If you’ve been tuning into Yellowstone, you might’ve noticed that Kelly Reilly and Wes Bentley’s characters are like two squirrels fighting over the same nut—constantly bickering & never backing down. Their on-screen spats might make us wonder if they’re vying for the lead roles in a modern-day remake of Hatfields & McCoys.
Reilly’s character is so wrapped up in her anger and feelings of betrayal that she’s practically seeing red. Her brother Jamie’s actions have hit her like a ton of bricks, and she’s having a tough time making peace with the wreckage.
This ongoing feud between Reilly’s and Bentley’s characters is becoming such a tempest in a teapot that even the former has felt the pinch. She’s expressed her dissatisfaction with how Taylor Sheridan is yanking out their conflict. The constant bickering is not only a drag but is starting to feel like it’s ruining the series for the actress—and maybe for the viewers, too.
Exploring Kelly Reilly’s Discontent: Is Taylor Sheridan Ruining Yellowstone?
Watching Beth and Jamie in Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone argue is like seeing two goats butting heads over the last piece of cake—fierce, stubborn, and a little bit comical.
Two years back, when the LA Times threw Kelly Reilly a curveball about the tempestuous relationship between Beth Dut ton and her on-screen brother, the actress’ response was a hearty laugh, tinged with a hint of exasperation:
I wish you and I could sit down with Beth and tell her that. But she’s not interested. It’s such a deeply embedded wound.
Reilly suggested that Beth’s emotional scars run so deep that no amount of outside advice could heal them. She further explained,
‘Yellowstone’ is this all-American TV show, but there are tragic Greek elements in it.
Reilly, 47, painted a picture of the series as a stage for high drama, where familial betrayals are as intense as those in ancient myths. She continued:
She is blinded by her rage and her feeling that her brother betrayed her.
Imagine Beth’s anger as a pair of thick, foggy glasses—everything is distorted, and she can’t see past her own fury. This blindness makes it impossible for her to see any path to reconciliation. Reilly added:
He agreed to have something done to her that would affect the rest of her life, and she can’t make peace with it.
Reilly then expressed a hope for resolution, saying:
I’m longing for her to find forgiveness for herself and Jamie. But that is one relationship where there is deep hurt, and it does come out of love.
She wished for Beth to find a way to forgive—a distant but beautiful possibility. The actress concluded with insight into the nature of their conflict. In doing so, Reilly herself seems to be feeling the heat about how the tension between Beth and Jamie is being handled.
Can Beth and Jamie Ever Get Along in Yellowstone?
In the same chat with the LA Times, Wes Bentley gave us a peek behind the curtain of this high-stakes family feud. “Kelly and I agree that there has to be some desperate desire for connection. We’ve also seen it as something that they were striving to repair,” the actor revealed.
Essentially, he’s saying that while Beth and Jamie’s interactions may look fierce, there’s a twisted, underlying affection fueling their constant altercation.
But here’s where things get stickier: the feud between Beth and Jamie has only heated up with each passing season. Instead of solving the complexity of their relationship, it seems like the show is stuck in a loop of escalating drama, like a hamster spinning its wheel without ever getting anywhere.
Adding fuel to the fire, the departure of Kevin Costner and the growing role of Jamie as the main antagonist for the Dutton clan has turned the vendetta into a dead-end street.
In a nutshell, if the show’s writers don’t shake things up soon, this saga might just become the TV equivalent of a broken record—one that keeps playing the same track of family discord without offering any new tunes.
Yellowstone Season 5’s second part will premiere on November 10, 2024.