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‘Yellowstone’ Season 3 Episode 1: Will Tate never recover from trauma after the brutal kidnapping in Season 2?

As Season 3 begins, Tate wakes up to nightmares and is going through severe mental stress and emotional struggle

Wounds can destroy you or strengthen you. Taylor Sheridan and John Linson's 'Yellowstone' brings that and more into focus as the Paramount Network series delves into pain and agony after Season 2 ended with a gruesome revenge plan where Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) and Monica Dutton's (Kelsey Asbille) son Tate (Brecken Merrill) was kidnapped by the Beck brothers.

Following a tense rescue mission that concluded with six deaths, Tate was brought back home. Kayce found his son hiding in a bathroom corner with his head shaved. John Dutton's (Kevin Costner) only grandson was so traumatized that he couldn't even recognize his own father when he came to take him. As Season 3 begins, Tate wakes up to nightmares and is going through severe mental stress and emotional struggle. In a heartwarming scene, John goes to check up on his daughter-in-law and grandson while they are asleep. John apologizes to Monica. Understanding and calm, she tells him: "​It's not your fault. I can't thank you enough for bringing him back." Tate may be back but one thing is clear: the incident has scarred the Dutton clan in an unimaginable way. 

The tragedy begins, not when there is a misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood. Tate has suffered much more than any other young boy of his age would and two things could happen: either he will never heal or the incident will toughen him up to be a real cowboy. As the episode comes to a close, Tate has an endearing conversation with his grandpa. "I have nightmares," he confesses. "I'm in that room, the floor just disappears, and I fall, keep falling, I scream, no sound comes out. No one hears me. So no one comes to help me." With a glint of sorrow in his eyes, John tells his grandson, "You know what dreams are? It's your memories and your imagination all mixed together into this soup of what's real, what's made-up. But the thing about this soup is, you can change the ingredients, Tate." He continues, "So when you close your eyes later, decide what you're gonna dream." 

Tate nods his head and in that moment and something snaps open in his heart. The scene makes us believe that the scars will be a badge of bravery on Tate's sleeve and help him be the valiant cowboy that he dreams to be. "Grandpa's wise words of wisdom to his grandson... this is so touching," one fan wrote and another said, "I love these moments with grandson. So many lessons Tate will take from these talks from John when he gets older."

Not just the grandson-grandpa dynamic, viewers love to see John's soft side that he's hidden all these years. "Omg loving the relationship that JD and Tate are forming. It's so heartwarming and we get to see that soft side and wise person underneath the hard exterior he had had to form over the years to protect the ranch and his kids," one comment read. Some are worried that Tate might need therapy. "Poor Tate is gonna need years of therapy! Oh wait... this family doesn’t do therapy," one tweet read. Only time will tell if Tate toughens up on his own, and for now, we can only wait and watch what unravels in the 10 episodes of the new season.

'Yellowstone' premieres on Father's Day, June 21, 2020, on Paramount Network.