From kidnapping a priest to corporate sabotage, no one does it like Beth Dutton, and her Yellowstone Season 4 arc was one for the ages. Be warned of significant spoilers for Yellowstone ahead!
If there’s one Yellowstone figurehead you want as your friend and not your enemy, it’s Beth Dutton. Kelly Reilly’s domineering force of nature has become an American pop culture icon, and it’s all thanks to her one-of-a-kind performance and Taylor Sheridan’s take-no-prisoners scripting.
Season 4 gave us some of Beth’s best lines and moments of the entire series as a result, and we’re breaking them all down below.
Survives Bombing, Lights Cigarette…
“If a meteor strikes this planet tomorrow night, it’s me and the cockroaches running this motherf*cker.”
Beth to John Dutton, Yellowstone Season 4
Beth smiles the above line to her father in a later episode, but it’s Season 4’s incredible premiere that proved her statement true. Gasps were heard across America as audiences learned the fallout of the Season 3 finale’s bombastic assassination attempts on the Duttons. Many expected Kayce to survive his shootout, but nothing could’ve prepared Yellowstone fans for Beth’s return to the screen.
In an unforgettable moment, the Dutton daughter walks out of her charred, smoking office building covered from head to toe in 2nd-to-3rd-degree burns. Covered in blood and far worse for wear, the first thing Beth does is ask a stranger on the street for a cigarette. She sits on the sidewalk as sirens blare around her, lights one up, and waits for her senses to recouperate.
What a legend.
Battle of the Wits: Beth vs Caroline
“Here’s to the new boss. Same as the old boss.”
Beth Dutton to Caroline Warner, Yellowstone Season 4
Pairing two actors of Kelly Reilly and Jacki Weaver’s caliber was a phenomenal start, but nothing could’ve prepared audiences for the fireworks between Beth and Market Equities CEO Caroline Warner. Their first meeting of the minds has to be re-watched to be fully appreciated, which is exactly why the full scene is available above.
‘I Love You, But F**k You’
When Beth and Carter (Finn Little), a.k.a. Rip 2.0) first met, it was impossible to predict how these two loose cannons would impact each other’s lives. These misfits become incredibly close over the course of Season 4, but by mid-season their dynamic was still highly questionable. And it’s this pocket that gave Beth Dutton one of her best lines in Yellowstone so far.
Within, Beth decides she’s going to take her new orphan ward out shopping for a jacket and pair of bootsto work her family’s ranch in. She’s looking to give him a fresh start and make him somewhat presentable. But her love, Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) sees exactly how this is going to go from a mile away.
“You treat that boy like a pet, and that’s exactly what you’re gonna get: a pet. And not a good one, either,” he tells Beth. She then responds in the most Beth Dutton way possible with: “I love you, but f**k you.”
Beth vs. Summer: Showdown in the Kitchen
There’s no describing this absolute highlight, either, except for: Best sequence of Yellowstone Season 4. Audiences couldn’t wait for the first meeting of Beth Dutton and Summer Higgins (Piper Perabo), and it did not disappoint in any aspect.
Beth Dutton Kidnaps a Priest for a ‘Yellowstone’ Wedding
From wedding the love of her life in a sexy gold minidress she intended to kill a prisoner in to kidnapping the priest for the ceremony, Season 4’s long awaited shock wedding was everything.
No one saw this coming, and Beth’s elation with the entire affair is beyond rewarding.
Beth Gives Jamie His ‘3 Options’
But nothing that came before compares to the ending of Yellowstone Season 4’s finale. While returning to his office, Jamie gets a visitor… And it’s the last one he wants.
Jamie enters to find Beth sitting in his attorney general’s chair. Before long, she’s placed her pistol in front of his computer. She knows.
Beth squeezes the truth out of her brother, gets him to admit Garrett Randall’s (Will Patton) role in the assassination attempts on their family, and audiences learn her “3 options” for the weaselly politician.
- She goes to the authorities and both Jamie and his biological father rot in jail.
- She tells her husband, Rip, everything, and Rip kills Garrett with his bare hands… Then rips Jamie limb from limb for him allowing Beth to be sterilized during her abortion as a teenager.
- Or, as Jamie begs for mercy on his knees, Beth offers “Option 3,” which leaves Jamie with no choice but to murder his biological father for all he’s done.
It was a true moment of reckoning for Jamie’s sins, and one that still has Beth Dutton fans cheering.
For more during the wat for Yellowstone Season 5, be sure to check out our ‘Yellowstone’: Rip Wheeler’s Best Season 4 Moments next.
