Half the Money is the first episode of the fourth season of Yellowstone. The episode premiered on November 7, 2021.
Outline[]
The coordinated attack on the Duttons continues as everyone searches for answers on who is responsible; Rip delivers on a promise.
Summary[]
Continuing from the end of the previous season finale, Kayce is able to ambush the militiamen that burst into his office with a flashbang and kill them before they recover. Taking one of their SMGs, he discovers the fate of his assistant before going out to his truck to get his assault rifle as Sheriff Haskell and his deputies arrive. Rip finds John and calls Kayce, providing the description of the van the militiamen used to ambush John and where it is going from what John spelled out in the dirt in his blood. Kayce, Haskell, and their men take off in pursuit, and upon spotting the vehicle, Kayce rams it, leading to a massive shootout that sees all the militiamen slaughtered, but Kayce is wounded as well. Kayce also had Haskell call for an air ambulance to rendezvous with Rip to get John to the hospital. Beth stumbles out of her destroyed office, alive, but seriously wounded and in shock as first responders deal with the aftermath of the bomb blast. After being warned of the multi-pronged assault on the Duttons, Monica and Tate attempt to retreat to the bunkhouse, but are ambushed by another militiaman. Before he can kill Monica, Tate blasts him in the chest with a shotgun round, allowing him and Monica to make it to the bunkhouse, just in time to find Jimmy after he was thrown off his horse and knocked unconscious, while the workers execute the remaining militiamen who attacked the ranch and lynch one of them. By the time it is all over, Rip returns to Yellowstone to find his cabin had been burned to the ground as part of the attack on the ranch.
Flashback to 1893 as the Duttons approach the Native Americans on the land that would become the ranch, and at the request of the chief, the Duttons allow them to bury the chief's father before they return to their reservation.
In the present, about two months later, Beth arrives to find John attempting to leave the hospital, despite his condition, as the staff urge him back to his room for recovery. She is livid when they have to sedate him, and is forced from the room before she can cause anymore trouble. Outside, she meets Carter, a young boy whose father is also in the hospital, but is about to pass on from heroin overdose. After they talk for a bit, Beth and Carter go inside again to watch Carter's father expire when they agree to take him off life support since he was clinically brain dead.
At the casino, a gambler happens to hint to the blackjack dealer his involvement in the militia's attack on the Duttons. Rainwater and Mo have their security restrain the gambler, Chester Spears, and soon learn of his criminal history, and his part in the attack on the Duttons to take their land and the reservation's land. To get him to crack and spill the beans, they take Spears and drag him through the fields tied to the back of a horse, causing him to suffer serious injuries before he crumbles and confesses to his part in organizing the attack on the Duttons.
At the hospital, John is being taken out to be transferred back to the ranch to recuperate, escorted by Beth, when they see Jimmy also there and undergoing his own rehabilitation after he was thrown from his horse and knocked unconscious. Sheriff Haskell and his men provide escort for the ambulance taking John home, and Kayce's livestock agents are guarding the entrance to the ranch when the convoy arrives to let them in. Once inside, despite being put in his bed and having a nurse watching over him, John gets up, shaves, changes clothes, and comes downstairs, ready to get back to work, telling his caretaker she is relieved of duty. Meeting with Beth, as they discuss wanting to have one victory after the hell they've been put through, it is then that Kayce appears, in full ghillie camo, having been guarding the house the whole time in case the militiamen tried anything against it. While John and Kayce talk about the attack and how it isn't over until they get the scum who sent the hitmen after them, Beth blasts a wind chime with a double-barreled shotgun to shut it up. When she then hears a bird singing, it wisely flies away to avoid the same fate as the wind chime, with Beth snarking afterwards, "Smart bird."
At Jamie's office, he's on the phone with Roarke when he has to hang up as Beth arrives, believing he was behind the attacks on the Duttons, including her. Beth vows to make him pay with his life for what happened to the Duttons, even when he warns her that threatening him will land her in prison, but she doesn't care as she leaves shortly thereafter, while Jamie is left fearing for his life.
John goes to see the workers in the bunkhouse, thanking them for protecting the ranch from the hitmen, before joining them for a card game. Beth is in a bar drinking when a couple comes in. While the husband freshens up in the restroom, Beth convinces the wife to tell off her husband, making her feel better.
Later, Roarke is out fly fishing when Rip approaches him with a cooler. Catching Roarke by surprise, Rip opens the cooler to reveal a rattlesnake inside, having shaken it up to antagonize it, and saying it is a little gift from Yellowstone to get back at Roarke, potentially as one of the guilty parties for the attacks on the Duttons, Rip allows it to lash out and strike Roarke, biting him on the cheek. While the rattlesnake slithers away in the water, Roarke tries to flee, but the rattlesnake's venom quickly circulates through his bloodstream due to his adrenaline state, and he soon collapses and dies from the poison. Rip retrieves the cooler and heads back to the ranch now that one of the guilty parties is dead.
Cast[]
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Episode Deaths[]
- Roarke Morris - Bit by a rattlesnake Rip threw at him
Music[]
- Black Sheep by Hailey Whitters
- Goodbye by TVÅ
- Plain to See Plainsman by Colter Wall