off its back like dirty water.

- I wish I could tell you how to fight them.

- If anyone knew how to fight them,

there'd be no such thing as reservations.

(low boom)

Our antagonists this season are very malicious.

These forces have unlimited resources.

- And they're gonna come out swinging.

- Yeah, well, that's just life in the Serengeti, I guess.

- Legislatively, financially, and their outreach

is unlimited as well.

They got the powers.

- There are just forces coming for us

that have legal backups, and political backups.

You can't ignore it, and you can't just

kinda close the gate.

- I can see why this is the dream they wanna sell.

- Yeah, but you can't sell this.

You gotta earn it.

You gotta live it, and that's what they'll never understand.

- In real life, there are some issues

that have evolved.

We've had our lands taken from us,

and leased out to non-native people.

That's an issue that's still occurring today.

- It forces possible alliances, especially for Rainwater.

- There is no protection from me, Tom.

- Angela Blue Thunder is a force of nature.

- Born of the water and the sage was a great introduction.

- You know what they say about making deals with the devil.

- Mo is not too sure how to take this new ball of energy

that is now filling the room.

- She comes from the res, she's definitely had

not a very easy life.

Sometimes you're dealt cards in life,

and you're not in charge of the cards you've been dealt.

But what you can do is learn to become a better card player.

- She's quite the counterpart to Beth Dutton,

and she's been exposed to the world in such a way

that morality can be a hindrance

if you wanna get things done.

I mean, she makes reference to Rainwater being

somewhat ineffective because that's the thing

that's holding him back.

It's not holding back the other side.

She's just angry and trying to punish the world

for everything it did to her.

- Angela Blue Thunder speaks some really strong truth,

and it's beautiful to see more roles being written

that represent strong indigenous women like this.

- It is definitely very helpful to bring awareness

to again, these issues not just being of the past,

but still occurring today.

- Lot of young people within our communities,

within our native communities, to be able to look up to,

and be like, "Hey, that could be me.

"I can turn things around in my community if I want to."

- It's such a wonderful setup because Mo represents

honor, integrity; Angela represents win at all costs.

And somewhere between there I have to decide

how to balance those two given how things are evolving.

But it will always be a difficult thing with Rainwater

because he has adopted, very much, the value of life,

of all life, and every time somebody ends up dead,

it makes him question whether the cost

of what he wants to accomplish is worth the goal.

The people would never forgive me,

but I'm gonna do it anyway.

(ominous music)

- I read the script.

I didn't know if I was dead or not.

I truly, nobody tells you.

I was calling everybody.

- Every road from the rodeo leads right here.

- It's amazing the gift that John gives to Jimmy,

especially for Jimmy to have this figure

who like shows that he cares in such a sort of finite way

to the tune of like 200 grand.

Like, that's an amount of money that would put Jimmy in debt

for the rest of his life.

- Hospital bill's not a concern.

But you gotta make me a promise.

- But it also, it does come with a caveat, right?

He says, "I saved your life, here's how you have to

"live your life going forward."

In some way, with that money, he is buying Jimmy's loyalty.

- No more rodeo.

- And that's where the conflict arises

between this new life that Jimmy sees for himself with Mia,

and this life that he's signed up to,

like irrevocably, he took the brand.

Ow.

He signed up to live on this ranch

for the rest of his life, and to sort of follow

John Dutton's orders.

With those hospital bills, Jimmy is pushed

that much further into that sort of system

of Western justice, into that black and white

system of justice.

- Learn to rope, Jimmy.

I'm not paying for this shit twice.

- And at that same time, he's sort of seeing

this other world of possibility with Mia.

So I think it's very complicated for him.

- He's an incredible guy.

You're curious about why people decide

to move into something so quickly,

or why certain people follow their hearts so,

sort of like fervently.

- I think that also attests to the strength

of that sort of immediate connection

between Jimmy and Mia, and I think it also

attests to the sort of lure of this other life.

Like Jimmy, for the first time in his life,

being proud of who he is, and being able to clearly see

somebody else, too.

- You still here?

- Through thick and thin.

It is a really cool and special dynamic

between the two of them, because I think they're

so different, but they have kind of perfect same pages.

Their books are different, but they have very similar pages

throughout the book.

- Once he finds this family and this sense of security,

I think that's when he really comes to life,

and his relationship with Mia represents that.

It represents him seeing himself as a person

with inherent value, like all people have,

and he sees Mia, I think,

as a full, entire, complete person.

- It's just a really beautiful thing

that sort of flourishes between them.

You are.

- I didn't think Jimmy was a virgin.

That was some dramaturgy that caught up with me

a little later.

So when I learned that, we had to go and reshoot

a ton of stuff from episodes 301, 302, and 303.

Rodeo is like a real, community-driven sport.

So to have the privilege and the honor

of watching those communities

that I would otherwise never have a chance to see into,

is such a gift on those big rodeo days.

It's a sad thing, but it's a part of this culture,

is that you do it until you can't do it anymore.

Like you do it until your body stops you.

I was talking to Forrie J. Smith about his experience

of when he stopped rodeoing,

like how he made that decision,

how he had to walk away from it to protect his body.

- I miss rodeo.

I miss it every day.

I miss the adrenaline, the getting on,

the life and death.

I miss the traveling.

I miss it all.

And Carla Curry, I got my SAG card on the first show

she was a set decorator on.

- He has actually lived that life.

If you look in his world, right around his bed in there,

you can see a lot of his personal details

that I ended up adding into that set.

- Carla says, "Well, I need pictures."

You've got it; whatever you want.

- These are all Forrie's rodeo pictures.

Those are real Forrie.

- Get 'em up.

- Hey, hey, hey!

- Bring 'em all to the new pen, will you?

We'll be right behind you.

- The bikers, yeah.

They had cut a hole in the fence.

It's too early to get in a fight.

Now they're just having camp as if it was their property,

And so Ryan, Teeter, and myself decide

that we're going to diplomatically ask them to leave.

Teeter has different ideas because she's Teeter.

- Fuck you just say to me?

- Called you a fuckin' bitch!

- Teeter!

- Biker fight scene was enormous.

- Especially when the stunt coordinators are coming in,

and we have all of these different scenes

that need to go on.

- There were three or four different pods

within one larger fight, and they all had to be

done simultaneously, and then different cast members

sort of went from one to another like a giant dance

with different partners, all timed out,

and then Rip and Lloyd show up at the end.

(bikes crashing)

- It's a cool, kinda old-fashioned brawl.

Throwing people around, punching, all that stuff.

Which one of these assholes is the boss of you?

- I always felt a real kinship with Rip.

There's something very animal about Rip,

and something scary about Rip.

Both of those things are things that Teeter has,

and also qualities that make Teeter feel safe.

- Lloyd, you cover my back.

- He's a leader.

- Bikers/cowboys, and they've been doing it

for a long time in this country.

So I don't know how the bikers are gonna react

when they see this.

They'll probably be pissed off,

but we got one on them, for sure. (chuckling)

- That is fun.

- Any actors that they get, whether you're a guest star

or a co-star, they genuinely wanna be there.

Everybody's there, they're like on their A game.

- And it's a beautiful scene, the way Kevin's sitting there

with the .30-30, and we're all sitting there with M4's,

and it's gotta be scary to walk up on that.

- If we try to break our own psyche down,

why do we like shows?

Why would we wait in anticipation for another episode,

is sometimes characters get to say things

in a clutch situation, a dramatic situation,

that we wished we would have said.

- I have children.

- So do I.

From what I've seen, yours'll be be better off without you.

John arbitrates it right there in front of us,

and we like it.

(somber music)