Yellowstone Spin-Off Dutton Ranch Flips One Of Beth Dutton's Biggest Trends

This post contains spoilers for "Dutton Ranch" Episode 1.

Kelly Reilly's Beth Dutton was responsible for some of the wildest "Yellowstone" moments. In fact, Beth's abrasive manner was the reason "Yellowstone" didn't get made at HBO. Now, she's been unleashed upon the Lone Star State in "Dutton Ranch," the spin-off that sees her and husband Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) relocate to Texas after their ranch in Dillon, Montana, burns down in a wildfire. Beth brings her own fiery personality to the town of Rio Paloma in South Texas, and she's already clashing with some of the locals. But there is one resident to whom she seems to have taken a liking: Ed Harris' kindly veterinarian Everett McKinney. What's more, based on the way in which Everett's first scene embraces a classic Beth trope, it looks as if these two are set to be good friends.

On "Yellowstone," Beth could verbally take down anyone whenever she felt like it. But she seemed to have a preference for embracing her acid tongue in taprooms. From the very outset, Reilly's financial executive-turned-rancher took great pleasure in deflating anyone she could while propped up at the bar, starting with a would-be suitor who tries to chat her up in a hotel bar only to be shut down in the most merciless way. Beth then took real estate developer Dan Jenkins (Danny Huston) to one of the roughest saloons in town in order to take him down a peg or two. But that wasn't the end of her bar burns, which continued throughout the show's five seasons, becoming somewhat of a calling card for the acerbic Dutton daughter. Now, "Dutton Ranch" has flipped the trope on its head. 

Beth Dutton relished the opportunity to threaten, belittle, and even beat up her enemies in drinking holes. At one point, in "Yellowstone" Season 5, Episode 3 ("Tall Drink of Water"), she even attacks a woman who dares to hit on Rip, smashing a bottle over her head and wrestling with the bouncers. She's yet to go quite as wild in "Dutton Ranch," but we have seen one bar-based confrontation — though this time, it's Ed Harris handing out the burn.

While Beth sits alone in a bar, a local boy named Hoyt enters and starts harassing the barmaid, Carol (played by country singer Morgan Wade). After Hoyt tells the bartender that he'd like to come behind the bar and "get a better look," Dr. Everett McKinney enters and lays down the law. "Son, sit your ass down," says McKinney. "I'm giving you a chance to hold onto your pride, Hoyt. Be the better man. You don't get many of those chances in life." Hoyt then leaves, embarrassed, and Beth watches in awe as McKinney pulls her own trick in front of her.

The premiere episode also features "Yellowstone" callbacks in the form of John Dutton's hat and the knife Beth used to kill her adopted brother, Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley). But the bar scene is arguably the best reference as it acknowledges a "Yellowstone" trope in a more sly, subversive way — which is more than can be said for "Marshals" and its continuation of certain depressing "Yellowstone" trends. Of course, as "Dutton Ranch" goes on, we'll surely see Beth step up and embrace her old ways.

"Dutton Ranch" is now streaming on Paramount+.