‘Yellowstone’ Season 2 Episode 5: Recap & Review of ‘Touching Your Enemy’

Tonight is the fifth episode of Yellowstone Season 2, placing us exactly halfway through the second season. This is a live recap and review of “Touching Your Enemy.” This article will have spoilers for the episode.

The synopsis for tonight’s episode says: “Jamie tries desperately to walk back a previous mistake; Kayce tracks down evidence; Monica and Martin attend a traditional Indian horse relay.” After the livestock officer showdown last week, I can’t imagine what will happen tonight, but here we go.

The episode begins with a flashback… A young Beth doesn’t want a horse caught that killed her mother. She and a young Rip have a tense conversation. (I was very confused at first, wondering how I missed these young characters until I realized this was a flashback.)

A young Rip beats up a man who kept calling him “little orphan boy.” Then another man tells the older man that if touches Rip again, he’ll hurt him. I’m not sure who this older guy is, but the actor looks familiar to me. Young Rip finds a Young Beth in his room and says, “I’m not playing games with you.” (All these years later and they’re still playing games.)

That’s when Beth tells him that she killed her mother by being scared. “I don’t do scared anymore.”

Then we get an awkward kissing scene between Beth and Rip, and I’m left wondering just why they didn’t end up together as adults. Why are things so complicated between them? I didn’t realize they had this kind of connection that went so far back.

So now we’re back in present day, with Beth and Rip talking. And Rip tells her he knows there is good in her. Not all fans are convinced though:

Oh hey, after the intro we’re back at a happy Dutton family meal! This time it’s breakfast, so talking business is OK. But Beth is getting into lawyer-level technicalities, explaining it’s a “dinner table” so they should be able to discuss whatever they want without John controlling the conversation. And she leaves in a huff.

John orders Jaime around, per usual now that Jaime gave up everything for the family. John coldly tells Jaime that he “lost the right to question me for now.” So yeah…

Beth asks John to talk to her alone. Beth wants to know why Rip is living in the bunk house and cleaning out stalls. “Why isn’t he sleeping … in this house?” Beth wants to now. But John tells her that it’s Rip’s choice and it’s up to her if he’s in the house.

Beth reminds him that Rip sees him as a son. Sadly, John tells her that Rip isn’t his son, Kayce is, and Rip is sacrificing. Dang that’s cold.

I don’t see things going smoothly with Rip the rest of this season. His pain over all of this has got to have some kind of repercussion at some point.

After the commercial break, we see a guy dressed in Native American clothing racing a horse at top speed. Monica and Martin are attending a traditional Indian horse relay and she’s brought her entire class for the event. Martin says they’ll have to participate if they want to really understand what’s happening, but he’s really just inviting Monica. Ok then, Kayce really does have official competition going on here.

Back at the ranch, Jimmy is asking for extra work so he can get extra money. But he’s told he has to win the extra money in a competition. Since he’s salaried, he can’t get extra pay.

Jamie and John are meeting with Cassidy about the livestock officer confrontation, but Jaime’s distracted. “The boy pointed the shotgun at Kayce and then the livestock agent, what does it say in the report?” Cassidy says the sheriff didn’t specify what happened in the report and John is upset.

Jamie, still distracted, leaves to answer the phone call from the reporter Sarah. “Things are different now,” he tells her. But the reporter tells him that she needs to verify his statements before she talks to his dad. Jamie says he’s rescinding his quotes and will not confirm anything. He threatens to sue her if she quotes him in any way. “Fine, I’ll have legal call and walk you through your lock of options,” Sarah tells him.

John has no idea that the biggest issue is Sarah’s story, not Kayce’s case.

Now Dan Jenkins is getting lessons on shooting and fighting. (By the way, this show does a great job of making gunshots sound realistic. A lot of shows don’t do that.)

Next, Kayce and a law enforcement officer pay Dan Jenkins a visit. Jenkins pulls his gun but isn’t able to back up that move when an officer threatens him. So Kayce takes him away to have a talk. (Nice use of power Kayce…)

Jenkins’ bodyguard/trainer shows up looking for his boss and knocks out Kayce’s colleague. Look, I can’t stand Jenkins, but I also don’t like Kayce misusing his law enforcement power like this.

Ohhhh, just a reminder that Jenkins’ bodyguard is a law enforcement officer too, so no one is playing by the rules. (Surprise.) Kayce tells Jenkins that they just want him to stop because they want to keep living their lives. “I thought I made that clear.”

Jenkins says it was clear, but he’s mad that Kayce keeps threatening him. “What do you want?!” Kayce tells him: “You killed our cattle.”

No, Jenkins says, he has no idea how to kill cattle. But he will crush his father. “Thank you for showing me the rules that you play by. I look forward to the challenge,” Jenkins says. I think they pushed him a little too far.

And now I’m going to eat my words. Jenkins has a gun to Kayce’s head, and the law enforcement guy (Kayce’s colleague) shows up and pulls a gun on HIM. So Jenkins loses the upper hand AGAIN and insists to Kayce that he has no idea how to kill cows.

So who did it?

Kayce tells Jenkin’s officer friend to go back to California. “Rules are different around here,” Kayce tells him.

Back at the Dutton ranch, things are a lot calmer than they were at Jenkins’ home. Kayce tells his dad that it was NOT Jenkins who killed the cattle. Kayce is all beat up and he tells John that he’s not fine but things went fine.

John says he doesn’t always recognize Kayce and he wants to know what happened to him…

Kayce shows a fleeting moment of vulnerability in his eyes and sits down. “You want to hear a war story?” John says yes, if it explains how Kayce changed.

Kayce tells him that he was in Pakistan tracking a high-value target. They blew open his door and go into his house, and the man is using his wife and his eight-year-old daughter as shields. He starts shooting and they froze. Kayce said he had to make a decision and fast. He killed the man, his wife, and daughter to save everyone else.

“Soldiers don’t tell war stories anymore Dad because wars these days are just about trying to live through them,” he says.

Next we see the sheriff and he’s received a note with a bullet that reads: “Don’t forget who you work for.”

The next day the Sheriff is saying the shooting was justifiable. “I’d like to express our sincerest apologies to the Montana livestock agent involved as well as the agency as a whole for our failure to respond, aggravating the dangers those agents faced.”

Beth wants to know how Dutton got him to say that, and John just shrugs. “I didn’t.”

Hmmm…. So who did?

In a more lighthearted scene, Martin is talking to Jimmy about the competition and giving him advice on how to compete. (I feel like this whole storyline is kind of an advertisement for The Last Cowboy, a reality show about the sport of reining, which was put together by Taylor Sheridan too.) Even if it kind of is for that reason, I’m enjoying the break in the heaviness.

Jimmy just can’t win, even with his hail mary attempt at changing horses. The family offers not to take his money, but Jimmy isn’t allowed to take them up on that. Rip tells him that the lesson is that there are sharks and minnows and if Jimmy doesn’t know what he is, then he’s not a shark. Awww, that’s too bad. He just wanted to make some money. :(

Some fans aren’t too happy with how Rip handled that.

But others think it was tough love and just what Jimmy needed.

After the commercial break, the unthinkable happens and Jamie comes to Beth for help. When he did this a couple episodes ago it didn’t go so great… Jamie tells Beth that he was backed in a corner when he was kicked out of the house and opened up to a reporter he thought he could trust. “I gave an interview…Not about what, who…”

Beth doesn’t offer advice, just tells him he’s selfish. And Jamie pushes Beth against a wall, trying to force her to help. Beth is NOT going to have that kind of physical abuse and she quickly gets the upper hand. Beth forces him to confess what he did to John. “I can take it from here,” John tells Beth. “Go wait outside.”

Considering that John branded Kayce for being rebellious, I wonder what’s going to happen now with Jamie? Beth thinks Jamie will “Jamie” his way out of it.

John asks Jamie: “What did you do to scare the only person I know who never gets scared?”

Jamie cries, and John tells him again: “What the f*** did you do to me?”

AND we don’t see Jamie tell John or the fallout. The scene ends and the episode is over.

Tonight’s episode had some good doses of humor to break up the drama and angst. The acting was top-notch as we walked the characters struggle with the repercussions of their decisions.

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