Yellowstone season 2 premiere recap: A Thundering

Kayce Dutton (L-Luke Grimes) takes control of Dutton Ranch under the watchful eye of his fatherJohn Dutton (r-Kevin Costner) in Season 2 of “Yellowstone” which premieres on Paramount Network starting Wednesday, June 19 at 10 PM, ET/PT.

Next, the cowboys go to a local bar.  Avery talks with Jimmy. When a guy asks her to dance, she says no. But Jimmy makes things worse by cursing at the guy and telling him to leave. The guy grabs Jimmy from behind and starts a bar fight. Everyone gets beaten up.

Kayce enters the cowboys’ quarters and sees what happened. He informs Rip. Rip goes to take care of it, Kayce insists on joining him.

Rip and Kayce go to the bar with the others who were there earlier. They let a bull into the bar. It goes after everyone. As people run out, Jimmy calls out the perpetrators of the fight and Rip and Kayce beat them up with sticks. Walker’s there but refuses to participate in the beating. Rip is furious.

The bartender asks Rip why he messed up his bar. Rip angrily tells him that if a bar fight with  someone from Yellowstone happens again, he needs to give Rip a call, or his bouncers need to break it up, or both. Then Kayce chimes in that if there’s a next time he may burn the bar down. Yikes, Kayce’s not in a good place and is determined to make everyone else suffer for it.

The next morning, John goes to a diner for breakfast. He notices Dan Jenkins eating at a nearby booth. He’s alive! John comments that he’s surprised Jenkins is eating solid food so soon. Jenkins isn’t amused.

Johns asks if it’s his last meal before Jenkins leaves town, but Jenkins tells him he doesn’t plan to leave. He was going to go to the sheriff about what Rip and Kayce did to him but realized he doesn’t want to see John taken away in handcuffs. He wants John to be on Yellowstone when Jenkins takes it from him. John threatens Jenkins by telling him he won’t be cut down next time.

Later on the ranch, John coughs and collapses. A veterinarian is there and brings him into her truck. She quickly determines its not his colon cancer that’s brought him down. He has an ulcer that’s ruptured. She needs to cauterize it or he’ll bleed out in 20 minutes, way before they can get him to the hospital. Rip, Kayce, and Cowboy assist as the woman opens John up without the benefit of anesthesia. As she works, John finally — mercifully — passes out.

After she’s stopped the bleeding, a helicopter flies John to the hospital. Kayce comments that on the bright side, John doesn’t have cancer. That means he’s not dying yet. John says what’s worse is he’s been living like he’s dying. As John mutters that he has so much to undo, the episode comes to a close.

Yellowstone‘s second season is off to a rip-roaring start! If you need a refresher on everything that happened last season, take a look at our recaps starting with season 1, episodes 1 and 2. You can also stream the first episode of the second season on Paramount Network.

What did you think of Yellowstone‘s season premiere? Let us know in the comments!