“We in this fight?” In the wake of his death in Yellowstone Season 5 Episode 9, John Dutton’s troops are preparing for war. What else could you call them, besides soldiers? Cowboys like Lloyd Pierce (Forrie J. Smith) and Rip Wheeler, who spent their entire working lives in service to JD and the Yellowstone ranch? They are soldiers, in cowboy hats instead of bascinets, who pledged fealty to the banner of the Dutton family, and whose lord has just fallen in battle. For them, the murder of John Dutton is the apocalypse of change. “Someone caught up to him,” Lloyd adds, and Rip doesn’t disagree. Suicide? Yeah, right. But while they talk about fighting for John Dutton’s legacy – and maybe having to find new jobs elsewhere – Beth Dutton seeks direct answers from her only suspect. She parks herself behind the attorney general’s desk at the state capitol building, lights a heater, and proceeds to confront Jamie Dutton when he arrives for work. Talk about going to war.

Jamie has restig glower face on a regular day. But seeing Beth in his office, it’s actually hilarious how little ability he has to not look guilty. (Shout-out to Wes Bentley for investing this character with such stolid unlikeability.) Beth slaps him, and Jamie looks away. She slaps him again, from the other side, and still he says nothing. And by the way, this is all in full view of Jamie’s assistant. “Why can’t you look at me, Jamie?” Because he conspired to murder their father, and is planning to usurp the governor’s seat in a special election. And in case you weren’t sure if Taylor Sheridan wrote this episode of Yellowstone, check what Beth says next. “I will be the last thing on this planet your rotten fucking eyes will ever see. And I will be smiling.” 

You know who else is smiling, right in Beth Dutton’s face? Sarah Atwood. In a delicious altercation directly outside Jamie’s office, Beth pushes Sarah by the neck into the wall, and each woman emphasizes how fun it will be to destroy the other. This is all so blatant that it’s like dragging the dead governor’s body right into the capitol rotunda. But the bad blood doesn’t faze Ellis Steele (John Emmet Tracy). The business guy drone pledges Market Equities support for Jamie’s gubernatorial bid, and the plan for ME to convert Yellowstone ranch land into airport runways is refreshed and back on the state’s agenda. With the business portion of their meeting over, Atwood switches into Jame Dutton Sex Dominator mode. She unzips and removes her dress, and puts her ass on his desk, right where Beth stubbed out her cigarette only minutes before. “You’ve won, Jamie. Kings don’t wallow. They feast on the bounty of their conquest.”

John Dutton dying has other ripple effects. Like Summer Higgins (Piper Perabo) still existing on the ranch in a liminal space between “house arrest” and “friend with benefits.” There is not a replay of their wild, should-have-won-an-emmy cowboy fight from earlier this season. But Beth does have a few closing barbs for her hippie nemesis as she kicks Summer off the ranch. And remember Carter (Finn Little), the troubled kid who the Duttons took in? He’s crying in the bunkhouse when Rip gives him a little speech about cowboying up in the face of adversity. Yellowstone only has a few episodes to go. But whether it’s on camera or not, Carter, as a tenderfoot in the John Dutton army, seems destined to be branded with the Yellowstone’s Hooked Rocking Y.

Kayce also takes a walk with Tate outside the home they’re rehabbing, out on a remote patch of Yellowstone prairie. Is running the ranch now a guarantee for Tate’s future, as a next-generation heir? Even if running the ranch is exactly what got his grandpa killed? Kayce says he’ll support his son in continuing John’s legacy, if that’s what Tate decides he truly wants. To hitch his life to the ranch and become another Dutton soldier. They’ll mourn the man in the meantime. But Kayce is also expecting it when Beth calls to clarify that Jamie never denied anything about the murder, and that Atwood more or less gloated about her involvement. 

From the moment this all went down, Kayce stressed that Jamie would have required help. And to that end, he gets on the horn to Cade McPherson (Jake McLaughlin), an old buddy from the SEALs. In terms of corporate wet work, Cade says, putting a hit on a sitting governor would be a ten or fifteen million-dollar job, and so high profile that the doers are on a short list. We already know that the firm Sarah Atwood hired to kill John Dutton protected itself by gathering dirt on Sarah and Jamie’s unethical sex-tuation. With Beth declaring her intentions outright, and Kayce getting his guys on uncovering the level of murder-for-hire they’re facing, it seems like Lloyd and everyone else gunning for one will get their wish sooner than later. John Dutton’s trusted inner circle is definitely in this fight.

With so much fomenting unrest in the present, what about Yellowstone season 5 in the past, back when John Dutton wasn’t dead? The flashback portion of episode 10 involves the cowboy crew down on the 6666 realizing they’re camped directly over a rattlesnake-ridden prairie dog town. But it also has Beth blasting down the highway from Montana to Texas, and discovering the level of respect the people of cattle country have for the 6666. The ranch’s history is taught in schools. It operates a branded distillery, with 6666 as the only vodka brand sold in nearby Amarillo. And a state trooper tells Beth to thank her husband for upholding cowboying as a vocation. (“We know what it takes to put a steak on a plate around here.”) Beth is struck by the level of influence, and affluence. “We’re ranching in the wrong state,” she tells Rip.

But get this, speaking of spending your whole life on the ranch. Until this Texas trip with the other cowboys, Rip Wheeler has never been outside of Montana. When Beth says they’re shackled to Yellowstone, as people and as a married couple, Rip just reiterates how he chose to be shackled. “I ain’t interested in traveling.” Spending a weekend away from Montana and the Yellowstone and even her father has Beth considering her and Rip’s future in a new light. Since we already know their future, and its turn toward open conflict, the searching tone of these flashbacks adds a new wrinkle to the brewing battle. It won’t be about leaving the ranch. It will turn on defending everything that it represents, right down to the soul of the guy they all treasure. 

Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.