Yellowstone: Jamie Dutton hatches plan to impeach father as state governor at urging of Sarah Atwood

At Sarah Atwood’s urging Jamie Dutton hatched a plan to impeach his father paving the way for him to be the Governor of Montana on Sunday’s episode of Yellowstone.

Sarah explained to Jamie that there would be lawsuits over how his father John Dutton [Kevin Costner], the patriarch of a powerful family, put the ranch land in a conservation easement that would end up bankrupting the state.

‘Your state will be on the hook for around four billion dollars in compensatory damages,’ Sarah [Dawn Olivieri] said. ‘That’s 10 percent of Montana’s GDP. The state’s going to go bankrupt.’

Sarah got up and whispered in his ear.

‘Sounds like an impeachable offense to me,’ Sarah said.

‘Yes it does,’ Jamie [Wes Bentley] said.

Sarah reminded him that if the governor resigned or stepped down there would be a special election and that the Market Equities backed PAC would support Jamie’s bid for Governor. She urged him to go before the Assembly to demand John be impeached.

‘This is your chance to become Governor,’ Sarah said. ‘And get our f***ing land back.’

Jamie confided in Sarah earlier back at his condo that he never wanted to be a lawyer but that it was what his father wanted him to be. He said he got accepted to Harvard without even applying. He said John applied for him.

‘My father hates me,’ Jamie. ‘My father hates me becoming the very thing that he asked, no, forced me to be.’

Jamie said he wanted his father’s approval. Sarah said his father was scared of him and that there was no future in raising cattle in the United States.

‘Tourism, that is all you have, ‘ Sarah said. ‘You can seize it or you can witness it.’

Sarah said she wanted to help him save the ranch.

The season five episode titled The Dream Is Not Me opened up with a flashback of a young Rip Wheeler [Cole Hauser] getting into a brutal fight with Rowdy [Kai Caster] a ranch hand who talked about being with Beth Dutton [Kelly Reilly]. 

Rowdy was hurt badly and asked Rip to get help. Rowdy first instructed him to tell everyone he fell off his horse or else Rip would get in trouble.

Rip rode to the ranch but came clean to John. He said he fought with Rowdy because he talked about Beth ‘in a way he shouldn’t.’

‘He pulled his knife and I hit him in the head with a rock, too hard I guess,’ Rip said.

John, Rip and a doctor rode to check on Rowdy, but he was already dead.

‘Why didn’t you just tell me he fell off his horse?’ John said.

‘You said never to lie to you so I didn’t,’ Rip said.

‘Well you are going to have to lie now or you are going to prison,’ John said.

John said there was something he could do, but it would mean that Rip would have to stay on the ranch until the day he died. Rip said he never planned on leaving the ranch.

‘This ranch is the only family I’ve got,’ Rip said.

Back in the present day, Rip met up with John in the early morning to finish the cattle drive. Beth spoke to Monica Long [Kelsey Asbille] at base camp. Monica said she didn’t need to be treated differently because she lost a child. Beth confided in her that she did, too.

‘When I say that I am sorry Monica, I really mean it,’ Beth said.

‘Thank you,’ Monica said.

Monica told Beth that she was mean because she kept that information inside of herself.

‘I keep it inside because all the people knowing, it would hurt,’ Beth said. ‘Anyway that’s not why I’m mean. I was a real f***ing b**** before it happened.’

Thomas Rainwater [Gil Birmingham], the Native American leader, and Mo Brings Plenty met with US Senator Lynelle Perry [Wendy Moniz-Grillo] who told them that a pipeline had been approved and that one of the proposed pathways would be through the reservation. She told them she would not support it and would call a press conference to announce it. Thomas urged her to have the governor attend and also show his support.

On the cattle drive, John’s ranchers told him that they found numerous stillborn bison on his property and John worried the disease might spread to his cattle.

‘When a cow has it, the state destroys the whole herd,’ John said.

John rode back to the ranch to speak to his ranch hands. He told them the herd was insured but didn’t know how they would build back a 100 years of genetics.

‘If one of them tests positive, there’s nothing we can do,’ John said.

John said he would look for a place to lease some land for half the herd. Rip said he would go with the herd to the new leased land. He picked other hands to go with him and Ryan [Ian Bohen] worried about being away from his new love interest, country singer Abby [Lainey Wilson] .

John told Beth about how he needed to move part of the herd south so they didn’t need to feed the cattle during the winter. He told Beth it would cost them $1.4 million a month.

‘Why don’t you just sell them all now?’ Beth said.

John said that would mean they wouldn’t have any income next year.

‘We don’t have a profit any year,’ Beth said.

Beth asked how much it would be worth if they sold the heifers and the steers.

‘If I can get them to weigh 750, worth about $1,100 dollars,’ John said.

Beth said that meant John sold beef at $1.50 a pound.

‘I really thought the airport would be the end of us but your business model is going to be the end of us,’ Beth said.

Beth called a ranch that sold their own beef and realized there was a lot more money to be made. John told her that no one had been able to figure out the packing system. Beth said she was a businessman and would figure it out.

The ranch hands took a break to go to the county fair. Rip told Beth that he might be gone for a year.

‘I won’t survive that,’ Beth said.

Beth said she would rent a suite at the nearest Hyatt and drive to him for happy hour. Abby was mad at Ryan that he didn’t tell her that he would be gone for a year.

‘Chasing a dream, I understand and I hope you catch it,’ Abby said. ‘I just wished that dream was me.’

John looked around the county fair and Summer Higgins [Piper Perabo] said he looked sad. Summer encouraged him to invite tourists to his ranch to understand what he really does.

‘Because they have you pegged as a bunch of misogynist bigots who are ruining the environment and that’s not who you are,’ Summer said.

Summer thanked him for kidnapping her.

‘I didn’t kidnap you, I commuted your sentence to house arrest,’ John said.

‘At your house,’ Summer said.

John reached over and kissed her.

Back in his office, Jamie prepared the speech he would give regarding how John’s actions had robbed the state of thousands of jobs and revenue.

‘I call on the assembly for a vote to impeach,’ Jamie said.

Sarah listened to his speech in her nightgown.

‘What do you think?’ Jamie asked.

‘I think it’s perfect,’ Sarah said.

Yellowstone will return in two weeks for the midseason finale on Paramount Network.