Dutton Ranch’s Finn Little Explains Why Carter Calls Beth a ‘Liar’ After Devastating Ranch Loss

Beth and Rip just made a major decision without Carter, and it’s going to have some long-term consequences. In episode 4 of Dutton Ranch, Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Rip (Cole Hauser) kill their entire herd after a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak. Carter (Finn Little) is not home to see any of it happen because Beth had told him to take Oreana (Natalie Alyn Lind) on a date to make sure he wasn’t around.

Carter confronted Beth after the fact, and she said she was “protecting” him. “Protecting me from what? You want me to be a rancher,” Carter said, calling the situation “bulls—.”

Beth tried to explain her decision to no avail. “We will break ourselves in half to give you a better life,” she told Carter, but he told her, “My life isn’t yours — and it isn’t f—ing Rip’s.” He also called her a “liar.”

Little, 19, tells PEOPLE that the betrayal will stay with Carter as the season goes on. “Carter wants to be taken seriously,” the Australian actor says.

“Beth and Rip are, in a way, molding him to try to become the next person to run the ranch. They want him to become a strong young man, strong cowboy,” Little says. “To be left out of a decision like that, I think, hurt him quite a bit. And that will be a big factor [in] Carter trying to claim his own independence this season.”

Little has been playing Carter, the adoptive son of Beth and Rip, who joined Yellowstone in season 4, since he was 14. “This has been my life. Yellowstone has been a huge part of my life,” he says. “Carter has been a role I played for so long. It’s awesome.”

In Dutton Ranch, a new chapter starts for the character, and “a lot has changed since we last saw him,” Little says. Carter is “growing into himself” in the spinoff series, but Little teases that “trouble’s brewing” for him when it comes to Oreana.

“I think Carter sees a lot of Beth in Oreana, that fierceness and that strong personality. I think that’s what attracts Carter.”

Both Reilly, 48, and Hauser, 51, are protective of their young costar. “We’ve been a part of his most formidable years as a young man,” Hauser told PEOPLE. “And so, to see him grow not only off the screen, but on the screen as an actor, he has so much talent, and it’s just oozing out of him.”

“He’s just grown with us, and we love him,” Reilly said.