3 Burning Questions Heading Into 'Yellowstone' Season 4
After ending on some major cliffhangers, 'Yellowstone' is back. Here's how to watch, as well as 3 questions we can't wait to have answered.
More than a year after the explosive third season finale, Yellowstone is back in the saddle with a two-hour premiere on Sunday, Nov. 7 at 8pm ET on Paramount Network. Season 4 of Yellowstone will be available to stream live on Sling TV, and with our Paramount Network free preview from Nov. 7-14, you’ll be able to watch the two-part premiere and episode 3 of the new season with a basic Orange, Blue, or Orange + Blue subscription. After that, you’ll need to add Entertainment Extras to your Sling package for $6 per month, where you’ll get not only Paramount Network but more than 10 additional channels, including MTV, truTV, CMT, and more.
Now that you know how to stream Yellowstone live on Sling, let’s dive into three burning questions we want answered this season. To sign up for Sling Orange + Blue and watch the Yellowstone season 4 premiere, use the link at the bottom of this page.
Much Ado About Duttons
As you remember, the Duttons were hit on three fronts in the season 3 finale, with John Dutton (Kevin Costner) shot up on the side of the road, his daughter Beth’s (Kelly Reilly) office blown up in a bombing, and his son Kaycee (Luke Grimes) attacked by gunmen.
Season 4 picks up in the middle of this devastating assault. Although the cast has been careful to talk around spoilers, it’s safe to assume that the ramifications of the attack will be the central plot point of the new season.
"It takes some time to get through all the carnage...but [Creator Taylor Sheridan] does a great job of slowing the season down for a minute and being able to go through the different pain and suffering of each and every character and what they've gone through," Cole Hauser, who plays Beth’s lover and Yellowstone ranch hand Rip, told TV Guide.
While it’s unlikely that such important characters would be killed off (at least at this point in the season), the seemingly coordinated attacks should provide powerful motivation for the Dutton family to get some serious payback on those who attempted to hurt them.
"They're understandably ready for revenge, and that's what I would say this season is really about,” says Wes Bentley, John’s estranged son Jamie Dutton, in the same TV Guide interview. “They're out for revenge, and they're definitely in a corner now."
So Whodunnit?
As the video above makes clear, the Duttons have no shortage of enemies who’d love to see them dead (or at least sell their ranch). You’ve got Roarke Morris (Josh Holloway) and Market Equities, who are looking to gain control of the Dutton’s ranch; Angela Blue Thunder (Q'orianka Kilcher) egging Chief Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) to become more militant in their efforts to reclaim their land; any number of relatives of those who the Dutton family have killed to maintain their power; even Jamie, whose newly-discovered biological father is an admitted murderer who tells Jamie that to take control of an empire, “Ya kill the king.”
While all of those (or some combination of them) are plausible suspects, some internet sleuths have found evidence that points in less expected direction. As Taste of Country points out in this video, we never actually saw Malcolm Beck (Neal McDonough) die back in the season 2 finale. Although it seems unlikely that Malcolm actually survived the gunshot he took from John Dutton, it’s possible that another member of the Beck clan is carrying out the contingency plan he drew up in case of his death. Given the lengthy list of enemies the Duttons made in season 3, a callback to an earlier threat would be more entertaining than one of the usual suspects.
You Good, Jimmy?
The last bit of unresolved drama from the season 3 finale involved fan favorite Jimmy Hurdstrom (Jefferson White), who was last seen unconscious after getting bucked off a bronco (again). We’ve been worried about Jimmy even before last season’s finale, when we spoke with White about his character’s potential fate. To hear him tell it, that concern is a big part of what makes his character so endearing.
“He’s outside of the ranching world and the cowboy lifestyle and he’s fighting so hard to find where he belongs in it,” White told us when we spoke to him ahead of the season 3 finale. “He keeps getting kicked off horses, made fun of, knocked down, beat up. But he insists that he can survive in this world, despite all the evidence. Every time he falls down, he gets back up and continues to fight. And to grow too.”
Although we desperately want this answer to calm our nerves about his character’s fate, when asked if we should worry about Jimmy, White’s answer is an emphatic “Yes.”
“Worrying about him is a good rule,” White told us with a mirthful chuckle. Don’t worry, we will, right up until he gets back in that saddle (although given his history with horses, perhaps that’s when we should worry about him the most).
Watch the two-hour Yellowstone season 4 premiere Sunday, Nov. 7 at 8pm ET on Paramount Network. Click the link below to subscribe to Sling Orange + Blue and watch the Paramount Network free preview Nov. 7-14.