The Gathering Storm (Season 1, Episode 4)
Premise: While Kayce is investigated over the killing of Carson Clegg, he and Cal climb into a mountain storm to rescue a rancher from a downed helicopter.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 1, Episode 4
- Case
- Downed helicopter in a storm
- Starring
- Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes), Pete “Cal” Calvin (Logan Marshall-Green), Belle Skinner (Arielle Kebbel), Andrea Cruz (Ash Santos), Miles Kittle (Tatanka Means), Harry Gifford (Brett Cullen), Maddie Calvin (Morgan Lindholm)
- Yellowstone ties
- The internal review Gifford orders turns up Tate’s kidnapping by a militia and Kayce’s rescue raid, John Dutton’s resignation as livestock commissioner with Kayce as his deputy, and suspicions about John’s death and Jamie’s disappearance.
- Guest stars
- Chris Mulkey as Tom Weaver, Ellyn Jameson as Dolly Weaver, David Lascher as Andrew Schroeder, Braxton Hale as Rudy Carpenter, Chelsea Gray as Sabrina
- Director
- Christopher Chulack
- Writers
- Dana Greenblatt
Summary
The Case
“The Gathering Storm” sends Cal and Kayce to help the Forest Service find a helicopter carrying rancher Tom Weaver, which went down in the Bridger Range as a storm moved in. Weaver’s daughter, Dolly, is waiting for news. On the climb, an armed hermit demands their supplies; they disarm him and send him off to surrender. At the wreck, a bear rocks the helicopter, and the pilot, Helen, dies. They use a seat to brace Weaver’s broken leg and lower him down the slope, using a horse to take the extra weight. The hermit then steals their shotgun and runs, and they let him go so they can get Weaver down.
Kayce has also been taken off duty. Harry Gifford reports that Randall Clegg has filed a Justice Department complaint claiming Carson dropped his gun before Kayce shot him, and Andrea is put in charge of an internal review. Belle confronts Clegg’s lawyer, Andrew Schroeder, a country-club acquaintance who plans to use Carson’s funeral to work the press. A new search of the scene turns up trail cameras set by a Missoula graduate student, and one shows Carson holding his rifle, so Gifford backs off.
The Team
Someone has left a rifle casing on Kayce’s porch; Cal brings security cameras and suspects the Cleggs, and Kayce has sent Tate to stay with his grandfather. At the bar, Andrea flirts with a bulldogger, Miles runs into Sabrina, an old friend from the reservation, and Cal asks Henry, a customer at Maddie’s bar, about the Cleggs.
Gifford presses Andrea to dig up Dutton skeletons, dangling her hopes of a transfer back to Washington. The review turns up Kayce’s Silver Star, along with rumors that he once led ranch hands on a raid to rescue his kidnapped son. Gifford and Miles visit the wife of Ernie Cano, the man shot in the drive-by, and learn that Monica was close to the Canos. Gifford reports the link to the Office of Professional Responsibility and tells Cal he may fire Kayce, but Cal refuses. Once Kayce is cleared, Andrea warns Gifford never to use her that way again.
Spoiler, the ending: In the hospital, Weaver insists on lending Kayce ranch hands. At the bar, the team realizes the hermit may have been Rudy Carpenter, a serial bomber on the run for three years. Dolly brings a round from her father and asks Kayce to show her Montana, and he says maybe. Cal tells Kayce that the bartender, Maddie, is the daughter he has been absent from for over twenty years.
Why it stands out
- Chris Mulkey and Ellyn Jameson make their first appearances as Tom and Dolly Weaver, who return later in the season.
- Cal tells Kayce that Maddie, the bartender, is his estranged daughter, the reason he took the Montana posting.
Themes
- Andrea’s Transfer
- Cal and Maddie
- Dutton Family Secrets
- East Camp and the Weavers
- The Clegg Feud
- Yellowstone Ties