What with all the backstabbing, secrets and assassination attempts, it might just be the understatement of the millennium to say that the Duttons are — cough — complicated. And now that the family’s tree has put down roots on not only Yellowstone but two spinoffs (with more on the way), the clan’s lineage is getting to be more complex than its members’ motivations.
Heck, sometimes even when we’ve thought we’ve known how someone fits in, we’ve been proven wrong. Did anybody predict the Paramount Network hit’s Season 3 reveal that Jamie Dutton was adopted? Us, either.
Don’t get your chaps in a knot, though, because your friends at TVLine are about to simplify matters by taking you character by character through a Who’s Who of the Duttons. We’ll tell you where the family members that we’ve met on Yellowstone and its prequels, 1883 and 1923 came from, how they’re related and, while we’re at it, offer up a hint as to what makes them tick — and, in some cases, ticked.
And yes, along the way, we’ll also distinguish between the shows’ many Johns. (There are so many!)
So saddle up and get comfortable. You’ve got a long ride ahead, one that’s going to take us back 140 years, stopping off to pay our respects to poor, ill-fated Elsa Dutton, to tip our cowboy hats to Jacob Dutton and risk being turned into the ruins of a trailer park by walking tornado Beth Dutton. All you have to do to embark on the journey is keep scrolling.