What Yellowstone's Game-Changing Death Means For Jamie And The Dutton Family (2024)

Spoiler alert: details for the latest episode of Yellowstone Season 2, called “Blood the Boy,” are discussed below.

Yellowstone just delivered a game-changing death that could mean any number of things for Jamie and the Duttons going forward. It turns out that the trailer for Season 2 did contain the spoiler-laden moment speculated upon, as “Blood the Boy” grimly confirmed. Jamie flat-out murdered Sarah, the reporter.

That tell-all interview that Jamie (Wes Bentley) gave last season on Yellowstone ended up coming back, big time. Jamie tried to get the reporter, Sarah (Michaela Conlin), to not run the story. However, his persuasive efforts failed. Livid, he shoved Sarah against her rental car, knocking her unconscious. She was still alive. Jamie ended up strangling her after the fact.

The ensuing cover-up that Jamie recruited Rip (Cole Hauser) for and the latter seemed to devise, entailed making it look like a drowning accident. Yellowstone viewers, John Dutton (Kevin Costner), Rip, Walker (Ryan Bingham), and Jamie know differently. Even Jamie’s ex-girlfriend seemed to suspect something as the episode ended. What does this mean for Jamie and the Duttons?

Another investigation is a high possibility. Sarah’s loved ones, including her girlfriend, are bound to start asking questions. Add Jamie’s ex-girlfriend into the equation, and a murder investigation could really pick up some momentum. If Jamie thinks he got away with murder, he can think again. What could happen?

John Dutton indicated that he would have preferred Jamie take his own life, instead of someone else’s. Or at least, that is how I took his comment to Jamie. If Jamie starts to get pinched, he will probably want his dad to cover things up like he did for Kayce (Luke Grimes) last season. Given how vastly different the circ*mstances were, that is probably going to get a “no” from John.

It seems like the Dutton patriarch is going to struggle to get past Jamie committing murder. Would Jamie leverage the things he knows against his father in a bid to stay free? Maybe. As he pointed out, it would be a breach of attorney-client privilege.

If Jamie goes to prison, he would theoretically have nothing to lose. Meaning if John works to keep him free, it would be to help the Duttons as a whole. One thing that Yellowstone indicated is that John has never had any love lost for his son. I would love for Kevin Costner to explain that a bit more, as he has for other storylines.

While he did not take the dire route I thought he might after learning about Jamie’s interview, it is clear that Jamie is far from John’s favorite child. The episode opened with a flashback of John sending Jamie away to Harvard. This, after a teenage Jamie indicated he wanted to take over the ranch from his father.

For whatever reason, John never saw Jamie taking on that role. In related developments, viewers also learned that Jamie always treated Rip as an equal, leading Rip to help him. Who else thinks that Beth is going to figure out Jamie recruited Rip, and go nuts on her brother, again?

As things currently stand, Jamie has been removed from the ranch’s trust. It is unlikely that John will bring him back in any time soon. Jamie is no longer the buttoned-down attorney viewers once knew. Now that Yellowstone has revealed how dangerous Jamie can be, who knows what he could do next.

For the record, Yellowstone has still not revealed what Jamie said in his interview. It must have been pretty explosive. In other developments, as previously speculated, John Dutton figured out it was the Beck brothers who killed his cattle. Thus, clearing Dan Jenkins.

Meanwhile, Jimmy (Jefferson White) finally had a huge personal victory, finding his calling as a rodeo star. This led to one of the most moving moments of the series as Lloyd (Forrie J. Smith) mentored and helped finance his entry. When Lloyd got choked up following Jimmy's win, yours truly did too.

Yellowstone’s skill of seamlessly switching between its dark stories its tender stories continues to impress. Find out what is next for Jamie and the Duttons when new episodes of Yellowstone Season 2 air Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on the Paramount Network. The Western is part of summer’s television premieres.