The Bobby Bones Show - Trivia, Villains, and the Ultimate Yellowstone Showdown

Episode Date: April 3, 2025

In this bonus episode of The Official Yellowstone Podcast, Bobby Bones hosts a lively round of Yellowstone trivia with two super fans, Brittany and Jennifer, who compete for a DVD/Blu-ray copy of Season 5 Part 2 and a signed copy of Bobby’s book. Play along and see how your knowledge stacks up. Then, Bobby dives deep into the heart of the Dutton universe to unpack one of the show’s biggest questions: Who was the real villain of Yellowstone? From Jamie and Beth to Market Equities and the legacy-obsessed system itself, no one is off-limits in this sharp, thoughtful breakdown of the series' most complex characters and themes. An entertaining and insightful ride for die-hard fans and new viewers alike.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey guys, welcome to the final episode of the official Yellowstone podcast. I am and have been your host, Bobby Bones. On this episode, I'm going to walk you through the villains of this show. Some of them you may not even think of as villains. And then I will let you know who I think the true villain of Yellowstone was. Was it Chief Rainwater, Jamie Dutton, Beth Dutton?

Maybe. John? Maybe it was John Dutton. Yeah, I'll explain. But first what we're going to do is give a couple people a chance to win some prizes. We have some cool Yellowstone prizes. And so we're going to do some Yellowstone trivia. And if you're listening now, you should play along and see how many you get. Some of them, a little harder. And our players are Jennifer and Brittany. And they're on now. We'll talk to them in just a second. Now, if you're jealous of Jennifer and Brittany for winning this awesome Yellowstone gift that you're about to hear about, you can also enter for a chance to win. You can go to Amazon. You can pre-order the package. You can go to Amazon. You can pre-order the package. It includes a DVD and a Blu-ray package, including three new featureettes. But we'll put the link in the show notes, you know, when you go and it has all the writing about the description. So you click the link, and that's for your shot to win if you don't want to buy it. So I love games.

I love Yellowstone. Let's start with that first. Okay, Brittany. Yes. How are you doing? It's Bobby here. I'm good. How are you?

Doing really good. So we're going to do a little Yellowstone trivia here. And if you win, which you have to get five out of seven. And if you win, you're going to get a whole DVD collection of Yellowstone. It's got a whole bunch of cool stuff in it. And I'll send you a signed book for me. I'll send you bare bones, my book. And, you know, we'll just talk Yellowstone for a second.

I'm imagining that you have watched Yellowstone. I sure have. Huge Yellowstone fan. Huge Bobby Mone show fan. Thank you. Thank you very much. Can you give me your favorite and least favorite character on Yellowstone? This is your past.

See if you get in. Favorite Beth Dutton, 100%. Least favorite Jamie. That's funny. That's, yeah. What about Beth do you like? Um, what don't? Her attitude, I feel like I want to be Beth.

I feel like every girl wants to be Beth. Um, can I cuss on this? You can. Because she's a badass. Um, but she has a big heart too. She cares about her family. She's just, who every girl wants to be, I think.

And so you said your least favorite was Jamie? Yes. Didn't you feel, though, a little bit she was mean to him, like a little excessive at times? Definitely excessive. There were some times I felt bad for Jamie and then other times I felt like she definitely had it coming. Okay, I can co-sign that.

I feel like Jamie kind of got a raw deal at times because, you know, John wasn't his dad. John took care of him and Jamie was trying to fit in with the other two siblings and be a sibling so that created a lot. You know, you know, we know. But I thought- Absolutely. Okay. I thought Beth's a little hard on them at times, but I hear you. Okay, so here's what we're going to do. I'm going to ask you seven Yellowstone questions.

If you get five of them right, you will win the prize, okay? Okay. And where do you live? Where are you at right now? I live outside Dallas, Texas. In, like, one of the suburbs? Yeah, like 30 minutes east of Dallas. Does that mean you're a Cowboys fan or a Rancher, one of the two?

My husband would be really mad if I did say that I wasn't a Cowboys fan. My dad's from Buffalo, so I'm actually a Big Buffalo's Bill fan as well. No, that's fair. I like the Cowboys there, too. Yeah, no, if you're a Dad's a Buffalo fan, you have to be a Buffalo fan. Okay, and the Cowboys, they're terrible. so you're all good. All right, here we go.

Question number one. Oh, we just talked about this. So which character found out they were adopted in season three? Jamie. Correct. Boom, one. Number two. Who plays Travis in Yellowstone?

Taylor Sheridan. Great job. That was elite. Good job by you because I don't know. I never remember anybody's names from shows unless they're just beating in my head a thousand times. So I think I'd have been like, Travis. Okay, heck of a horse rider is old Travis. Okay, next up. Where did Beth and Rip get married? Out on their property? I'll accept it. The ranch is correct. Which Yellowstone actress won a daytime Emmy Award

for their role in a soap opera, the one called As the World Turns. Oh my gosh. I'll ask it again, which Yellowstone actress won a daytime Emmy Award, not for Yellowstone, but for their work in the soap opera as the world turns. Is it the senator? Well, you're asking me a question. I needed an answer. Do I have to say their actual name? You know, if you just guess who it is and you say, that's my answer, I'll give it to you.

Senator, I'm just, that's the best I got? That is incorrect. You're still good, though. That's Jen Landon, who plays. played teeter. Oh, I did not know that. Okay. Next up, who was Ripp's

best man at his wedding? Oh, my gosh. The old guy. The old guy that he worked with for so long. And of course, I'm blanking on his name, and I remember Travis's name. Oh, my gosh, the old man. I'm going to give you five seconds to think of the old.

The old man has a name. Oh, my gosh. You're going to kick yourself. Time. I know I am. Yeah, you're going to kick yourself. The answer is Lloyd. Lloyd.

Oh, my boss. I know. Okay. What are you doing right now? Your work or what? I'm at home. I'm a home health sales rep, so I'm currently at home. So you're probably like watching your computer, making sure it's all safe.

No home health is like on fire. So you forgot Lloyd's name, you know? There you go. Exactly. Exactly. You got to get these two right. Here we go. What doesn't fail?

family member becomes an attorney. Jamie? Correct. One final question. It all comes down to this. What actor also serves as an executive producer for the show? Taylor Sheridan. You know what?

I'm going to have to let that count because more than one. Because Taylor Sheridan. Okay. What primary actor serves as executive producer as well? Was it Kevin Cost? It is. Yeah, you got both of them. Because I can't, obviously it's Taylor Sheridan.

He's the creator of the show. But yes, you got it twice. So you are a winner, Brittany. Thank you very much. Yay. Oh, my gosh. So what does a home health rep do? Like, what are you selling?

How do you sell health? So I'm mostly in selling to social workers and case managers at hospitals and people that are discharging going home from the hospital who are going to need nursing services or physical therapy. We just sell our home health services to those people and help get them set up so they're transition from the hospital is a lot smoother. That's cool. How about this question?

Which Taylor Sheridan's show other than Yellowstone is like your other favorite? Landman. Yeah, that's good. I love a landman. That's good. I have so many good ones right now. It's hard to choose, though. I know.

I really loved Lioness, like A plus. I feel like it's his world now. We're all just living in it. Well, we're going to send you this. And thank you so much for playing the game. and thanks for listening, and we're going to put you on hold to make sure we have your information, okay?

Awesome. Thank you so much. All right, good to talk to you. It's Bobby. How's your day going? Hey, Bobby. It's going great. How are you?

Pretty good. Where do you live? I'm in just north of Pittsburgh, PA. Now, this is the official Yellowstone podcast. Do you, and have you ever watched Yellowstone? Yes, I watched it all. Perfect. Me too.

So, well, let me ask you a couple questions about it, then that aren't part of the game we're going to play. So who is your favorite character not named John Dutton? Oh. I'd have to go with Beth. See, the interesting thing about Beth is, at times she's like the anti-hero because, oh yeah. Like you don't like her, but you love her type thing.

What about Beth resonated the most with you? She doesn't take from anyone. That's true. And I love that about her. Do you feel like that's the kind of person you are or that's the kind of person you would like to be? You know, sometimes that's me, but definitely would have. like to be that person more often. Yeah, she had a legit car too. Like she was like gritty but also really rich. So like the really rich stuff looked gritty. And I didn't feel like she was too cool for

school or like too rich. Like he's still related to her. But you're also like, man, that's a cool car. So I mean, I would rip is definitely a close second. I just need to say that. Do you think that's because they ended up together and so made you like him more? Or do you think just even alone that character to you was awesome. Just alone. I would say he started out as my favorite and Beth kind of merged in there and won me over and Rip still stayed there as a close first, but he... What about all three of the kids? So John's the dad. You got... Yeah. So which Casey, Beth, which are the kids, I don't want to lead you anywhere? Which are the kids did you like the least? Oh, Jamie. Now, did you have a love hate or did you just have a love hate or did you just

hate at the end? Hate. I mean, just hate. See, I think where I struggled... Nothing to love about him at the end. Okay. I say, I think where I struggled was, I feel like Jamie wasn't... And a small spoiler, if you haven't watched Yellowstone, which I assume if you're listening to this, you do.

Since he wasn't, you know, a biological, full biological child like the other two, right? Mm-hmm. I feel like he was always like fighting to be more, which made him make decisions that at times would look to us, like not the right decision to make. But I think it was always coming from a place of inadequacy or insecurity. So I kind of gave him a pass. But those final seasons, some bad stuff happened. But even like when Jamie's real dad came back, like I kind of felt bad for him because his real dad was still a loser. Yeah.

I agree. I agree completely. He, you know, but he just, to me, he was, he took it too far at the end and that just, then that turned me to, you know, dislike. Completely understand. We had Gil on, Gil Birmingham, who played Chief Rainwater in a previous episode, what was so interesting to me about Gil was, there were times where I loved him, there were times where I felt like he was the enemy.

There were times where it was like, he's good to have you on the team. Like, even Jamie kind of the same way, like there are multiple levels to some of these characters. and I think that's what makes the show so good. Did you have that relationship with Chief Rainwater too, where at times you're like, I don't like this guy at all, but then you're like, man, I'm kind of glad he's back on the team? All the time. And, I mean, the ending, of course, then, I mean, a spoiler alert.

I would assume you'd seen it. But, I mean, the ending was just so perfect. It just made you love him even more. Yeah. Like, his intentions were always pure, even if you didn't like him. And I think that's what the show ended up showing about Chief Rainwater, too. Like, his intentions were always there, even if you disagreed with him.

Or even if you only got like one version of them. Because right, we were seeing the perspective of not him. He was a side character that was like kind of the bad guy for a while. Mm-hmm. Yeah. It was so cool too to hear his story because he talked about how he was a bodybuilder and like he was working on a gym and, you know, that's how he got discovered basically because he was like an engineer but was also lifting weights. And next thing you know, he's chief rainwater.

So, okay, look, here's the thing, Jennifer. I want to give you a chance to want a prize here. So it's a couple different things. So first of all, I wanted to give something Yellowstone tangible away. So even if you don't use it, it's a pretty cool thing here. So 11.4 million viewers watch Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2, which was, you know, they split the last season into two.

And we're going to do the whole thing. It's a three-disc set. It's, you know, part of the season 5. It's 10 featureettes, DVD Blu-ray, it's moments from Yellowstone past and present. A lot of special features. So we're going to do this. And if you win this game, you'll win that.

And I'll also send you a signed book of mine because you seem like a really nice person. And I got a bunch of books here and I just want to sign one and mail one to you. Okay. But you have to get five out of seven right. Okay. I have to win. Yeah. And I think you're going to win because some of these are so down the middle.

For example, who plays John Dutton on Yellowstone? This is number one here. Kevin Costner. Correct. See? You're already in. Costner or Kozner? Listen, it is not Koznor, and you know that.

And Eddie does not know that because, like, Kevin Kozner, not his name. Yes, that's funny. Good job, good job. Okay, we got one right. Number two, a little tougher. What year did Yellowstone premiere on Paramount Network? I think I know this. 2018.

Is that your answer, or are you just thinking out loud? I am going to say 2018. That is correct. Good job. All right, you got two down. Only three more, and you're the winner here. How about this? Oh, I didn't know this was a question. We just talked about this.

Who plays the role of Chief Rainwater? Can you tell me his name? Oh, hold on. I know it because I also just listened to that episode. His name is Gil, Gil Birmingham. Correct. Nice job. All right, you're killing it here.

What character does Luke Grimes portray? He is Casey Dutton. That is correct. Oh, you're going to crush the rest of these. What is the name of John Dutton's only daughter? Beth Dutton. That is Beth. That's correct. What is the Dutton family's primary business on their ranch? Like, what do they do?

Their primary business on the ranch. Primary business on the ranch. I mean, horses, cattle, farming. What is your official answer going to be here? I don't know. I'm just going to say ranching. You know what you've already won anyway, so I'll except cattle ranching.

All right, yay. And then finally, season one, John Dutton was diagnosed with what? Oh, Bowen Cancer. That's correct. She went seven for seven. That is awesome. Jennifer, you just won the prize pack.

I'm going to send you a sign book as well. I appreciate you. spending some time hanging out and talking Yellowstone with me. Are you going to watch the Beth and Rip version of it when it comes out? Oh, absolutely. I'm going to watch it all because, I mean, even with 1883, 1923, I'm a Taylor Sheraton lover. I mean, we love it. That's awesome.

Did you watch Lioness by any chance? Oh, yeah. I mean, my husband and I, we are so into it. It's so good. Landman, we finished them all, too. And I love it that, because Landman's got one season. finished. But I love when I get into a show and there are multiple seasons already there. Like I like being late to the party. Yeah. Like Lioness, we started watching and they just finished

season two. So we got to go hard into Lioness. It's such a good show. And like season one's really good. Season two is even crazy better if that's believable. Yep. And you just don't want it to end. And that's, you just don't want them to end. I appreciate your time. Congratulations. And hopefully I will talk to you again soon. Yeah. Thanks for hanging out. We're going to put you on hold. And so we'll your information and send you all this stuff. Okay, Jennifer? All right. Thanks so much. All right. Don't hang up. Don't hang up. All right.

And for my final trick or my final segment. And by the way, thank you to all who have listened to all eight episodes at this podcast. I purposefully saved this segment for last because we could have done who's been the good guy. Who's been the hero? I think at some point most people have been heroic. But let's talk about who the villain was. The whole time you're watching Yellowstone, it's changed. At one point, I thought, Chief Rainwater, not a good dude.

By the end of it, but I'm like, Chief Rainwater, that's my kind of dude. And we saw the characters develop. But I'd like to go through a little deep dive and come to the conclusion of who the real villain is and was on Yellowstone. And I will present a pro and a conund for each one, and at the end, I will pick who I think is a villain. And you will agree with me probably not, but that's okay. Option one, which is the option most people go with first, is Jamie Dutton. That's the obvious one, right? His resume's tough. He betrays the family. He works

with market equities. He kills his biological father. Not going to get a big plaque that says son of the year, for sure. But here's the twist. What if he's just a broken dude who's so broken that he's making decisions based on the reality that his family never really accepted him. And he's not making decisions at times for malicious reasons. It's for survival or out of desperation. If you were in Jamie's situation, you probably would have made some mistakes too and compounded those mistakes. Option one of who the real villain is what Jamie Dutton. Option two, market equities.

The corporate monster. So it's basically a Wall Street land vacuum. They want to build airports. They want to build resorts. They want to do shopping centers. They're all about profit. They're not really for the people at all. Easy to hate. But what they're doing is not illegal.

If you're listening to this, are you a capitalist? Probably. Have you invested any money at all at anything? Maybe. I don't know. Is some capitalism ugly? Oh yeah. Is it illegal? Again, no. But again, it is the land we're talking about. But it happens all the time every day. So option number two is market equities. How about this? John Dutton. What if John Dutton is actually the villain? Think about it. He lies. He threatens. He kills. He manipulates politicians. And he's holding onto a giant piece of land, not for the greater good, not for the sacred bird egg of the eastern shore. Tell a tut. I'm just making up a bird there. But he's holding on to the land for his name. He's not protecting Montana. when he's the governor, he goes in to be governor,

not to protect Montana, but to protect his version of Montana. John Dutton, hero? Or is he basically a cowboy version of a mob boss? Option four, Beth Dutton. Betts got a lot of fans, but if anyone else did the thing she did, If anybody that we knew did the things that she did, we would not want to be around them.

Completely unhinged. She is vindictive. She is violent. She is manipulative. But, and I got to hit you with both sides, she's loyal. So it's the old scale there. What's more important? Like, are you allowed to be this awful, this vindictive, this violent?

If it's for loyalty, but you're being loyal to who? Your dad, the ranch, but your dad wants to save the ranch just for the family name, not actually for anything greater as in the state of Montana, but she does protect the ranch. With everything she has, I love a loyal person. Is Beth the villain or the ranch's necessary monster? Option five. Thomas Rainwater. Now I talked about him early on because they make him

unlikable at the very beginning and I got to say this, I don't like that I didn't like him. I don't like me for that because here's somebody who did care about I won't say the state of Montana but the land.

He did care about the land. A lot of people do think that Rainwater is the real villain. He talks a big game about honoring the land and his people. He does. He talks the game. But he's also building casino knows and making backroom deals.

But if you zoom out, he is just trying to reclaim the land that was stolen. I'll say it again. He's just trying to reclaim the land that was stolen. That's not evil. That's history.

So is Rainwater the villain? Or is he actually the only one playing the long game for justice? Option six. of seven by the way oh the old system the old invisible enemy maybe the villain is not a person at all maybe it's the whole system that we have created the politics the land ownership laws the corporate power the endless cycle and cycles of violence that have been happening for hundreds of years and we continue to allow them to happen.

Every character on the show is reacting to the same thing. Power. And they're also figuring out how to get more of it. Power. The only difference is the method. That's option six. Option seven. Legacy. Legacy itself. The root of it all, right? We mentioned it earlier when is John Dutton the villain because he's not really doing it for anything other than himself and his legacy, his family's legacy. And I'm going to tell you I'm not much of a legacy guy,

just in general. Maybe because I don't come from much of a legacy. Don't really have one. Don't know my parents. Don't, well, the legacy that they probably... If it's legacy, over my side, probably ain't that good, okay? I'll say that. So I've never been a big legacy guy.

especially for me, it's like, what kind of legacy am I going to leave? Why do I care? I'm not going to be here. But is the villain, the legacy? Now here's a weird thought. What if the whole evil monster, the evil villain, the bad guy, the hand burglar,

what if all of it for the whole show is everyone's obsession with legacy? The need to hold on to it. The need to pass something down, no matter what it costs. Friendships, relationships, lives, money, no matter what it costs. It's that idea that the land belongs to you

just because your great-grandpa bought it. I mean, right? I don't know. I mean, that's what fuels most of the conflict in Yellowstone, everybody fighting over a piece of land because they think it defines who they are. I mean, think about that again. The idea that the land belongs to you

because your great-grandpa bought it, and it wasn't even really his Dubai to begin with, the legacy. Those are my seven options on who the bad guy is. And after all that, and listen, I ranked him and re-ranked them, Jamie, John, the system. They're all villains in their own way.

Heck, they're all heroes in their own way too. And that's part of the beauty of the show. And I think if the show is shot from a different perspective, you feel a whole different way about it. Imagine if the camera was following Chief Rainwater the whole time for all seasons. He's going to be the hero. Same thing. John Dutton, going to be the hero.

You could make Jamie the hero if you shoot up from their perspective, their feelings, their inner thoughts. The brilliance of Yellowstone is that it doesn't give you clear heroes. It doesn't give you clear villains. At times, you get a clear-ish hero. But then all of a sudden they're a clear-ish villain. I thought Beth was way too hard on Jamie. Way too hard on Jamie. And I get out why people hate Jamie. And listen, Jamie did some bad, bad, bad stuff.

But I think if you were to have presented Jamie's whole story from being an infant, toddler, teenager, what happened to him, I think you would feel completely different about who he is and what he did. And that's just one example. But that is the greatness of Yellowstone. Nuance. It gives you messy, people fighting for messy reasons, but it gave us a really great show. I'm sad to see it's over.

I love that there are other versions that we can now watch. Big shout out Taylor Sheridan. Great job. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you to all the guests who came on the show and talked with us about their roles on the show. Thank you to the show for existing. I guess the other list I could give you real quick that never actually made one of the episodes. I did our best five storylines. You want to, I'd give it to you. Do it? All right.

I now present to you the best five storylines in Yellowstone. Number one, the Beth and Riplove story. We wanted them to, we didn't think they would, they might, their childhood backstory, the adult devotion, there's layers to it. Let's go. The part where Rip is building bed the house with his hands. And it's, number one, I'm going the wrong way. I should have gone five to one.

That's how you know, I wasn't planning to do this ad. This is extra material. Number two, Casey's transformation. He starts out as kind of an outsider. Mary Demonica, disconnected. He slowly is like somebody you love and is loved. I love that about Casey. Number three, Jamie's betray.

and break down, adopted into the dutton's, but never truly accepted, wants to be a loyal son, goes from being a loyal son to having to to being a power player and flat out murderer. He breaks at one point when he kills his dad, spoiler. Number four, the fight against market equities, which is the old David versus Goliath, Montana's beauty and heritage are at stake. It's very real world. It's very real world. I mean, the moment there is when Beth kind of kills the deal from inside by getting herself hired and sabotages it.

That's pretty killer. That's pretty legit. And the fine, I should have started at five. I don't know why I went. So stupid. I'm not even going to edit this. Number five, John Dutton's power games and political rise. We see a cattle rancher become a governor, not for ambition, but for survival.

It shows how far he'll go to protect his land. It also shows how broken the system really is, too, if we're being honest. It frames him as not just a patriarch, which is what we learned of him early, but also a player in a much larger war. I liked it during his inauguration, and it had a little problem with him being governor. That was a little stretchy for me.

But okay, I accepted it, but I did have a little problem with it. but in his inauguration speech he says he's going to break everything to save what matters and i felt that but what mattered was him in his land for his sake i was going to do the ultimate villain the ultimate villain man i would love to say john dutton you guys don't just for the sake of like having a movie that you love and then it doesn't end the way you want it to and you're like what the heck i would love to say john dutton right now but i will put john dutton in my top three of villains,

but overall the villain is the system. The villain is the system that's existed for hundreds of years. The villain is the white man stole the land to begin with, and then we fight over the land that we stole. And the villain is extremely ugly, dishonest capitalism. I'm a capitalist myself, as I assume you are listening, but I believe there is a line. So I'm going to go with the system at number one as the ultimate villain.

Now I can go. Thank you all for listening to the Yellowstone podcast. As you can see, I'm very passionate about a lot of these things because it doesn't just represent a TV show. It represents a lot of America. And also, people started wearing cowboy hats. It never wore one before. And a little bit, I was like, hey, you're too much of a poser.

Stop doing that. But a lot of my friends got to have music on this show before they were famous and it actually helped make them famous, i.e. Elaney Wilson. Thank you so much. All right. Goodbye, everybody. The Yellowstone official podcast hosted by me, Bobby Bones, and brought to you by IHeartMedia Podcasts and MTV Entertainment Studios.

Big shout out to executive producers, Jason Reed, Lindsay Hoffman, Carl Cato and Kevin O'Connell, also our senior manager of podcast marketing, Ali Kanner Graber, for keeping the word out. And of course, a big thanks to Will Pearson, president of IHeartMedia podcast for him supporting this show. We've also got special thanks going out to Whitney Baxter, Xavier Offreye, Barbara Parada,

Emily Curry and Joe Flattery, you guys make this happen. This podcast is produced in association with 101 Studios. Over there, executive producer Scott Stone and director of podcast development and production, Danielle Waxman. We also got to give a big nod to Michelle Newman, David Glasser, and David Hutkin for their support. Thank you guys for tuning in. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.