Yellowstone Season 4 introduced Carter, who was seemingly set up to become Beth and Rip’s adopted son – and then Season 5 forgot all about him.
In Yellowstone Season 4, Episode 1 “Half the Money,” Beth Dutton met Carter — a 14-year-old boy played by Finn Little — at the hospital. The pair quickly formed a bond. Carter’s neglectful father was dying and Beth offered him comfort. In return, Carter brought out Beth’s sensitive side, which the recently cancelled Paramount Network drama rarely shows.
This special dynamic between Carter and Beth led to several heartwarming scenes. Carter later told the police that Beth was responsible for him, and he was taken to the Dutton ranch. Beth gave in and accepted the responsibility, and Beth’s husband Rip Wheeler gave Carter a job at the ranch.
How Carter Could Have Been Beth and Rip’s Surrogate Son
With Beth being unable to have children and Carter and recently orphaned, Yellowstone seemed to suggest that the young man was a surrogate son for the show’s main couple. Beth even told Rip, “I think he’s our kid,” when she first brought Carter back to the ranch. Carter becoming part of Beth and Rip’s family would bring joy to both their lives — and it would be particularly meaningful to Beth, given the anger she expressed at not being able to have kids.
But despite Beth’s comment to Rip, they have both resisted becoming Carter’s parental figures. In Yellowstone Season 4, Episode 3, “All I See Is You,” Rip told Beth “He’s not our son. No matter who he becomes, he never will be. Nobody will.” And when Carter tested out calling Beth “Mama” in Season 4, Episode 10, “Grass on the Streets and Weeds on the Rooftops,” she heatedly responded, “I’m nobody’s mother, ever.” Beth’s emotional baggage is unsurprising considering parental strife is a common theme on Yellowstone, yet it begs the question of why the show introduced Carter into her life if he wasn’t intended to become part of her story.
Yellowstone Erasing Carter Is Counterintuitive
Yellowstone‘s still to be finished Season 5 has not only abandoned Carter’s potential bond with Beth and Rip — it has abandoned Carter entirely. He has been relegated to a background character, and hasn’t been given a single scene of emotional substance yet, let alone one with Beth or Rip. Yellowstone threw a random love interest at Carter in Season 5, Episode 6 “Cigarettes, Whiskey, a Meadow and You,” but even that has only been for a couple uneventful scenes. The series doesn’t seem to have any idea what to do with him.
Considering that Yellowstone‘s biggest theme is family, it is extremely counterintuitive for the show to go so far backward with his character. While Carter may not be an official member of the Dutton family, he was on his way to becoming one. In addition to his dynamic with Beth, he’d formed a bond with John Dutton, too. And even if the series chooses to disregard the whole extended family idea that it set up in Season 4, it’s ignoring that he could be an asset to the Duttons.
John Dutton has previously expressed concern over his grandson Tate’s ability to run the ranch in the future. Carter becoming a larger part of the ranch — whether or not he’s formally or informally adopted by Beth and Rip — would give Yellowstone a character who could help Tate and solve that problem. However, now that audiences know the series is ending with Season 5, time is running out to give Carter the development that he’s been lacking after such a promising start.