‘Yellowstone’ Explains Why Kayce Dutton Has the Brand [Dutton Rules]

A great Yellowstone mystery was put to rest on Sunday night (Oct. 8). Until this point in Season 1, we've only learned why criminals get the Yellowstone brand burned into them.

Now we know how family gets it.

Season 1 of Yellowstone aired on Paramount Network five years ago, giving OG fans more than enough time to forget why (or even that) Kayce Dutton has the brand. When you watch the show, you wait for his criminal past to be revealed, but that's not what happens.

It's part of this week's episode of the Dutton Rules podcast. Hosts Adison Haager and Billy Dukes discuss about six minutes in.

Why Does Kayce Dutton Have the Yellowstone Brand?

The Season 1 replay on CBS didn't shy away from the truth about Kayce's brand. It comes when John Dutton (Kevin Costner) and Kayce's wife Monica (Kelsey Asbille) are talking. She has just witnessed a ranch hand named Walker (Ryan Bingham) getting branded and begins to gently poke around.

Knowing her husband and father-in-law are on the outs, she proceeds cautiously, but asks what happened between them. At first he tries to get away from the question, saying, "I'm afraid that's a longer conversation."

She isn't satisfied.

"He disobeyed me on too many times," John Duttons says. "He told me he got some girl he barely knew pregnant and was gonna marry her. I told him to take you to the clinic, and not let you leave until you had an abortion, and he wouldn’t do it."

Another actor might not pull of the mix of emotions that Costner presents through this scene. His attachment to Kayce and Monica's son Tate and remorse when he almost gets the kid killed become relevant, but he's not sheepish when he tells her that his cowboys didn't brand Kayce.

"No, that I did myself," he says with a barely recognizable frankness. That's about all we'll get regarding Kayce's brand, which is too bad because there are a few unanswered questions. Watch or listen to decide if this is a plot hole or just the elimination of useless knowledge.

Listen to Dutton Rules: A Yellowstone + 1923 Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you podcast. It's also now available on YouTube.