'Yellowstone' season 2 episode 8 review: The show is turning into a soap opera with horrible people making horrible choices, doing horrible things
Spoilers ahead for 'Yellowstone' season two episode eight
At the moment, everything on 'Yellowstone' is a do-or-die situation.
After the brutal attack on Beth (Kelly Reilly) – one that she braved through with resilience – the Duttons are out for revenge. Kevin Costner's John Dutton has sworn revenge on the Beck brothers who will not stop at nothing to get what they want.
In a gruesome attack on Beth, Malcolm Beck (Neil McDonough) tried to maim John – which was also the most personal attack in a series of blows. On the other hand, he killed Chief Rainwater's (Gil Birmingham) special casino dealer. They also suspended Dan Jenkins' (Danny Huston) liquor license.
While the former enemies have come together to form an alliance against the Becks, we still don't know what John's plans are. Whatever it is, it definitely involves killing the Beck brothers.
'Yellowstone' season two has fallen victim to its own ambition. A show about insanely rich families fighting one another to apparently only protect their legacies is getting increasingly deplorable.
For one, the way Wes Bentley's Jamie handled the leak of information and the supposed breach of the family's trust was wrong – that does not fall in a grey area. Fear, desperation, anger, whatever way you try to explain it, Jamie is simply vile and pathetic. His conversation with Beth following this is also noteworthy – Jamie's sister says that he should have killed himself instead.
In episode eight, 'Behind Us Only Grey', a wounded Beth threatens to take everything happy or hopeful Jamie has or will ever find away from him — even if it means murder. Considering all the awful things that make 'Yellowstone', it won't surprise us if Beth does make this happen.
After an explosive episode seven, 'Behind Us Only Grey' is drab. The Duttons are working towards a revenge but we feel they're stalling a bit and that it might be too late by the time they react. In addition to the reunion of Kayce and Monica (Luke Grimes and Kelsey Asbille), the other subplots are weary to watch. We only hope the next episode is packed with substance.
The show is trying hard to make its audience sympathetic to its characters. But the truth is that is beginning to get difficult – 'Yellowstone' is akin to a soap opera about horrible people making horrible decisions and then doing horrible things.
For a show based on an amoral framework where characters are largely driven by ambitions and prejudices, 'Yellowstone' is trying hard to get the audience to sympathize with them. And let's say we do, we secretly hope that they find a way out. But does that take away from its amorality?
'Yellowstone' airs Wednesdays at 10 pm PT/ET on Paramount.