a collision seems pretty imminent. You can take the Duttons out of Montana…
RELATED:
