Season 4 of Taylor Sheridan's popular contemporary Western "Yellowstone" is well underway,
and fans are lighting up Reddit threads with theories about how the season will play out,
who will come out on top, and where various characters will land in the wake of Season
3's violent attack on the Duttons. But amidst this speculation, there's also been quite a bit
of chatter surrounding one of the series' most volatile characters, Kelly Reilly's Beth Dutton.
For the first three seasons, Beth's character came off as equal parts savvy businesswoman,
psychological terrorist, fiercely loyal daughter, and emotionally wounded and conflicted badass.
"Don't look at him. You're dealing with me now."
As Season 4 plays out, however, fans have noticed to their disappointment that Beth's character
is fast-moving from compelling character into the realm of cartoonish caricature.
Although the season has made a passing attempt to give her some depth — via an
equally cartoonish "look, she wants to cook and be maternal" storyline that,
so far, hasn't really played out — for the most part,
viewers feel her character's arc has begun its ascent over the proverbial shark.
"There he goes!"
Although outspoken audience members have provided a litany of reasons
for their newfound dislike of the character, one scene in Season 4,
Episode 6, appears to have truly galvanized the fate of the once rooted-for fan favorite.
In the episode, titled "I Want to be Him," patriarch John Dutton,
played by Kevin Costner, inexplicably seduces an environmental protest organizer named Summer,
played by series newcomer Piper Perabo.
Even though Beth previously insisted that her father needed to hook up with someone,
when she walks into the kitchen and finds Summer there the morning after her night with John,
she reacts in a way that fans found baffling. Her immediate impulse upon seeing a woman she
doesn't know in nothing but one of her father's shirts is to threaten her with a chef's knife.
In a discussion about the episode on Reddit, one user expressed their confusion, posting,
"I'm sorry but wasn't it Beth's idea for her dad to get some...?"
To which another user replied,
"I think it was the writer's intention to show
Beth's instability but overall it ended up just feeling cringey instead."
Another user echoed the sentiment, writing,
"Like she’s jealous in a weird, dark family secret way. Gross."
No doubt about it, Beth's character has been spiraling for some time now,
but this moment was just too much for many.
One user wrote that Beth is becoming, quote, "a caricature of a caricature."
Another fan in the chat described Beth as turning into "[Taylor] Sheridan's
dominatrix fantasy," while another said they "can't help but feel like
she's been flanderized," a reference to the way Ned Flanders on "The Simpsons"
slowly devolved into a walking collection of exaggerated quirks over the years.
"Could you nanny-goat my kid-diddly-ids?"
"Uh, let's see, just a second …"
The episode and the absurdity of the knife scene were particularly
disappointing to long-time fans of the character. One user wrote,
"Yeah as much as I love Beth and her badassness it's starting to get a little old. I was on
Summer's side in that scene, like really Beth you had to hold her at knife point?"
As a standalone scene, Beth's odd run-in with Summer might have been
more palatable had Season 4 not already turned fans off from her character.
In previous seasons, Beth's badassery was balanced by her calculating pragmatism
and a seething inner conflict that made her a compelling and nuanced character.
But as far as some fans are concerned,
Season 4 has turned her into a one-dimensional cartoon villain. Nowhere is this transformation
more apparent than in Episode 6, when she sits at a desk with her feet up,
smoking the same way a Bond villain would as he slowly reveals his plans for world domination.
Not everyone, however, sees the flattening of Beth's arc as a misstep. One user speculated,
"I've lost count of the number of times Beth has told her 'Daddy' that she's
the only one he can trust. Is Sheridan setting up Beth to be Dutton's Brutus?"
It would certainly explain the intensity and strangeness of Beth's arguably "cringey"
dialogue and behavior toward her father. It might even potentially explain her
character's full-blown transition into a disappointing TV show trope.
"Dad… if you're gonna hire a hooker, would you please let me get you a good one?"
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