Land development and ranching are both dirty, mean and violent businesses, if Yellowstone is to be believed.
Hollywood loves to make businessmen their villains and Yellowstone is no exception. The twist in this show is that the Dutton family and their foes are all willing to be evil to keep or to get what they want.
The Duttons took murderous revenge this Sunday on Yellowstone in the episode "Meaner Than Evil" against men paid to “stir up trouble” that could be used to sue the family. It was finally revealed that Market Equities hedge funder Roarke Morris (Josh Holloway) paid Wade and Clint Morrow to provoke the Duttons into doing something criminal.
Roarke and Market Equities have been trying all season to take a huge chunk of the Dutton family’s land to build an airport, resorts and a new city. They’ve tried offering money, tried to get the state to seize it by eminent domain, and paid someone to harass the family into violence or crime. Which, with the Duttons, isn’t difficult. This is a ranch that literally brands its wranglers and has put many a threat six feet under.
In the previous episode, Wade Morrow and his son Clint attacked Teeter and Colby in a stream. The Morrows trampled them with their horses and whipped them to “send a message” to John Dutton (Kevin Costner). The pair survived.
But viewers didn’t learn what was behind the assault until the Morrows visited Roarke this week. They update him and he tells them to “keep pushing.” Wade says, “I ain’t trying to go back to prison and I ain’t trying to get killed,” but Roake assures them their actions “will play out in a court of law” as justifiable.
“Now keep pushing until he does something else we can use in court,” Roarke demands. “... keep poking him till that son of a bitch does something he can’t take back.”
Upon learning of the attack, John realizes someone paid the Morrows to mess with them and they all decide calling the sheriff would be useless. So he tells Rip to come up with a smart plan and “take that trash to the fucking train station.” The “train station” is a canyon 100 miles from civilization where the Duttons dump the bodies of people they kill.
Rip and the wranglers take revenge on the Morrows. Clint Morrow is accidentally killed in the chase, but Wade is captured and strung up to a tree. Rip has one of the hands cut the Yellowstone brand off of Wade’s chest before hanging him to death and dumping the bodies at the “train station.”
