Yellowstone Proves Beth Is The True Successor Of The Best Dutton Family Member

There is a hidden detail deep in the folds of the Yellowstone universe that proves Beth is the successor of the best Dutton ever to walk Montana. Each Dutton family member has unique strengths. However, the cast of 1883, which comprises the earliest clan members, has particularly robust personalities forged by the rapidly changing world in which they existed. Yellowstone screenwriter Taylor Sheridan’s 1883 prequel tells the story of the Dutton family as they traverse from Texas to Montana on a variant of the Oregon Trail.

The journey of the wagon train is doubtlessly one of the most enthralling Yellowstone stories, and that’s in large part due to its characters. Elsa Dutton narrates the sage while traveling with her parents, James and Margaret, and her little brother, John. Elsa tells the complicated expansion story of the American West from a coming-of-age perspective, with her journey anchoring its events. While Elsa dies young, her shocking Yellowstone death is responsible for the family settling in Montana, and she remains one of the most outstanding characters in the franchise.

Beth & Elsa Dutton Share A Unique Perspective In The Yellowstone Franchise

Beth Is Elsa’s True Successor

A female Dutton has yet to pick up Elsa’s cowboying legacy, but a modern Dutton shares her perspective on life, which is just as unique. We know a fair amount about how Elsa processes the world because the 1883 episodes begin and end with Elsa’s narration. At the end of 1883 episode 7, “Lightning Yellow Hair,” she closes the outing by saying, regarding her mother, “I didn’t have the heart to tell her there is no Heaven to go to, because we’re in it already. We’re in hell, too. They coexist. Right beside each other. And God is the land.”

Likewise, Beth Dutton has a unique perspective on the Montana land her family occupies and her place in it. When drinking on the roof of the Dutton family lodge in Yellowstone season 2, episode 7, “Resurrection,” the future husband and wife square up their world views. Beth tells Rip, “I think heaven’s right here. So’s hell. One person can be walking the clouds right next to someone enduring eternal damnation. And God is the land.” The similar comments between Beth and Elsa represent how wisdom can be passed down from generation to generation, whether we realize it or not.

How Beth Is Related To Elsa In The Dutton Family Tree

Elsa Is Beth’s Distant Aunt

When looking at the Dutton family tree in Yellowstone, Elsa Dutton is like Beth’s great-great-aunt, give or take. Elsa’s brothers, John Dutton I and Spencer, from the 1923 prequel, continue the family tree after Elsa died in 1883. Her brother John, who is just five years old on the Oregon Trail, grows up and marries Emma Dutton, and they have a son named Jack, who also stars in 1923. Jack or Spencer is the father of John Dutton II, Beth’s grandfather, making Elsa Beth’s distant aunt. Sadly, Elsa dies before she can have children of her own.

Elsa is one of the best characters in the Yellowstone franchise — none of the 1923 characters could quite replace her fearlessness. Still, Beth embodies Elsa’s worldview in many ways, making the modern-day Dutton her ancestor’s spiritual successor. The statements suggest that both women had a profound connection to the land, which was, in a way, their religion. While the characters never had the chance to meet one another, Beth and Elsa’s perspectives resonate beautifully and cap the beginning and end of the family’s time on the land within the Yellowstone franchise.