What Branding Really Means On Yellowstone, According To Kelly Reilly

Taylor Sheridan's "Yellowstone" is a love letter to ranching, with many scenes centering around cowboys herding cattle and putting in a hard day's work. However, the cows aren't the only living things being branded by hot iron in this universe. To become part of the Dutton family's inner circle, their employees must bear a mark on their skin that forever binds them to the ranch, which is arguably worse than a prison sentence. (That said, the alternative is a ride to the infamous "Yellowstone" train station that no one ever returns from, so you pick which fate is worse.)

Kelly Reilly, who plays Beth Dutton in Paramount's neo-Western series, has her own views on what the branding means for the denizens of the Dutton family's ranch. While she acknowledges that the "Y" symbol represents allegiance and loyalty to a family of murderers, the "Yellowstone" star also believes that it has a more profound meaning. As she told ScreenRant:

"If you leave, you're on the train. Because there are some dodgy things that are happening at Yellowstone, and in order for it to survive, you've got to keep your mouth shut. It's a little bit of Western Mafia happening here. But on a deeper emotional level to that, I think the branding is significant because they are all bound to this place emotionally. And they cannot escape; it will never be washed off."

Of course, some characters have tried to back out of their pact with the Duttons in the past, and they could have gotten away with it if they were more careful. However, history has shown that the family claims its pound of flesh eventually.

John Dutton viewed Wade Morrow (Boots Sutherland) as a thief as soon as he turned his back on the ranch. You see, Wade was a branded man, making him John's property — so he couldn't just walk away without paying his debt. Wade eventually got lynched for his misdemeanor, with Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) ordering Walker (Ryan Bingham) to cut the symbol off the old man's chest afterward. The fact Wade lived for so long after betraying his former employees shows that the Duttons don't mind playing the waiting game, but he should have left the state when he had the chance, as there are no storylines in the first two seasons of "Yellowstone" that suggest the family is in any rush to skin Wade at all.

Walker, meanwhile, is another branded cowboy who tried to get out of his deal with the Duttons. Unlike Wade, though, he actually lived afterward — but only because Rip tricked the singing cowboy into getting his fingerprints all over the vehicle of a murdered journalist he didn't kill. This storyline proves that the Duttons are downright evil, as Walker is an innocent fella who gets forced into servitude. The worst part, though, is that he had the chance to leave the state, but he kept singing in bars and attracted enough attention for Rip to find him.

Despite Walker's issues with the Duttons, he also represents the significant meaning of the symbol that Kelly Reilly mentioned in the aforementioned interview. Sure, he views the ranch as a rotten haven of evil, but he reluctantly accepts it as his home, proving that he's emotionally bound to the place in his own way.