32 Most Brutal Moments In Yellowstone (2024)

Yellowstone is so compelling in part because of how dramatic and no-holds-barred it is. Taylor Sheridan really doesn't hold back with his modern Western, and that’s proven by the many wild situations the Yellowstone cast finds themselves in. So, with that in mind, here are some of the most brutal moments from the drama about the Dutton family.

Jamie Killing His Biological Father

In Season 4, Beth gives her brother an ultimatum after learning about Garrett Randall. The options were as follows: Jamie and Garrett, his biological dad, could both end up in prison, Beth could tell Rip why Jamie is the reason she can’t have kids, or he could kill Garrett. He opted for option three, and it was brutal to watch Wes Bentley's character go through with killing his biological dad.

Tate’s Kidnapping

Yellowstone always goes out with a bang every season, and its sophom*ore finale was one of the record books because it was intense with a capital I.

I write that because, in the episode, Kayce and Monica’s son, Tate, gets kidnapped by the white supremacists who were hired by the Becks. He’s then severely traumatized by the event in the following season. While intense stuff goes down on this show all the time, there’s something extra brutal about it when a kid is involved.

Beth Can’t Have Children Because Of A Choice Jamie Made

At the heart of Jamie and Beth’s feud is a terrible decision Jamie made that altered his sister’s life forever. After having sex with Rip, Beth got pregnant and wanted an abortion. When her brother took her to a clinic to do it, they said if they went through with it, Beth would also be infertile and could never have kids. Jamie said yes, but he didn’t tell his sister the implications until after it happened.

That life-altering and devastating choice is what made Beth hate Jamie, and it’s single-handedly one of the most brutal moments in Yellowstone.

Jamie Kills The Journalist Who Was Investigating The Duttons

The death of journalist Sarah Nguyen in Season 2 is tragic and wild. For context, Jamie said some things on the record about his family that would have exposed their crimes if his quotes were published. When Sarah refused to not publish his statements, he killed her and Rip helped him hide the body.

Rip Brands Jimmy

There are a few violent scenes that quickly establish the intense tone of Yellowstone, and the branding of Jimmy is one of them. At the time, he was down on his luck, and without really giving him a choice, Rip gave him the Y, committing him to the Dutton’s ranch forever.

John Brands Kayce

Anytime a character on Yellowstone gets branded it’s brutal, however, Kayce’s was probably one of the most intense, mostly because he’s the only child of John’s to wear the Y. This all happened because John’s youngest son refused to ask Monica to abort their child. The Dutton patriarch saw this as disobedience and punished him with the brand.

John’s Oldest Son Lee Dies In The First Episode

In the very first episode of Yellowstone, Lee Dutton, John’s oldest son, is killed during a conflict between his family and The Broken Rock police over cows. The eldest Dutton is shot by Robert Long, and he dies quickly.

The Bunkhouse Boys Kill Wade

Wade’s death is probably the most ruthless one in Yellowstone, which is saying a lot. The cowboy, who wears the Yellowstone brand and betrayed the ranch, was killed by the Bunkhouse Boys toward the end of Season 3. To exact their revenge, Walker cut the Y out of Wade’s chest and then Rip lynched him. Talk about vicious.

Rip Gets The Brand Over The Death Of Rowdy

After Rowdy speaks ill of Beth, Rip gets into a fight with him and it ends with Rowdy dying. While the ranch hand told him not to tell John the truth about his death, Rip told his boss anyway. That led to him getting branded, and committing himself to the ranch forever.

Beth Gets Brutally Beaten Up As Part Of The Beck Brothers’ Attacks

In the later seasons of Yellowstone Beth has a prominent scar on her face. That is because in Season 2 she was brutally attacked by the Beck Brothers. It was done because the brothers were trying to take down the Duttons, however, it ended up leading to a fragile alliance between John, Dan and Rainwater.

Jamie Makes The Call To Get His Dad Impeached

Jamie has done dome cagey things to his family. However, when it comes to what he’s done to his father, the choice at the top of that list has to be his decision to get John impeached.

At the beginning of Season 5, John is governor of Montana and Jamie is attorney general, however, their relationship is strained, to put it lightly. Eventually, it reached a breaking point and when Sarah Atwood approached Jamie with a deal that would make him governor and get her the airport she wanted on the Duttons’ property, he didn’t decline.

Kayce’s Vision Of Lee During His Tribal Initiation

During Season 4, Kayce goes on a journey to become a full member of Monica’s tribe. During this quest, he has multiple visions that allude to what could come in the future. One of the most grueling was the one that featured his late brother Lee. The violent dream saw his brother screaming and spitting blood, and ultimately it alluded to the climax of Jamie and Beth’s rivalry.

Mo Kills Monica’s Attacker

During Season 3, Monica decides to try and help find Sila’s killer by making herself the bait. She’s caught and choked by the terrifying man, however, thankfully, Monica wasn’t alone. Mo was there to shoot the murderer, and Rainwater and the tribe’s authorities quickly showed up to take the evil man away.

Beth Verbally Takes Down A Manager Who Was Treating Monica Terribly

While Beth and Monica aren’t exactly close, the Duttons are fiercely protective of their own, which means when Monica was being unlawfully searched in a store, Beth came to help her. Kelly Reilly’s character verbally took down the cops and store owner, and she did what her character does best: take names and do what’s necessary to protect her family.

John Shoots His Injured Horse In The First Scene Of The Show

Quite literally, in the first scene of Yellowstone, we see John Dutton after a car crash with his injured horse. He decides he needs to shoot his horse, and it’s terribly sad, however, it’s also an act of mercy to put the animal out of its suffering. That difficult choice set the tone for this whole show moving forward.

A Totally Gutted Jamie Learning He Was Adopted

It’s honestly terrible that Jamie had to learn he was adopted through his own investigation. No one in the Dutton family told him, and he found out by himself at a very low moment. Jamie might not be the good guy in Yellowstone, but there’s no question that this moment was brutal.

Roarke Being Left For Dead After Snake Bite Trap

You can always count on Rip to have an evil plan to take down the Duttons’ enemies, and that was proven when he killed Roarke with a poisonous snake.

Everything Regarding Jamie Confessing About The Reporter To Beth And John

From both ends of this situation, it’s cruel. Beth and John got some truly horrific news as Jamie told them he said some very revealing and bad things to a journalist. Then, Beth beat him up over it and John got very mad. All around, this was bad.

Jimmy Gets Seriously Injured In A Rodeo Accident

Sometimes, Yellowstone’s brutality is rooted in reality, and that was the case here. Rodeo is an extremely dangerous sport in real life that can leave cowboys injured for life. When Jimmy fell off his horse and ended up hospitalized, it showed just how destructive this sport can be.

Colby And Teeter Get Trampled By Horses

In a particularly vicious attack on the Dutton ranch, Wade and Clint Morrow bombarded the Bunkhouse Boys Colby and Teeter while they were swimming in a creek. The two were trampled by horses and left with terrible injuries, showing just how merciless the Morrows are.

Rip Threatens The Bikers

Let this serve as a lesson that trespassing is bad, especially when it's on land that Rip Wheeler looks over. In this case, he ran his truck into a bunch of motorcycles owned by trespassing bikers, and then he aggressively threatened them.

Kayce Kills His Brother-In-Law

After Lee Dutton is killed, Kayce shoots and kills the man who caused his brother’s death. That man is Robert Long, his brother-in-law.

Beth Finds Out About Jamie’s Kid

This is a prime example of Yellowstone being brutal from every perspective. Beth is in so much pain when she finds out that Jamie had a kid, because he’s the one who made it so she couldn’t have children. On the flip side, she also aggressively flips out on him – she legit says she’s going to “rob” him of fatherhood – causing quite an explosive fight between the siblings.

The End Of The Season 3 Finale

Let’s be real, this entry about Yellowstone’s Season 3 finale could be four separate items on this list. In the span of one episode, Beth’s office got bombed, there was a shooting at Kayce’s office, and John got shot on the side of the road. That attempt to kill the Duttons was intense and explosive, literally and figuratively.

Monica Loses Her Baby

Monica decides to drive her and Tate to the hospital because she’s pregnant and is having terrible cramps. They’re driving fast at night, and when she swerves to avoid a truck, they hit a buffalo. While Monica and Tate survive, the unborn baby does not, and that is one of the greatest tragedies they have faced.

Rip Tells Kayce To Take Walker To The Train Station

Walker and Rip always had a tense relationship because the newer ranch hand didn’t fully understand everything he’d have to do because he wears the brand. Eventually, they reach a breaking point, and Walker is sent to the Train Station, however, he’s not killed, Kayce shows him mercy and lets him go.

Monica Gets Seriously Injured When Breaking Up A Fight At School

While Monica was teaching at a school, she tried to break up a fight between two boys. She ended up getting seriously injured and suffered from a head injury.

Rip, Lloyd, Kayce And Jimmy Hang Dan, But Don’t Kill Him

Dan Jenkins was the big bad of Season 1, and toward the end, the Bunkhouse Boys caught him and hung him. Kayce said they should let him hang, however, it was revealed in Season 2 that he was alive and survived this event.

The Beck Brothers Kill A Bunch Of The Duttons’ Cows

A ranch’s cattle provide a lot of their income, so when the Beck Brothers killed a bunch of the Duttons' cows it was a severe problem. On top of this being an issue personally, it’s also quickly realized that the brothers were trying to pit John against Dan by doing this, making the act even worse.

Tate Shoots And Kills A Man Who Was Attacking Monica

To be frank, there’s nothing more brutal than a child being in such a dangerous situation he has to shoot someone out of self-defense to save his mom and himself. Sadly, that’s something Kayce and Monica’s son Tate had to do.

Walker And Lloyd Get Into A Last Man Standing Fight Over A Woman

Walker and Lloyd get into quite the tiff over Laramie, a barrel racer, and eventually, as things go oftentimes on Yellowstone, their tension culminates in a literal fistfight that lasts for a really long time because both guys are stubborn.

Beth And Summer Brawl

Beth has physically beaten up her brother and she’s verbally beaten many, many people, however, her fight with Summer is raw and visceral in a different way as the two women fight all their issues out.

As you can see, Yellowstone is brutal and it does not hold back in the slightest, because the Duttons and their adversaries are willing to do anything to get what they want.