Dutton Ranch Season 1 Episode 4 Gives Beth and Rip Problems Bullishness Can’t Solve

Critic’s Rating: 4.3 / 5.0

4.3

Beth and Rip are people persons.

They know how other people operate, and once they figure someone out, it becomes easier to secure a win.

But life presents some problems that charisma, intimidation, and sheer bullishness can’t solve. This lesson applies to everyone.

Following the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease on their ranch, the couple is forced to take drastic measures in Dutton Ranch Season 1 Episode 4, “Start with a Bullet.”

But before that, the real problem heading for the Dutton family is its breakdown.

Texas is testing everyone’s limits, and so fractures have begun to develop. Rip has not told Beth about the dead body he dumped, and Carter is not interested in school.

He thinks it is his calling to become a rancher, so he is bent on checking all the stereotypical boxes of a cowboy — beer, women, and illiteracy.

This Carter storyline is the weakest aspect of the show because his actions simply don’t make sense, and when you add Oreana to the mix, it becomes hard to stand them.

Oreana is turning out to be the typical Taylor Sheridan belle — beautiful but can’t even boil an egg.

She is easily impressed by the weirdest or most mundane things Carter does or says, and I’m like, girl, really?

The show has failed to round her out well, as she is always angry, and after four episodes, it’s getting old.

Beth walks in on her and Carter in their moment of glory in the morning, and it suddenly becomes clear that Carter is not the little boy from several years ago.

To her credit, Beth doesn’t act out and drag Oreana out by her beautiful hair, but Beth doesn’t like her either; she tolerates Oreana.

The ride home to 10-P fluctuates in temperature as they gauge each other. Their shared adoration for Carter brings them together, but that was the fakest interaction I’ve ever seen Beth participate in.

One can almost see her hoping that Oreana will break Carter’s heart and give Beth another reason to go to town.

But with how things are going, Carter might break his own heart before Oreana does.

I don’t care who you think you are, but everyone needs a basic education. This world is not for the illiterate.

Maybe Beth and Rip did him a disservice by shielding him from the realities of ranching, where an entire herd of cattle can disappear in less than a day because of disease.

He should have had to witness the mood on that ranch as everyone tried to look unbothered, even though they knew what was happening.

So Carter heads to town to look for casual ranching jobs and meets someone who I could have sworn was Tommy Norris from Landman if I hadn’t seen his face.

The guy is willing to give Carter food and some money for his work, but there’s a risk. Apart from introducing Carter to the dumbest parts of a cowboy, the man introduces Carter to real danger.

Is Carter about to find himself in his own Tiger King?

Remember that 2020 documentary about Joe Exotic, who would score young men with his cats and money?

This guy is giving those vibes with his African leopard. It’s the kind of proximity to danger that thrills dumb young men, and suddenly they’ve been married to an older guy for half a decade.

When Carter returns home in the evening, he learns that he was cheated because people have been working hard all day. After submitting to foot-and-mouth, Beth doesn’t have the energy for Carter’s mouth as teenage angst takes the driver’s seat.

But to his credit, Carter is right.

Parents have this notion that everything they’re doing in life is a sacrifice for their children because it gives them external motivation. However, that’s too much to put on someone who’s trying to find their way in the world.

Yes, Carter should go to school, but that’s just to level the playing field with the rest of the population. The rest is for him to decide. We even see this mismatch of parents and children with Beulah and Joaquin when the latter is denied control of 10-P.

He thought that if he was the hardest working, he would inherit the kingdom, but for some reason, Beulah — who’s nursing heartbreak — doesn’t think he’s worth it.

Beulah clearly sees something in Joaquin that disqualifies him in her eyes, but the show still hasn’t clarified whether that’s about race, temperament, or simple distrust.

Like the Duttons, the Jacksons are also fracturing, and there is no telling how Joaquin or Oreana could influence the feud between the two ranches.

Gut Check

“Start With a Bullet” doesn’t do much to advance the story, but that’s not always a bad thing. Sometimes it’s important to just let characters deal with life, and here it plays out to the max.

However, between the unbelievable conversation between Carter’s girls and Rip’s shooting session, this was not a strong episode.

I know people are queasy about watching animals die on television, but that scene did not have the intended impact.

The execution of the culling lacks the visceral gut-punch the sequence desperately needs. By hiding the dying cattle behind a wall of camera tricks and clinking shell casings, the show pulls its punches.

If someone is uncomfortable watching an animal die in a Taylor Sheridan show, then they don’t understand the appeal of these shows in the first place.

Even worse, by killing off the surviving Montana calf, it needlessly destroys the one remaining poetic symbol that the Duttons hadn’t completely lost their identity in the Texas dirt.

Intrusive Thoughts

• Can we extend the moral grandstanding to other humans? Somehow, it’s not as controversial to see your own species die.

• I feel like there should be a better way to kill infected cattle instead of shooting. Rip is a good shot, but he couldn’t have scored a headshot every time.

• A banana plant would do so well on that mass cattle grave. What? There’s got to be an upside.

Over to you, Dutton Ranch fanatics. What did you think of the episode? Was the decision not to show the cows cowardly? Is this disease an unlucky development or sabotage?

Let’s keep the conversation going — it’s the only way the good stuff survives.
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