Dutton Ranch Episode 7 Ending Explained: The Yellowstone Spinoff Delivers Its Two Biggest Twists Yet

In the present, Beulah (Annette Bening) is preparing for the 10 Petal Ranch’s 190th grand anniversary celebration. She’s more on edge than usual, nitpicking the event staff over the smallest details. It’s soon revealed that her fastidiousness is due to the fact that she’ll be making a major announcement at the party — that Joaquin Reyes (Juan Pablo Raba) will be her official 10 Petal ranch successor. Episode 7 featured less of Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Rip (Cole Hauser), but the couple still managed to make an entrance at Beulah’s party, arriving on horseback. On the ride over, Beth assures Rip and Carter (Finn Little) that she only needs to schmooze for a couple of hours before they can make an Irish exit. However, the audience knows good and well that wouldn’t be the case, and that the party would be full of plenty of dramatic twists and turns — which Dutton Ranch delivered in spades.

Why Beulah Is Leaving Rob-Will The 10 Petal Ranch

The identity of Rob-Will’s (Jai Courtney) father has been a lingering question throughout Dutton Ranch. At one point, it was hinted that the kindly vet and Beulah’s on-again, off-again lover Everett McKinney (Ed Harris) may be Rob-Will’s dad, but episode 7 reveals that Beulah was raped by the man she danced with at the honky-tonk in 1981, resulting in a pregnancy. After two episodes of being in hiding, present-day Rob-Will announces his presence at the 10 Petal’s anniversary party. Beulah is just as shocked to find her son sitting in her office as she is that Oreana (Natalie Alyn Lind) knew about his return. This is why her storyline in Dutton Ranch episode 6 ended so abruptly when she told Carter she had “somewhere to be” — she was meeting up with her dad. Though Rob-Will’s assassination attempt on Joaquin via the ill-fated Chet (Hart Denton) failed, Beulah’s only biological son isn’t ready to give up without a fight. He tells Beulah that he’ll kill Joaquin before letting him have the ranch that is Rob-Will’s birthright, reminding his mother of who he truly is — a killer. This is what clinches it for Beulah. All season long, she’s been treating Rob-Will like nothing more than a problem to be dealt with — to her, he’s a hot-headed addict who’s much better off stashed at rehab than causing irreparable damage to her ranch. However, when Rob-Will tells her that his grandfather took him into the very office they’re sitting in and showed him how he slaughtered his competition, Beulah knows that for all his flaws, Rob-Will has the Jackson killer instinct that Joaquin, who isn’t flesh and blood, does not. Rob-Will gets this gene not just from his grandfather, but also from his mother. The final sequence of “Den of Sin” cuts back to Beulah in 1981, learning she’s pregnant and paying her rapist a visit, where she shoots him dead in cold blood, victoriously reclaiming the boot she had lost during the assault. Killing is the only way Beulah knows how to survive, and for her ranch to do the same, to her, that means naming Rob-Will as her successor.

What Will Happen To Beulah & The 10 Petal After Her Collapse

When Beulah publicly announces that she’s retiring in five years and passing the reins to Rob-Will, everyone from Joaquin to Everett to Beth to restaurant mogul Zane Nash (Marlon Young), who just agreed to serve 10 Petal’s black angus steaks in his restaurants, is shocked and horrified. However, Beulah isn’t done with the surprises, as shortly after her speech — and Carter’s intoxicated spectacle — she grabs her neck in pain and collapses to the ground. As Everett calls for a medevac, Dutton Ranch viewers are left with myriad questions: What happened to Beulah? Will she survive? Did someone try to kill her? If so, who? What will happen to the 10 Petal Ranch if she dies? Beulah’s emergency may be due to natural causes, but it’s every bit as possible that someone is trying to take her out. The most obvious suspect is Rob-Will, who may be trying to speed up his takeover of 10 Petal Ranch. He’s proven multiple times over the course of Dutton Ranch that he’s not only capable of murder, but he enjoys it — his earlier “killer” speech certainly wasn’t lip service. What’s more is that it’s also possible that Oreana was involved, given that she’s seemingly capable of turning on those who love her at the drop of a hat. If Beulah dies or is even indisposed, this throws a major wrench into Beth and Rip’s plans, as they’re locked into a five-year deal with the 10 Petal Ranch. There’s every chance that Beth sees her ranch-to-table business plan fail for a third time if Zane pulls out — he was none too pleased about Beulah’s succession announcement — or if Rob-Will quashes it altogether. Then there’s Rip. He and Rob-Will have a very brief but very violent past when Rip punched out Rob-Will for harassing Azul (J.R. Villarreal). The men verbally make nice at the anniversary party, but it’s clear they possess an implacable hatred for each other — which will only intensify if Rob-Will becomes Rip’s new boss. After her announcement, Beulah has precious few allies left. At the end of the day, Beth and Rip’s loyalties are only to their own family and ranch, while Beulah seems to have permanently burned her bridge to Joaquin, if his irate exit from the party is anything to go by. That only leaves Everett, who, as sweet as he is, doesn’t have the ability to save the 10 Petal Ranch. 190 years of history may very well be about to go up in flames.

Dutton Ranch Officially Introduces Mariano Reyes

“Den of Sin” finally confirms the identity of Mariano Reyes. Viewers suspected that the mysterious man on the phone with Beulah in Dutton Ranch episode 3, who was credited as “Mariano Reyes” (Raoul Max Trujillo), was Joaquin’s father, as they share a surname. Beulah shone further light on Joaquin’s past when, in Dutton Ranch episode 6, she told Beth that baby Joaquin was dropped into her lap by a ranch hand who had gotten on “the wrong side of the law“. In episode 7’s flashbacks, the show reveals that Dutton Ranch‘s mystery villain and the ranch hand are one and the same. While chaperoning Beulah and her friends at the honky-tonk, a young Mariano (Bobby Soto) tells the bartender that he’s the “top hand” at the 10 Petal Ranch and that he’s married with a son named Joaquin. The episode reveals that Mariano’s loyalties are to Beulah, not her father. Mariano agrees to lie about how she got her injuries, and he takes Beulah to see her attacker when he’s meant to corral her to a family event. It’s also likely that he covered up the murder Beulah committed and kept quiet about it. It’s possible that this is how Mariano found himself on the “wrong side of the law” and why he left Joaquin with Beulah. However, what we do know is that in the present, Mariano has some sort of shady involvement with the 10 Petal, and that he’s the only person Beulah Jackson is deferential to. Furthermore, Mariano will likely be yet another person who’s less than thrilled about Beulah giving the ranch to Rob-Will over Joaquin. If Beulah does survive whatever caused her collapse, she may still have to face the wrath of Dutton Ranch‘s most mysterious villain.

Carter Acts Out After Oreana Rebuffs Him

Things looked to be going south for Dutton Ranch‘s young lovers, and in episode 7, Oreana breaks Carter’s heart. After she didn’t return his profession of love in the last episode, she fully rejects him at her family’s party, blowing him off to flirt with Harrison (Matthew Erick White), a boy she attended college with. As the night wears on, Oreana gets crueller, comparing Carter to a steer and Harrison to a bull. Poor Carter appears to be a lightning rod for emasculating metaphors, as earlier in the episode, Sheriff Wade (Josh Stewart) tells Carter that Harrison is “upstairs” and Carter is “downstairs” — meaning that Oreana will keep Carter around for basement sex, but other than that, he is of no use to her. After having been uprooted from his home in Montana and losing his friend Dwight (Ray McKinnon), this is the last straw for Carter. Upon being ignored by the bartender, he swipes a bottle of liquor and drowns his sorrows in the Jacksons’ main house. There, he stumbles into Beulah’s office and liberates a mounted bull’s head. Full of drunken bravado and anguish, Carter carries it back to the party where he throws it on the ground in front of shocked guests, smashing the horns in the process. While this may be written off as a lovesick teenager acting out, that likely won’t be the case — especially if Carter is blamed for causing Beulah’s emergency, given that his stunt is the last thing that happens before she collapses. Furthermore, if Beulah survives, this could put her at even further odds with Beth. Beth obviously isn’t pleased at the Rob-Will announcement, and she already swore that if Oreana hurt Carter, she’d make her life a living hell. Though she has yet to “go Beth Dutton” on someone in the Yellowstone spinoff, this may be what sends her over the edge.

Austin Won’t Let The 10 Petal’s Secrets Go

All season long, Austin (Sterlin English) has refused to keep quiet about Wes’s (Nakoa DeCoite) disappearance, and in episode 7, he makes a very public declaration about the 10 Petal being dirty. This is after Beulah (wisely) set them up with an open tab at the local bar in lieu of their attending the anniversary party and potentially causing a drunken ruckus. The night starts innocently enough, with beers and tales of glory days, until a cowboy from another ranch accuses a 10 Petal ranch hand of cheating at cards and claims that the entire ranch is corrupt. The initial barroom brawl that ensues when the cowboy returns with his buddies in tow is a bit of fun, if not an example of Dutton Ranch trying to be Yellowstone. However, the takeaway is Austin’s outburst. Austin agrees with the cowboy’s assertion of the 10 Petal’s shadiness, citing Chet’s disappearance as yet another example. Though he’s told to back off, Austin has just made the target on his back even bigger. It won’t at all be a surprise if Austin doesn’t make it through Dutton Ranch season 1 alive, but if that’s the case, hopefully, he’ll start making some smart moves on his way out. It’s clear that none of the original 10-Petal Ranch hands wants to stand with him, but Austin could have some allies in Zachariah (Marc Menchaca) and Azul, whose loyalties are to Beth and Rip over Beulah. All season long, Dutton Ranch has been hinting at a war between the two factions, and Austin may just be the catalyst.