Beth Dutton is easily one of the best characters in the Yellowstone franchise, and she has a series of memorable moments to back it up. True Detective’s Kelly Reilly has portrayed Beth since Yellowstone season 1 launched in 2018, introducing an intense character to the series who fights passionately for the people she loves most. Tragic events within the Dutton family tree shape Beth’s rich history and complex personality.
Of course, some of Beth’s best moments are landmarks in her relationship with Yellowstone cast member Cole Hauser, who plays Rip, a ranch hand who has been with the Dutton Ranch since he was a kid. Hauser and Reilly’s characters maintain natural chemistry in the series, rivaled by almost no other Yellowstone power couple. Beth is also subjected to some of the darkest moments in Yellowstone, but the character channels the horrors in her life into becoming a stronger person and continuing to fight for her family.
10.Telling Jamie, “You Gotta Watch Them Die”
John Dutton Calls Beth Evil
Beth has had disdain for Jamie (Wes Bentley) since she was a teenager, and it’s evident just how much she resents Jamie when he drives her home in Yellowstone season 1, episode 5, “Coming Home.” Beth argues with Jamie that he didn’t lose their mother the same way she did, since she had to watch her die after she fell off her horse. To make her point, Beth holds a gun to her chin, and it shows the audience just how intense and emotionally charged she feels inside.
When Jamie tells her to pull the trigger, Beth shoots it into the car’s roof. The moment shows Beth and Jamie’s willingness to destroy each other, fighting for their father’s approval. When Beth returns to the ranch, she screams and cries in her room, and Jamie tells John (Kevin Costner) that he should send Beth back to Salt Lake City. The Dutton patriarch refuses, telling Jamie that Beth can be evil and that he needs that quality to fight for the ranch.
9.Celebrating Staying At The Ranch Alone
Beth Howls Like A Wolf To Celebrate
During a time of turmoil on the ranch, there’s a memorable moment when Rip thinks he hears a wolf and goes out to investigate, frustrated by the chaos of the ranch. But when he goes outside, he finds Beth in the horse pen, drinking whiskey and howling into the night like a dog. While her behavior is bizarre, Beth is predictably unpredictable, and she soon explains herself.
When Rip asks Beth what’s going on, she explains that she’s never spent a night at the Dutton Ranch alone in all 35 years of her life. The ranch is a massive, bustling institution, but it’s also Beth’s home. It’s a rare occasion that Beth can enjoy her home by herself since the cowboys are tending cattle up in the mountains. Rip giving into the fun with Beth and dancing with her was a moment where the characters were genuinely comfortable opening up to one another.
8.Plotting Revenge On Dan Jenkins
Beth Shows How Far She’ll Go
When Beth plots to take down Dan Jenkins (Danny Huston), she shows she has no boundaries when taking down her enemies. Jenkins is the primary antagonist in Yellowstone season 1, and seeing Beth go up against Dan is the first time we see her grit her teeth and attack someone other than Jamie. Beth makes personal attacks in tandem with tactically advantageous business maneuvers, and it’s a duality she balances from then on.
Beth takes Dan to a bar in Montana and has him beaten up. She manipulates his wife by acting like his friend, and she even gets his wife to nearly sleep with her assistant at some point in Jenkins’ own home. While Beth ultimately wasn’t responsible for Dan Jenkins’ brutal death in Yellowstone, which ended his time in Paradise Valley for good, she was in the process of dismantling his life. Dan had little to protect when his story concluded in the Yellowstone season 2 finale.
7.Telling Off The Boutique Store Owner
Beth Shows Up For Her Family
While Beth and Monica (Kelsey Asbille) aren’t particularly close throughout Yellowstone, Beth shows she will fiercely protect anyone in her small but tight-knit circle when she stands up to the boutique clothing store owner harassing Monica. The way Beth uses the jewelry displays to smash into the boutique’s display cases is genuinely shocking, up there with other great action and take-down sequences in Yellowstone. Beth is a terror to those around her, as are her brothers and father.
Beth isn’t a cowboy but has the Wild West in her blood and uses her evil prowess for good when she defends Monica.
Beth’s fierce defense of her sister-in-law in Beth and Monica’s Yellowstone boutique scene proves that her evil has a purpose. Beth’s goal is to make the owner feel as bad as she makes Monica feel, connecting back to Beth’s core traits of protecting people. The scene contrasts the two very different Dutton women, showing that Monica subscribes to a code of ethics different from most Duttons. Beth isn’t a cowboy but has the Wild West in her blood and uses her evil prowess for good when she defends Monica.
6.Telling Rip She Can’t Have Kids
Beth Is At Her Most Vulnerable
Beth telling Rip she can’t have children is one of her best moments in Yellowstone because Beth allows herself to be vulnerable. Hauser’s character brings out a side of Beth that no one else sees, and when she tells Rip that she wants to be with him but can’t give him a family, it’s truly one of her best moments. She doesn’t tell Rip why she can’t give him a family, but he immediately responds that he can accept that.
The moment has multiple layers of complexity, considering that the event surrounding her conception of Rip’s child is why she can’t conceive a family. Amid all the bad news on the ranch, moments in Beth and Rip’s romance infuse the series with themes of love and hope. Despite the complicated realities of the characters’ shared past, these moments shape Beth’s duality and make her the compelling character she is.
5.Taking In Carter
Beth Can’t Have Children Of Her Own But Finds Someone To Parent
Especially if you’re a fan of hers, it melts your heart when Beth takes in Carter in the Yellowstone season 4 opener, one of the best episodes of Yellowstone. Beth can’t conceive children of her own, and Carter shows up at the perfect time in her life. Beth was spending every day at the hospital hoping for John Dutton’s recovery when she met the 14-year-old, who had just lost his father to heroin.
Beth has hardened to the world, but her heart softens a bit when she sees that Carter is the same way. He reminds her of Rip, so she advocates for him that day. Carter eventually finds his way back to her, which leads to Beth taking him in. The moment Beth takes Carter in again rivals the first time, although watching the pseudo mother and son hash it out was heartbreaking.
4.Firing Bob From Schwartz & Meyer
Beth Fires Her Former Boss
One of Beth’s most iconic moments in Yellowstone is firing Bob from Schwartz & Meyer. This moment signifies that Beth is a mastermind of her world, always one step ahead of the people around her, even when her plans seem to backfire. Beth fires her former boss because she gains the majority share of his company from a salary deal with Market Equities.
Ultimately, Beth drives seven hours to Schwartz & Meyer’s Salt Lake City location to fire Bob. She tells him that he’s in her office and that he bet on the wrong horse. Bob previously fired Beth due to her mishap shorting Market Equities’ stock, which ultimately put her at the head of land development in Montana when she landed a position within their company.
3.Reading Rip The Letter About His House
Beth Stands Up To Her Dad For The Man She Loves
One of the most memorable moments in Yellowstone is when Beth reads Rip a letter from John Dutton on the front steps of his new house. In the letter, John talks about how his great-grandfather dreamed of having all his children living on the property and that giving Rip a house could help fulfill that dream for him. Beth reading the note to Rip is a beautiful moment for her, showing how deeply she cares for the ranch foreman.
After Beth stands up for Rip and his loyalty to their family, John gives Rip the house. Beth can see that Rip is more loyal to John than his son, Jamie, who gets to live in the house and has every privilege his children had growing up when Rip slept in the barn. Rip’s house allows Beth and Rip to fall in love and discuss marriage and children, allowing the couple to manifest their shared dreams.
2.Taking A Bath In The Front Yard
Beth’s Lack Of Fear On Her Mother’s Anniversary Is Fitting
On her mother’s anniversary of death, Beth acts out by cathartically bathing on the front lawn of the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch. After filling a metal washtub and dropping a heater into it, Beth strips down and takes a bath for anyone to see. She helps herself to a bottle of champagne and tells Jamie that she doesn’t want to explain to Jamie why they “don’t have the same pee pee” when he tries to talk to her.
The moment signifies how little Beth fears the world after her mother’s death but that she still has to act out to process and cope with it. Beth already would have been prone to blaming herself for her mother’s death since she was a part of the accident, but her mother worsened things by directly blaming her just before she died. As such, Beth explains later that she doesn’t make decisions based on fear anymore because the two times she did cost her everything.
1.Kidnapping The Priest To Marry Her And Rip At The Yellowstone
Beth Is Immediately Forgiven For Her Sins
In a Yellowstone season 4 finale surprise, Beth kidnaps a priest so that she can get married to Rip. While she initially wants to wait for the perfect place to say her vows (or lack thereof), she seals the deal in the Yellowstone season 4 finale. Beth is preparing to do whatever is necessary to take down Jamie, which includes settling unfinished business, like marrying the man she loves.
It’s a definitive moment for Yellowstone, showing who truly matters to Beth and Rip. Beth’s father attends the ceremony, as does Carter, and Lloyd is Rip’s best man. While the ceremony is hasty, with John Dutton questioning Beth’s use of a Catholic priest and how she got the preacher there, it is ultimately beautiful. Beth reveals that she kidnapped the priest, but he immediately forgives her.
