On “Yellowstone,” the ranch hands’ bunkhouse is a frequent source of levity away from the darkness and corruption found in other corners of the Dutton family’s property. Beginning in Season 3, it’s also an unlikely place for romance. That season marks the debut of Teeter (Jennifer Landon), a heavily-accented, trash-talking ranch hand from Texas. Teeter quickly proves she’s one of the guys, even when it comes to her persistent, borderline coercive flirtation with Colby (Denim Richards).
Teeter and Colby are regular scene partners, providing the bunkhouse with some of its best, crudest banter. For Richards, a much more serious scene stands above the rest. In an interview with PWR Magazine, the actor revealed that his favorite episode to shoot was Season 3, Episode 9, titled “Meaner Than Evil.” In Episode 8, Teeter and Colby are trampled by Wade (Boots Southerland) and Clint Morrow (Brent Walker) while skinny dipping and left for dead.
In the next episode, it’s revealed that the ranch hands survived the ordeal, and they come to in the freezing cold night, with Teeter’s face bloodied from horse hooves. According to Richards, the mood on set was much lighter than the subject matter.
“We were shooting these scenes until three in the morning,” the actor recalled, “and in between takes we were just laughing about how blessed we are to be shooting in the middle of the night when the whole world is still asleep and that we have the opportunity to live our own lives as actors as well as the much simpler lives of our characters.”
The river sequence tested Richards as an actor
Colby and Teeter’s classic river scene is one of the most shocking in “Yellowstone.” Colby frantically applying first aid to Teeter’s mutilated face is gruesome even by “Yellowstone” standards, and the scene has huge implications for their relationship, which blossoms into a romance after the pair’s shared trauma.
For Denim Richards, shooting “Meaner Than Evil” was an opportunity to showcase his growth as an actor — even if it meant filming in a frigid Utah river. “I got into this mental state where I was like, ‘This is going to be so fun, to just be in this water, even though it was so cold, but to just be in [this] type of immersive experience,” Richards told TV Insider. “As an artist, that’s something you really look forward to doing. Challenging yourself, not only physically, mentally, but also emotionally, and these last two episodes really did that for me.”
Indeed, emotions run high in “Meaner Than Evil,” and Teeter and Colby’s relationship consequently grows from schoolyard teasing to full-fledged coupledom. Richards also explained that something shifted in Colby after the river scene, in that he began to view Teeter as someone he had to protect. By the time Teeter and half of the ranch hands go on the cattle run to Texas in “Yellowstone” Season 5, she tells Colby she loves him.