Yellowstone season 2, episode 7, “Resurrection Day”, reveals just how far

the Beck brothers are willing to go to claim the Yellowstone Ranch and the

gauntlet is thrown down in an explosively violent episode. Season 2 of Yellowstone

sees a new major antagonist for JohnDutton (Kevin Costner) and his family to go up against in the form of the Beck brothers, two of the greatest villains to ever appear on a Taylor Sheridan show. All season, Malcolm (Neal McDonough) and Teal (Terry Serpico) Beck have been making increasingly sinister overtures to the Duttons.

They’d even made an effort to turn Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) to their side in the previous episode, “Blood the Boy”. In that same episode, Jamie (Wes Bentley) got himself into trouble by speaking to a reporter, telling her the worst secrets of his family. When she

threatens to expose them, Jamie brutally kills her and hides the body, bringing the rest of the ranch into his crime. Season 2, episode 7, “Resurrection Day” sees Jamie contending with his actions and Beth (Kelly Reilly) suffering the consequences of the heightened war between the Duttons and the Becks.

In the beginning of “Resurrection Day”, Malcolm comes to Beth’s office, and the pair verbally spar, making overt threats to one another in attempts to intimidate the other party. Beth gets the better of the exchange, so much so that an angry Malcolm hints he’ll end her tough talk. His attempt to do so occurs toward the end of the episode in one of the darkest moments in Yellowstone. Two masked men arrive at Beth’s office, where she and Jason (David Cleveland Brown) are working late.

They violently attack Beth and Jason, quickly knocking Jason out, but Beth manages to stab one of the assailants with a letter opener before she too is incapacitated. Beth and Jason wake up to find themselves tied up. The man Beth stabbed is bleeding out, but the other has a gun pointed at Jason. He tells Beth they were sent to scare her. When Beth tells him, “Good luck”, the man pulls the trigger and kills Jason right in front of her. He threatens to do the same to Beth. When that still elicits no fear, he prepares to sexually assault her.

However, just before she was tied up, Beth managed to send a text to Rip (Cole Hauser), who suddenly arrives. Earlier in the episode, Rip and Beth had a pseudo-date on the roof of the barn, drinking whiskey and looking at the stars. Rip tried to tell Beth he loved her, but she stopped him. Now, he rushes in, shrugs off a bullet, and puts the standing masked man down where Beth finishes him off with a heavy crystal statue to the face. The man bleeding out from his letter opener wounds is shot dead.

Rip grabs Beth and tells her he does love her as she falls into his arms crying. After John and Kayce (Luke Grimes) take Rip to a doctor, Kayce retaliates off-screen. The next morning, Malcolm wakes up and walks to his window drinking coffee. When he opens his blinds, he’s shocked to see the two masked men hung up outside his home, covered in blood, and with a note attached to them that says, “Return To Sender”.

After the events of the previous episode, Jamie is beside himself, struggling to reckon with the fact he killed the reporter. Though Beth and Jamie have never gotten along, her words to him are particularly cruel, and she suggests he take his own life. When John notices a gun missing from the armory, he already knows what’s happening and races to find Jamie. He does find his son, cradling a rifle, and John slowly approaches him. Never the most loquacious or sympathetic, John does manage to get through to Jamie, telling him they will work on the “new” Jamie together.

When John later tells Beth what happened, Beth remains callous, telling John that Jamie will be the death of their family. John disagrees and reaffirms his love for all his children. Jamie, at Rip’s suggestion, moves into the bunkhouse and begins learning how to be one of the cowboys. He learns quickly, and in a decidedly “un-Jamie”-like action, folds a winning hand of cards while playing poker, understanding the animosity he’d earn isn’t worth the victory.

In a much lighter storyline in Yellowstone season 2, episode 7, Tate (Brecken Merrill), after spending the day with Rip, tells John and Kayce he’s going to be a cowboy when he grows up. He begs his grandfather to let him get a horse, saying he’ll take care of it and do whatever it takes to show he’s responsible. John promises he’ll pay for it if Tate’s father, Kayce, agrees to let him have it, a taller order. Kayce finally relents after Tate makes a detailed checklist of things he needs to do.

However, the stipulation is that Kayce takes care of the horse on weekdays while Tate stays with Monica, but Tate can see him on weekends. Upset, Tate loudly wishes he could stay at the ranch full-time, which Kayce quickly puts a stop to, concerned that talk will upset Monica. After things work out with Monica, John and Kayce make good on their promise and buy Tate a horse, which he names Lucky, and all agree it’s a good name.