Yellowstone season 2 premiere recap: A Thundering

Cynthia Vinney

John Dutton (R- Kevin Costner) hands over the reigns to the Ranch to his youngest son Kayce (L-Luke Grimes) Season 2 of “Yellowstone” returns to Paramount Network starting Wednesday, June 19 at 10 PM, ET/PT.

In Yellowstone’s explosive first season, we saw the Dutton family attempt to defend their ranch at all costs.

In last season’s final episode, John Dutton stopped seeing the doctor for his cancer, but was still prepared to fight for Yellowstone Ranch and his position as livestock commissioner. Son Jamie is running for Montana State Attorney General against his father’s wishes. Jamie is also planning to use the press to destroy his father. At the same time, John sends tough-as-nails daughter Beth to tell Jamie he’s been replaced at the ranch and to retrieve all his assets associated with the family business.

Meanwhile, wayward son Kayce is dumped by his wife Monica and returns to Yellowstone despite years of resistance. He takes up residence in the cowboy’s quarters where he encounters Avery, the woman John’s loyal right-hand man Rip has recently hired. Elsewhere, Thomas Rainwater, the head of the local Native American tribe, and Dan Jenkins, a land developer, plot to create a casino resort that will encroach on the Dutton’s ranch. When Rip gets wind of the plan, he threatens Jenkins. He plans to let Jenkins go but Kayce orders him to hang by the noose he’s strung up on.

The first episode of the second season of Yellowstone, entitled “A Thundering,” opens with the sounds of labored breathing. The camera shows Thomas Rainwater surveying the landscape. It’s burning. A person covered in flames runs past and falls. (Stop, drop and roll! Always stop, drop and roll!). Then we see Rainwater is sitting with Jenkins. Part of his face is burned. When Rainwater asks what happened, Jenkins he aims a gun at him. As he shoots, Rainwater wakes up in his bed, screaming.

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At the ranch, Kayce, John, Rip, and others free some bulls from a thicket. It’s a super-cowboy moment. Kayce goes into the thicket and retrieves a particularly stubborn bull. It’s reckless but he makes it work. His father seems impressed.

And… the credits roll.

An unfamiliar man approaches Yellowstone. The cowboys have wrangled the bulls back to their enclosures.

The unknown cowboy approaches and is directed to John. He tells John he’s looking for day work. His goal is to get to Arizona. John directs him to Kayce. He introduces himself to Kayce as Cowboy. Rip and John look on as he makes his case for day work. John is slowly passing the torch.

Elsewhere Jamie is being briefed on his schedule as he and his chief of staff Christina get ready for the day. Jamie goes out to get coffee.

Beth is in town where she agrees to a 6-month lease on office space. When she returns to the ranch, she fills John in on the space. And she shows him a woman she’s found that they can back for Attorney General against Jamie.

At the reservation, Rainwater is meeting with the members of the tribal council. They don’t understand why he wants to build a casino outside the reservation when there’s already one there. Why not just improve the casino they already have? Rainwater explains the new casino would be a destination. Plus, they’ll own the land and annex it into the reservation. He just needs the council’s approval for the loan for the land.

One of the council members objects. Rainwater was elected to bring change but the new casino isn’t change. He doesn’t see how it will help the community. He won’t vote for the loan if the only thing guaranteeing the community will improve is Rainwater’s promise. But Rainwater believes he won’t need the man’s vote.

Rip Wheeler (R-Cole Hauser) questions Walker’s (L-Ryan Bingham) loyalty to the Dutton Ranch and his fellow cowboys. Season 2 of Yellowstone premieres on Paramount Network starting Wednesday, June 19 at 10 p.m., ET/PT.

Meanwhile, Monica, who still needs a cane to walk, is at the university. Last season she was approached about teaching in the Native American studies program but she didn’t want to leave her teaching position on the reservation.

Now she’s reconsidered. However, she wants to do both — her plan is to teach mornings at the high school and afternoons and evenings at the university. The man she’s talking to offers her a position teaching American history until the following term when money will free up for the Native American studies teaching position. He tells her she can teach her version of American history. She also makes it clear that she is now using her maiden name — Long.

Cassidy, the woman who Beth hand-picked to run for Attorney General opposite Jamie, arrives at the ranch. Cassidy is surprised and flattered by the offer. She wants to know why they aren’t supporting Jamie. They explain they don’t think he’s what’s best for Montana.

She tells them about the charity she started that uses equine therapy to help war veterans with PTSD. John’s impressed. Cassidy expresses concern about getting votes, but John assures her he’ll worry about that.

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The ranch hands eat dinner together. Cowboy is there. The others challenge him, but he holds his own. Newly-branded cowboy Walker isn’t eating with the others. He’s off in the distance singing and playing his guitar. Rip tells one of the cowboys to go get him but Cowboy says he’ll do it.

He approaches Walker. It’s clear they know each other. They worked together in Nebraska. Walker tells him he should leave Yellowstone. Cowboy counters that the work’s the same as anywhere else. Walker assures him that Yellowstone is different. Cowboy says he’s only planning to stay for a bit. Walker says when Cowboy leaves he’s going with him. Cowboy tells him that Walker doesn’t need permission to leave, but Walker tells Cowboy that at Yellowstone you do. Cowboy looks confused.

Kayce goes to visit Monica and his son, Tate, but Tate is already asleep. Kayce thinks Monica is trying to keep Tate from him. Monica claims she’s not but she is trying to shield him from seeing the things Kayce’s done catch up with him. Monica agrees to let Kayce wake Tate up, but Kayce decides to just watch him sleep. Monica cries in another room.

In town, Beth meets someone at a bar. Beth outlines a plan to invest in land that will make the man a ton of money. It will also enable her to build a moat of land around her father’s ranch. That makes it a win for everyone.

That night at the ranch, the cowboys are playing cards. Avery wants to know if that’s all they want to do on a Saturday night. Cowboy makes fun of them for being tame too. He says in his day they would be out playing cowboy poker. The others protest they won’t do it, but Cowboy mocks them with chicken noises.

Next thing you know, they’re out in an enclosure sitting at a table. A ranch hand releases a bull and he goes right for the table. They all run. Avery is the last one at the table and wins.

Rip catches them afterwards. He’s angry and makes them leave. Rip then asks the older ranch hand who won. He’s impressed when he learns it was Avery.

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!

Cynthia Vinney

I am a freelance writer and huge pop culture fan living in Los Angeles. I've co-authored the books Mad Men Unzipped and the forthcoming Finding Truth in Fiction, about audience's positive responses to fictional stories.