Spoilers below for Yellowstone Episode 504, “Horses in Heaven,” so tread carefully if you haven’t yet checked it out!
While Yellowstone has become known for delivering some wildly shocking moments on occasion, such surprises tend to be wholly centered within the fictional plotting of the show, and not so much on technical elements such as the editing process. But there’s a first time for everything, as Season 5’s fourth episode directly referenced some very vital dialogue that sparked Beth to incite the ill-advised bar brawl, despite those lines never showing up during the previous episode. So what happened there?
How Beth And Hailey’s Confrontation Played Out In Yellowstone’s “Tall Drink Of Water”
After the drunken Hailey attempted to woo Rip with tales of a husband away on business — what better aphrodisiac can there be? — she walked across the bar’s dance floor to confront Beth, though without making it abundantly clear what her approach would be. It was easy to believe that she would have immediately started talking shit, despite being in the wrong there, but the verbal side of that altercation was left to viewers’ imaginations.
As soon as Hailey started walking away, Rip advised Lloyd to gather the ranch hands, and it was mere seconds later when Beth angrily weaponized her beer bottle. So again, viewers were safe to assume that whatever words were shared weren’t of the friendliest variety, but without the actual footage to validate such assumptions. At least not yet.
The Weird Way Yellowstone Revealed What Was Said During That Scene
Considering one of Yellowstone’s biggest draws is its A+ quotes and line readings, one might not think that any of Taylor Sheridan’s dialogue gets left on the cutting room floor. But that was apparently the case here, with the biggest potential piece of proof being the “Previously On” segment ahead of “Horses in Heaven.” The recap showed a bit of what Hailey said to Beth after walking up to her, making it far more obvious why Beth reacted the way she did. Check that out below, in case you missed the recap.
Later, when an over-confident Jamie meets with Hailey to talk about her dropping the aggravated assault charges against Beth, she attempted to deny responsibility as being the aggressor in that exchange. at which point Jamie shared the presumed entirety of what was said before bottle glass met cranium:
I'm taking your husband home. You can come with us and watch, or he can tell you about it tomorrow.
Understandably, after being told that her particular way of approaching Beth constituted a form of assault itself, Hailey begrudgingly agreed to not press charges, and did not seem like she would be a frequent Bozeman vacationer in the future. Meanwhile, Beth faced the lesser charge of Disorderly Conduct, keeping her out of the clink, but with the Jamie-approved punishment of picking up trash and whatever other forms of community service.
So in the end, I don't think there were any major or overarching issues that came out of the dialogue apparently getting edited out of the previous episode, but the fact that it happened once opens the door to wondering whether or not that's been the only instance of it. I honestly can't remember any other times where a TV series has featured unaired footage in recaps — at least in cases not for intentionally comedic purposes — though the laws of statistics indicates it likely isn't the only time it's happened. Still, quite a weird situation for a show as methodically crafted as this.
Yellowstone’s first four seasons available to stream with a Peacock subscription, while new Season 5 episodes air on Paramount Network every Sunday night at 8:00 p.m. ET. Head to our 2022 TV schedule and our 2023 premiere rundown to start planning your primetime viewing for when the neo-western hits its imminent winter hiatus.
