What The Wolves On Yellowstone Really Mean

The Paramount Network's hit drama Yellowstone tells the story of Montana land owner John Dutton and his family ranch. "Family" is perhaps a bit of a misnomer in this instance, since Dutton and his personal land trust control more than half a million acres of western wilderness in the area surrounding Bozeman. From the very first moments of the series, the Duttons are beset on all sides. In order to preserve his legacy, John has to fend off greedy, carpetbagging luxury developers attempting to build a subdivision abutting his land, a vengeful chairman on the local reservation hell-bent on restoring his tribal lands, and turncoat politicians who smell blood in the water and may be looking to put John out to pasture. It all adds up to a pretty dramatic brew.

The Yellowstone Ranch is populated by a heady mix of day laborers, branded men and John's own spoiled children, who are as much a threat to the legacy they stand to inherit as any billionaire developer. It's also populated by quite a bit of wildlife, and on a show like Yellowstone, the natural world is always one of the most important characters.

Since Season 1, the wolves in particular have carried substantial thematic weight. They first arrived on the scene to provide the main attraction for Beth and Rip's morbid date night. After rebuffing Rip's invitation to attend a music festival, Beth agrees to a slightly less popular type of activity.

The romantic evening's all going as planned, until Beth jumps out of the car to run screaming at the wolves. Rip grabs his gun and barrels after her, but she manages to make enough of a scene to scare all the wolves away. But we think this was much more than just a weird scene to demonstrate Beth's reckless depravity.

Our take is that the wolves represent all the external predators circling the Yellowstone Ranch, just waiting to tear apart the carcass of John Dutton's considerable estate. If this symbolism was ever in doubt, it's essentially confirmed in an episode later in the season wherein we cut to a scene of opportunistic wolves pulling apart a bear carcass on the outskirts of John's land. The pack picks the bear clean to the bone, a clear message about what's poised to happen to John's ranch when he dies. Beth, a ruthless vulture capitalist at her day job with a Salt Lake City private equity firm, has been summoned back to the ranch to apply her vicious skill-set against John's enemies. Her fearless charge at the wolves suggests that she certainly has the guts to pull it off, but is her particular brand of scorched-earth corporate warfare really the right solution for the Yellowstone? Keep watching the video to see what the wolves on Yellowstone really mean.

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