From heroes to villains, even the most innocent characters on Yellowstone have done shocking things. Whether it's a brutal murder, a greedy scheme, or just a heartless act, we've ranked the worst moments from Yellowstone's best characters.
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00:00From heroes to villains, even the most innocent characters on Yellowstone have done shocking
00:04things. Whether it's a brutal murder, a greedy scheme, or just a heartless act, we've ranked
00:09the worst moments from Yellowstone's best characters.
00:13First introduced in Season 1 is the plucky young son of Casey Dutton. Little Tate isn't
00:17your typical tough kid. He's usually pretty well-behaved, looks up to his dad, and doesn't
00:21get into a lot of scrapes.
00:22Is this where you were at ice cream when you were a boy?
00:25This wasn't here when I was a boy. None of this was.
00:31Still, even Tate is at his moments. And if we were to find his worst, it would probably
00:35be an incident from way back in Season 1.
00:37Hey! Don't throw things at my dad!
00:42In the episode of Monsters Among Us, Tate's mother Monica, a teacher, tries to break up
00:46a schoolyard fight and winds up getting seriously hurt. She's rushed to the hospital with a
00:51life-threatening head injury, and when Tate's request to visit her in surgery is refused,
00:55he lashes out, hitting a nurse and forcing security to restrain him. We could chalk this
00:59up to him being impulsive and worried about his mom. That's why it's at the bottom of
01:03our list, but Tate could have handled it better.
01:06Early in Season 1, we meet Walker, an ex-con looking for a fresh start. The soft-spoken
01:10cowboy who loves writing music and playing his guitar became a fan favorite for his smooth
01:14swagger and laissez-faire attitude. Though he usually doesn't like to get involved with
01:17the more underhanded activities at the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch, he's occasionally had to resort
01:22to violence to protect it. And while some of those moments have been bad, his intentions
01:26were always noble. However, we can't say the same about the time he openly taunts bunkhouse
01:30stalwart Lloyd Pierce.
01:32It happens over a woman. Barrel racer Laramie has a fling with the older Lloyd, then switches
01:36horses so to speak, and runs straight into Walker's arms. At first, Walker doesn't realize
01:41how mad Lloyd was, but when he figures it out, he doesn't handle it well. Sure, Lloyd's
01:45being a jerk, but Walker flaunting his relationship with Laramie just to get at Floyd isn't his
01:49best moment. In the end, all it does is infuriate Lloyd more, leading to a violent encounter
01:54in one of the series' most tense bunkhouse moments. But let's face it, despite his laid-back
01:58facade, if there's anyone who enjoys pushing other people's buttons, it's Walker.
02:03When we meet Jimmy Hurdstrom, he's the ultimate outsider, a timid cowboy in training with
02:07no skills to speak of. But he comes into his own as the series progresses. And while one
02:12might point to his deadly revenge on the drug dealers who attacked his grandfather
02:15as his worst moment, they definitely had it coming.
02:18So what's the worst thing Jimmy's done? It would have to be breaking up with his girlfriend
02:22Mia. Mia, another barrel racer, is the first person to look beneath Jimmy's awkwardness
02:26and see the kind, good-natured man he really is.
02:28You ain't gonna say nothing?
02:30Yeah, I didn't really plan this out past walking up here.
02:35And yet, even though she helps nurse him back to health after a devastating rodeo accident,
02:39he leaves her high and dry when the Duttons send him to the Four Sixes Ranch for cowboy
02:43training. And once he gets there, he takes up with another woman, breaking Mia's heart
02:47all over again.
02:49Teeter's a tough-talking Texan whose accent is so thick that it's first mistaken for a
02:52foreign language. Always ready to scrap with anyone who looks sideways at her, Teeter's
02:56a good person at heart. All she wants is some love from bunkmate Colby, and eventually she
03:01gets it. But it takes persistent flirting, skinny-dipping, and a vicious attack by a
03:05Yellowstone enemy.
03:06As for her worst moment? Well, it might also be her best and most memorable. It happens
03:11when Rip Wheeler and the gang discover a group of California bikers called Divine Discord
03:15have cut the fence and are partying on the Duttons' land. They'd rather fight than leave,
03:19but it's Teeter's bad attitude that sets them off. Colby quickly backs her up, and what
03:23follows is one of the best fights in the history of the show. Teeter is at her best in her
03:27worst moment, duking it out like a true cowboy.
03:30Real estate developer Dan Jenkins arrives in Montana with dreams of turning the region
03:34into a massive tourist destination. But, unlike those who would come after him, Jenkins
03:38values the land to the point where he's almost an environmentalist in his approach. Almost.
03:42Every direction. It's like a painting. All I wanted was to give people the opportunity
03:49to see it.
03:50Despite his somewhat noble principles, he's still all about corporate greed and would
03:53do just about anything to make his deal happen. Unfortunately, the Duttons are in his way,
03:57and he's not above fighting dirty to eliminate them. To that end, he digs up all the dirt
04:01he can on the Dutton family, determined to destroy their reputation and sway public opinion
04:05to his side.
04:06Eventually, after an attack by Casey Dutton that leaves him near dead, Jenkins becomes
04:10a Dutton ally.
04:11You and I find ourselves in an interesting situation.
04:15Alongside Thomas Rainwater, he helps fend off the diabolical Beck brothers. Unfortunately,
04:20he doesn't make it out alive.
04:22Monica Long is Tate's mother in the love of Casey Dutton's life. She's lived all her life
04:26on the Broken Rock Indian Reservation, until she chooses to move to the Yellowstone Dutton
04:29Ranch in order to keep her family safe and provide a stable home life for Tate. Still,
04:34she often resents the Dutton family's wealth, privilege, and sense of entitlement.
04:37While Monica can actually get pretty tough when the need arises, there's not any ruthless
04:41or violent incident that provides her worst moment. Instead, Monica's most despicable
04:45act comes in Season 2, while she's recovering from her head injury, while she and Casey
04:50are having a rough time in their relationship.
04:52During her recovery, she meets Martin, a local physical therapist, and, as they work together,
04:56Monica begins to develop romantic feelings for him. In fact, they come very close to
05:00having an affair, although she stops before anything irrevocable happens. Though it happens
05:05while her relationship with Casey was strained, Monica's emotional fling with Martin, which
05:08includes a passionate kiss, is easily the worst thing she's done in the series.
05:13More than just a cowboy, Casey Dutton is ex-Special Forces, which makes him one of the deadliest
05:17men on the ranch. He's also the Dutton with the biggest heart. Even so, he's done some
05:21pretty awful things in the series, although he rarely betrays his moral code. He strung
05:26up Dan Jenkins to send a message to leave his family alone, and while this definitely
05:29crosses a number of lines, including legal ones, it's understandable, and it isn't deadly.
05:34But things go differently with Teal Beck.
05:36There's monsters everywhere in this world. You just gotta kill them when you find them.
05:43Nobody will argue that Teal didn't have it coming, but it's the way Casey goes about
05:46it that makes it his lowest moment. After sneaking into Beck's home, Casey finds him
05:50sitting on the toilet reading a newspaper. Though Teal begs Casey not to kill him in
05:54such an undignified position, Casey shoots him in cold blood.
05:59CEO of real estate development firm Market Equities, Caroline Warner is an unstoppable
06:03force of corporate nature. And at first, she appears to be a foil strong enough to go toe-to-toe
06:07with Beth Dutton.
06:08Not for sale.
06:12That should be your family's motto.
06:14Warner's dead set on taking down Beth's entire family, so when things get tough, she enlists
06:19the services of Sarah Atwood, a rootless corporate shark whom Warner weaponizes against Jamie
06:23Dutton, now Montana's attorney general. Atwood swoops in and beguiles Jamie, using their
06:28sexual relationship to manipulate him into turning against his own family — particularly
06:32his father John, the governor of Montana — so that Market Equities' massive development project
06:36moves forward. Ultimately, Atwood's actions have deadly consequences for the Dutton family,
06:41and while Warner may not have been the one who did the deed, she brought Atwood into
06:44the mix.
06:45Over the course of the series, Chief Thomas Rainwater evolved into something of an antihero.
06:50Fiercely protective of his people, Rainwater runs the Broken Rock Indian Reservation. At
06:54first, he sees nothing good about the Duttons and wants them out of Montana altogether.
06:58After all, his people were on the land for generations before the Duttons arrived. Rainwater's
07:02mission is always to get the best for his tribe, and his worst act might actually have
07:06come in the series' premiere.
07:07Our paths will always collide. We fight. One of us will win. But you've been a good enemy,
07:16John.
07:17In the final installment, a large herd of cattle belonging to the Duttons wanders onto
07:20the reservation. This leads to a tense standoff between John Dutton's armed livestock agents
07:25— including his two sons, Casey and Lee — and the Broken Rock security forces.
07:29Cattle don't know the difference between your land and ours.
07:32Neither did we, till the government showed us.
07:35Unwilling to return the cattle, the standoff quickly turns violent, and in the ensuing
07:39shootout, Lee Dutton is shot and killed. While Rainwater comes to regret the incident, it
07:43was his theft of the cattle and refusal to negotiate that led to Lee's death.
07:48Perhaps the longest-tenured cowboy on Yellowstone, grizzled veteran Lloyd Pierce helped mentor
07:52young Rip Wheeler when he first came to the ranch. The two built an inseparable bond,
07:56but it hasn't been easy, particularly when Lloyd goes too far. And he did just that in
08:01his worst moment. Anyone who's watched Yellowstone knows exactly what that moment is.
08:05I've seen a thousand of you in prison, thinking you're some kind of bully, till a bigger bully
08:11comes along.
08:13Once Laramie and Walker become an item, Lloyd flies into a jealous rage. After Walker openly
08:18mocked him and threw his relationship with Laramie in his face, Lloyd snapped, smashing
08:21Walker's guitar and hurling a knife into his chest in one of the most shocking and unexpected
08:25moments in the entire series. It took several men to restrain Lloyd, and when the dust settled,
08:30Rip was forced to fight his best friend to teach him a lesson. Walker survived thanks
08:34to swift action by the rest of the crew, but if they hadn't been able to stop Lloyd, Walker
08:38would be dead, and this moment would have wound up much higher on our list.
08:43There's nothing more important than the Yellowstone to John Dutton, whose ancestors settled the
08:46land and built their home all the way back in 1883. But more than the ranch itself, John
08:51often talks about the importance of family, which is why his worst moment isn't the murder
08:55of an enemy or retribution against a rival, but the betrayal of his own kin. We don't
09:00see this moment on screen, because it happens before the first episode begins, but we eventually
09:04learn why, at the outset of the series, John is estranged from his son Casey.
09:08He told me to leave. He told us all to leave. He was the only one who did."
09:14We're initially led to believe that it was a mutual falling out or even the result of
09:17Casey's defiance, but it's actually John's doing. As a teenager, Casey was dating Monica,
09:22and John disapproved. So when the young lovers surprised him with the news that they were
09:26expecting a baby, he demanded she get an abortion. When Casey refused, John did the unthinkable,
09:31kicking Casey out of the home and off to Yellowstone. The irony is, when Yellowstone begins, John
09:36is distraught because he has no relationship with his grandson. Of course, Casey and John
09:40eventually hash things out, and John becomes a doting grandpa and repentant father.
09:45If there's one man you don't want to mess with, it's Rip, who's been involved in some
09:49of the series' most brutal scenes. He's murdered more men than we can count, and is downright
09:53terrifying when someone crosses him. Several Rip moments were contenders for this list,
09:57but the truth is, most of them were justifiable to one degree or another.
10:01So this is your field, is it, Rip?"
10:04Oiled to a fault and protective of his friends and family, not to mention the ranch itself,
10:08almost every awful thing Rip has done was to keep those close to him safe.
10:12That's not true of every moment, of course, one example being his treatment of guitar-playing
10:16cowboy Walker. Rip never really liked Walker, whose laid-back attitude rubbed him the wrong way.
10:21When the newcomer showed open disdain for the ranch, Rip didn't hold back. On one occasion,
10:26Wheeler intentionally slices Walker's face with razor wire, and when things get out of hand,
10:30he orders him killed, all out of wounded pride.
10:33He's supposed to be dead."
10:35When Walker later turns up alive after Casey spares his life, Rip ambushes and kidnaps him,
10:40ready to do the deed himself. Eventually, and against all odds, the two mostly patch
10:44things up and learn to get along.
10:47First introduced in Season 3, before becoming a bigger recurring character in Season 4,
10:51Garrett Randall proves to be such a terrible person that no list of worst moments would
10:55be complete without him. He's the birth father of Jamie Dutton, who didn't know
10:58he was adopted by John as a baby. When he finds out, Jamie seeks Randall out, and they try to
11:03build a father-son relationship. Unfortunately, his ties to the Duttons ultimately lead Garrett
11:07down a dark path. At the conclusion of Season 3, the Dutton clan comes under attack by an
11:12unknown group of assassins. A multi-pronged assault almost gets John, Casey, and Beth killed,
11:17while a fight at the ranch leaves Rip's cabin in flames.
11:20In one of the show's most stunning cliffhangers, the man behind the plot to kill the Duttons
11:23turns out to be Randall, who wanted the family out of the way so he could help Jamie get out
11:27of their shadow. Though the gun many hires fail to get the job done, it proves that Randall will
11:31go as low as anyone and isn't to be underestimated.
11:35Beth Dutton has never been the kind of girl to sit around and let her problems marinate,
11:38and she's often gone too far as a result. But she and her brother Jamie don't fight to the
11:43death until the final episode of Yellowstone. After years of animosity, she finally stabs
11:48her brother to death, but not before he nearly strangles her with his bare hands.
11:52However, Jamie has more than earned his trip to the train station,
11:55the spot just across the state line where the Duttons dump bodies that need to disappear.
11:59What are you doing? This ain't no goddamn train station!
12:02Sure it is.
12:04Out of all the Duttons, Beth is the one who most clearly understands Jamie's greed and cowardice,
12:08and knows how far he will go to come out on top, even if it means destroying his father's legacy
12:12and the pristine Montana land generations of Duttons fought and died for. When John dies
12:17of an apparent suicide, Beth knows instinctively who's behind it, even if he didn't pull the
12:21trigger or pay the hitmen. And she sets about proving her father was murdered for the sake
12:25of Jamie's ambition. By the time she sticks the knife into his stomach, nobody feels sorry for
12:29Jamie, who, out of all the characters in the series, is the one who had no moral code,
12:33but rather just slashes and flails his way through life.
12:37If you're talking big bads on Yellowstone, no one compares to the evil Beck brothers,
12:41Malcolm and Teal. They first arrive in Montana with the same goal as most of the outsiders who
12:45show up at the Yellowstone — to buy up as much land as possible and turn it into another Vale
12:49or Aspen. This instantly makes them the enemies of the Duttons. But when it comes to the Becks,
12:53even John is appalled by the lengths they're willing to go to in order to get what they want.
12:57All that tough talk, Beth. I've got the cure for that.
13:03We'll see how tough you are after I give it to you.
13:06More than just corporate schemers like Dan Jenkins or small-minded,
13:09small-time thugs like Garrett Randall, the Beck brothers are formidable killers with no
13:13moral compunction. They show just how vile they are when they kidnap John's grandson,
13:17Tate, to use as leverage. Thankfully, Casey is able to save his son,
13:21and the Beck brothers both meet swift, deserving ends.
13:25A troubled figure who made a whole lot of terrible decisions during his time on Yellowstone,
13:29Jamie Dutton committed some ugly crimes, including murdering a journalist to save his own skin.
13:33But passively participating in the murder of his adopted father is one of the worst
13:37deeds ever committed on the show. That Jamie did it to finally triumph over his dad after
13:42years of conflict says a lot about him. The incident begins thanks to Jamie's connection
13:46with Market Equity's exec, Sarah Atwood. When she suggests to Jamie that eliminating his father,
13:51who's become both a political rival as well as a thorn in his side, might help pave the way for
13:55the big land deal Jamie ultimately wants, he's noncommittal. But is he really? After all,
14:00he's not a stupid man. When he learns that Sarah ordered the hit on John for their financial and
14:04political betterment, he insists he had no idea she was going to have John killed.
14:08Do you know anyone, or, um, is there a group that has experience with this kind of situation?
14:17However, he not only doesn't reject her or turn her in, he continues to sleep with her.
14:21When Sarah is killed by an assassin, Jamie mourns her. But his main concern, as always,
14:26is himself. Actions like these are what ultimately lead Jamie to his untimely fate — an unmarked
14:31grave at the train station alongside two bodies he put there, the dead journalist and his biological
14:35father, Garrett, whom he shot in the head.