It was also obvious that between now and then, the show had to do something pretty drastic to raise the stakes. I had a suggestion for that, but Episode 9, “El Padrino”, has other ideas. Luckily, they’re pretty good ones, and the overall outcome is just about the same. Hopefully, with a serious blow to the head, Carter will be less annoying.
I definitely didn’t expect events to take quite this shape, though, and I certainly didn’t expect the closest thing we had to a Big Bad to be unceremoniously killed off-screen. These are good surprises, though, since they imply that Taylor Sheridan has more of a plan for this show than some of the previous episodes have suggested, and the way this finale builds anticipation for Season 2 should ensure that fans are tuning back in with real urgency, which is precisely what Paramount+ wants.
Thanks to Austin, Beth and Rip now know that the 10-Petal is smuggling cattle from Mexico illegally. Armed with this information, they siphon off suspect cows to be checked out by Everett, and when Rob-Will tries to stop them, Rip whoops him from pillar to post for the second time this season.
In a disappointing but not unexpected turn of events, Beulah is well aware of what’s going on. The major problem for Beth and Rip is that cows are the least of it. When Everett dips an arm into what seems like a recent spaying scar, he pulls it out clutching a wad of fentanyl. Overall, there were $2 million worth of drugs in the cattle. And somebody’s going to want the product back.
Furious, Everett confronts Beulah, who tells him about what happened to her back in the day with Rob-Will’s rapist father and Mariano helping her to dispose of the body. As it turns out, her father discovered what happened and blamed Mariano, making him take the heat and disappear to Mexico, leaving Joaquin behind as a ward to be raised by the Jacksons. Mariano’s wife was killed at the border. Years later, when Beulah stood to lose the ranch, Kino brought her an offer from his father, which was obviously the drug-running operation that has kept them afloat for the last 15 years. Everett, disgusted, tells her to leave.
Mariano’s Return
In the intervening years, Mariano has gone up in the world. He’s now a Cartel bigwig and arrives in Texas in a fleet of SUVs, in an extremely surly mood. Kino gives him the latest news about Beulah’s health woes, Rob-Will being gifted the ranch, and Beth and Rip being brought in to run it. Needless to say, Mariano isn’t thrilled.
Mariano visits Beulah and tells her in no uncertain terms to reinstate Kino and get rid of Rip and Beth. She barely has time to do that, though, since Beth and Rip are already knocking on doors, trying to figure out how much of a predicament they’re in. They visit the slaughterhouse and knock Tommy out before Beulah has time to make it to the Dutton Ranch and explain her point of view. Beth and Rip aren’t having it and send her on her way with the drugs.
This should be the end of it, but not quite. Rob-Will calls Mariano and tells him that Beth and Rip figured everything out, so Mariano calls Rip to tell him that he’s coming for the thieves, not the product. He also instructs Kino to kill Rob-Will, since he can tell immediately that he’s going to be a serious liability.
Carter Remains An Idiot
Speaking of liabilities, we have Carter, who spends the entire episode squatting at Dwight’s place and refusing to answer his phone, even though Beth and Rip both leave him voicemails implying that something pretty serious is going on at home. It’s eventually Oreana who tracks him down, as well she might, since she’s pregnant, presumably with his child.
Oreana doesn’t mention this, though. Instead, she tells him to give Beth a quick call to set her mind at ease, and then suggests the two of them run away together. There is nothing about Carter’s demeanour that suggests he’d be ready for this step, but he agrees anyway because he’s a sucker, and he spends the rest of the finale continuing not to answer his phone while Oreana goes home to pack.
Assault On Dutton Ranch
Elsewhere, Rip, Beth, Zach, and Azul tool up to defend the ranch against the coming Cartel assassins. Carter still isn’t answering, so Beth heads out to look for him, but luckily, Everett arrives to lend an assist in her stead.The gunmen arrive and are quite easily gunned down by Team Dutton. Azul takes a bullet to the arm, but Everett’s sharpshooting makes the whole thing pretty easy. Rip chases down the sole survivor in his truck in a scene framed to look like something out of Transformers, and drags him to the barn where he can be tortured and interrogated. All the other bodies are dumped in the same place Wes was.
A Couple of Cliffhangers Set Up Season 2
The ending of Dutton Ranch takes some pretty big swings. In the first, while Oreana is packing her things, Rob-Will has a surprisingly open conversation with her that finally lends him a bit of humanity. Naturally, he then leaves the room and is killed off-camera by Joaquin, at Mariano’s behest (we’re to assume, anyway, but I don’t see who else it could have been). Eventually, Beulah returns home and is horrified to find her son dead in the foyer, her granddaughter wailing at his side, covered in his blood.
Elsewhere, the Cartel — somehow — catches up with Carter. They bonk him over the head and snatch him as a hostage, so the finale ends with Mariano giving Beth a call to let her know that he has her boy. He’s trying to bait her and Rip out, and per Beth’s own admission, he’s going the right way about it.
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