The cowboy way, as described by Rip, is to say "see ya later," not goodbye. So that's what we're doing this week as this all-too-short season of Yellowstone comes to an end. This is perhaps too easy to say given at the close of Season Three it seemed like Beth was a crispy critter, John was Swiss cheese, and Kayce was getting the Bonnie and Clyde'd, but Season Four actually ends with most of our heroes (is heroes the right word?) in a pretty decent place.
Which isn't to say that this run of episodes wasn't, as creator Taylor Sheridan promised via the mouths of many of his characters, about retribution. Everyone would pay in their own way we heard time and time again—and pay they did. By the end of Sunday night's episode, we have a death, a wedding, a firing, and one hell of a fight.
There's a lot of ground to cover, so let's get into some cowboy shit.
New Year, New Beth
Coming off of last week's shocking dismissal from John, we find Beth in her closet in the middle of the night, packing for a life outside of the Yellowstone ranch. When Rip discovers her, he explains that this whole charade—her leaving and all—is a dealbreaker for him, and as much as I hate it, I get it. These two have been through everything together: remember when Beth got the bejesus beaten out of her in Season Two? Remember when she got blown up last year? Remember when Jamie robbed her of her ability to get pregnant? Rip has always been there! So why not this? Because this time, if Beth leaves, she's leaving the ranch (and Rip) on her own volition.
Beth has a soft core—it's why we stick by her, folks—so this is, thankfully, enough for Beth to go and apologize to John in the middle of the night. Before she walks out, John tells her that he loves her, unwaveringly. The next day, as Beth is walking through the stalls, Carter says, "Hey, mama," and she replies, "Hey, baby." It catches her off guard so much that she explains to him that he can't call her that. (Okay, it's a semi-soft core.) And then sweet Carter cries because he was so close. So close, Beth! So close to humanity!
That's Jacki Weaver, Not Sally Struthers
Beth's bad day continues and she gets fired from Market Equities after Caroline (played by Jacki Weaver, not Sally Struthers like the internet wrongly assumes) accuses her of leaking the police brutality story to the Times. And while it, at first, seems like a major blow, one phone click seems to indicate that Beth captured the whole tirade on camera—and in a much more subtle way than that woman in the co-op did earlier this season. Won't be the last time we see that phone come out either.
Later in the day, John is trying to cut a deal that gets Summer out of life in prison, all while Beth is actually in prison for a—wait for it—conjugal visit with Riggins, one of the men who tried to off everyone at the end of last season. At first, it seems like she's going in to kill him, but it turns out Beth is mostly looking for information. Riggins says that he only did what he was hired to do... same thing he told the other guy. What other guy, Beth asks. Jamie.
At Summer's day in court, she changes her plea to guilty with the understanding that her counsel is seeking a fifteen year suspended sentence. But that's not what happens: Summer ends up with a 37-and-a-half-year sentence, eligible for parole after 14 years. She's devastated and so is John. John goes straight to the judge and demands he change the terms, which...works? The judge curiously agrees to quietly commute most of Summer's sentence, despite him insisting that this younger generation is going to ruin the world.
A Back-Asswards Wedding
Before Beth gets her revenge on Jamie, she comes home with a happier plan. In a signature Beth fur coat, she drags everyone outside and announces to Rip and John that it's time for her to be a married woman. Wedding, on the spot. Rip goes and gets Lloyd to be his best man. John walks Beth down the aisle in a dress he tries to protest but eventually concedes to (it's Beth, you know?) and gives her away to Rip. Rip presents her his dead mother's ring and says, "It's yours, and so am I." The two make out, the priest declares them husband and wife, and I'm crying. Crying because of the wedding and the zombie ring and the fact that Beth kidnapped the priest on the way home.
But good news doesn't last long, at least not out West. Beth visits Jamie in his office, gun and ring in hand, to finally confront him about the people who tried to kill the Duttons. She explains that she can either turn him and Garrett in to the state or she can turn him and Garrett in to Rip. She gets up to leave, determined to leave him guessing which option she will choose, but Jamie begs her to stay. That's when she says there's a third option... and it will reveal itself soon enough.
Back home, Jamie finds Garrett by a creek. He tells Jamie he wishes he could teach him to be fearless because he could have everything he could ever want. He tells Jamie he's a good man and that he loves him, but then Jamie pulls a gun, tells Garrett he loves him, and shoots him in the head. He hauls his father out in the middle of nowhere to drop the body off, but Beth is waiting. She takes his photo and says that option one or two probably would have been better for him.
Walking Kayce in Nature
Kayce is still in that linked-off square out in the pasture that the Broken Ranch elders left him in. After a while, he begins to hallucinate before becoming near catatonic. But in the middle of the night, guess who appears? Lee Dutton. Dave Annable returns for the role of the fourth Dutton child who died way back in S1 E1, appearing to Kayce as a vision in the night when Kayce can't pray. Of course, that goes to shit when Lee begins bleeding out the mouth and yelling. This isn't the last visit Kayce receives over the course of his stay in the wild. A series of wolves, Avery (the woman who's been pursuing Kayce this season), and finally a young American Indian girl also appear.
The last vision asks Kayce if he's ready to finish this journey, presenting him with two paths. She instructs him to choose one, but before we can see either option, he wakes up and it's time to actually go home. Free from the trauma of his journey, Monica asks him what he saw. Kayce only says, "I saw the end of us," which is decidedly not what a pregnant wife wants to hear.
One Final Dispatch From Jimmy
This season of Yellowstone has really bet on us loving Jimmy, and I don't know how safe of an assumption that was. But after a year of will-he-won't-he return to the ranch, Jimmy comes back as a bonafide cowboy. In case anyone was holding out hope for Jimmy and Mia, that dream was squashed as soon as Jimmy brought Emily (his fiancée!!) into the bunkhouse. Mia immediately gets up and decks Jimmy. Emily delivers a solid right hook into Mia's face, and suddenly, I'm interested in the bunkhouse!
Jimmy makes the fair point that Mia said she was done with him, so he moved on. But it's not enough for Mia, who demands he choose between Emily and her again. Jimmy doesn't respond, but in some ways, isn't that a response? John walks up on the tail end of the conversation, which leads into quite a wonderful chat between the two. John tells Jimmy that he'll always have a place at the Yellowstone, but at this point, he owes John nothing. He's free to go to 6666, if he wants.
Jimmy chooses Texas and Emily. He gets a bunkhouse "see ya later" fit for a real cowboy, and this time, he's earned it.
