Back in Episode 1 of Dutton Ranch, after they managed to save one single animal from their Dillon Ranch herd, Beth told Rip the little brown calf was a survivor just like them. Brought all the way from the big skies of Montana to the flat heat of Texas, the cow began to integrate and settle in, as what was new became the everyday. But in Dillon, as that wall of flame came down on their life, and Beth told Rip they would build again, we imagine she didn’t mean starting from zero less than a year later.
With foot-and-mouth disease rampant and spreading through the herd, Beth and Rip make the terrible decision to put down Dutton Ranch’s entire stock of cattle. “This will be one of those days that follow you to the grave,” Rip tells Azul and Zachariah. “Y’all are gonna dig the pit, and Beth and I will drive ’em in.” This is exactly what the hands do, using an earth mover to grade off a portion of land as a dead man’s pasture, and once the animals are driven down the earthen ramp, Rip pauses before he begins to fire. The cartridges pile up by his boots and reports from his rifle startle the stifling breeze, and Beth bears witness while Azul and Zach stand by with buckets of quicklime. Dutton Ranch is their livelihood, but it also represents the truest form of what these people do. Being forced to shoot down the herd is like killing their very way of life. Which they must somehow start again. For the second time.
“You’re already gonna get laid again – you don’t gotta flatter me.” Oreana stayed over with Carter, and they are naked in bed when Beth walks in. Carter’s 19 and all his classmates are 15, but he’s still gotta go to school. And as for Oreana, Beth just catalogs her as information. She’s a Jackson? Of course she is. She’s the aimless local rabble rouser in cutoffs and cowboy boots encouraging Carter to skip? Makes sense. But Beth accepts Oreana’s take on why she likes the kid, that he doesn’t try to be anything he’s not. And when the young woman says Beth doesn’t have to make her life a living hell – her grandmother’s already doing that – an understanding passes between them. Beth considers Oreana as she drops her at the 10-Petal. “You don’t strike me as the kind of woman who asks for permission.” Kindred spirits, maybe.
Will Oreana be on the side of Beth, Rip, and Carter, as their fight with the 10-Petal continues to emerge? At home, she rolls a joint in front of grandma. She resists having her credit cards and vintage Bronco privileges taken away. And she tries to escape in a work truck, but Beulah’s attack dog henchman stops her. It’s the same with Oreana as it is with Rob-Will, her wayward ranch foreman father. Defiance and bad behavior only go so far. Beulah demanded her son go to rehab – for substance abuse and the optics; not murder, which is apparently alright – and Beulah demands Oreana stay at the 10-Petal. The ranch, and everyone associated with it, fall under her exclusive dominion.
And it seems Beulah considers the Dutton Ranch also part of her dominion. With the purchase offers Joaquin made for the ranch beat back, and with the arrival of Beth and Rip as Rio Paloma’s newest ranchers, we think Beulah and the 10-P have decided sabotage is their best play for control. Did they poison the bull that brought FMD to Dutton Ranch? Not directly. But Beth discovers the animal’s veterinary paperwork and pre-sale bloodwork was all forged. The cattle broker who facilitated the deal is also a low-level independent, a mercenary who doesn’t ask questions of his clients, meaning the bull could have actually come from anywhere. This nefarious business has to point straight to the 10-P, right? We know Beulah does not wither at playing dirty – covering up murders, plus her own granddaughter tells Beth the woman uses people and tosses ‘em out like trash. If anybody in the little town of Rio Paloma was gonna fuck over Dutton Ranch, it would be Beulah and the 10-Petal. But while they set to rebuilding, Beth and Rip are also burning stuff down.
In the truck, after they’ve burned the cattle broker’s trailer to the ground, and as they return to a cattle ranch currently devoid of cattle, Beth apologizes to Rip. She says she’ll do anything to fix this latest mess. But Rip says it isn’t on his wife to fix it, and at the ranch, he collapses into a heap while holding his head in his hands. Rip considers the vast field of Texas stars above him. There is no answer in the cosmos for why their survival will never be a guarantee.
The Beth Parts for Episode 4 of Dutton Ranch (“Start With a Bullet”):
- “Beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly, sing the death march as you carry me along” – The mood on the ranch is heavy and mournful after the cattle are put down. By the pasture-as-grave, Zacharaiah Moss sings the words of the Marty Robbins cowboy lament “Streets of Laredo” almost to himself.
- “We’ve got too many demons to ever be good for each other.” We catch another quiet moment between Beulah and Everett in Dutton Ranch Episode 2, but he leaves when she puts a hand on his leg. The subtext is that what they shared, their romance, might have been the best either of them ever had. But Beulah chose the 10-Petal over Everett.
- There is a non-zero chance Carter never goes back to high school. He wants to help run the ranch, or at least be a hand, and to that end he makes a new friend down at the feed store. The always fantastic Ray McKinnon joins Dutton Ranch as rascally old cowboy Dwight White, who puts Carter to work on his land, which for some reason includes an African leopard in an enclosure. “Grab ahold of your gojonies!”
Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.