Editor’s Note: The following article contains spoilers for the Season 1 finale of Dutton Ranch.
If you need any proof that Yellowstoneis the gift that keeps on giving, just look at Dutton Ranch. The Paramount+ spin-off is taking off in its debut season, having been renewed for a second season right before its Season 1 finale aired, and gaining some of the strongest reviews of any Yellowstone project with an 89% on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing. To put this into perspective: Yellowstone‘s massive success didn’t come overnight; its first season received a mixed reception. Fellow spinoff Marshalsis off to a rough start, with its debut season being dinged for feeling like a cookie-cutter procedural. Dutton Ranch is about to undergo a major change in Season 2, which could potentially increase its audience goodwill.
This change concerns the showrunner position, which is being filled by Benjamin Clavell. Clavell is replacing series creator and Season 1 showrunner Chad Feehan, who departed Dutton Ranch before the series even premiered, due to creative conflicts with Yellowstone creatorTaylor Sheridanand the rest of the cast. A look at Clavell’s resume also shows he’s no stranger to neo-Western shows grappling with thorny moral questions, as he served as an executive producer on Justified. Clavell’s Justified experience should come in handy, given where the Season 1 finale of Dutton Ranch left Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) and Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser).
‘Dutton Ranch’s Season 1 Finale Is The Perfect Place to Inject ‘Justified’ Vibes Into The Series
Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) and Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) in ‘Dutton Ranch’Image via Paramount+
When Dutton Ranch‘s Season 1 finale, “El Padrino,” ends, Beth and Rip are not in a good spot. The duo has run afoul of Mariano Reyes (Raoul Max Trujillo), a cartel boss with connections to rival ranch 10 Petal, particularly as he’s the father of Joaquin Jackson Reyes (Juan Pablo Raba) and partner to Belulah Jackson (Annette Bening). Mariano quickly shows that he’s not to be trifled with when he kidnaps Beth and Rip’s adopted son, Carter (Finn Little). Anyone who’s watched Yellowstone knows that the Duttons aren’t to be trifled with, and Kelly Reilly confirmed that Season 2 of Dutton Ranch will be an all-out war as Beth and Rip fight to get their son back.
“We’re going to see them tear up Texas to get him back. When Beth says, “They want us, then they’re going to have us,” I think all of the audience knows what she means.”
Reilly also confirmed that Beth and Rip will have to work with Belulah in order to save Carter, which is where Clavell can bring some of his Justified experience to the table. Throughout Justified‘s six-season run, U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) was forever at odds with his childhood friend-turned-criminal Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins), though there were times when the two had to work together. With a similar dynamic fueling Dutton Ranch, Clavell has the chance to further push the rivalry between Beth and Beluah to a new level while still keeping the bloody frontier justice that Yellowstone is known for.
Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz Which Taylor Sheridan Show Do You Belong In? Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown
Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn’t write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for.
🤠Yellowstone
🛢️Landman
👑Tulsa King
⚖️Mayor of Kingstown
01
Where does your power come from? In Sheridan’s world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind.
02
Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan’s universe is always absolute — and always costly.
03
Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it’s crossed.
04
Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan’s worlds are as much about place as they are about people.
05
How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt.
06
What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they’re defending.
07
How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan’s world is never given — it’s established, maintained, and constantly tested.
08
Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you.
09
What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal.
10
When it’s over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan’s characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind.
Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…
The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you’re complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.
🤠 Yellowstone
🛢️ Landman
👑 Tulsa King
⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown
You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world’s indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you’re willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family’s weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what’s yours, you don’t escalate — you finish it. You’re not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone’s world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn’t make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.
You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You’re a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they’ll do to get it. You’re not naive enough to think this world is fair. You’re smart enough to be the one deciding who it’s fair to.
You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you’re not above reminding people that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they’d be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they’re more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don’t need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.
You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you’re the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky’s world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You’ve made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.
Benjamin Clavell Is No Stranger To Giving Paramount+ a Hit Show
In addition to his work on Justified, Benjamin Clavell has a history with Paramount+, as he createdSEAL Team, the David Boreanaz-led military thriller that started life on CBS before moving to the streamer.SEAL Team follows the exploits of a group of Navy SEALs as they carry out extremely dangerous missions, while also exploring the toll warfare takes on them and their families. Again, we have a Clavell-helmed series that focuses on family bonds and the difficult moral choices one must make in certain situations, which makes him a perfect fit for Dutton Ranch.
While Dutton Ranch may have lost its creator, having Benjamin Clavell come in as showrunner could prove a boost for the show. Not only is the show receiving one of the creative forces behind Justified, but it is also getting a television veteran who knows how to create compelling shows.
