Warning: Spoilers Ahead!
Taylor Sheridan’s expanding Yellowstone Cinematic Universe is a place where exciting stories and interesting characters work together to tell an emotional story about power struggles, love, and heartache. As these stories go on, we find out that characters have to die in order for the story to go on.
Death changes everything, which affects the relationships that fans love and hate in the series. The way people interact with each other in Yellowstone is one of the most interesting parts of the Dutton family and a big reason why fans keep coming back to Taylor Sheridan’s expanding universe.
Even though these characters live in a moral grey area (and that’s putting it mildly), they still choose to stick to their beliefs and do the right thing, even though their lives are full of ups and downs. They are also quick to point out the flaws of anyone who tries to hurt them, even if that person is a family member.
Rip Wheeler and Jamie aren’t related by blood, and if we’re being honest, there isn’t much that ties them together besides the fact that they both have the last name Dutton, which neither of them got from their parents. Both of them swore to John Dutton that they would protect his family and its good name.
Being a Dutton means having power, but you also have to know that you will always be a target because of it. In the Yellowstone realm, the price of prestige is often death, and you never know when it will happen.
When death, oaths, and family promises are all brought together, viewers know they are in for a series about relationships that are both passionate and rough. One of them is between Rip and Jamie, which you might not figure out right away. Jamie is John Dutton‘s (adopted) son, but he never made a big deal about it or told him. John and Evelyn made the decision to give the boy a better life.
Rip Wheeler could also be considered an adopted son of John, while no legal paperwork ever made it so; he brought the boy in under his wing and gave him a second chance too.
So, why do people wonder if Rip killed Jamie in Yellowstone? What could have brought these two people from such similar backgrounds to a place where murder might be a possibility? You already know what to do. Grab your best friend who also loves Yellowstone and let’s ride in.
Why Would Rip Want To Kill Jamie?
You might wonder why Rip would kill Jamie in the first place. What would be his reason? These two people have similar backgrounds and a view of life that can only come from a place of terrible loneliness and abandonment. Instead of standing on opposite sides of a fence, shouldn’t they be making a connection with each other? In reality, parts of their stories have brought them together in a way that is hard to explain. Still, Beth Dutton has the power to make them hate each other more than anything else they’ve done.
Beth is the love of Rip’s life and the worst thing in the world for Jamie. She is strong and sassy, beautiful but haunted, smart and brave, and tormented, but she still holds on to the hope that one day, everything will have been worth it. She’ll keep the ranch in the family’s name, fix up her father, and spend the rest of her life with her husband, feeling a peace she’s never felt before.
So, why does Beth make them so far apart? Well, the answer is complicated, but the story has been told from the beginning through flashbacks and emotional clarity at different times. Jamie took something from Beth that changed her life at the time and her life in the future, and this also affected Rip. When Beth was younger, she found out she was pregnant with Rip’s child. She was afraid of what would happen if she told her father, so she asked Jamie for help.
Jamie took her to find a clinic, but he was afraid that people in town would recognize the Dutton name, so he took her to a reservation for the procedure. The moment that changes Jamie’s life is what he was told next. The woman at the front desk recognizes him as a Dutton and tells him he needs to take Beth somewhere else because it’s against the rules at their clinic to have an abortion without also getting sterilized.
Yes, having the procedure at that time meant Beth could never have children again, but Jamie didn’t tell Beth that when he told her to come inside.
Fans are now wondering if Jamie is the only one to blame, and some are even wondering why Beth is so angry at Jamie. She did ask for his help, but she didn’t ask him to take something away from her for good. When Jamie led Beth inside, he knew what he was doing, and he didn’t give her a chance to say anything about it. He ruined Beth’s chances of having a child of her own, which hurts her every day.
Fans realize that Beth hasn’t told Rip any of this yet, so he doesn’t know that she was pregnant with his child, and she hasn’t told him that she can’t have children anymore because Jamie took her to the reservation. This makes the story more complicated. She’s afraid he won’t get it, that he’ll blame her for taking something away from him, and that he’ll hurt in the same ways she does.
Rip hasn’t been told about that fateful day for these and other reasons, but it shows why fans wouldn’t be surprised if, one day, Rip kills Jamie. Rip says that having children has never been important to him as a man, but he doesn’t know the other side of the story, and Jamie should be very afraid when he does.
Is Jamie Still Alive?
For now, Jamie Dutton has avoided dying, but we don’t know how long he can keep telling himself that. Jamie is a force, and no matter how we feel about the character, he has a strong fan base that backs his decisions and the fact that he owns up to his mistakes. He keeps making choices that are not only bad for the family but also put him in danger, and it’s hard to support him while he does this.
In season five, we see a new side of Jamie, one in which he acts without thinking and more for himself. In fact, Jamie and Sarah Atwood will be leading the charge to get John Dutton fired in the midseason finale. The rest of the episode’s teaser shows a lot of chaos coming up, and Beth reminds her father that Jamie is at war with them. Some fans may have been waiting for this moment; this could be the end of the road for Jamie Dutton.
It could be another twist in the story that lets him get away from his fate, but you can’t run from it forever. Life catches up with everyone eventually, and whether its Rip or someone else, Jamie has more enemies than friends. More chances that someone will turn on him than that someone will have his back. Jamie Dutton is still alive for now, but we’re sure that his time is running out.
Could Rip Still Kill Jamie in Season 5?
As we’ve already said, Jamie is at war with the Dutton family, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if Rip was the one to put an end to the chaos. Rip is John’s right-hand man and the muscle he often uses to solve problems. If Jamie’s life needs to end, why wouldn’t John call on someone he respects and trusts? Even though Jamie impeached him, we’re not sure that John would be the one to make that call.
Even though Jamie has abandoned the Dutton Family name, John still cares about him. Even though it’s not the kind of love and respect you’d hope to see between a father and son, he still cares about Jamie.
If we had to guess, we’d say Beth would put out the “hit” on Jamie, and again, Rip would be the one to answer the call. It would make sense for her to tell Jamie to stop with his latest attempt to get him fired, but that wouldn’t mean she would tell Rip about his past mistakes. Rip is smart, and he knows what Jamie’s latest attack on the Dutton family means, especially now that John is in charge. He won’t let an enemy of their family keep getting stronger.
Even so, Rip could still kill Jamie when Beth tells him about the abortion clinic if Jamie manages to stay alive during these days of the impeachment attempt and the fallout that is sure to follow. At the End of Season Four, Beth and Rip got married. This season, both Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser have talked about their relationship and how they’ll need to stick together to make it.
Beth is having nightmares and heartbreaking flashbacks about their past, and it’s only a matter of time before she tells Rip about what she went through with Jamie.
Even if Rip didn’t want to kill Jamie for himself, the pain he’s caused Beth would be reason enough for him to do it. He changed her in a fundamental way, and Rip will need to figure out what to do about it.
Rip and Jamie’s world keeps going for now, but with a midseason finale coming up and the other half of season five still to air, no one knows who will live and who will die.
