Beth and Jamie Dutton’s relationship in Yellowstone goes beyond sibling rivalry, this is a full-on feud. For five seasons, the brother and sister have butted heads and sabotaged each other, and there are no signs of that stopping anytime soon. In fact, their relationship has actually gotten worse. So, as we look toward the second half of the final season of Taylor Sheridan’s Western, let’s take a peek back at the key moments in the intense feud between Kelly Reilly’s and Wes Bentley’s characters.
Beth Can’t Have Children Because Of A Decision Jamie Made
While this isn’t revealed until Season 3, Beth’s hatred of Jamie stems from a decision he made for her when they were teenagers. Via flashback, we learn that when they were kids, Beth and Rip had sex, and the Dutton sister got pregnant. She wanted an abortion, and she asked Jamie for help. The clinic he took her to only offered procedures that would sterilize her, making it so she couldn’t have children. Wes Bentley’s character consented to the surgery, and he didn’t tell Beth that she’d be infertile after.
This is the primary reason why Beth Dutton holds such a strong grudge against her brother, and it’s why they still are constantly feuding to this day.
Beth And Jamie Begrudgingly Work Together To Help Their Father
In Season 1 the tension between Jamie and Beth is clear as day. While we don’t know why these two siblings despise each other, their annoyance is obvious, and it makes it hard for them to work together. When Kelly Reilly’s character returns to the ranch to help her family, she makes her stance on her brother’s job within the family known when this conversation goes down:
Jamie: What are you doing here?
Beth: The same thing I always do, fixing something you couldn’t.
Also, during Season 1, Wes Bentley’s character tells his father that he should send Beth back to Utah. However, John says he needs someone “evil” to pull off what he needs, and that’s what his daughter is. Jamie openly says that “she’s going to tear this family apart.” On the other side, Beth thinks Jamie is selfish, and she consistently tries to convince her dad to not trust him. However, during this season, they both work with their dad to take down Dan Jenkins.
This sets the bar for how high the tension runs between the two siblings, and it’s a major point of contention in the show.
Jamie Kills A Journalist
One of Jamie’s darkest moments comes when he kills journalist Sarah Nguyen in Season 2. After going on the record out of anger against his family, and exposing their crimes, Wes Bentley’s character desperately tries to get her to not publish his statement. She refuses, and that leads Jamie to kill her and get Rip’s help disposing of her body.
When Jamie confesses to Beth she gets madder than ever before and beats him up. Then he pushes her, and she drags him out to John. Their dad notes that he’s never seen his daughter that angry or scared, and that alone is truly terrifying. It’s also proof of how much Jamie scares Beth, and vice versa.
Market Equities Approaches Jamie, And Beth Tries To Take Them Down
When Market Equities and their plan to build an airport on the Dutton’s ground enters the equation, they eventually go to Jamie to try to make a deal to sell part of the Yellowstone so they can start construction. Meanwhile, Beth is actively trying to take them down and abide by her father’s wishes to keep the ranch. While there has always been a rift between the two siblings, there’s no question that this company coming into the picture made things even worse.
Jamie Finds Out He’s Adopted
When it’s revealed that Jamie’s biological father isn’t John Dutton in Season 3, his connection to his family becomes even more frayed. Also, his relationship with his biological father, Garret Randall, is toxic, and he puts the idea in his son’s head that to take down an empire like the Yellowstone, the patriarch has to be killed. While Jamie didn’t act on this for a while, his relationship with his biological father made his feelings toward his adoptive father and sister much worse.
Beth Thinks Jamie Instigated The Attack On The Duttons
The primary mystery of Yellowstone’s fourth season revolves around trying to figure out who attacked the Dutton family at the end of Season 3. Beth is convinced Jamie did it, and she directly calls him out. However, John and Kayce are a bit more skeptical. While Jamie didn’t call for the attack, his biological father did, and when Reilly’s character finds that out, she gives him an ultimatum.
Beth vehemently goes to Jamie’s office to ask him why the attack happened, why he didn’t tell anyone about Garrett Randall, and, in her words: “Why didn’t you blow his head off?!?”
She threatens her brother with an ultimatum that includes options that end with Jamie and his biological father getting arrested, her telling Rip about what happened when they were kids, likely leading to a brutal death, or Jamie killing Garrett. In the end, he kills his biological father. Beth takes a photo of him disposing of the body, telling John that they “own” Jamie now. This sets the plot in motion for Jamie to really break away from his family, and for Beth to seriously try and take her brother all the way down.
Jamie Decides To Get John Impeached
After John Dutton was elected governor of Montana at the start of Season 5, tension ran high as Jamie tried to figure out his place within the family and as the attorney general.
During Season 5 of Yellowstone, Beth got a ride home from prison from her brother, and she found out he had a kid. This led to her almost driving her off the road, and him almost running her over.
Then as the two’s relationship kept getting tenser, Market Equities picked up on the conflict between Jamie and his family. So, Sarah Atwood approached him to make a deal that would help him become governor and help her get the airport. This begins the plot to impeach John.
With the impeachment claim in full effect by the end of the season, and with Jamie squarely placing himself as an opponent of John Dutton, Beth is really going to dig her heels into the ground and fight her brother. And he’s going to fight right back.
Beth And Jamie Are Going To War
This feud has literally come to a point where both characters want to kill each other. Wes Bentley opened up about Jamie’s next move to EW, saying he thinks his character has to get rid of his sister, he has to play offense. The actor explained:
When he says, ‘It’s over, Beth,’ and she says, ‘No, it’s not,’ that’s his cue. ‘Oh, you’re gonna try and kill me now.’ So my move has to be asking for help killing her. I don’t know if he could do it with his own hands. He did kill his own [birth] father, but Beth is closer to him than his father. You know, they have a close relationship. Part of the pain and hate between them comes from the loss of that wonderful relationship they had before.
While it’s felt like we’ve hit a breaking point with Jamie and Beth during every season, in Season 5 it was different and somehow more volatile; they mean war. At the end of the installment, Beth breaks into her brother’s house, and during that moment, Jamie reveals the truth about the Train Station to her. Then, he said he thinks he’s saving the farm by getting the airport built. His sister believes the exact opposite. This deep divide in ideology about what’s right for the farm is what led Beth to tell her brother:
No Jamie, war’s just beginning.
After that, she tells John they should think about taking Jamie to the Train Station. Meanwhile, Jamie asks Sarah if she knows anyone who could get rid of someone, saying he wants to “play offense.”
Whenever Yellowstone comes back, we’re going to be in for a “crazy bloodbath” on a lot of levels according to Bentley. And that’s especially true with these siblings because they aren’t backing down, and their hatred for each other runs so deep that one of them actually might kill the other to put this feud to an end.