How Did Jamie’s ‘Yellowstone’ Death Affect Beth & Rip? Kelly Reilly & Cole Hauser Explain

Kelly Reilly‘s Beth Dutton had no bigger rival in Yellowstone than her brother Jamie (Wes Bentley). An unshakable hatred for Jamie formed in Beth after he had her forcibly sterilized without her knowledge as a teenager when she had come to help with getting an abortion. Their rivalry festered for decades and reached a tipping point when Jamie’s girlfriend, Sarah (Dawn Olivieri), helped stage the murder of their father, John Dutton (Kevin Costner). Rip (Cole Hauser) helped Beth kill Jamie in Yellowstone‘s final episodes. Reilly and Hauser tell TV Insider how Jamie’s death changed Beth and Rip in the time between Yellowstone and Dutton Ranch.

The Yellowstone spinoff premieres with two episodes on Friday, May 15, on Paramount+ and at 8/7c on Paramount Network. Viewers will see what happens in Montana that forces Beth and Rip to move to Texas with their adopted son, Carter (Finn Little), and they will meet a new cast of characters poised to be rivals with the Dutton gang, namely Annette Bening‘s Beulah Jackson, who, like John Dutton (Kevin Costner), is the head of a ranching empire run by her family for generations.

As Beth and Rip fight to build a future together, far from the ghosts of Yellowstone, they collide with brutal new realities and a ruthless rival ranch that will stop at nothing to protect its empire in Dutton Ranch. In South Texas, blood runs deeper, forgiveness is fleeting, and the cost of survival might just be your soul.

About one year has passed since the events of the Yellowstone series finale in Dutton Ranch Episode 1. Beth and Rip are living rather peacefully on their ranch in Dillon, Montana, with Carter, before a life-changing event occurs. Reilly tells TV Insider that Beth got the closure she needed from Jamie’s death.

“It was such a powerful heartbeat in Beth, that betrayal, that pain, and so the ending of Yellowstone, when that storyline is ended, literally, there is a sense of closure for her on that,” Reilly says. “And I think that this is the beginning, if she was able to, to try and heal her heart somewhere. She has her own family with Carter now, and Rip and Beth together, it’s almost like leaving the ghosts of her past behind. It’s just whether or not they catch up with her, follow her, which they usually do.”

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Hauser reveals that Rip knew about what Jamie did to Beth for much longer than viewers were led to believe.

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“God, what happened with Jamie. I think Rip knew about Jamie for a very long time, but it wasn’t his place to get involved in essentially the family business,” Hauser tells TV Insider. “And he’s obviously a loyal soldier to John Dutton. [Rip] wanted [John] to figure out what to do and figure that part of the world out.”

“For Beth, I think it hopefully brought peace…What was important for this iteration of Dutton Ranch is that they have some peace in the beginning,” he continues. “The end of [Yellowstone], [Beth] asks [Rip], ‘Are you happy?’ And I respond with, ‘I’m starting to become happy.’ And I had that moment with her on the ridge where I ask her the same question, and then all hell breaks loose, lightning strikes, and their whole world comes crumbling down.”

Beth and Rip did make a peaceful life for themselves after the end of Yellowstone, and they got to enjoy that peace for a year. Sadly, it was fleeting. Find out what turmoil Dutton Ranch has in store for the Duttons when the series premieres.

Dutton Ranch, Series Premiere Friday, May 15, 8/7c, Paramount Network, Streaming on Paramount+

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