In the "Yellowstone" season 4 finale recap, Beth gets her revenge, Jamie is forced to make a life-changing decision and Summer's fate is decided…

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

The season long wait for justice against the man who attempted to murder the entire Dutton family was dished out in one of the most savage scenes in the history of "Yellowstone" during the season 4 finale.

Last week saw Beth Dutton essentially kicked out of the house by her father after John learned that she had used Summer Higgins as a pawn in her game to save the ranch and get back at Market Equities. The only problem was Beth didn't bother to think about Summer receiving a life sentence in prison after doing exactly what she was told to do.

The rift between father and daughter was ultimately rather short lived as the finale got underway but Beth did promise to change her methods after carrying out one last day of vengeance against all those who wronged her.

Meanwhile, Jimmy returned to the Yellowstone after spending most of this season in Texas to learn how to be a cowboy but he didn't come back alone. Unlike his past relationship with Mia, Jimmy's new girlfriend Emily only wants the man she sees in front of her, not the one she hopes he'll become one day.

Kayce also goes through his vision quest to try and find answers about his life and although it's hard to say which direction he's headed in season 5, he was certainly visited by some ghosts of his past.

And finally, John spends a day in court trying to save Summer from spending the rest of her life in prison but things don't go exactly as he planned.

With that said, let's dig into the "Yellowstone" season 4 finale titled "Grass on the Streets and Weeds on the Rooftop"…

100 Years From Now

Rip wakes up to Beth packing her bags and preparing to leave the Yellowstone ranch once and for all after having it out with her father over Summer Higgins and the potential life sentence awaiting her.

Of course, Rip is quick to slow Beth down from overreacting the conversation she shared with her father and he reminds her about a promise that she made to him — once its broken, there's no going back. So after taking a breath and getting her senses back, Beth goes to her father's bedroom and apologizes for what happened to Summer while remarking that she didn't know what the activist turned sort of girlfriend actually meant to him.

John fires back that it's not as much about Summer as Beth's tactics that needlessly destroyed someone's life. When it comes to enemies, all bets are off but John reminds Beth that Summer was never her enemy.

Beth then tells John that she wants to stay here at home but she needs his permission, which he grants while telling her that the Yellowstone will always be her room no matter what.

The next morning, Beth decides that before she turns over a new leaf, she's still got some business to handle that will require her special brand of ruthlessness.

Before she gets to Walker to ask the ex-con a few questions, Beth first runs into Carter, who calls her "momma" and that stops her dead in her tracks. Beth tells the boy that he already had a mother and she died and he doesn't get another one no matter how much he wants it.

Beth says that she'll be his friend but she can never be his mother, which hits the boy like a ton of bricks after it felt like perhaps he was getting a real family for the first time in his life.

As for the conversation with Walker, Beth questions him about the rules and regulations for visiting inmates and how she could sneak some sort of weapon into the facility. She also asks him about conjugal visitation and Walker lays out all the information she would need to not only get into the prison but actually carry some sort of weapon with her.

After Beth leaves, Rip confronts Walker to find out about what she was asking and he responds that she was asking about prison because he's fairly certain she wants to kill somebody.

Rip rides after Beth to tell her that she can just point in whatever direction she needs and he'll take care of the problem for her. The only thing is Beth knows is something she needs to finish herself while also following through on a promise that her vengeance will be reserved for enemies only.

"My last act before the kinder, gentler me appears"

~ Beth Dutton

As for John, he heads downtown to attend the hearing where Summer is expected to cop to a plea deal that will hopefully keep her out of prison for the rest of her life. John pays a visit to the judge on the case, who is grandstanding about the rule of law and that's not a good sign for Summer whatsoever.

Still, the judge says that John speaking on her behalf still means something so he'll take that into consideration.

As court begins, John talks to Summer and tells her that backing out of the plea deal might not be the worst idea in the world. No matter what sentence was hashed out between Summer's lawyer and the prosecution, the judge can still levy whatever punishment he wants and John knows that the man sitting behind the bench today is looking to make an example out of her.

John tells her that right now she might want to trust a jury more than her lawyer's bargaining skills.

But Summer refuses and she ultimately changes her plea to guilty under the guise of the plea deal struck by the prosecution and her attorney. Sadly, the judge doesn't agree that a 15-month suspended sentence actually fixes anything where Summer is involved.

The judge then goes on a long diatribe about intention versus motive and how Summer has coasted through all of these arrests without every receiving anything more than a few hours in jail. He tells Summer that if she wants to affect real change that she should run for office or support those with ideals closer to her but what she can't do it throw rocks and frozen water bottles at police officers and expect to get away with it.

So with that, the judge drops the maximum sentence for a multitude of crimes and at the end the judge tells Summer that with good behavior, she'll be eligible for parole in 14 years.

Summer is understandably stunned with the sentence handed down to her and she embraces John one last time, who informs her that the fight has just begun.

John then marches into the judge's chambers to more or less ask what the fuck he was thinking by punishing Summer with such a harsh sentence to the point where when she gets out, the prospects of ever starting a family or having a decent job have been erased.

The two alphas eventually cool down and John is able to convince the judge that he made his point with the harsh sentence and now he needs to make things right. He asks for Summer to get eight months behind bars for her crimes, which is punishment enough and then she should be able to get out of prison.

The judge finally agrees to relent while informing John to have her file an appeal and that's when he'll overturn his sentence.

From there, they discuss how the world they knew is quickly falling apart and it's being replaced by something neither of them will recognize. Where will they be 100 years from now? John figures mankind will already be extinct and that's where he mentions the title of the episode while adding in this little bit of Dutton wisdom.

"I don't think we make it 100 years. God starts over, tries again. If he's got the stomach for it."

~ John Dutton

With that, John has managed to save Summer from spending more than a decade in prison for nothing more than what she thought was the right thing that would have actually helped save his ranch.

You Don't Owe Me a Thing

After spending most of the season in Texas, Jimmy finally returns to the Yellowstone where he's greeted by a raucous group of ranch hands playing cards. Rather than just pulling up a chair, Jimmy says that he needs to after introducing everybody — including his ex-girlfriend Mia — to his new fiancée, Emily.

It takes about two seconds for Mia to go after Emily as they get into a full on brawl inside the bunkhouse before Jimmy finally drags them apart. Outside, Jimmy talks to Mia and explains that he didn't want her to find out this way while she berates him for giving up on their relationship so easily.

The way Jimmy saw it there was nothing left to fight for after Mia told him it was over because he was leaving for Texas. Now he's fallen in love with someone new and he's staying with Emily no matter what Mia says to him.

After Mia storms away, John Dutton emerges from the shadows and he can't help but laugh at the kind of conversation that Jimmy was just having with two women fighting over him. John then asks Jimmy to take him to the stable so he can get a look at Metallic Cat — the prized horse that has sired more than $37 million worth of offspring that the Yellowstone now co-owns.

While looking over the horse, Jimmy tells John that he's back in order to fulfill his promise as well as pay off his debt after his multitude of medical bills were paid after he ended up hospitalized on two different occasions from trying to be a rodeo star. John can only chuckle because he knows Jimmy would be paying off that debt for the rest of his life but more than anything, he just wanted the former junkie turned ranch hand to find himself while he was in Texas.

Now Jimmy knows more than anything who he wants to be and with that John releases him from whatever debt he thought he owed.

"The only person you owe is yourself, Jim. You don't owe me a thing."

~ John Dutton

The next day, Jimmy enjoys a roping competition with the rest of the bunkhouse boys, who are still stunned at his transformation after he could barely hold a rope much less throw it the last time they saw him. Emily looks on with a big smile on her face before running over to give Jimmy a kiss for good luck as he continues to impress his friends and co-workers.

After they're all finished, Lloyd finally shares a moment with Jimmy, who tells him that all he wants now are a lifetime of days just like these. The only problem is he knows he can't have that at the Yellowstone because of the drama that haunts this place at every turn.

In Texas, Jimmy explains how he's not fighting to hold onto the ranch because his neighbor is doing the exact same job as him. He wants to get back to that kind of simplicity and that's when Lloyd knows he's saying goodbye to Jimmy because he's going to leave for Texas for good.

The next morning, Jimmy packs up his gear and loads it into the truck belonging to the Four-Sixes ranch and he says his final goodbyes to all of the ranch hands including Rip, who looks like a proud papa after he rescued this kid and tried to show him how to become a cowboy. Now that's he's graduated into that role, Jimmy never wants to give it up again and Rip tells him that he'll always have a home at this ranch if he never needs it.

"Cowboys don't say goodbye. They say see you later until we're in that fucking dirt. We'll say our goodbyes then."

~ Rip

Jimmy climbs into the truck and begins the long journey back to Texas, which will be the new home he shares with Emily. He spots Mia sitting in a truck near the exit as she takes one last look at home — possibly the final look they'll ever share with each other.

Jimmy tells Emily that he has no regrets about leaving to be with her in Texas — maybe he's feeling a little bit guilty about leaving the Yellowstone but by her side is exactly where he wants to be. Unless something changes, it would appear that Jimmy has just exited "Yellowstone" to start a new life with his fiancée in the Lone Star state.

This Is the End

Kayce goes through his vision quest this week with plenty of weird encounters and flashbacks to the life he lived before returning home to Montana.

At one point, Kayce is visited by his brother Lee — the sibling who died during the pilot episode back in season 1 — and he also finds himself being comforted by a beautiful woman wearing no clothes at all — but the woman in his dreams isn't Monica. Instead, it's Avery — the former Yellowstone ranch hand who confessed her love for him earlier this season.

From there, Kayce ends up remembering the time he was at war while serving in the military and his group was ambushed by the enemy. Following a firefight, Kayce ends up getting the job done after killing the last member of the enemy battalion while still being haunted by his actions that day.

Finally, Kayce awakens to another woman inviting him to follow her and that's when his vision flashes to the wolf that has continuously looked over him. That means this woman symbolizes the wolf so Kayce follows her to a path where she says it's time for him to go left or right.

She can't advise him which way to go but she will help guide him no matter the choice he makes.

Finally, Kayce wakes up from his drug-induced fever dream and he finds Mo there with his son waiting with horses to take him back to his home. The vision quest is over and it's not quite clear if Kayce figured out the path he's traveling but he returns to the house where he's greeted by Monica.

She asks her husband what he saw while he was undergoing this vision quest.

"I saw the end of us."

~ Kayce Dutton

What that means exactly remains an utter mystery that won't be solved in the finale. As previously stated, the Kayce storyline this season has been arguably the toughest of the entire series because he was so incredibly motivated to get revenge on the people who attacked him and his family but then he just sort of faded into the background after leaving the Yellowstone in order to spend time with his wife and son away from the place where they were both almost killed.

It's unclear if perhaps this means Kayce is going to cut ties with the Yellowstone and devote himself completely to Monica and Tate or maybe this means he's going to return to his other family, which means sacrificing the life he's building with his wife and son. Judging by his demeanor, Kayce may have just realized that his family is better off without him but again we'll have to wait until season 5 to know for certain which path he ultimately chose.

A Reckoning

Before Beth can finish getting vengeance for her family, she first has to deal with Market Equities CEO Caroline Weaver, who storms into her office after the New York Times broke the story about the assault on protesters at their Montana headquarters. Caroline is livid and she knows without question that Beth was the person who leaked the information to the newspaper.

Caroline promises that this time Beth is going to pay and she intends to press charges for corporate espionage, which could come along with a hefty prison sentence. Even if that doesn't work out, Caroline is determined to make Beth pay for betraying her and the trust shown in order to bring her into the company.

With that, Caroline lays down a threat that Beth obviously can't ignore.

"You've made it personal for me. I don't care how much we spend or how long it takes. I'm going to put a public restroom where your fucking house is. I'm going to chop down every tree and damn every creek. I'm going to rape your fucking ranch to death."

~ Caroline Weaver

And with that, Beth is fired from her short-lived job at Market Equities but she leaves after already getting vengeance on her old boss at Schwartz and Meyer while effectively stalling plans to gut the Yellowstone in order to build that airport.

Before Beth can turn her attention back to Market Equities in the future, she first has to deal with problems a little closer to home.

Her first stop is the prison to visit an inmate named Terrell Riggins — also known as the man who helped orchestrate the hit on the entire Dutton family.

Beth arranges for a conjugal visit so she can have some privacy with Riggins, who is understandably stunned when he gets hauled over to the cabin for this particular meeting. When he walks inside, Beth greets him with a very skimpy dress on but he barely gets a chance to enjoy the eye candy before she reveals herself as one of the people he tried so desperately to kill.

Riggins realizes that this woman is Beth Dutton and he attempts to explain that this was nothing more than a job he was hired to do — it was never personal for him. He told the exact same thing to the lawyer in the suit and tie that had come to visit him weeks ago.

Beth then shows him a photograph of Jamie and Riggins confirms that's the man who paid him a visit where he confessed to his crimes. Rather than stab him with some implement she managed to sneak into the prison, Beth instead opts to tell Riggins the hard truth about what the rest of his life will mean — absolutely nothing.

Before leaving, she informs Riggins that he won't be killed by anyone associated with her family because his suffering for the next 40 years until he finally expires is much sweeter justice than any quick death he might receive while being murdered in prison.

"Your life is already over. You're just waiting to die. I hope you wait till you're 100."

~ Beth Dutton

On her way back home, Beth spots a church across the street and a priest walking across the lawn and that's when she gets an idea. With Rip, Carter and her father waiting for her at dinner, Beth bursts into the room and tells them to get outside because something is happening.

When they all get out there, a priest is waiting to marry Beth and Rip because she's tired of waiting to call herself his wife. John does his best to talk her into waiting until he can throw her a proper wedding but Beth isn't interested in a massive event — she just wants to become Rip's wife sooner rather than later.

After exchanging their vows and Beth telling Rip "fuck yes" she's ready to be his until the end of time, they embrace and share a kiss. Rip also puts his mother's wedding ring on her finger — his family never had much when he was growing up but this is the one thing he could give her to show just how much she means to him.

Happier than she's ever been, Beth still has one more order of business to finish before she can truly celebrate with her husband.

The next morning, Jamie Dutton arrives at work and he's informed that there's a visitor waiting in his office. To no surprise, Jamie is greeted by Beth, who is there to tell him about the confession made by Terrell Riggins and how his life will forever be changed by the next decision he makes.

After telling him that Riggins confessed that Jamie knew exactly who ordered the hit on the Dutton family, he quickly sells out his father and reveals that it was Garrett Randle who made that arrangement. Beth is livid that Jamie didn't turn his father in right away, especially knowing exactly how Garrett likely manipulated him into keeping everything a secret.

Beth then reveals a pair of options that will determine Jamie's fate.

First option — Beth tells Jamie that she can return home and inform John that Garrett Randle order the hit and as soon as his father is arrested, he'll sell out Jamie as the one who put him up to it. Jamie will surely be arrested and charged with any number of crimes and it's his birth father who will send him to prison for the rest of his natural life. Beth is betting Jamie will just commit suicide after he's sexually assaulted for the first time in prison.

Second option — Beth will go home and tell Rip that he needs to kill Garrett for attempting to murder the entire Dutton clan and her husband will make sure that man is thoroughly dead. She will then inform Rip that Jamie had his child cut from her belly and then had Beth sterilized, which means he will never have a child of his own as long as they are married. That will make Jamie a marked man and she promises that Rip will eventually find him and he will die a horrific death.

She tells Jamie that he'll just have to wait to see which one she picked and Jamie falls to his knees begging for her to spare him.

"There is a third option. Care to hear it?"

~ Beth Dutton

Later that day, Jamie returns home to the ranch he now owns where he finds Garrett sitting near a brook just enjoying the scenery. His father is planning to leave now because Jamie is going to make a run at becoming governor and Garrett's presence will only complicate things thanks to his 30 year prison sentence for murdering his wife and his son's mother.

Before leaving, Garrett gives his son one last piece of advice to remember, especially when it comes to his dealings with John and the rest of the Dutton family.

"Don't you let those fucking Duttons deceive you into thinking you're a bad man. You're a good man, son, and I love you."

~ Garrett Randle

With that, Jamie tells Garrett that he loves him, too — and then he draws a gun and shoots his father in the head.

The only way to avoid prison or death was for Jamie to kill his own father as revenge for the hit ordered on the Dutton family and now he's carried out Beth's orders. That night, Jamie drives Garrett's body to the ravine in Wyoming where the Dutton's have buried their problems for many, many years.

As he's dragging Garrett's body towards the drop off, Jamie turns to find Beth there waiting for him. She snaps a couple of photos with her phone to ensure she has the incriminating evidence against him along with a piece of advice about those options that were presented to him.

"You should have picked options one or two cause three's gonna be worse. Cause you're fucking mine now."

~ Beth Dutton

Beth returns home to find John sitting and waiting to hear the news about whatever revenge she carried out against the people who harmed their family. Despite feeling like Jamie was his greatest failure as a father, John can't help but love him and he's hoping that Beth didn't kill her brother.

She tells John that Jamie is still alive so he didn't lose another son — but now he's coming back home with the intent to carry out every order handed down by his father including those that will save their ranch. Beth has finally gotten Jamie right where she wants him — and he now has to serve her every command or risk spending the rest of his life in prison or perhaps return to option two, which is an equally unappealing fate.

Jamie tried his best to break away from the family who raised him — but now he's not only back but he's under his sister's thumb from now until forever and that's the last place he ever wanted to be.

"Yellowstone" is expected to return for season 5 in late 2022.  

 

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