As Monica Dutton in Kelsey Asbille’s epic modern Western “Yellowstone,” she has experienced a lot. In addition to several close calls with death, Monica has overcome a number of injuries, served as an advocate for the Black Rock reservation’s residents, and held down a job as a professor while (temporarily) raising a child alone. Additionally, viewers have seen her heroine risk her own life and body to catch a serial rapist and protect other women. But lately, viewers haven’t seen Monica do much other than sometimes react to certain traumas.
Because of this, some fans believe that Monica’s tales have been “limited to some horrible 80s paperback romance novel,” as one Redditor put it.
In particular, Season 4 seems to have forgotten about Monica Dutton. “Some of the important characters have been ignored… Monica, especially,” noted Redditor u/TormundGingerBeard.
Fans almost got a return to Monica and Kayce’s (Luke Grimes) previously captivating narrative and dynamic in Episode 6, “I Want to Be Him.” Unfortunately, nothing came of it. Instead, Monica’s only conflict stemmed from a vile and uncommon jealousy episode that, given who she once was for the series, went a little too far in the character’s decline.
Episode 6 took another chunk out of Monica’s already-diminished character
Monica and their son Tate (Brecken Merrill) go with Kayce (Luke Grimes) when he is asked to help in the recovery of several stolen horses. The horses belonged to Avery (Tanaya Beatty), a former Yellowstone horse wrangler who Kayce hardly ever interacted with but who Season 4 attempted to portray as a potential danger to her and Monica’s relationship. Less than thirty seconds of Kayce and Avery’s interaction causes Monica to exhibit unusually jealous behaviour. She remarks that Avery is “quite nice looking” for a wrangler, says that she’s Kayce’s “type,” and then calls her Kayce’s “little b**** in the tank top.” She then asks, “Who the heck was that?” before saying that Avery is Kayce’s “type.”
In the past, Monica’s capacity to exhibit a quiet strength, resiliency, and reason served to position her as a type of contrast to Beth’s (Kelly Reilly) more volatile and violent displays of power, and this contributed to her being a compelling and multifaceted character. However, Monica’s catty, jealous plotline not only seems to contradict the character viewers have grown to love over the course of the show’s first few seasons, but it also doesn’t exist to give her character any more depth—rather, it serves to highlight what a “very, very good boy” Kayce is. Later on, Kayce is able to politely refuse Avery’s advances when she throws herself at him (quite randomly considering her character’s past). All of this is great for Kayce, but many fans thought Monica’s character suffered greatly from the weak plotline.
Many fans feels Monica deserves more from the writers
On the subreddit for the show, a fan remarked, “I don’t understand the jealousy angle with Monica,” feeling that it “[seemed] superfluous.” Many others quickly agreed, and one fan discussed the reasons why Monica’s character has become less and less well-rounded. TheVue221 wrote, “I blame the writers.” “I’ve come to think that the female characters in this programme could need some writing assistance. Beth, who started out as a fantastic character, is beginning to appear cartoonish. The other female characters are so one-dimensional.”
Fans expressed their dissatisfaction with Monica this season in a whole other Reddit thread with equal fervour. In reference to the location where the Duttons send people to “disappear” them, one Redditor remarked, “Whoever wrote Monica like this ought to be sent to the train station.” They continued by labelling Monica’s claim of envy as “so dumb and irrational.”
The envy bit was written so terribly, user u/QuakerOats9000 agreed. They added that they “laughed at how absurd that was” since it “felt like they paid some 9th grade theatre students” to script this particular dispute. Although it is a severe insult, it may not be unjustified. As user u/urbannoangeldecay pointed out, concurring with others, “This show’s female characters are so poorly written. We enjoy watching strong, clever, and independent women on television.” Something more in line with, instance, Monica’s earlier season character, who possessed power and intelligence we haven’t yet seen from her in Season 4.
