You wouldn’t expect it, but “Dutton Ranch” just aired one of the most upsetting hours of television, perhaps ever.
If you haven’t been watching “Dutton Ranch,” it’s a spinoff of “Yellowstone” that follows Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Rip (Cole Hauser) as they try to build a new life in the fictional town of Rio Paloma. (Their house, just outside the Yellowstone ranch of the mainline series, burned down in a wildfire during the first episode.) But paradise is hard to maintain and, in these opening episodes, both Beth and Rip have been pulled into conflict with a local rancher and slaughterhouse owner named Beulah Jackson (Annette Bening). And their early hardships come to a head in episode 4, titled “Start With a Bullet.”
First, we must issue a spoiler warning, as we are going to dive deep into the episode. But also a content warning, because this thing is so bleak.
In episode 4 Rip discovers that one of the cows has hoof-and-mouth disease, which, in a rare bit of political commentary, has been on the rise in ranches thanks to a broad anti-vaccine sentiment from ranchers. (This has undoubtedly been stoked by the paranoia following the pandemic and the current administration’s wonky relationship with health policy.) Of course, if one cow has it, the others will follow. Rip tries to quarantine the sick calf, with the help of kindly veterinarian Everett McKinney (Ed Harris). But it’s too late.
The National Library of Medicine describes the disease as “a highly infectious illness caused by the genus Aphthovirus. Blisters develop a few days after infection. Malaise, lameness and secondary bacterial infections soon follow. The most serious effects are seen in dairy cattle, with the resulting economic disaster from declining milk yields, abortion and sterility.”
Of course, this all reaches a head by the end of the episode, when Rip, Beth and their ranch hands have to round up the cattle — all of the cattle — and put them down. It’s absolutely gutting, indeed one of the most profoundly sad episodes of television you’re likely to see.
“The hardest thing for Rip to do is to kill an animal,” Hauser told TheWrap.
“It was awful, heartbreaking for them, their dream, not only just the animals, but like that is the end of their dream of their own ranch. They’ve had to start again so many times, and it’s like, What more can go wrong?” Reilly added.
“I was thinking about the little calf that we brought to from Montana. And there’s a great moment where Beth looks at Rip and goes, ‘Can we save it?’ And I just shake my head. That, in a way, is, is a child of ours — it’s a memory of the past of Montana,” said Hauser. “I mean, obviously, it was a very emotional day and it’s a sad moment, but one that just continues to tear them down to this place of having to find a way out. It’s the loss of not only their home in Montana, but now the loss of their herd, and how are they going to get through this? It was another huge punch to the to the guts for them both.”
“It’s the brutality of ranching. And what it takes. It’s not just romantic, but just how to take care of a livelihood that is brutal. And there is nothing more heartbreaking for a cowboy than to have to do that,” said Reilly.
Bening isn’t in the sequence but had seen the episode.
“It’s devastating when you’re a rancher, this is what’s happening, these roots and these feelings about the land and cattle, and all of that goes very, very deep. I really appreciate learning about ranch life and about the stakes that people feel,” said Bening. “The Texas history is incredibly interesting and complicated and in many ways, very dark, I do think that Beulah is part of a long legacy of people who came to Texas to try to make things work, and she’s continuing to do that, even in the present day, in the present economics of ranching. All of that is true.”
“Dutton Ranch” releases new episodes Fridays on Paramount+.
