Of course, to some extent, Beth is thinking of herself: If Warner hands over her share of Schwartz and Meyer, she’ll be able to exact revenge on her former employer. But Caroline Warner’s job offer comes with some serious advantages: Instead of working against the Duttons, Beth would be able to deflect attention from the ranch and turn other spots in Montana into potential new Aspens. Because from his point of view, she’s pulling away, too, just by considering a position at Market Equities, his direct enemy. “Why do all my children have to leave to find happiness?” John asks morosely, just after Beth stands up to go inside. But like I said, this is one relationship I’ve grown to enjoy on the show, and seeing John disguise his hurt with clipped “yep”s is surprisingly touching. Kayce won’t be gone long, but John’s gotten used to him being around - compared to how he usually acts, he’s downright clingy. It’s ironic, of course, that in giving Kayce some simple advice, John ends up suggesting he and his son see less of each other. I’ve had my issues with the inconsistency of Monica’s position toward the ranch, but it’s still a relief to see her relief and Kayce’s relief that she still loves him enough to stay wherever he is. It’s John’s urging - and his remark that if it feels right, it probably is - that convinces Kayce to spend some time with his family away from the ranch, at Monica’s grandpa’s place on the reservation. They discuss business, of course, but John also broaches the subject of Kayce’s wife and son, who are holed up inside. Some of the most purely pleasant scenes outside of the bunkhouse recently have been John and Kayce’s talks, and that continues here at the site of John’s father’s death, the same spot John proposed to his wife and later buried her. Even when nothing goes right, at least there’s this place. But in a nice, subtle ending scene, Lloyd gets up the next morning, looks around, mutters, “Oh, fuck,” and puts on his hat. As soon as Walker provokes him, he attacks - and gets his ass beat, not just by Walker but by Rip, whose rules about fighting on the ranch have always been clear. Still wounded by Laramie ditching him for Walker, Lloyd’s being stubborn, grumpy, and bossy. That means a lot of low-key subplots about ranching, like this episode’s snafu when the herd gets pink eye. It’s important for a show like Yellowstone - one with lots of violence but only occasional fireworks - to find a groove, and to an extent, that just means having a high hit-to-miss ratio when it comes to story lines. The scattered nature of the stories isn’t an impediment this time if anything, it’s a feature.
Structure has never been its strong suit.īut after one shaky episode and one okay episode, “Winning or Learning” strikes me as one of the few uneventful episodes of Yellowstone that still feels really consistent all around. This season’s premiere felt uncommonly focused, devoted as it was to the Dutton hits and their aftermath - but that was never going to be Yellowstone’s primary mode. That isn’t automatically a bad thing, but it typically results in some inconsistency: Big events sometimes happen suddenly, often with little buildup or follow-up, and characters have conversations that could be plucked from one episode and reinserted anywhere else.
A typical episode of Yellowstone is made up of five or more different stories, rarely with one clear narrative through-line.
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