Dutton family values: all you need to know about Yellowstone

If you have a Dallas/Dynasty/Sons of Anarchy-shaped hole in your life and you’re looking to saddle up for a modern Western centred on a messy, mega-rich family dynasty, power feuds, financial skullduggery, and property wars, you’re going to want to watch Yellowstone Seas1-5. The series sets amoral characters with opposing goals against one another, then pushes play as they let rip, finding the most underhanded ways of feeding the greed drives them.  

Yellowstone’s big dogs 

The Duttons (Seasons 1-5): The Dutton family own Montana’s biggest cattle ranch, Yellowstone, which borders both the Broken Rock Indian Reservation and the protected Yellowstone National Park. They settled on the land around 1883 after James Dillard Dutton fought for the Confederate Army (pro slavery), then joined the great land grab in the West that displaced native Americans (miniseries The English spotlights the devastating impact of this settlement policy). Generations later, Dutton family patriarch John Dutton behaves as if keeping the ranch is a moral imperative. The Duttons founded the local town, own its major businesses, and swing generational wealth and political influence like the hammer of the gods. And when legal steps don't work, they won’t hesitate to bring out the dynamite.  

Broken Rock (Seasons 1-5): As the series begins, Harvard University graduate Chief Thomas Rainwater’s (Gil Birmingham, Billy Black in The Twilight Saga) has just taken power as elected high chief for the Confederated Tribes of Broken Rock. Chief Rainwater intends to channel money from his casinos into buying back Native American ancestral land, especially Yellowstone ranch. With powerful players flooding in and threatening the reservation, though, Chief Rainwater might have to abandon ethics to participate in this latest, supercharged land grab.  

Paradise Valley (Seasons 1-2): Oily, smirking land developer Dan Jenkins (Danny Huston) has his sights on Yellowstone as the perfect setting for a luxury housing estate. He tries to strongarm land rights to Yellowstone by claiming eminent domain (that the land is needed for public good), only to find that John Dutton has local politics in his pocket. Whatever dirty tricks Dan tries, he’ll find a Dutton man in his path. And when Dan partners with Thomas Rainwater to build a new casino, he’ll run foul of the Beck Brothers, too.  

The Beck Brothers (Seasons 1-2): Power-hungry petrol station and casino owners Teal (Terry Serpico) and Malcolm Beck (Neal McDonough) love to keep the cash and bribes rolling in. When the Becks target an enemy, they’ll stop at nothing, from sneering in stetsons, to rape, murder, and kidnapping. And since they have their fingers in a number of militias and neo nazi organisations, they have killers on call to do their dirty work.  

Market Equities/MKT Equities (Seasons 3-5): This billionaire-run development empire has its sights set on building an airport right in the middle of Yellowstone Ranch to serve a new ski resort and a city geared to the super rich – both of which they are planning to build on land that they’re snapping up around Yellowstone. MKT has endless cash to throw at their problems, so when they run into resistance, their plans expand to include ploughing the Dutton estate back into the dirt. While they see Beth Dutton as the perfect soulless piranha to lead their attack, they’ve reckoned without Dutton loyalty.  

With everyone laser focussed on Yellowstone and the Duttons, it’s time to get to know the family. The Duttons will close ranks against outsiders at the drop of a hat, but there are powerful undercurrents between them. So before you join their cowboy cult, let’s see what they’re keeping under their hats. 

Watch the trailer for Yellowstone

Spoiler alert! 

John Dutton III (Kevin Costner) 

The current Dutton patriarch promised his father on his deathbed that he’d never sell an inch of Yellowstone, and he’s sticking to those guns. John believes that he’s been half the man and half the father he could have been ever since his late wife Evelyn Dutton (Gretchen Mol) was killed by an evil horse. He could be right, because he seems to have raised his children as if they were employees fighting for promition. His cancer has set a ticking clock on his plans for Yellowstone’s future, especially after his favourite son dies.   

John is proud of “never firing the first shot”, just the last one. He’s willing to send his henchmen to murder innocent people he considers obstacles, and he plays politics through charm and leveraging fear, old loyalties and favours. But John’s reactive way of dealing with threats could lead to the Duttons losing Yellowstone for good. He doesn’t have what it takes to tackle the modern threats coming Yellowstone’s way from opponents who could bankrupt the entire state of Montana. And when he steps into the political ring, he doesn’t realise that his Yellowstone-centred personal tribalism has little to offer anyone who’s not a Dutton. 

• Josh Lucas plays the young John Dutton. 

Lee Dutton (Dave Annable) 

John’s choice of heir becomes a lot harder after the oldest Dutton son, Lee, comes to a sticky end while playing cow chess with the Reservation guys in the series premiere. Lee is around 38 years old, unmarried, and still living with his dad when he dies. But Lee being the clear heir has forced his siblings to choose other paths in life, turning them into the people with the real skills to save Yellowstone.  

Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) 

Kayce is a young man mentally scarred by his past as a Navy SEAL, during which he killed innocent civilians. Kayce lives with his wife Monica Long (Kelsey Asbille) and their son Tate (Brecken Merrill) on the Broken Rock reservation, where he’s slowly integrating into the Native American community. He finds sitting on the fence between the Duttons and the reservation agonisingly uncomfortable, especially after he secretly murders Monica’s brother Robert Long (Jeremiah Bitsui) for killing Lee at the start of the series. Kayce is a true Dutton in that he shoots and buries his problems, from paedophile kidnappers, to meth heads, and skinheads, and he won’t stop at lynching an enemy as a warning. But he also makes a sincere effort at doing the right thing as a livestock commissioner. While Kayce would be a great steward for the land, he’ll need help from his more cunning siblings to protect Yellowstone.  

• Rhys Alterman plays the young Kayce Dutton 

Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) 

Beth’s mother Evelyn was determined to raise her to be fearless. But as Evelyn was dying, she said something so cruel to Beth that it ripped Beth’s soul out of her body, along with her sense of fear. At the start of the series, Beth heads mergers and acquisitions at investment bank Schwartz & Meyer, finding sneaky ways to devalue businesses’ stock so that Schwartz & Meyer can sweep them up at a rock bottom price. But when Market Equities seizes a controlling share in Schwartz & Meyer, Beth will have to fight for her life, and Yellowstone.  

Beth grew up the daughter of the most powerful man in town, and it shows. She verbally crushes those who get in her way with the bored energy of a cat knocking a priceless heirloom off a table, secure in the belief that they’ll never be able to hit back. Beth has a secret, bitter feud with Jamie going back to a betrayal in their teens, which leads to her forcing him into murder to protect the Duttons – unaware that Jamie’s changing loyalties could see him blackmail her right back. She and John’s right hand man, Rip, have had an unbreakable love since their teens.  

• Kylie Rogers plays the young Beth Dutton. 

Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley) 

Calm, logical Jamie became a lawyer and he shows as much ruthlessness in court as Beth does in the boardroom, with a lot more subtlety and restraint. Right from the start, he and John are at odds over where Yellowstone will need to bend and adapt to survive in the future. John’s not willing to concede an inch of land, and when Jamie suggests that he’ll need to, John treats his son like an enemy.  

With his Dutton thirst for power, Jamie sets his sights on politics. At first, John pushes him to become Montana’s Attorney General, but he soon takes steps to block Jamie’s path, setting the two even further at odds, and even leading to a no-holds-barred father vs son race for the post of State Governor as the show continues. Jamie’s resentment of John leads him to make a catastrophic mistake, pushing him to murder, and putting him at Beth’s mercy. 

• Dalton Baker plays the young Jamie Dutton. 

Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) 

Awww. He’s just like one of the family. John Dutton took young Rip under his wing after Rip killed his own father for murdering his mother and brother. On the land itself, the Duttons run what amounts to a cowboy cult, with cowboys like Rip who take the Y-shaped Yellowstone ranch brand on their chests being granted special protection, but having to work on Yellowstone for the Duttons til they day they die. Anyone who messes with a branded man gets taken to “the train station”, where the only destination lies six feet under.  

As an adult, Rip keeps a tight rein on the cons and killers that the Duttons offer one last chance to on Yellowstone. He settles most problems by Wild West rules, letting the cowboys blow off steam in physical fights before weighing in with what he considers fair treatment when the dust settles. With his unquestioning loyalty and willingness to kill or intimidate as ordered, Rip is John’s most useful enforcer. He wears his brand with pride and he would take a bullet for both John and Beth Dutton. But if he had to choose, Beth wins. This rugged man turns into a teddy bear around her. 

• Kyle Red Silverstein plays the young Rip Wheeler. 

Watch Yellowstone S1-5 now 

There are also two Yellowstone spinoffs on the way: 1883 (James and Margaret Dutton’s story, starring Tim McGraw and Faith Hill), 1923 (Jacob and Cara Dutton’s story, starring Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren). So y’all come back now, you hear? 

PS: if you’re hungry for more tales of sprawling, powerful, filthy rich families, controlling patriarchs and matriarchs, and sibling rivalry, check out dark comedy dramas Succession S1-4 and The Righteous Gemstones S1-3, country music dramas Nashville S1-6 and Monarch S1, fantasy series House Of the Dragon S1, historical drama series Victoria S1-3 and Downton Abbey S1-6, and crime drama movies House of Gucci, Knives Out and Crooked House.