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Yellowstone Season 2 Episode 3 Recap: The Reek of Desperation

John and Kayce are on a hilltop looking down at the cows. They're making plans for where the cattle are going next. John tests Kayce until he has the right answer.

Rip appeals to Kayce to trust him so he'll get the respect he needs. Kayce is eager to comply. Lloyd says Kayce knows who to talk to and if he's trying to do it different, it never works.

Rainwater and Jenkins are signing documents together. There is a check for 16 million, and they're presenting it to the press. It's a new era.

Governor Perry has bad news for Jamie. He's no longer running unopposed. Cassidy even gives his speech for running. The Governor takes Jamie into another room where Rainwater is waiting. It's a zero-sum game where winning is the only option.

As an independent, Jamie has no one to fund his campaign. Since Cassidy just stole his platform, he needs a new one of those, too. Preferably one she cannot steal. Jamie needs the day to think about his proposal.

At John's office at the Livestock Association, they're checking on Kayce's ability to do the job. No priors, no outstanding. Miracles never cease. He's cleared for ride-along. I had no idea Ryan was in the livestock association and wore a badge.

Kayce is worried about taking the position. He can't pass the polygraph test. He can't pass a psych eval, either. John wonders why Kayce thought he wouldn't pass the psych eval.

Kayce visits Monica at her new faculty housing. They're awkward as f*ck around each other.

Tate wants Kayce to spend the night sometime in his new bunk beds.

Kayce doesn't know how to do any of this. She's his wife and his best friend, his only friend. Monica still can't take that he's working for John. Monica asked him to leave, so he did. She wanted him to fight for the life he wanted. He wishes she'd asked for what she wanted because he was happy to comply.

John meets with Lynelle at a restaurant. They're drinking German wine. He got her four glasses because she'll probably need 'em all.

He told her to find another attorney general. The attorney general is supposed to do her bidding, not John's. John thinks the only thing that Jamie cares about is approval. Once he's elected, he can get that. Popularity controls ?? and Lynelle knows something else John mumbles.

They don't have families. They both know exactly why their kids are like they are. Lynelle says life didn't turn out like she thought. Except for the death of his wife, John hasn't been surprised by anything.

Politics makes strange bedfellows, and Lynelle and John are at it again.

They take a pause, and Lynelle tears up. They talk about falling in love and children. They're both done with the former.

She misses her husband. After ten years, she hoped it would fade. That's how you know it's true love, John says.

Beth wonders why Rip is feeding horses. Look what loyalty has given him.

Enter Damian Darhk aka Neal McDonough aka Malcolm Beck. He's a real estate developer and wants to know who the hell is Dan Jenkins?

There are a couple of skeevy looking bastards getting the makings of meth at the local Walmart when a cop walks in. Ammonia and Acetone are piled into the cart.

Jimmy and Avery are stocking up on barbed wire. She sends him in to get some new jeans. He's running straight into the thugs, who know him by name. It's a dude named Blake.

He owes Blake money. He can either pay it back or go on a little shopping spree. He doesn't need a list. He knows exactly what to get.

Jimmy walks past the jeans with his cart full of two bags of links for the chain. He pummels the dudes in the head and then tells Avery to drive. When they attack him in the truck, Avery gets a bottle of mace or something and sprays it in his direction.

Monica is back at physical therapy. He's a hot dude. Touching her leg. His passions are Indian relay races. They connect over the tiny suits and touchy feels.

She's married. He saw the ring.

Lloyd finds Avery and Jimmy cleaning the truck, and the latter two bond over Jimmy's ignorance to Lloyd's insult.

Malcolm walks in on Jenkins surveying his casino model.

Malcolm knows thriving in Montana is about staying in your lane. Dan veered into John's lane by partnering with the reservation. And they know the first thing the reservation is going to do is annex that casino land. Malcolm assumes Rainwater purchased the land without leasing and is paying Dan from the profits. Ugh. Any money Dan received is an advance on construction and Rainwater will want it back as soon as he nullifies Dan's agreement. That's what they'd do if they were trying to steal from him.

Dan knows of them. They're the Beck brothers. He's sick of the bolo-tied fucks with their Lucchese boots. Malcolm is also the head of the Montana liquor board. He'll be revoking Dan's tomorrow, and he won't ever issue him another. Unless he revokes his deal with Rainwater and makes a new deal with them.

Jamie's girlfriend doesn't understand his dilemma. She thinks Rainwater is a good man and Jamie should reframe his belief that Rainwater is an enemy. Jamie doesn't think he can run against his father with the backing of John's enemy. His girlfriend thinks he has no choice.

Jamie goes for a walk to Schwartz & Meyer. That's Beth's place. He finds her there.

Jamie tries to ask her for guidance. Beth wonders how he fucked John this time. Jamie has no idea. She jokes that his donor must be a Russian. He picks up the paper and shows her Rainwater. That's his donor. He's asking for her help. She knows Jamie is not a politician. They believe they can manage people better than them. He's not a narcissist. He's not committed.

He doesn't know who he is and he's looking for the world to tell him. He reeks of desperation, and Rainwater and Jenkins can smell it. They will pull him, twist him, and tear him and their father with him into tiny pieces. It's time for him to think about everyone else in his life instead of himself and do what's best for them.

He tells the girl the next day he can't and he won't do it. She'll try to find money elsewhere. He doesn't to play this dirty. He's reacted to the situations before him. He didn't initiate it and did none of it for himself. To beat her, he'd have to attack his dad, and he doesn't want to.

She's disgusted. His sister was right. What a chicken heart.

The ultimatums never end when she asks him to leave. If he quits, he doesn't get her. He's going to work side by side with his suicide sister and his fuck of a father.

It's family dinner time, and the Duttons are eating grilled octopus. John tries to talk to Beth about her day without work. She says sobriety is bliss. Kayce doesn't want to talk about it. If he has a day worth talkin' about, he'll shout it from the damned rooftops.

John wonders if the octopus is good. Kayce doesn't care what he eats. In walks Jamie. He withdrew from the race. Beth makes him a plate. Of grilled octopus. She laughs out loud when Kayce asks Jamie where he's been. John leaves the table.

Outside, John finds Rip tending the field walking through the sprinklers tool in hand. God damn you for leaving me, John mutters.

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