In Yellowstone, the close relationship between veteran ranch hand Lloyd Pierce and the rodeo slinger Jimmy Hurdstrom has led viewers to speculate whether the two are actually father and son. While Lloyd and Jimmy spent most of Yellowstone’s previous seasons working together at the ranch, the two are about to walk very different paths. Lloyd will be gearing up to face what is to come for the Duttons as the land disputes in Paradise Valley come to a head in Yellowstone season 5. Meanwhile, Jimmy was last seen headed back to the Four Sixes ranch in Texas, and is expected to become a key player in Taylor Sheridan’s upcoming spinoff Yellowstone: 6666. As Jimmy and Lloyd go separate ways, is there any truth to the theory that they’re related?
It’s easy to see how viewers came to this conclusion. Lloyd is a natural father figure because he is the oldest and most experienced ranch hand on the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch, while Jimmy was the greenest, most pathetic excuse for a cowboy when he first joined the crew. When Jimmy’s inexperience got him in trouble, Lloyd was always quick to defend or help Jimmy, even after Jimmy severely hurt himself at the rodeo for the second time.
However, the Yellowstone theory about Lloyd being Jimmy’s father is false for a simple reason: back in Yellowstone season 1, Jimmy’s grandfather asked John to take in Jimmy as a favor. After the Four-Sixes Ranch in Texas picked up where the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch left off with Jimmy and turned him into a legitimate cowboy, there was simply no more reason for Jimmy to look back. Yellowstone season 1 even revealed that Jimmy’s father and the rest of his family were either in prison or dead. As for Lloyd, his past is largely a mystery, but it’s clear that he is not related to Jimmy in any way.
Evidence That Lloyd Is Not Jimmy’s Father In Yellowstone
The only clue that Lloyd might be Jimmy’s father is how Lloyd practically treated him like a son, but this doesn’t necessarily indicate a blood relation. It is just the natural role that Lloyd has fallen into because of his decades of serving on the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch. In fact, though unrelated by blood, Lloyd and Jimmy share an arguably much deeper bond because they’re both branded ranch hands, which essentially indicates that they’re brothers for life. This is what being branded on Yellowstone means, and Lloyd is simply upholding the responsibilities that come with the brand by looking out for the greenest branded ranch hand around. Branded men are also expected to be loyal soldiers for the Duttons, and killing for the ranch is actually treated as a rite of passage for newly-branded initiates. Lloyd is not being nice to the man who might be his son, Lloyd is performing his duty of raising and protecting anyone with the potential to become as loyal to the Duttons as he or Rip.
This isn’t to say that Lloyd and Jimmy’s friendship isn’t genuine, only that it’s informed by the very political structure of the ranch and not some secret blood relation. Notably, Jimmy impressed John so much that John freed him from his debts to the ranch in the Yellowstone season 4 ending, and even allowed Jimmy to continue his life at the Four Sixes ranch despite being branded. Toughened by the notorious Yellowstone Dutton Ranch and honed into a cowboy by the legendary Four Sixes, Jimmy Hordstrom is out there representing the brand as a true, homegrown cowboy. Though they’re not related by blood at all, Jimmy couldn’t have asked for a better father figure than Lloyd Pierce or John Dutton. Underneath the various murders the Duttons have committed, and how they continue to manipulate the local government to do their bidding, this is what the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch is all about. Both John and Lloyd organically become father figures for branded ranch hands who have no other families to turn to.
What Lloyd Being Jimmy’s Father Would Mean For The 6666 Ranch
Yellowstone somehow revealing that Lloyd is Jimmy’s father would ruin their already perfect relationship as well as the future of both characters, not just in Yellowstone: 6666 but in any other upcoming Sheridan-verse spinoff. Jimmy and Lloyd were respectively the worst and best cowboy that the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch had to offer, and this deep contrast despite the similarity of their circumstances was what made them interesting as a pair. Turning them into actual father and son would ruin how Jimmy is essentially Lloyd in the past, which is a big part of why Lloyd has a soft spot for Jimmy. Lloyd being Jimmy’s father would certainly give Lloyd a reason to go to the Four Sixes and appear in the spinoff, but this would be too melodramatic, even for Yellowstone. While Jimmy is highly likely to star in Yellowstone: 6666, the Dutton ranch needs Lloyd in season 5 more than ever as Yellowstone season 5 villains Market Equities do everything they can to take over the Dutton property. Turning Lloyd into Jimmy’s father would be the wrong move, especially considering where Yellowstone is headed, and Taylor Sheridan himself is highly unlikely to resort to such lazy writing.