God grant us the confidence of a showrunner who continues to write himself into his biggest hit.
On Sunday’s penultimate episode of Yellowstone titled “Give the World Away,” creator Taylor Sheridan penned a flashy sequence for his on-screen persona Travis Wheatley: he got to show off his muscles, his impressive horse riding skills, and his penchant for attracting the pretty ladies.
After Kelly Reilly’s Beth comes to the realization that everything on the family ranch has to be sold so they can pay their debts, she travels to Texas where she expects to find Travis unloading their prized horses to a bunch of “fat Brazilians in track suits and jewelry.” Except Travis isn’t peddling the herd of hooved animals; Beth finds him playing strip poker with a trio of blondes, instead.
Before she walks in on his little bacchanal, however, she’s greeted at the door by a comely woman who mistakes her for the masseuse. That woman is supermodel Bella Hadid, who took time away from serving as the face of Chopard and Saint Laurent to play Sheridan’s girlfriend in the episode.
“You seem like a moderately intelligent woman,” Beth says to Hadid. “How can you work for this f–k?”
“I would never work for a horse trainer,” replies Hadid’s character. “Travis is my boyfriend.”
“I take the intelligent part back,” responds Beth.
After arriving at the arena, Beth asks Hadid’s character what she sees in Travis after describing him as “the most arrogant man I’ve ever met. Condescending, misogynistic, 25 years older than you.”
Replies Hadid’s character, “you ever seen him ride before?”
With that, Sheridan’s Travis shows off some more fancy cutting skills in the arena.
“Okay yeah I get it,” admits Beth.
But she hasn’t escaped Travis’s hubris just yet. While trying to convince him to come back to Yellowstone to help auction off the rest of their herd, Travis forces her to play a round of strip poker that actually has her starting to unzip her dress before he admits to having a little fun.
“You’re such a f–king child!” she exclaims. But hey, he still agreed to work for free.
The episode ends with the animals sold, the staff forlorn over Colby’s death, and Beth thinking the $30 million they raised at the auction would keep Yellowstone alive for another year — that is, until her brother Kayce (Luke Grimes) hints that he has a scheme to keep their land virgin by possibly selling it off to a sympathetic buyer.
Next week marks the series finale of Yellowstone.