Spoilers below for Yellowstone’s third episode of Season 4, so anyone who hasn’t yet watched should beware!
Cementing itself as one of TV’s most watched series with its Season 4 premiere, Yellowstone’s third episode followed up on all the big reveals laid out in the first two installments, and did so in all the expected ways. That includes stellar work from the ensemble cast, and some mighty hectic situations involving Kevin Costner’s John Dutton and the reveal of who was technically behind the attacks. (Even if John has no idea who the dude is.) “All I See Is You” also carried on the show’s legacy of delivering A+ dialogue throughout, and we are celebrating the best of the best lines.
While this episode featured fewer outstanding Beth lines than other episodes, that just meant other characters had a chance to line up and get some attention themselves. (Hard to do, since Beth is the best, but good on them for trying.) So let’s kick things off with a relatively rare moment of sweetness between father and son.
1. “I lost faith in damn near everything else, but not your riding.”
John Dutton may be a monument to badassery on the ranch, but after the attack, he's become all the more aware of his mortality and his age. And sometimes, all it takes is a kind and encouraging word from a loved one to make somebody feel okay with themselves.
2. “Hell, I was in prison for seven years. You’re lucky I don’t drill a hole in the side of that barn and take it for a ride, too.”
The Yellowstone character who is seemingly destined to piss off each and every character on the ranch one by one, Ryan Bingham's Walker knows he's grinding the shit out of Lloyd's gears through his sexified relationship with Laramie. Everybody knows it, really, including Rip, who already foresees that situation imploding in fairly violent ways. Although it's interesting that Rip's advice is held only for Lloyd, and that Rip hasn't specifically told Walker to cut the shit yet. Possibly because he understands Walker's pent-uppedness from jailtime, which was so eloquently described above.
3. “Boy’s not hungry enough.”
If Yellowstone had a Most Practical Character award, I do believe it would go to Moses Brings Plenty's character Mo. Basically every scene he's in involves at least one Mo-ment where he proves himself to have one of the most logically minds in Montana. And in line with Jimmy, Tate and Carter dealing with "tough love" situations, Mo offers the above assertion upon hearing of his son's distaste for peanut butter sandwiches. That said, Mo does swap sandwiches with his kid, so the love in that house doesn't go quite as hard on the toughness.
4. “You been speaking French since you got here, Emmett.”
Gunsmoke veteran Buck Taylor returned to Yellowstone's universe as Emmett Walsh in Episode 403, which is always a joy, and it sent up a truly amusing act of vengeance from the normally more reserved Kayce. In any case, the latter offered the bemused quote above once Emmett apologized after referring to a fellow landowner as "this fucker." Despite the fact that he'd already said "bastard," "shit," "son of a bitch," and "Cali-fucking-fornia" before that.
5. “Have you trotted a horse past a mirror lately? ‘Cause you look like a drunk cat trying to fuck a football.”
Just when Ryan thought he might have had the best slam of the episode, Denim Richards' Colby pulled that monster-slayer of a comeback out of his back pocket, which I also assume contains a big ol' stack of condoms, minus the one he put on to fuck Ryan's world up.
6. “Love Doesn’t Walk That Easy.”
I was feeling John's line right here something fiercely, since I'm pretty annoyed that Mia was partially responsible for Jimmy getting back on a horse too early (or at all), and yet she's treating Jimmy like shit now that John is shipping him off to Texas, all while acting like she's the only person who cares about him. Yeah, she was there with him in the hospital, which doesn't earn her brownie points, since not doing that would have made her more of a monster. And so there is much to love about John's rather simple advice for Jimmy regarding his broken heart.
7. “Fuck you. I love you. I’ll see you at the house, but fuck you.”
Nobody delivers a message of love like Beth Dutton, which is to say with enough fire behind the eyes to ignite an entire forest. I love how that moment went from thinking a now-annoyed Rip will be in the doghouse (pun) for his "pet" comment about Carter, to him smilingand chuckling lovingly at Beth's vitality.
8. “Lady, you crave trouble. You just don’t want resistance. and if you don’t want resistance around here, you just mind your own business.”
Another hoot-and-holler-worthy delivery from Kelly Reilly, as Yellowstone delivered another weirdly socially aware scene involving Beth and another woman. In this case, Beth was confronted wayyyy too quickly by a "Shopper Karen" with a cell phone, for lack of a more timely description. Perhaps breaking the woman's phone was a bit much, considering Beth didn't wholly insult her outright, but the line above was a perfect assessment for all the lurking shit-stirrers in the world right now.
9. “Learn how to suck a dick like you lost your car keys in it.”
Beth delivered some A+ wisdom in telling Carter the four ways to get rich in the world, as she leaned hard on the "work your ass off" angle, hoping he would take that to heart regarding his ranch duties. Unfortunately, he only had jokes about the fourth entry on the list, involving one of the most confounding ways to envision oral sex that I have heard. Who tries to get car keys out of anything with their mouth, and whose dick has enough empty space and shadows in it for someone to lose their keys in there in the first place?
10. "Our first stop is Shut The Fuck Up."
Okay, so while I feel truly terrible for Jimmy having to take an extended road trip with a bully like Travis, Taylor Sheridan is fucking hilarious. And as it goes with a lot of relationships in this show, Travis treating Jimmy like an asshole is only going to cause Jimmy to step it up and prove himself in order to avoid taking more shit throughout his entire time in Texas at the 6666 ranch, as part of the upcoming spinoff. Although even if it doesn't, it still helps that Sheridan is so damned good at shit-talking line readings.
11. “It’s a ‘pour the bottle in the bucket’ kind of day.”
Anybody who's had a hard day of anything — work, childcare, telling bitches off in western-wear stores — can fully relate to Beth's sense of exhaustion upon arriving back home after her afternoon with Carter. And how adorable was it that Rip already had the booze and glass set out? He clearly wanted to win back any favor lost with her "I love you but fuck you" line earlier.
12. “I hate you.”
It's probably obvious that I like to put the focus on Yellowstone's filthiest and silliest lines, but sometimes it can definitely be the most dire and serious utterances that rise to the top. Such was the case when a stressed-out Monica had to put up with Kayce's blame-gaming over Tate's PTSD-esque behavior after killing his mother's attacker in the premiere. After she unloaded her true feelings about never wanting to move to the ranch, calling it evil in the process, Kayce's reaction was to defend the ranch and villainize those who wanted to take it from the family, rather than saying anything that would have made his wife feel even 0.01% better. It's a wonder the line "I hate you," doesn't serve as half of Yellowstone's dialogue at this point.
13. “This is one time I wish I had your lack of character.”
Ever the pragmatic landowner, John made the debatable choice to have a quasi-duel with the douchebag who coordinated the attack on the Duttons. And upon learning of his soon-to-be-victim's penchant for shooting others in the back of the head so that he wouldn't have to deal with the look of surprise on their murdered faces, John voiced the rare desire to be a less noble person. And considering he very easily could have ended that night bleeding out in Wyoming, maybe John will chip away some of that character before his next confrontation.
As it's been for more than three seasons now, Yellowstone is a treasure trove of TV dialogue, as well as the performances that make that dialogue shine. So keep following along with us when new episodes air every Sunday on Paramount Network at 8:00 p.m. ET.
