Yellowstone season 2, episode 9 recap: Enemies by Monday
On the eighth episode of Yellowstone’s second season, John, Thomas Rainwater, and Dan Jenkins agreed to team up against the Beck brothers, the Becks vowed to take things all the way by targeting the person John loves most, Rip continued to recover from the wounds he sustained while rescuing Beth, and John set up a meeting with Malcolm Beck in Jackson Hole, where he plans to take the Becks out.
Things have never been tenser on Yellowstone (and that’s saying something!) as the penultimate episode of the season, entitled “Enemies by Monday,” begins. Two men sneak into a dark airplane hangar. It’s Kayce and Dan Jenkins’ body guard. They’re sabotaging the Becks’ plane. They’re assuming the brothers will use it to travel to Jackson Hole for the meeting so they’re making sure that, instead of making it to their destination safely, the pair go down in a fiery crash.
The next morning at the ranch the cowboys are preparing for winter. John asks Kayce how things went the previous night and Kayce cautions that there’s no stopping what’s coming to the Becks now. Kayce asks if the fight for the ranch has always been like this and John confirms it has.
Post-credits, Monica pulls up to the horse paddock with Tate, who runs to feed his horse and say good-bye for the day.
The scene cuts to the coroner and sheriff’s deputies examining a body. It’s Jimmy’s grandfather. The men aren’t sure what happened to him but they aren’t ruling out a criminal act. Poor Jimmy, he just finished paying off his debt to the men who were threatening his grandfather!
At the ranch, Jimmy and Jamie are hauling bales of hay when a Commander who’s arrested Jimmy several times drives up. He pulls Jimmy aside and breaks the news to him. He explains that Jimmy’s grandfather passed away from a stroke due to a recent assault.
Jimmy is in shock as the Commander leaves and Jamie rushes up to him. Jimmy mutters to a confused Jamie that he can’t believe he paid Ray and Blake off and they still killed his grandfather. He runs off, and as Rip, Kayce, and the other cowboys ride up, Jimmy is beating a tree with a stick and shouting.
Jimmy runs into the barn, grabs a gun, and then rushes up to Rip and tells him he needs a truck. Rip insists Jimmy tell him what happened. Jimmy wants to take care of it, but Rip tells Jimmy if he goes off as he is, he’ll end up in prison for the rest of his life. Rip’s going to show him how to take care of the problem so it doesn’t morph into a new problem.
Jimmy agrees and gives Rip the shotgun. Rip goes to talk to Kayce. He informs him that they have to take care of Jimmy’s problem that night. Kayce cautions that with everything going on they may have to wait. Rip observes that Jimmy probably won’t be OK with that and Kayce agrees. The folks at Yellowstone have an awful lot of people they need to shuffle off this mortal coil right now.
Meanwhile, Jamie gets a phone call. It’s Christina his ex. She wants to talk and instructs him to meet her at the coffee shop as soon as possible.
When he reaches the shop, she shows him an article about the death of the reporter Jamie killed in episode 6. It’s too big a coincidence and Christina wants Jamie to confirm it was actually an accident.
Jamie tells her he doesn’t know what happened. Christina then asks what will happen to her. After all, Christina knows what the reporter knew. Jamie reassures her that nothing will happen to her. Christina thinks he’s lying.
She tells him he needs to work harder to be a good man… if he wants to be part of their child’s life. Yup, Christina’s pregnant and she wants to do things on her own. She gives him nine months to figure out who he is and if he’s worthy of being a father.
She rushes out but Jamie follows her. He warns her not to tell anyone the child is his yet because he isn’t sure how his father will react. Christina wants to know what he means but Jamie isn’t saying. Christina tells him he’ll eventually have to choose between serving his father’s interests or serving the interests of his own family.
Elsewhere, Monica’s shopping at a boutique. The saleswoman thinks she’s a student and clearly hates Native Americans. As Monica goes to leave, the woman demands Monica let her search her purse. When Monica tells her she’ll need a warrant, the woman instructs her associate to call the police.
Monica makes a call of her own — to Beth who’s watching men repair her office. Beth wants to know why Monica didn’t call her husband, and Monica correctly informs her that Kayce would kill someone if he came to help her. Beth purposely strides out of her office ready to help her sister-in-law.
When the police arrive at the boutique, they go through Monica’s purse. They don’t believe that at 26 Monica is a professor at the college but Monica counters that she’s an overachiever. The impossibility of Monica’s vocation aside, the police don’t find anything in her purse. But the saleswoman insists she saw Monica take something. If it’s not in her purse she must have stashed it down her pants or up her shirt.
The cops tell Monica to go to a dressing room to be searched. Monica asks what will happen if she refuses. She’s told she’ll be arrested for shoplifting. Monica asks what happened to “innocent until proven guilty,” but the cop tells her that if she was innocent she’d be offering ways to prove it. Good grief!
As Monica gets searched in the dressing room, the saleswoman removes a ring from a display and insists Monica took it. As a result, the cop makes Monica strip completely.
As this happening, Beth comes in. The saleswoman addresses Beth by name while informing her that the store is closed. But Beth asks where she can find her sister-in-law. Suddenly the saleswoman looks concerned. Beth finds Monica practically naked in the dressing room and points out that what the cops are doing is unlawful search and seizure. Beth takes a photo and tells the cops to leave Monica alone. They comply and Beth tells Monica to get dressed.
Beth asserts her authority over the situation. One of the cops says that Monica’s drivers’ license said her last name was Long as a way to explain what happened, but Beth muses that probably won’t save him. The cops leave as a now-clothed Monica exits the dressing room and thanks Beth.
Monica goes to leave the store but Beth stops her. She locks the shop’s front door and tells Monica she doesn’t want to miss the fun. Beth walks around and starts destroying things. She then turns her attention to the saleswoman who she insults and then insists model a dress — but she won’t allow the woman to use the dressing room to change. As the woman undresses, Beth body shames her. Beth is caustic enough as it is, but seeing her body shame and sexually humiliate another woman takes things to another horrible level.
Monica finally insists Beth stop. It won’t undo what the woman did to Monica. Monica asks the women to just admit that she judged her by her skin. The woman does so and apologizes. Monica leaves. As Beth slinks out she tells the woman she’s lucky Monica has a conscience.
Beth finds Monica searching for her keys at her car. Beth invites her for a drink. Monica doesn’t drink but Beth tells her to come and watch her.
At the bar, Beth observes that Monica has a kind soul. Some of the world will hate her for it and what happened at the shop was probably more about that than anything else. She thinks the saleswoman just wanted to hurt Monica for being better than her.
Beth then changes the subject to Kayce. She tells Monica that Kayce’s center isn’t set yet. He could still end up being like their father. Monica should do everything in her power to keep that from happening. Beth observes that the best of their father died with their mother and the same will happen to Kayce when Monica leaves him again. But Beth encourages Monica to leave and take Kayce with her instead. They’re both too good for the Duttons.
At Yellowstone, Dan Jenkins arrives to see John. Jenkins comments on the beauty of the land. He says he has just as much right to it as anyone else. John comments that you have to take that right or stop it from being taken from you.
Jenkins asks John to buy him out. John says he would if he could but he doesn’t have the money. He adds that he can’t let Jenkins sell either as Jenkins is the devil he knows. Jenkins objects that John can’t stop him from selling his property. John counters that Jenkins hasn’t learned anything. Jenkins comments they’ll be enemies by Monday again but John corrects him: they’re enemies now. Jenkins agrees.
That night Kayce comes home to find Monica working. He asks where Tate is and Monica tells him she thinks he’s with John. Kayce observes that Tate gets more affection from John in one day than he and his siblings got in their entire childhood. Monica tells him he should closely examine his statement.
Kayce suits up to go back to work again. Monica comments that she also grew up on a ranch but she doesn’t remember so much work being done at night. Monica asks him if the work he’s going to do makes him happy. Kayce says no. Monica correctly guesses that he needs to do this work to protect the ranch. She then observes that what he needs is a different ranch. Kayce responds that he can’t afford one. But Monica thinks Kayce’s heart can’t afford to stay at Yellowstone. They agree to discuss things further the next day.
In the bunk house, Rip, Lloyd, and Jimmy are preparing to take their revenge for Jimmy’s grandfather. Ryan asks to go with them and Rip agrees. They leave and the remaining men notice Cowboy’s packing up. Cowboy informs them that the trick to longevity in their profession is knowing when to leave a ranch. As far as he’s concerned that time is now. And if the others had sense they’d quit too.
At the house, Tate and John are eating together. Tate goes to get dessert but John stops him to ask if he fed his horse. Tate forgot. He runs off to correct his oversight. Tate brings a bale of hay to the horse. On the way out, he does a poor job of locking up the paddock and the gate swings open. As Tate walks away he looks back and notices something’s amiss.
At the same time, Rip, Jimmy, Lloyd, and Ryan are approaching Ray’s trailer. Rock music is blaring so the people inside can’t hear as they drill a hole in the floor and place a hose through it. Ray cooks meth in the trailer so the plan seems to be to cause an explosion.
But just as their task is complete, Jimmy walks up to the trailer door. He glances in. He can see the belt buckle he won at the rodeo that he gave up in the previous episode to pay off Avery’s debts. Rip yells at him to leave but Jimmy clearly has other plans. He slips into the trailer and carefully picks up the belt buckle. Then he stands over a sleeping Ray.
Ray wakes up and Jimmy pushes him off the couch with his boot. He doesn’t want Ray to sleep through what’s about to happen. Jimmy punches him and then takes off when Rip yells at him to get out. Ray grabs a gun and follows. He shoots at the men from the balcony just as the place blows up.
At the main house, John is still waiting for Tate to come back. The boy is taking an awfully long time. Finally, John goes to check on his grandson. He finds Tate’s horse standing in the middle of a field but Tate’s nowhere to be found. John brings the horse back to his paddock and then goes to search the barn. He checks Tate’s bedroom and then goes to find Monica. She doesn’t know where Tate is either.
Kayce drives up to the ranch only to learn his son is missing. Rip, Jimmy, and the others pull up around the same time and join in the search. The ranch hands and the family search into the morning.
In a field, John notices tire tracks. It wasn’t from any of the ranch hands. What they could mean starts to dawn on everyone. Kayce takes off running along the tracks but stops when he finds something. It’s one of Tate’s mud-covered boot. When Monica sees it, she collapses screaming.
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Yikes! It looks like the Becks may have made their move. Expect an explosive season finale next week!
If you need to brush up on what happened in season 2, episode 8 of Yellowstone, check out our recap. And stream the ninth episode of season 2 on Paramount Network.