Yellowstone | The Best of Beth Dutton

Ahead of the premiere of Yellowstone season 5, Melissa explores some of Beth Dutton’s most iconic moments so far!

Beth Dutton is a force to be reckoned with. I came into Yellowstone around season 2 and she quickly became a favorite. She’s not like other female characters I admire. For one, she smokes like a chimney and drinks like a fish. She isn’t poised, regal, or diplomatic like Padme Amidala or Duchess Satine. She doesn’t have a noble cause she’s fighting for like Galadriel, Mom Mothma, or Hera Syndulla. And she is sassy like Princess Leia, but kicked up a few notches and with way more swearing. Beth is the type to tell it like it is and take no prisoners. She doesn’t take any sh!t from anyone – especially men – and gives as good as she gets. Usually better actually. Which is why I love her.

Some of Beth’s best scenes are of her fighting back. Of one-upping the male characters that try to take her down a peg and then realize they miscalculated. Other great scenes include the time she tried to make dinner and an impromptu wedding. In honor of the season 5 trailer dropping, I present, in no particular order, the best of Beth Dutton.

SEASON 2

In Episode 9 “Enemies by Monday”, Beth’s Native American sister-in-law, Monica, calls her from a high-end clothing store where she’s being held by the police for suspected shoplifting. Beth rushes out of her office to help. Upon arriving, she demands to know what the officers have done with her sister-in-law before discovering Monica being strip-searched by a female officer in a fitting room. She accuses them of racial profiling and the officers quickly back peddle with the flimsy excuse that Monica didn’t have Dutton on her ID.

After the officers leave, she locks the door to the store and humiliates the female store owner. who had set Monica up by coercing her to strip down the way Monica was forced to while also trashing the place. While Monica ultimately stops it before Beth goes too far, she also gets her verbal barbs in getting the other woman to admit to the racial profiling. Both Dutton women say they will take their business elsewhere, then go out for drinks in their first, and only, bonding session. Beth and Monica may rarely interact and don’t exactly get along, but Beth is more than willing to go to bat for Monica. As John Dutton says, “We protect this family.”

SEASON 3

In episode 2 “Freight Trains and Monsters”, Beth sits down with Market Equities’ Rourke Morris (Josh Holloway) in a bar. The two discuss the conflict between the company he works for that intends to build an airport and ski resort on Dutton land. As well as other ranchers’ land. He thinks she has no idea who she’s messing with. That she can’t handle the coming fight. But in reality, it’s he who doesn’t realize. As he walks out of the bar she turns to him and says: “You’re the trailer park. I am the tornado.” Indeed, she does wreck things for him, if only temporarily. I have this quote on a travel mug I like it so much.

SEASON 4

In episode 2 “Phantom Pain”, Beth, still nursing her wounds from the explosive season 3 finale, goes to a meeting with her former boss, Bob Schwartz. Beth is out of a job due to the spat with Market Equities in the previous season, which she eventually lost. They intend to take her for all she’s worth for breach of contract, etc. Again, these suits think they have the upper hand. She slides her drink across the table to land in the lawyer’s lap. They tell her she poked the wrong bear. That they own the land she bought for the company.

But she just smiles and asks if they read the fine print because it’s actually she who is a majority owner of the land. “I’m the bigger bear,” she says before leaving and vowing revenge on Bob for leaving her high in dry in her family’s fight. This scene is a favorite of mine and my mom’s. We love that line at the end.

MORE DEFINING MOMENTS

In another scene from the episode, fiance and ranch foreman Rip comes home to their cabin and she announces she’s made dinner. Now, Beth can’t cook. After all, the Duttons employ a cook named Gator (played by the production’s actual caterer). She states she made Hamburger Helper, but that he didn’t have any beef, so used tuna. Rip’s response? “Why didn’t you use Tuna Helper?” Beth turns and stares at him a beat before responding “They make Tuna Helper?”

It’s a hilarious scene. One of the funniest, if not the funniest of the series. She then drops the bombshell that she brought home a stray teenage boy in trouble with the law (just like a teenage Rip when he was first brought to the ranch) that needed a home. The last scene of the episode is her serving dinner to her new family. And she tells them she made the Hamburger Helper with hamburger this time.

Remember how Beth told Bob Schwartz she was the bigger bear and would ruin him? Well, later in the season she drives seven hours to storm the corporate offices of Schwartz and Meyer just to fire Bob. She reveals to him she took a job at Market Equities – who think they can control her (Spoiler alert, they can’t) in exchange for their shares in Bob’s company instead of a salary or stock. “You’re in my seat…You bet on the wrong horse…You are fired.” She then fires the spying receptionist and stalks back out of the office yelling that since it’s all hers now, it’s coming with her back to Montana. It’s a classic Beth move.

WEDDING BELLS

In the season 4 finale, “Grass on the Streets and Weeds on the Rooftops”, Beth and long-time boyfriend Rip finally get married. The two have been together since they were 14 and 15. So it’s about time really. Beth, not wanting to wait for the traditional white wedding – and really I don’t think she’s the white wedding type – decided to have the wedding on her terms. She shows up back at the ranch with a priest in tow and announces they are having the wedding right then and there. The priest keeps things short and sweet. But Beth doesn’t even finish her vows before saying “I do” and throwing her arms around Rip to kiss him. When John asks the Priest how she managed to convince him to come on such short notice, he learns she kidnapped him at “gunpoint”, aka a finger gun in her jacket pocket.

IN CONCLUSION

There are many more moments like this and some tender and sweet moments too. It’s hard to remember them all. But suffice it to say these are some of the top ones. There are bound to be new ones in season 5 as the family enters new territory with John becoming governor. And if she’s to be his chief of staff like the trailer implies, then Force helps the little guys that get in her way. Beth Dutton is a force to be reckoned with, and fans wouldn’t have it any other way.

Yellowstone Season 5 part one is now streaming on Paramount+ in the UK.

What are your top Beth Dutton moments? Sound off and share yours below.

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