Yellowstone season 1, episode 6 recap: ‘The Remembering’

On last week’s ‘Yellowstone‘ a new ranch hand was hired — and branded, Kayce and his family spent time at the ranch after Jamie got him out of jail, and Beth made moves on Jenkins’ wife, to the developer’s horror.

Yellowstone‘s sixth episode, “The Remembering,” begins the next day. After spending the night at the ranch, Kayce takes the stallion only he seems to be able to ride for an early morning jaunt.

When they come upon a bear, the horse runs away leaving Kayce to attempt to intimidate the bear by screaming his head off at it.

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Rip rides up and shoots a gun to scare the bear away. As soon as the troubles past, Kayce and Rip start sniping at each other — apparently, these two don’t get along.

Their argument quickly escalates and Kayce takes a swing at Rip. They brawl and Rip knocks Kayce down. Rip rides away after taking one more verbal jab at Kayce regarding his lax work ethic.

Up at the house, John goes to see Monica and Tate. Monica asks John about the branding she witnessed the previous night. John explains the ranch hands brand themselves to show they can be trusted. Monica asks if that’s why Kayce has the brand.

John tells her that when Kayce got Monica pregnant, he ordered Kayce to make Monica have an abortion. When Kayce wouldn’t do it, John branded him. That’s why Kayce hates John. Monica thanks him for his honesty.

Later, Beth and Jamie head to a meeting together to discuss their political campaigns. They had a kind of nice moment last week together but Beth’s back to her usual self.

They meet with the current Attorney General, the woman who’s sleeping with John and also happens to be the governor, and a woman who will be Jamie’s campaign manager. Jamie is polite while Beth makes snide comments every chance she gets.

After a while, the governor, Lynelle, has had enough of Beth and asks to talk to her privately. Lynelle tells Beth that she can’t bully her and that Beth won’t be getting her endorsement.

Beth insists that’s not why she’s there. Instead, Beth tells the governor that if Lynelle sleeps in her mother’s bed again she’ll ruin her career.

After Beth saunters away, Lynelle asks to speak to Jamie in private. She tells him that members of the livestock board have raised health concerns regarding John’s cancer. The news is a surprise to Jamie since John never told anyone in the family about his diagnosis. Jamie leaves in a hurry.

After the Duttons are gone, Lynelle and the AG talk. Lynelle questions John’s judgment. Why would he want Beth involved in politics when she can’t be controlled? She’s considering backing someone besides John to be head of the local BLM office. The AG is not pleased with the idea.

Back at the ranch, Kayce once again approaches Rip. He doesn’t want to fight anymore. Instead, Rip issues a warning. His job is to protect the family and Kayce is the worst thing for it. He shouldn’t return to the ranch now.

On the way to Tate’s school, Tate once again expresses how much he wants to live at Yellowstone to Monica. They get to the school to find a fight between two kids is in progress. Monica tries to break it up, but instead one of the kids accidentally punches her, knocking her down. Monica hits her head on the pavement and passes out.

John drives Kayce to Monica. In the car, John once again questions the wisdom of Kayce keeping his family on the reservation.

When John gets back to the house, Jamie and Beth are waiting for him. John tries to play off his cancer, but Jamie and Beth are angry that they kept his diagnosis secret.

Brushing their concerns aside, John asks to see Beth alone. He knows what she did at the meeting and he’s embarrassed. She tries to warn him about Lynelle but he won’t hear it. Beth says the governor doesn’t live up to her mother, but John tells her not to mention her mother to him again.

Meanwhile, Dan Jenkins is meeting with his fixer, Melody. Jenkins provides the names of the few people John doesn’t have influence over. Melody starts strategizing about how they can beat him.

Thomas Rainwater overhears their discussion as Melody tells Jenkins they need a face for their campaign against John. Jenkins can’t be the face of the campaign because ultimately he’s a billionaire from California and isn’t sympathetic. So Rainwater offers his face. He also offers to hire Melody away from Jenkins.

In addition, Rainwater offers to get power to the subdivision Jenkins is building. The power source Jenkins had been planning to use was moved by John, leading to big problems for him.

Rainwater wants to use Jenkins’ land for a hotel, casino, and a parking lot and offers him a great deal to make it happen. Jenkins knows Rainwater is John’s enemy so he’s inclined to see him as a friend. He takes Rainwater’s deal.

Around dinner time, Kayce, Tate, and an injured Monica are back at home on the reservation. Monica’s great-grandfather is there helping out but Tate is acting up. Monica’s great-grandfather takes Tate aside to tell him he has to be a better kid.

A drone flies over the house, upsetting the horses. One of the neighbors shoots it down as they notice a car in the distance that appears to contain the person who flew the drone. Kayce and the neighbor takes off after the car. They cut it off and try to confront the driver, but before they can talk, he speeds away.

When Kayce gets back to the house, Monica collapses. Kayce gives her CPR as Monica’s great-grandfather looks on.

The prominent female characters on Yellowstone seem to be primarily conniving ball-busters. Monica was the exception. She was strong but reasonable, so of course, her death was inevitable.

Okay, she’s not “officially” dead as of the end of this episode, but it doesn’t look good. And if she is gone, it just throws another arbitrary challenge in Kayce’s way, making her entire existence simply a means to motivate his character. That’s a shame — not to mention lazy storytelling.

At least like last week’s episode, this episode tells a coherent story that keeps the various plot lines going. In fact, the only characters we didn’t see this episode were the ranch hands, but they’ve been getting a lot of screen time for no discernible reason in last couple episodes anyway. Their presence wasn’t missed.

Next week, we’ll find out what happened to Monica, how it impacts Kayce, and how the rest of the Duttons react. Until then, check out our recap of episode 5, and stream the whole series so far on the Paramount Network.