Dutton Ranch Season 1 Episode 7 Completely Changes The Story — Review

Critic’s Rating: 3.7 / 5.0

3.7

What I was afraid of has come to pass: Dutton Ranch has switched on us.

I had a feeling early on that the show oversold its Beth versus Beulah feud, because overselling has been happening with this show.

Instead of developing arcs slowly, a storyline hits the asphalt at maximum speed and then loses steam in an episode or two.

So the writers have to pivot and come up with something fresh.

But admittedly, I don’t envy the writers. For all their thrilling antics, Beth and Rip cannot keep this show afloat on their own; even Yellowstone needed many characters.

But instead of building Dutton Ranch around its owners and workers, the show is piecing together characters from everywhere, hoping to better round out Beth and Rip’s world.

Dutton Ranch was marred in controversy before the season premiere when Chad Feehan exited due to creative differences.

And unfortunately, this lack of a singular creative vision is showing up in the season, as the show has no idea what it wants.

It seems like it was conceptualized as a Dutton Ranch versus 10-P story, but someone decided to change it at some point.

It has burned through a season’s worth of material in six episodes, and Dutton Ranch Season 1 Episode 7 “Den of Sin” feels like a reset.

The switch is finally complete as the true antagonist comes from hiding during 10-P’s 190th anniversary celebration.

At the end of the hour, I’m both disappointed and intrigued.

The disappointment comes from seeing through everything the show was trying to do, and the intrigue comes from the fact that they might have succeeded in keeping things interesting.

The cold open is a flashback that reveals the depth of Beulah and Joaquin’s connection.

It’s refreshing to see a show invest in hiring younger actors to play younger versions of characters, rather than putting older people in bizarre makeup or, worse, using AI to de-age them.

Every actor brings a certain kind of energy based on how they interpret a particular stage of a character’s life, and for all her prowess as an actress, I doubt that Annette Bening could play Beulah like Rebeca Robles.

We understand why Joaquin is like a son to the Jackson family: Beulah and Joaquin’s father shared a history that has seen them through some really tough times.

Still, it doesn’t do much to drive home the weight of Beulah’s betrayal when she names Rob-Will as her successor.

It’s supposed to be huge, and I’m disappointed for him, but I also don’t care. We haven’t spent enough time with the Jacksons to root for any one of them, and the time we’ve spent with them, they were the antagonists.

As the show works to move away from that for the time being, it introduces a new threat that is both terrifying and underwhelming.

Rob-Will has been dropping by occasionally, and when we met him in the series premiere, he was just another run-of-the-mill junkie — erratic, jumpy, and murderous.

After his stint in rehab, he returns with a mission to take over 10-P, even though no one wants him to.

I haven’t bought the character for the past six episodes, but this hour does a better job of making him appear more cunning.

It’s in how he talks to everyone, knowing the exact buttons to push.

He manipulated Chet because he knew Chet had nowhere to turn to. Rob-Will knew Chet was a lousy shot and was okay with him dying.

While in Dutton Ranch Season 1 Episode 6 he seemed like a caricature of a villain, this hour fleshes him out.

Still, he is no Beulah.

There is a certain ability for someone with Beulah’s stature to instill fear just by existing. She has the wisdom and resources to square off with almost anyone who crosses her.

Rob-Will’s best move is to commit murder, and sooner or later, murderers get caught.

10-P’s 190th is the kind of episode that I like. It’s almost like a bottle episode, where there is nowhere for anyone to escape to.

If there are confrontations, they must happen.

And for Carter, it’s the fact that he might have shot above his station with Oreana.

This whole Carter-Oreana thing looks like a side plot that one can see from Mars. The show hasn’t kept it a secret, with constant foreshadowing of how messy it’ll turn out.

So when Oreana meets someone who’s more her speed, and Carter becomes jealous, it’s not surprising.

But I just have no idea what they’re doing with Carter’s story. Sure, it’s good for a young man to have his heart broken to pieces and toughen him up, but Dutton Ranch hardly seems like the kind of show to explore teen relationships.

A Taylor Sheridan show is not the place to explore teen relationships in this manner.

By the end of the hour, Dutton Ranch has become the Dutton and Beulah show. It’s not what was promised, but it’s still intriguing.

Gut Check

“Den of Sin” is deeply frustrating and oddly compelling in equal measure. While it officially completes a shameless midseason bait-and-switch by turning the show into the ‘Beth and Beulah’ hour, it introduces a dangerous new operational paradigm that might just keep the wheels from falling completely off.

Intrusive Thoughts

• I was almost confident that Beth and Rip don’t get freaky.

• 10-P keeps losing people, and Austin won’t let it go. King behavior!

• If we’re being honest, Oreana did screw that boy. Score one against Carter’s masculinity.

Over to you, Dutton Ranch fanatics. What did you think of the story this hour? Are you disappointed by the bait-and-switch, or is the story still interesting enough to keep you watching?

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

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