10 Darkest Things About Yellowstone That Fans Completely Ignore

As a Western show, Yellowstone portrays the amount of violence expected of cowboys defending their land and cattle. However, Yellowstone goes above and beyond with disturbing scenes and cruel characters. As the Dutton family holds on to their power, they do questionable things.

However, many fans adore the cowboys and their tough personas, completely overlooking their darker sides. Rip’s twisted acts of affection, the way they treat young Carter, and the warped portrayal of sex are some aspects that make Yellowstone ​​​​​​truly dark. Killing enemies is one thing, but torturing people out of trauma is a whole other one.

10. The Way Beth Raises Carter Is Disturbing

Beth and Rip Treat Carter Worse Than a Pet

In season 4 of Yellowstone, Beth meets a young, troubled boy, Carter, at the hospital. She immediately connects with the foul-mouthed, gloomy kid and even accompanies him to say goodbye to his dying, abusive father. Carter, who is left an orphan, soon gets into trouble and asks for Beth at the police station. Beth wants nothing to do with the boy, but eventually, he warms her heart, and she lets him live and work in the Yellowstone.

Truth be told, Beth saved Carter from a horrifying life in the foster system. However, a woman of her means could have given Carter a lot of options. She takes him in and then lets him live in the tool shed, showing no concern for his education. She’s often violent with Carter and most of the time only calls him “boy”. The way the Duttons treat Carter is inhumane. They act like they are being charitable and generous when, in reality, they are extremely cruel.

9. Rip Taking His Mother’s Ring from the Grave Was Pretty Shocking

Rip Has an Interesting Relationship with Love and Death

A lot of people love Rip and Beth’s relationship, but it has some disturbing elements. Not only are the two toxic, twisted, and violent, but they also normalize strange events. For example, when Beth and Rip agreed to get married, Rip decided to open his mother’s grave and grab her wedding ring from her finger to give it to Beth.

It isn’t strange for Rip to want to gift his mother’s ring to the love of his life, but the way he goes about it is weird and upsetting. He comfortably opens his mother’s grave, looks at her decayed body, and casually removes the ring. Most people would hire someone or assume the ring is already gone, but Rip is not most people, obviously. The ring is also, in a way, a terrible symbol. Rip’s father presumably gave his mother the ring, but it was also Rip’s father who killed the woman. So, in a way, even though the ring belonged to Rip’s loving mother, it represents a violent history.

8. Beth’s Assault Scene in Her Office Was Harrowing

The Violent Nature of the Scene Was Never Addressed

The second season of Yellowstone keeps the audience on the edge of their seats with many horrifying scenes, thanks to the bloody conflict with the Beck brothers. However, no moment is as upsetting as the scene where two men kill Beth’s assistant and assault and sexually abuse Beth. Not only do they murder Jason to intimidate Beth, but there is a moment in which one man tries to rape Beth, but he can’t get an erection because Beth doesn’t look afraid of him.

Yellowstone talks a lot about the violence women endure in this society. Not only Beth’s attack, but also several scenes about women in the Reservation being kidnapped, raped, and murdered by men. While it’s necessary to discuss these topics, the show doesn’t analyze the conflict nor educate the audience. There are only violent scenes about women for the shock factor, but there is no discussion about the systematic violence women endure. To make matters worse, these scenes only highlight the heroism of men like Kayce or Rip, taking away from a critical stance.

7. Jamie Getting Beth an Involuntary Hysterectomy Is Unforgivable

Jamie Is a Much Worse Person Than Fans Give Him Credit For

From the very beginning of Yellowstone, it’s clear that Beth hates her brother Jamie, but no one knows why. While Beth is impulsive and short-tempered, she is only ruthless towards Jamie. Well, a flashback showcases the reason and is genuinely shocking. When Beth was a teenager, she asked Jamie to help her get an abortion. Her older brother took her to a Native American clinic, which required women to receive a hysterectomy to get an abortion. Jamie accepted the procedure without asking Beth for permission, not only violating her body, but also messing with her health and stealing the possibility of motherhood from her.

While most of the fandom doesn’t like Jamie, they tend to ignore the extent of his cruel actions. A young Jamie had already subjugated his sister to a heartless and violent experience. His murder of the journalist and abuse of other women are not coincidences. Jamie is a misogynistic character who deserves very little empathy.

6. Kacey Killing His Brother-in-Law Was Brushed Off

Kacey Continued To Have a Relationship with Monica as if He Didn’t Kill Her Brother

In the first episode of Yellowstone, a battle between a Native American reservation (Monica’s community) and the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch ended with the murders of Monica’s brother Robert and Lee Dutton. Robert killed Lee in the middle of the battle, and Kayce shot Robert, who was indeed going to kill him as well. The conflict was very life or death, but it’s hard to imagine that Kayce got in between Monica’s and his own family.

It’s hard to imagine Monica forgiving Kayce without even talking about the subject. What Kayce did ruined most of her family. After Robert’s death, his widowed wife commits suicide. Robert’s children are taken to another state, and Kayce doesn’t even admit the cold-blooded murder that ruined those kids’ lives.

5. Mia Taking Advantage of Jimmy Was Definitely Not Romantic

Mia Was a Terrible Girlfriend from Beginning to End

When Jimmy meets Mia, he gets severely injured in a rodeo competition. He ends up in the hospital, where Mia surprisingly visits the cowboy. However, the cuteness ends there because Mia soon has sex with Jimmy right there and then. Not only is it very possible that Jimmy was on sedative medication, but he was very hurt, and he was a virgin. Mia, however, barely gives the cowboy a choice.

Most people assume that because Jimmy is a boy, it is okay. If the roles were reversed, with Jimmy being a woman and Mia being a man, this scene would have shocked way more people. Either way, the scene depicts sexual abuse, but the show portrays it as a romantic moment.

4. Rip Easily Killing People & Disposing of Bodies Makes Him a Truly Horrifying Person

Rip Is a Much More Despicable Character Than the Audience Thinks

A lot of people love and admire Rip, but he’s a horrible person, a dark fact that most fans prefer to ignore. He’s basically John Dutton’s muscle, doing his dirty work for him. Who knows how many people Rip has murdered, but throughout the show, he kills at least four, and the number isn’t higher because he’s not always successful. He does try to kill Walker, for example, but Kayce saves his life, and eventually, Walker manages to survive Rip’s ire. He’s also often the intellectual author of certain murders, such as sending Lloyd to kill Fred at the “Train Station”.

Killing fired cowboys is unforgivable because they could just let them go. Of course, Rip kills the cowboys to keep them from speaking about the crimes at the Yellowstone, but it seems unwise to hire people he doesn’t trust or who are not committed to the Yellowstone to witness all those actions. On top of that, Rip is an expert at disposing of bodies and even helps Jamie make the murder of the innocent journalist look like a kayak accident. Rip is genuinely evil.

3. John Tricking Summer into Staying in His House Makes the Patriarch a Sexual Abuser

John Is a Master Manipulator

John Dutton meets Summer after the woman protests the Yellowstone ranch. He pretends to care about her environmental ideologies and invites her to the ranch so she can see for herself how environmentally ethical they are. The show loves to romanticize the cowboy lifestyle, as breeding cows for the sole purpose of eating them wasn’t inherently unethical, on top of the meat industry being one of the most polluting industries on the planet.

On top of the hidden agenda against ecological defenders, John also tricks Summer into staying in his house. He tells her the police let her out of jail (when Beth tricks her into getting caught) only if she stays with him. The sexoromantic relationship was consensual, but Summer was led into the house under false pretenses, which showcases a dangerous power dynamic from the Dutton patriarch.

2. Evelyn Dutton Was a Terrible & Abusive Mother

John & Evelyn Deserved Each Other Because They Were Both Horrible Parents

Throughout Yellowstone, the Dutton characters took very highly of Evelyn, John Dutton’s late wife, and Beth, Lee, and Kayce’s mother. John didn’t even get married again after her death, even though he was pretty young. However, Evelyn wasn’t a good person. She is responsible for most of Beth’s trauma.

In the Yellowstone flashbacks, Evelyn verbally abuses her daughter all the time. She compares her with Kayce and lets her know that she is not as good as her other son. Evelyn’s death occurs after a horse accident because Beth was afraid of riding. Not only that, but Evelyn didn’t get help on time because she punished Beth by sending her for help instead of sending Kayce, who was the better rider.

1. John Cold-Bloodedly Murdered Any Threat To Yellowstone Land (& People Still Love Him)

John’s Greed Knows No Bounds

There is simply no way of redeeming John Dutton, but he has become the ultimate cowboy hero. While he doesn’t represent a macro-corporation from New York or Los Angeles, Dutton is still a symbol of extreme capitalism. To keep the Yellowstone land, John commits a significant number of illegal acts and murders a great deal of people. He’s willing to assassinate (and does indeed kill) vulnerable people from the Native American Reservation when they decide to keep his cattle. Dutton starts the violent conflict simply because the cattle are his. That’s not very cowboy or love for nature; that is pure greed.

John attacks the leaders of great corporations who want to acquire the land and then either assaults them or kills them when they react to his passive-aggressive solutions. Polluting these significant extensions of land isn’t great, but John keeping it to himself is also an act against society. John believes himself to be a god who is above all laws and justifies himself in the love of tradition, when, in reality, he loves power.