The Yellowstone Season 4 Episode 3 Scene Fans Thought Made No Sense
"Yellowstone" fans are no stranger to the volatile, often socially frowned-upon, and occasionally downright illegal ways of Kelly Reilly's Beth Dutton. In Season 4's third episode, fans were treated to a fairly realistic portrayal of what happens when those IDGAF ways manifest in a public setting. When Beth takes her adopted new charge Carter (Finn Little) to a high-end Western apparel store to buy him a gift (and, unbeknownst to her, teach him a thing or two about gratitude) her unorthodox and fledgling parenting skills are called into question by another shopper.
After telling Carter he can have a pair of boots, a hat, and a practical pair of jeans, Beth is infuriated by Carter's insistence on buying a fancy, embroidered Western shirt. In the scene directly preceding their time in the store, Carter is awestruck by the equally fancy bells and whistles in Beth's vehicle. Unnerved by his rapidly developing taste for all that glitters, Beth attempts to teach Carter a lesson by demanding he take the shirt off and resolving to leave the store with nothing. When he doesn't, she forcibly removes it in the most essentially Beth Dutton way possible. This doesn't sit right with another shopper (and mom), who begins videotaping the scene after calling it "child abuse." There's just one issue fans had with this ultra 21st century interaction.
The fan response to Beth's accuser was split
Simultaneously enraged and bemused by the woman's actions, Beth turns her anger toward the amateur cinematographer, at which point the woman says she "doesn't want any trouble." For some fans, this felt somewhat contradictory. "How you gonna scream 'that's child abuse' and film someone," asked a fan on the series' subreddit, "then turn around say 'I don't want trouble?' Lady, pick a damn struggle."
While some fans weren't convinced by the woman's wishy-washy ways ("It's bad writing dude," said one viewer) others felt the woman was an all-too-realistic portrayal of your average busy-body shopper: "she's about half my customers at work," they wrote. Most fans were quick to point out that Beth's response to her accuser was a poignant calling-out of her out of context conclusion: "Lady you crave trouble," Beth says, "you just don't want resistance."
"Beth made a good point to the lady," wrote one fan, a sentiment echoed by another user, who said they "LOVED that response," and that it was "so true." Whether the woman's immediately withdrawn judgement rang true for audiences or not, it's worth noting that Beth accosts her, smashes her cell phone, and threatens her with assault. It's safe to say that most people — when (literally) face-to-face with the wrath of Beth Dutton — would probably make a desperate attempt to backtrack their offense as well.