‘Dutton Ranch’ Episode 3 Recap – Ranching Ain’t Easy (And Other Obvious Lessons)

Call me cynical, but I’ve been watching Taylor Sheridan shows for long enough that as soon as I saw Beth and Rip having a nice, romantic morning together, I just knew something was going to be wrong. Such is the way of Dutton Ranch and indeed the entire Duttonverse, while we’re on the subject, so it isn’t like Episode 3 is off-brand. But it is a comparatively slower, tamer affair than the previous episode suggested it might be, so it’s obvious Dutton Ranch is playing the long game much like how early seasons of Yellowstone itself once did.

In truth, most of the main overarching subplots are paused. We don’t see anything of Rob-Will, there’s nary a mention of Rip having dumped Wes’s body on his land, and Whitney, who seems to be the engine keeping the entire 10 Petals plot moving, is nowhere to be seen. What that mostly leaves behind is fairly standard ranching business and a bit of welcome texture for Zachariah Moss, whose personal backstory throws up one of Sheridan’s classic “here’s a problem out of nowhere” subplots.

You can divide “Act of God Business” into two main narrative tracts. In the first, Rip deals with the herd, realises there’s a pretty serious problem afoot — no pun intended — and ends up having a bunch of really macho philosophical fireside conversations. In the second, Beth travels to Dallas with three great-looking steaks in the hopes of selling them to a fancy hotel chain. But there’s a bit more going on besides this, with Beulah trying to keep her bunkhouse in order and Carter trying to get laid.

We might as well start with Beulah. This is the first episode to really flex her influence in the region, and her hands-on ruthlessness is beginning to come to the fore. At the funeral of the previous Sheriff, she bumps into Everett, who may be Rob-Will’s father based on this conversation, and also into Sheriff Wade, who reminds her that she needs to get a grip on her bunkhouse before Whitney blows the whistle on how the 10 Petal ranch actually conducts its business.

Beulah, it turns out, contributed heavily to Wade’s election, which she thinks gives her carte blanche to say and do basically whatever she wants. But you can tell Wade isn’t into it. Sure, this conversation alone proves that he has at least turned his head a little bit to let the Jackson family get away with murder — both literally and figuratively — but he’s also becoming increasingly, visibly sick of how the whole family is carrying on. Something tells me that Wade is going to end up being an ally to Beth and Rip as the season goes on, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

What we learn is that even Beulah is answerable to someone, even if we don’t yet know who, and with Whitney having absonded, she’s struggling to keep a handle on 10 Petal problems. This is presumably only going to worsen when she crosses swords more directly with Beth and Rip. But, again, that’s a problem for later.

Besides, Dutton Ranch Episode 3 has enough problems to be going on with. Beth is trying to sell steaks in a highly competitive industry, and she has already made an enemy of Beulah and her family. To make this point clear, Joaquin follows her to Dallas to make his presence felt, and while the best Beth can offer is that he reminds her of Jamie, which isn’t an ideal comparison, there’s still something that tells me Joaquin can cause massive problems if he really has a mind to do so.

Rip, meanwhile, discovers that his cattle have foot and mouth disease (FMD), which I didn’t know cows could still get these days. He even calls Everett to confirm it. That means quarantining the herd and camping out with the cows for several days to see how far the disease spreads, and by the end of “Act of God Business”, when Beth has returned home and seen a cow and her calf dead in the field, it seems pretty likely that the herd is going to be decimated. As if the fire wasn’t enough bad luck.

Rip only takes some time away from the herd to intervene when a woman named Anna Dupree turns up at the ranch to shoot Zacahariah on account of him having killed her daughter. And he did, though not quite in the circumstances you might be imagining. Later, around the campfire, Zachariah shares that he killed his girlfriend, Anna’s daughter, by reversing into her while drunk. It was an accident, but very much the result of his own choices, which is what has compelled him to find God since. Everett’s summary of Zachariah — he’s a good man who has made some terrible decisions — rings true for Rip, who thinks that’s true of basically everyone.

All that’s left to discuss is Carter and Oreana, which, to be frank, is the subplot that’s annoying me the most. Don’t get me wrong, I totally get why a kid like Carter would do basically anything Oreana told him to, but the extent to which he’s submerging himself in incredibly deep water is getting ridiculous. Oreana definitely can’t be trusted, especially with her being a Jackson. The closer she gets to Carter — and they get pretty damn close here — the more I worry for him. My only hope was that Beth was going to catch them making out, since I have a sneaking suspicion that Beth is going to hate Oreana. But I suppose the dead cows have to come first.

Got to be honest, that’s not a sentence I ever thought I’d write.