'Yellowstone' season 2 episode 9 'Enemies by Monday' review: The Duttons are threatened, but they find themselves closer than ever
Spoilers ahead for the ninth episode of 'Yellowstone' titled 'Enemies by Monday'
What a sobering end to a thrilling episode!
Episode 9 of the second season of 'Yellowstone' showed us exactly what we were fearing . Tate has been taken captive, most definitely by the Beck brothers, leaving the Duttons hurt, anxious, angry and now ready to fight. It started like a regular night at the Dutton ranch with Monica (Kelsey Asbille) and Kayce (Luke Grimes) having one of their arguments about the safety of the ranch, and John (Kevin Costner) and Tate (Brecken Merrill) bonding over dinner but soon things take a turn for the worst.
His father and grandfather both told Tate that he should always prioritize his horse. In episode 9 though, as Tate forgets to feed his horse, John tells him to quickly go and do so. There need not be an ominous soundtrack to this for us to know otherwise. The build-up to Tate on his way to feed the horse is ominous enough. This is the last time we see Tate.
Once a desperate John realizes what has happened, he searches the entire house but in vain. The entire Dutton family, the ranch boys, everyone goes on a hunt. Dawn breaks and they continue looking into the empty vastness of Yellowstone, till they reach the spot where Tate was taken. They discover prints on the ground but they don't belong to anyone from the ranch. Kayce begins running, everyone follows him. He finds an empty boot belonging to Tate.
He's not dead.
He is taken hostage by the Beck brothers.
We expect the final episode to be a power-packed vengeful bloodbath and the episodes leading up to the finale have only hinted at that. For one, Kayce is not going to go easy on the Beck brothers. Malcolm wanted to target the Duttons via someone who John loved the most, but is he aware of everything that Kayce is capable of?
When the Becks attacked Beth, Kayce swore revenge. He had the hitmen skinned, tied together, hanging from the porch at Malcolm's massive house with a note pinned to their chest with a knife. Not the first time though that we have seen Kayce do things on the screen that has made us squirm in our seats. Like a fan says: "Kayce will go postal on the Beck brothers, they have messed with the wrong Dutton, Kayce will string these fools up by their ball and keep them alive just enough for them to feel every slice of his knife as he carves them up from scalp to ankles." That does make for some gruesome murdering, but we're here for it.
For the penultimate episode, 'Enemies by Monday' fared well. If you look at it, there was something disastrous happening in the life of every character - Jimmy lost his father, Monica was humiliated by a racist woman, Jamie (Wes Bentley) now knows he is going to become a father, but Katherine Cunningham's Christina has given him 9 months to figure this out, to finally Tate going missing. However, if you notice all this has only brought the Dutton family closer and though they may be at the center of a tragedy, the mood has definitely changed.
Yellowstone' airs on Wednesdays at 10 pm PT/ET on Paramount Network.