After last week’s particularly eye-roll-worthy episode, “Cigarettes, Whiskey, a Meadow and You” is refreshing, lingering in the natural beauty that makes this a place worth protecting. It’s not that there’s much real drama or momentum building here; for the most part, the spring gathering and branding of the calves goes off without a hitch, and season five is still hitting the same few thematic beats. But it’s a pleasant enough episode of Yellowstone, a warm depiction of a key tradition everyone is terrified of losing.
Much of the episode is devoted to the gathering, which provides Kayce an opportunity to spend some time with his son and provides Rip an opportunity to get laid under the setting sun. It’s nice to see Beth reconnect with nature after spending most of her recent years in various high-rises, and the same goes for John (though he barely seems to spend any time actually governing). John’s discussion with Emmett Walsh about the perfection of little moments is nicely written; you can sense the unspoken bonds that develop among a group of people all experiencing the same profound serenity.
The episode also benefits from a bit of tragedy mixed in with the peace: That night, Emmett dies in his sleep beneath the stars, the type of death every cowboy dreams of. Buck Taylor is Western royalty, and he’s made Emmett an enjoyable presence during his sporadic appearances, but I’m not sure those appearances were enough to make his death really hurt for me. Still, it’s fitting for the episode, which is all about showcasing the tranquility and cyclicality of cowboy life. (It reminds me a bit of the Four Sixes scenes last year.) When John returns to the ranch and delivers the bad news to Emmett’s wife, holding her as she cries, his dutiful generosity becomes unintentional good PR, later showing up on the news when Jamie turns on his TV. But it’s also a nice way of showing us why people are actually charmed by John’s way of doing things: Sure, he’s stubborn and basically uninterested in politics, refusing to even meet with POTUS in Helena, but on a human level he comes across as warm and empathetic. It’s the same side of him we saw when he comforted Monica at the funeral for her baby boy.
The branding is also a time for love: Ryan’s flirtation with Abby has developed nicely, and there’s another sweet scene when Beth calls Rip “sensitive” and Cole Hauser hilariously blurts, “Say what?” There’s also a bit of a love triangle brewing with John, Summer, and Lynelle, though Lynelle has her own boyfriend.
I’ve made my dislike of Summer as a character clear, but this is a relatively good episode for her. She bonds a bit with Monica, first by helping her peel potatoes and then during a trip to the Dutton family cemetery. Monica’s anti-city rant could’ve come from practically any character in this show, but there’s something to the idea of this place being sacred in its oldness and its enormity, and I appreciate Monica’s reminder that her family owned the land before the Duttons. “It doesn’t represent anything,” Monica says. “It just is.”
When John later asks Summer about her reaction to the festivities of the day, she says, “I thought parts of it were beautiful, and I thought parts of it were absolutely heartbreaking.” It’s a simple line, but it expresses her moral crisis much more eloquently and earnestly than the bad-faith attacks and lecturing of last episode. Spending time on the ranch has allowed Summer to understand this culture better, but there’s a part of her that just can’t move past the convictions she’s had her entire life. It’s a relief that the show doesn’t totally condemn that this time, even if I’d still like to see more of John learning from his supposed “environmental adviser” and less of the reverse.
In terms of the actual ongoing plot of this season, our brief glimpses at Jamie and Chief Rainwater in “Cigarettes, Whiskey, a Meadow and You” are still mostly about setting up developments for next week’s mid-season finale (and beyond). Sarah clearly has her own reasons for sleeping with Jamie beyond attraction, but she’s up front about most of them: If she can help him get elected governor, it benefits Market Equities. He seems all in on collaborating with her, a mutually beneficial arrangement — and by the end of the episode, they both seem on board with playing dirty to get John out of office. The only question is if any of Sarah’s feelings for Jamie are genuine; does her mission to get revenge on the Duttons apply to Jamie, too, or would her plan truly protect him?
The complicated rivalry between John and Chief Rainwater, which looked likely to take center stage again when John made plans to visit the reservation a couple episodes back, is still going completely ignored. But the gears are finally starting to turn on Rainwater’s downfall; the coming arrival of the (Biden-like?) president and his evil, dog-shooting Secret Service promises the acceleration of Angela Blue Thunder’s political plotting, as director of Native American affairs. The POTUS plans to endorse Martin Kills Many, the man who protested Rainwater’s leadership a few episodes ago.
There’s reason to be doubtful that the president’s actions will really improve life on the reservation; after all, as Rainwater points out, Obama’s visit to Standing Rock didn’t stop him from taking serious action against the Dakota Access Pipeline. “Presidents don’t see us, even when they’re standing in front of us,” he says somberly.
But it’s not exactly like Rainwater himself has been a great leader lately; from the outside, all of his plans to benefit the reservation appear to benefit him as much as they do the actual reservation, if not more. (Not to mention his deal with Market Equities isn’t going through, anyway.) Maybe change is good — or maybe it isn’t. That’s one of the central questions of the show. And as this episode shows us through one peaceful day, there’s a lot to lose.
The Last Round-Up
Carter Corner: He dances with a girl!
I wish we got more scenes between Kayce and Beth. They’ve been in the same place the last couple episodes, but barely ever interact.
