‘Yellowstone’: Rowdy Actor Thinks Rip Is Keeping a Big Secret From Beth
Yellowstone Season 5 introduced Kai Caster’s character Rowdy, a wrangler at the Dutton Ranch. This season has included more flashbacks to Beth and Rip’s teenage years than ever. Fans already know that Beth is hiding the truth about her sterilization from Rip, but Caster thinks that Rip is keeping his own secret from Beth.
[Warning: Yellowstone Season 5 Episode 7 spoilers ahead.]
‘Yellowstone’ Season 5 flashes back to Beth and Rip’s teenage years
Yellowstone Season 5 introduced a new character from Rip’s past named Rowdy. In one flashback, a teenage Rip and Beth head to a bar for a date before Beth leaves for college. The pair get into a fight at the bar, and Rip decides to leave Beth with the keys and hitchhike back to the ranch.
Before he heads out, the rest of the ranch hands from the Yellowstone arrive, including Rip’s friend Rowdy. Instead of leaving Rip stranded, Rowdy gives Rip his keys so he can drive home. Later, Beth returns with Rowdy, and Rip sees them making out.
Kai Caster thinks Rip hasn’t told Beth that he killed Rowdy in ‘Yellowstone’
Later in Yellowstone Season 5, Rowdy and Rip spend a night in the sagebrush guarding John’s cattle against wolves. Rowdy begins running his mouth about Beth, and Rip is furious. The pair get into a fistfight, but Rowdy pulls a knife.
Rip retaliates by hitting Rowdy with a rock. Rowdy gets badly hurt, and Rip goes to find John so they can get him to a hospital. When Rip returns, he finds Rowdy dead.
“I don’t think [Beth] knows, just because I think that present-time Rip is so stoic and he’s not much of a sharer,” Kai Caster said of the incident to Entertainment Tonight.
“I think that, unless Beth specifically asked him, [Rip wouldn’t tell her]. It would have to be when they were adults, he would’ve told her,” he continued. “I don’t think if she even asked him back then what had happened, I don’t think he would’ve told her.”
Beth is also keeping a big secret
Beth Dutton is keeping her own major secret from Rip. When they were teenagers, Rip got Beth pregnant. Beth went to Jamie for help so she could get an abortion. However, the clinic they went to required sterilization for all patients who wanted an abortion. Jamie agreed to this without telling Beth, and he is the reason she cannot have children.
To this day, Beth hasn’t told Rip any of this information. All he knows is that Beth can’t have children, but he isn’t aware of the dark backstory. Beth actor Kelly Reilly has a simple explanation for why her character hasn’t told Rip.
“She doesn’t talk about what happened for many reasons. One of them would be she knows that Rip would kill him,” Reilly told The Hollywood Reporter. “But it’s not just about that. There’s something about this secret that is tied in [to losing their mother].”
New episodes of season 5 of Yellowstone premiere Sunday nights on Paramount Network.
