“Yellowstone” Season 5 Episode 8 Recap: “A Knife and No Coin”

“A knife and no coin”, episode 8 of Yellowstone Season 5 sends the series back from its vacation and sets the stage for its mid-season break. That’s right, we’ll have to wait until the summer of 2023 for a resolution on ‘power comes at a price’ and ‘progress stops with me’, the two mantras that have defined Taylor Sheridan’s storytelling ever since John Dutton became governor of Montana, the traditional rhythms of ranch life became increasingly unstable, and Jamie Dutton became his father’s greatest threat, both to John’s political survival and his management of the country. Financial and Generational Legacy of Yellowstone. There’s a lot going on in “A Knife and No Coin.” But for starters, let’s sort out that Season 5 Episode 7 flashback and Young Rip’s coronation as Dutton’s fam army knight of mark.

John Dutton accepted Young Rip’s vindication for his murderous fight with Rowdy the wandering cowboy. But if insulting Beth caused Rip to be insulted, then there’s more going on than just an argument gone wrong. John therefore tests Rip’s commitment to Yellowstone and Young Beth. First, they travel to a remote Wyoming border crossing and “the train station,” or the longtime canyon cemetery of Dutton family enemies, where Young Rip and Young Lloyd (Forrest Wilder) dutifully lay the Rowdy’s corpse. Then they settle down near a blazing campfire. And then John gives Rip a speech about the reciprocity of fighting for the ranch and the safety he provides to any cowboys willing to defend his coat. Young Rip doesn’t hesitate, Lloyd pulls the rocking Y-mark hanging from the hot coals of the fire, and soon the beaming future ranch foreman and loving husband of Beth Dutton is greeted by the dorm boys as a fellow knight in his Wranglers. and bead snap weave.

With YellowstoneThe commensurate change of mood towards Texas begging looms – following the brucellosis scare this is where half the herd and its cowboy keepers will reside – we join the local resident and son favorite of Yellowstone brand Jimmy Hirdstrom (Jefferson White), who currently works at 6666 Ranch and enjoys backyard banquets and foot massages with his true love Emily (Kathryn Kelly). The return of viewers’ favorite Jimmy sets up a great streak in “A Knife and No Coin,” one of YellowstoneThe extended and loving tributes to horseback riding and cowboys at work, whether it’s the 6666 Hands carrying their horses and shouting to meet the herd, or all the activity back in Paradise Valley as Rip and his hand-picked team of Teeter, Ryan, Walker, and Jake prepare their cattle for the trip and gather the personal gear needed for the trip.

John hates to admit it, but as governor, his daily life takes place in Helena. And since Rip will be gone with the herd, he asks Monica if Kayce and their family will move into the property as trusted caretakers. Monica sees John’s offer as a chance to start over, a chance to try again for a baby, and Kayce says her vision showed her a choice between the ranch and her family. “Maybe it’s the way to have both,” she told her husband. For John, his farewell with Rip comes down to tight smiles and the briefest of snaps. But Kayce is a little surprised when his father hugs him fully and with visible emotion. “You are stronger than me,” said the elder Dutton. “I guess that’s how it’s supposed to be.” Kayce says it would be easy to think it was John who left the ranch, and Rip sums up what all this passing of the torch really means. “He is.”

“By canceling funding for Paradise Valley International Airport, Governor Dutton violated state law.” Jamie lives his fateful moment in front of the Montana State Assembly, delivering the authoritative speech approved note for note by Sarah Atwood. And the attorney general’s request for a Senate impeachment court jumps from 67 to 33 as the governor appears at a ceremony alongside Thomas Rainwater and Senator Perry. But instead of endorsing the pipeline that will go under Broken Rock’s reservation, he gives an impromptu speech about progress and who benefits from it. (Who wins and who loses progress is what it’s all about in Yellowstone.) Clara later says that Jamie’s impeachment demands are pure speculation. But John knows it will still be a fight, won not by the truth but by the threat. “I don’t know how to fight the threat,” Clara says, but the governor’s trusty director of communications is definitely still in shambles.

Threat? Beth Dutton is like that remark. As Jamie lies in bed at home with Sarah, who praises the perfection of his impeachment speech as if he were her puppy who just finished school, Beth comes like a brick through a window. Then she shows Jamie with the same brick and asks his resignation from the office of the AG. But Beth becomes completely “asshole!” on his brother is verified when he talks about the value of a century of family secrets deep in the canyon of the “train station”. “Do you want to know the real cost of protecting the ranch? I don’t think you do. Knowing where the bodies are buried is a big deal when you’re a Dutton. But the fights too. And as Beth tells the smug duo of Jamie and Sarah, dressed in their bedroom sheets, “the war has only just begun.”

Beth’s tense confrontation with her dad over the train station reveal becomes a Taylor Sheridan channel-wide commentary Yellowstone universe. It’s a string that John knows has always needed to be pulled. “You are shocked that we have found a way around the consequences of our own defense. I’m shocked that we need a way. But we do. We always have. And unless we’re willing to give up 120 years of our bleeding family in this soil, we always will. And now he’s getting up on Beth. Who do the Duttons put in their remote human trash can, their jurisdictional dead zone? “All the enemies that attacked us.” And who is attacking them now? Jamie. And as the eerie music swells, the Governor gives no immediate response to what she seems to suggest.

Would Beth really pull out a hit on Jamie? Let’s take the advice of the Attorney General. “I think she’s going to try to get me killed.” With a brick to the dome, the governors’ takeover of Jamie and Sarah turned into competing storylines for contact killings, with Jamie once again goofing off trusting who is pulling his puppet strings. Of course, said Sarah, stroking her pet. There are companies that do wet work in business. And if Jamie really wants to anticipate Beth’s actions with a pivot to attack, then she can make it happen.

Hooked Rocking Y’s:

• A ranch mark to represent a cowboy’s ride or die is really one thing. Often, as the Working Ranch Cowboys Association says, “isn’t just a symbol on a cow.” It’s a cowboy’s mark on the world.
• As the dorm team retreats to Texas, Cowboy Ryan learns to pack for the elements. Bring your long johns, warns Rip, because there’s no cover on the plain. And Walker, whose direct experience with the Texas cowboy qualified him for the trip, says the coldest he’s ever been with was with “heifers on the fork in January.” This is likely a direct reference to Pitchfork Land & Cattle, a historic ranch covering over 160,000 acres across the state begging and located about 12 miles from Ranch 6666, which in real life is now owned to a group led by Yellowstone creator, writer, director, executive producer and occasional co-star Taylor Sheridan.