NOTE: this post contains spoilers for Yellowstone season 1 episode 7, "A Monster Is Among Us."
In Yellowstone, some want things to change, like Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) and Dan Jenkins (Danny Huston), and some don't, like the Duttons, particularly John (Kevin Costner).
John butts heads against the forces of change when Asian tourists stop to take a picture of a wild bear on his land. He pulls over to warn them, but they're not worried. Even so, they're trespassing on his land. When they argue no one man should have so much land, he scares them off by firing his gun into the air and says, "this is America, we don't share land here."
Still change is a difficult thing to stop. However, it can be just as difficult to enact.
Monica's injury
After collapsing last episode, Monica (Kelsey Asbille) has brain surgery. She survives the surgery, but the doctor tells Kayce (Luke Grimes) it's too early to tell how she'll recover.
After Tate (Brecken Merrill) fights some nurses keeping him from seeing his mom, and Kayce then punches some of the security team, the doctor tells Kayce he needs to leave and take a break.
They spend the night at a hotel room. While Tate watches TV, Kayce stifles tears as he fears what is going to happen to Monica.
John is stood up
John speaks at a big event, but unfortunately he ends up being all alone as neither Jamie or Beth showed up like they were supposed to.
Jamie (Wes Bentley) instead sets up his campaign office with Christina (Katherine Cunningham). He tells her he isn't running for some political ideal, he just wants more power to protect his family and other ranching families. He says he is the opposite of change. This doesn't bother Christina though. The two have a very clear attraction to one another.
When Jamie gets home, John is waiting. He asks why Jamie missed the dinner, where he could have been campaigning for votes. Jamie points out they already have those votes, but John isn't as sure. He feels a shift after being ignored by Governor Perry.
John then asks him where Beth is. Jamie doesn't know, but tells him to pick a bar.
Beth rides again
But Beth (Kelly Reilly) isn't at a bar, she is thinking back to Christmas day 1996. That is the day she had her first period and when her mother (Gretchen Mol) told her everything is going to be different. To prepare Beth for how the world will see her, she promised to be extremely hard on her, which Beth will hate, but it would turn Beth into the strongest version of herself.
Beth then decides to do something she hasn't done since her mother died, ride a horse. She saddles Kayce's stallion, but quickly falls off. She gets back on the horse and rides angry, getting bucked off again. Walker (Ryan Bingham), who's been watching, gets on the horse and is able to ride it with no problem. He tells Beth the horse can feel every emotion of the person riding it, so if Beth's body says everything is OK, the horse will act like everything's OK. With this advice, Beth is able to ride the stallion with no problem, which causes her to cry.
John and Rip (Cole Hauser) watch from afar. John says it's the first good thing he's seen all week. He then tells Rip about the bear he saw on the property and asks him to chase it off.
The fine print
Dan and Rainwater's lawyers argue over the fine print of the deal they struck for Rainwater to build a casino on Dan's land. Dan wants to make sure he is getting his fair share, but Rainwater promises when he buys the Yellowstone out from John, he'll split it with Dan. Dan is skeptical, knowing only a few people can afford to buy the Yellowstone, and they aren't one of them. Rainwater has a plan for that, but he only tells his partners, which Dan isn't until the deal is done.
Meanwhile, Melody (Heather Hemmens) tells Dan she filed a suit against John for diverting the river, which impacted the food source for grizzly bears, which violates the Endangered Species Act (also why there's now a bear on the Yellowstone). Later, we see Jamie being served with that lawsuit on John's behalf.
Medical updates
Felix (Rudy Ramos) uses sage to perform a ritual at Monica's bedside in the hospital. It sets off the fire alarm, which brings a nurse who forces Felix to leave. Monica says stop it, waking for the first time.
John is also in the hospital getting some follow-up tests for his cancer. His doctor tells them they need to schedule another appointment. As he's leaving, he spots Tate in the waiting room and learns what happened to Monica.
The doctor tells Kayce and John he's a bit concerned with Monica's motor skills, but overall optimistic about where she stands on her recovery. To let her keep recovering, John takes Tate back to the ranch.
A bear hunt
Ryan (Ian Bohen), Walker and Jimmy (Jefferson White) are looking for the bear, which sure enough they find. Having forgotten their gun, they decide to ride right at it hoping to scare it off. But the bear charges them. Ryan and Walker ride away, but Jimmy falls off his horse and has to climb a tree for safety. Ryan and Walker return to help, roping the bear and leading him away.
Rip is also looking for the bear. However he ends up finding something else. Near a cliff, he hears screams and finds an Asian couple that got lost on a hike hanging on for their lives. The girlfriend speaks English, so Rip tells her he is lowering a rope to put around themselves one at a time. But they don't listen and try to get it around both of them. This causes the girlfriend to slip and fall to her death. Rip tries to get the boyfriend to grab the rope, but he lets go and falls as well.
Compounding things, the bear shows up and charges at Rip. However, he is able to grab his gun, shoot and kill the bear.
Harder than he thought
Rainwater meets with the teen who hit Monica. He tells him if Monica dies they'll have to press charges. He says the teen is on a thin line, so he has to be very careful where he goes from here.
Riding through the reservation, Rainwater confesses to his driver Mo (Mo Brings Plenty) he worries if he can make a difference as things are harder than he thought. Mo tells him the last chairman said the same thing.
Signs of trouble
John and Tate arrive at the ranch, but John is feeling a lot of pain. He tells Beth she needs to babysit Tate, who she has never actually met before. John ends up puking blood, leading him to believe his cancer is back.
Things aren't much better at the hospital. In addition to motor skill troubles, Monica is also struggling with her memory, asking Kayce multiple times where Tate is. Later, as the two are holding hands, she gets a look of concern across her face, like she doesn't recognize Kayce, and pulls her hand away.
Meanwhile, Jamie is giving a speech to his campaign volunteers, among which is Sarah Nguyen (Michaela Conlin), the woman who is interested in investigating John. Also, Christina has Jamie's phone when someone from the Yellowstone calls, but she sends it to voicemail and doesn't tell Jamie.
The call was from Rip, who needs to talk to Jamie about what happened with the bear and the Asian couple. When Rip heads into the ranch house, he finds Beth and Tate having dinner with the cowboys and listening to Walker play music. Beth says he brought the music festival to her, but Rip just leaves without saying a word to her.
Yellowstone season 1 episodes air Sundays on CBS and are available to stream on-demand on Peacock.
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