Dutton Ranch Episode 3: Beulah gets shock as secret comes to light; Rip faces fresh trouble

In Yellowstone spinoff Dutton Ranch Episode 3, titled Act of God Business, Beth and Rip's ranch face a fresh set of challenges.

Fans of the Yellowstone universe have gotten their first look at Dutton Ranch Episode 3. The third episode is titled Act of God Business and released on Paramount+ and Paramount Network.

Beth Dutton heads to Dallas in Episode 3 of Dutton Ranch as Rip takes care of the ranch. (X/@cinemaclt)

Beth and Rip's ranch face a fresh set of challenges as a possible secret link between the McKinney family and Beulah Jackson begins to take form.

Dutton Ranch Episode 3: Rip's new trouble

In Dutton Ranch Episode 3, a woman named Anna Dupree heads into the ranch with a gun. Her target is new hand Zachariah Moss. Rip successfully defuses the situation. Zachariah then confesses to Rip that years ago, while drunk, he had struck and killed his girlfriend—Anna's daughter—with his truck by accident. He appears to show remorse and Rip tells him at one point “Your prayers better not be for show, or I’ll shoot you myself.”

With Beth Dutton in Dallas for business, the ranch is in Rip Wheeler's charge. There, she meets Joaquin Reyes, and their chilly interaction hints at a potential rivalry beginning to take shape.

Meanwhile, Oreana and Carter take a major step forward in their relationship. The two decide to give school a miss, and they skip classes in order to catch Oreana's cheating boyfriend. The duo end up smashing up his truck, and just barely evade a warning from the sheriff. Carter and Oreana later consummate their relationship.

Dutton Ranch Episode 3: The Beulah mystery

Episode 3 makes it clear that Beulah will go to any lengths to protect her own. She seemed bent on keeping her son's crime under wraps. Beulah’s son, Rob Will, murdered their ranch foreman, Wes, in a drug-fueled panic after he began to look closely at the ranch's financial record-keeping.

Beulah aims to silence anyone who knows about this crime, targeting ranch hand, Austin and Wes’s widow, Whitney. This indicates there could be trouble for Rip too, who decided to bury the body at the start of the season.

She also got a phone call from a mysterious figure named “Mariano” who gave a vague warning and mentioned he was moving a lot of "cattle" during the month. At the end of the episode the voice was shown to belong to Mariano Reyes (played by Raoul Max Trujillo), biological father of Joaquin Reyes – who Beulah adopted and raised.

It also becomes clear that Mariano is likely into illicit activities.