Rip Wheeler Dumps 1 Body in a Well in Dutton Ranch's 2-Episode Premiere

5 articles · Updated · Esquire · May 16

Rip Wheeler escalates the premiere’s central mystery by moving a murdered cowboy’s corpse and ultimately throwing it down a well.
Rob-Will appears tied to the killing after shooting a ranch hand who knew about suspicious cattle ear tags, suggesting an embezzlement scheme inside Beulah Jackson’s operation.
That cover-up is already fraying: the dead man’s wife is demanding answers, while Joaquin tries to explain the disappearance by claiming the cowboy ran off with another woman.
Episode 2 also widens the Texas storyline, explaining Beth and Rip’s move through a tip from Walker and introducing Oreana as Rob-Will’s daughter and Zachariah as a newly freed ex-con hired onto Rip’s crew.
The 2-episode launch pairs that darker crime thread with bigger franchise ambitions, including a wildfire rescue, a new South Texas cattle empire and Annette Bening’s Beulah as Beth’s latest rival.

Forced into a fresh start, are Rip and Beth doomed to repeat the violence of their Yellowstone past?

Rip's murder cover-up is meant to protect Beth, but will this secret ultimately destroy them?

Can Beth's business savvy defeat a rival who seems to own an entire Texas county?