NOTE: this post contains spoilers for Yellowstone season 1 episode 8, "The Unravelling Part 1."
After a number of Beth centric flashbacks in Yellowstone season 1, we get a peek at Rip's past in episode 8. Young Rip (Kyle Red Silverstein) jolts awake after being beaten to see his younger brother dead and his father killing his mother in the next room. He grabs a frying pan and beats his father to death with it.
Later, the younger John (Josh Lucas) finds Rip. Despite Rip's tough exterior, John sees something in him and offers him a job on the Yellowstone, but he has a price to pay for it (the brand). Rip agrees.
The "bear"-er of bad news
Rip (Cole Hauser) may not be so lucky with the law in the present, as police investigate the scene at the cliff with the tourists and the bear. Sheriff Donnie (Hugh Dillion) says it looks like Rip was hunting the bear (a federal offense) and killed the tourists to cover it up. With Jamie not answering his phone to help, Donnie tells John (Kevin Costner) he can't just let it go, Fish and Wildlife will have to investigate.
Rip meets with the Fish and Wildlife officer (Heidi Sulzman), who is instantly suspicious of Rip. As they ride to the site, Rip spots a horse fly on the officer's horse and tries to warn her, but she doesn't believe him. When the bug bites, her horse bolts. Rips rides after her and finds her impaled on a fence post after being thrown from her horse, but still alive. Rip knows if she dies they'll blame it on him, so he calls a chopper and works to get her removed from the wires. By the time the chopper arrives, Rip and the officer have gained a bit of respect for each other.
Elsewhere, things aren't going so great for Kayce (Luke Grimes) either. As Monica's (Kelsey Asbille) rehab is progressing, she wants to stay with Felix (Rudy Ramos) when she is discharged, saying she doesn't know who Kayce is. At their home, Kayce arrives to find the place ransacked, with his neighbor believing it to be the treasure hunters they previously saw. Sure enough, Tate's dinosaur bones are gone.
Getting down to business
Jamie (Wes Bentley) is busy on the campaign trail, doing a TV interview. Christina (Katherine Cunningham) and Sarah (Michaela Conlin) talk off set, as Sarah tries to get info on how Jamie may be connected to the shooting on the reservation from episode 1. This raises Christina's antennas and puts Sarah in a difficult spot. We learn Sarah is a journalist and despite the potential setback of her slip up, she is determined to get to the bottom of the John Dutton story.
On the golf course, Dan (Danny Huston) and Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) finalize their deal. Rainwater explains if the tribe owns the land, there will be no restrictions to what they can build, allowing them to double the property values of the land and subsequently John's property taxes to a height he can't afford, allowing them to purchase the Yellowstone. Dan asks if he can truly trust Rainwater. While he says Dan normally shouldn't, this is one instance where he can.
Beth (Kelly Reilly), meanwhile, is looking at Dan's finances with her assistant Jason (David Brown). She realizes Dan has put so much into the development of Paradise Valley that he's incredibly vulnerable, believing she can gain control of his company easily. Beth spots Dan's wife Victoria (Barret Swatek) and invites her out for a fun day.
That night, Dan arrives to find Beth sitting outside of his house, while inside his wife is entangled with Jason. Beth twists the knife some more, telling Dan she is going to purchase his shares, knowing there is nothing he can do to stop it. When Dan leaves he tells her she will regret meeting him.
Broken families
At the hospital, Monica reveals to Kayce she didn't forget who he is, but she sees him differently now after they allowed John back into their lives. She can tell Kayce wants to run away, but instead of begging him to stay, she is telling him to go so she can protect Tate by keeping him away from John. But she still wants to know the truth about what happened with her brother. Kayce tells her, saying Robert had killed Lee and was going to kill him, so he didn't have a choice. But Monica tells him the choice was not to go. She says she still loves Kayce, she just loves Tate more.
Later, Kayce is at a gas station when a gun approaches asking for gas money. When Kayce refuses, the guy pulls a knife. Kayce isn't having it, beating the guy up until he is pulled off by other customers.
At the ranch, Jamie shows up and John is livid that he hasn't been able to reach him. He tells Jamie he has to be there to help Rip with another Fish and Wildlife officer, but Jamie says he has more campaign responsibilities. That's the last straw for John, who tells Jamie to end his campaign. Jamie is the angry one now, grabbing John and yelling at him that he earned this opportunity. But John doesn't care. He's going to support another candidate for attorney general and if Jamie wants to run against him that's his prerogative. However, John bans Jamie from the ranch until he, as John describes it, puts family first.
After Jamie leaves, John confesses to Rip he is worried after all these years he's going to be the one to lose his family’s ranch, though he wonders who he's saving it for at this point.
Back at his campaign headquarters, Jamie talks with Christina, who reassures him that just because he wants to be attorney general for himself, it doesn't make him selfish. She helps Jamie do something just for himself, straddling him and kissing him.
Poking the bear
Walker (Ryan Bingham) tells Rip he heard some stories from the other cowboys and wants to let him know he won't break the law for him. Rip, annoyed, explains it's not his call now that Walker wears the brand; his chance to leave is gone.
At the bunkhouse, Jimmy (Jefferson White) is antsy as he looks for his hat. He thinks the other cowboys took it, which they did. They threw out his old straw hat and bought him a nice new one. Jimmy is touched by the gesture. He throws his hat on the bed but that instantly gets everyone upset, as they say it's bad luck. Jimmy asks Walker if there's any way to undo it, but Walker just tells him that if you work on the Yellowstone you're probably already cursed.
Backing that up, the episode ends with wolves finding the bear's carcass and starting to eat it. With the bear eaten, that'll certainly make Rip’s life more difficult.
Yellowstone season 1 episodes air Sundays on CBS and are available to stream on Peacock.
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