We first met Garrett Randall (Will Patton) last season on Yellowstone, when the plot demanded the kind of twist native to the best of cable soap operas, telenovelas, and daytime dramas: a character (Jamie Dutton), once thought familial, turns out to be adopted, thus spurring a season-long search for identity and belonging. Last Sunday, at the end of Yellowstone episode 4, another twist, another (melo)dramatic turn: the real father of said identity crisis son turns out to be someone other than expected—not just an imposter, no—a villain.
After Jamie meets with Kayce, who passes along John’s instruction—pull files on the prisoner Riggins who is responsible for the attack on John, Kayce, Beth, and the ranch—Jamie complies, pulls the file, and learns something insidious about his biological father: Garrett Randall is one of Riggins’ previous cellmates.
The revelation sets up an obvious loyalty battle for Jamie, who hasn’t yet fully divorced himself from the Duttons. Earlier in the episode, he extols Randall for giving him the confidence to acquire his own power—mostly in the form of buying land surrounding the Yellowstone. Later in the episode, however, when Jamie meets with Kayce, he’s visibly chuffed at John’s faith in him; John wants Jamie to interview Riggins, a sign that he trusts him to uncover details about the attack. We also learn that Jamie never visited John in the hospital after the attack, because he was trying to maintain impartiality while burying the militia murders on the ranch. Garrett might have told Jamie to go after the king—John Dutton—but Jamie continues to mostly act out of interest for the Duttons. Garrett may want Jamie to be the Yellowstone King Slayer, but Jamie is still a loyal disciple.
The battle between Garrett and John, the struggle over where Jamie’s filial piety actually lies, will likely be the core character conflict of season 4. (Also, remember that Jamie is himself a father. He impregnated his campaign manager, Christina, who took off. So cycles of fathers leaving sons will probably play a role in the season as well.)
Any way you spin it, we should probably get to know Garett Randall a bit better. He likely just became the show’s biggest villain.
Who is Garrett Randall?
Garrett was arrested in 1980 and convicted for the murder of his wife, Jamie’s mother. Jamie was born “Michael,” son to an addict mother and violent father. One day when Garrett found an infant Jamie sucking on a crack pipe while his mother was with another man, Garrett killed her. He was sentenced to 30 years. (We now know that during this time, he shared a cell with Riggins, who would later go on to organize the attack on the Duttons.)
A three-month-old Jamie was then adopted by John Dutton, for reasons that are not entirely clear. John had adopted Rip when Rip was older, though it took him years to call Rip “son.” Jamie was groomed for Ivy League education and law school. Perhaps John always saw Jamie as the family’s route to employing a loyal attorney. (We love Kayce, but he was never going to law school, let’s be honest.)
When Jamie finally meets Randall decades later, he learns that his biological father harbors resentment for John Dutton. While the storyline had been resolved earlier, Jamie himself had previously broken from the family, attempting to run against John’s pick for Attorney General and even participating in an interview that revealed illegality on the ranch. (Those storylines had already been scuttled, resolved through murder and Jamie getting the AG job anyway.)
Jamie was ripe for Garrett’s manipulation, and he immediately convinces his son to move on John, comparing him often to a king that needs disposing. But Garrett’s talk of king slaying wasn’t just metaphoric; it seems Garrett played some role in the militia’s attack on the family. But if Garrett came at the king, he missed. And now the king (and maybe Jamie back on his side) are planning to hit back.
