James Michael "Jamie" Dutton is a Yellowstone character played by Wes Bentley. The son of big cattle ranch owner John Dutton and his wife Evelyn Dutton, and works as an attorney. Dalton Baker played a younger version of the character in several flashbacks.
Beware of 'spoilers' from here on down!
Background[]
Who is Jamie Dutton in Yellowstone? Well, well, well…look who it is. Everybody’s least favorite Dutton! (Jamie is also the Dutton’s least favorite Dutton, so we don’t even have to feel bad about it.)
Of all the Dutton children running around the ranch in Yellowstone, Jamie Dutton takes the cake when it comes to letting the side down. Played by Yellowstone cast member Wes Bentley, Jamie puts the ‘drama’ in the best drama series around.
Hated by both his sister and father alike, Jamie has switched sides so many times that it may be hard to keep track of just exactly who he is, what he wants, and what mess he’s gotten himself into this time. But fear not, we’ve done the work on this devastating Dutton for you. Here’s Jamie Dutton explained.
Who is Jamie Dutton?[]
Jamie is the troubled second eldest child of the Dutton family, who is secretly adopted.
Honestly, where do we start with Jamie? If we had to describe him in one sentence, it would be this: the man’s a damn mess. Jamie is the odd one out within the Dutton family. A suited and booted attorney, Jamie’s career took him far from the dirt and grime of the ranch that he grew to love.
Jamie is often highly emotional, unable to grasp logic, and later becomes driven by his desire to overtake his father and prove his family’s long-standing commitment to legacy as an outdated mindset. Although Jamie is technically the second eldest child of John Dutton, he is often treated like an outsider, and generally proves to be pretty untrustworthy down the line.
Jamie and the Dutton family[]
Jamie and John initially seem to have a rather easy relationship. Jamie likes to be on the ranch, and his experience in law proves useful at times when it comes to matters of the property.
John was the one that encouraged him to attend law school, more so for the gain of the ranch than out of genuine aspiration for his son. Because of this, Jamie was disconnected from the rest of the family for a while. His closest relationship seemed to be with his older brother, Lee. After Lee dies, Jamie finds himself being bullied by his younger sister, Beth Dutton, who hates him.
Jamie and Beth’s relationship is incredibly volatile. When they were teenagers, Beth asked Jamie to take her to an abortion clinic on the Broken Rock reservation. When the receptionist told Jamie that one of the requirements for abortion was sterilization, Jamie made the decision to go ahead with the procedure, without telling Beth.
Years on, Beth spends every waking moment making Jamie’s life a living hell. (Good for her.) He’s clearly riddled with guilt about having made that decision on her behalf, but believes he did what was best for the family’s reputation at the time. Beth threatens him and belittles him at every turn, and it’s shown that Jamie is scared of her at most times.
Of course, his family troubles with the Duttons become symbolically clear once he finds out that he’s adopted by coming across his adoption papers. Jamie was actually born to a couple named Garrett and Phyllis. When Jamie was three years old, his biological father beat his mother to death. John and Evelyn Dutton then adopted the boy and raised him on the ranch as their own. For all intents and purposes, Jamie was loved and treated like one of their own for most of his life.
When John supersedes him in the race for Governor of Montana, Jamie’s loyalty to the Duttons slowly unravels. Eventually, he locates his birth father (who orchestrated an assassination attempt on all other members of the Dutton family as revenge for taking his son), and begins to work with him against his ex-family.
Jamie’s job explained[]
Aside from being a professional Pain in the Ass, Jamie has held several prominent roles in the Montana State government.
He was eventually asked by Governor Perry to run in the Attorney General election, which he was more than happy to do. It was a concern by those in power that John Dutton would use Jamie’s new position as leverage.
However, Jamie was determined to prove himself as his own man, so the two started to grow apart as Jamie tried to push out of his father’s shadow. As revenge, John and Beth tried to back another candidate, Cassidy Reid. Jamie actively tried to make his father look bad by leaking private family secrets to a reporter in order to fight back, but (weak as he is), he ended up withdrawing from the race due to pressure from John.
As recompense for his betrayal, John allowed Jamie to continue living on the ranch as a hand. Jamie stayed in the bunkhouse, slowly earning back John’s trust as he worked and bunked with the other ranch hands. When John was forced to withdraw as Livestock Commissioner, he nominated Jamie in his place. (Kayce had said no. Jamie was not the first choice, believe us.)
Through various circumstances, Jamie was eventually backed by both Governor Perry and John to become Acting Attorney General, meaning he was back in office. Eventually he would run for Governor of Montana when Perry stepped down, and it would result in a battle between both John and Jamie, ending with John winning the election. Sucks to be Jamie.
Did Jamie Dutton kill someone?[]
Jamie Dutton murdered a reporter, Sarah Nguyen, when he couldn’t convince her not to publish information he had leaked about John Dutton.
Of course he did. Nguyen was hired to work on Jamie’s campaign, all the while hiding herself as an uncover reporter. When she managed to convince Jamie to leak information about corrupt happenings at the Yellowstone ranch, it looked like she had everything she needed to cause some serious damage to the Duttons.
When Jamie got cold feet, he confronted her in the woods and asked her not to publish anything. When she said no, he lost his mind and hit her on the head, killing her. He then asked Rip to help him cover it up, and the two staged it to look like a kayaking accident.
Over time, Jamie would become so riddled with guilt that he contemplated suicide. John would realize his plan and stop him before he could hurt himself, but the dark secret still remains with Jamie wherever he goes. He would later add to this guilt by murdering his biological father after being blackmailed by Beth.
Jamie’s relationships explained[]
If you’re reading all this, you’re probably thinking: who could love such a sniveling mess? Well, apparently, his assistant Christina can. She was initially hired to assist him during his political campaign, and fell in love with him for some reason.
The two began a romantic relationship, but Christina eventually jumped ship when Jamie’s professional life began to crumble, thanks to some interference from the other Duttons. Later on, she would get back in touch with Jamie to drop the bombshell that she was pregnant with his baby. She gave him an ultimatum: leave the Duttons behind and start a family with her, or never see his child.
Jamie chooses the Duttons. Of course, this alliance only lasts until he discovers he’s adopted, at which point he distances himself from them and connects with his biological father. When Christina discovers this, she re-enters his life with his son, Jamie Jr, before apparently leaving it again after the death of Garrett.
Last we saw, Jamie was growing a little too close to Sarah Atwood, who works for Market Equities. (In case you forgot, Market Equities is attempting to buy out the Yellowstone land.) The two sleep together, and Jamie is suspicious that she’s with him based on ulterior motives. Surprisingly, Sarah admits that she wants to oust John as Governor, and wants to work with Jamie to take over the Yellowstone ranch and elect him as Governor instead.
How old is Jamie Dutton?[]
Jamie Dutton’s birthday is May 12, 1979, meaning he would be 44 years old at the time of writing.
He’s older than Beth by five years, and Kayce by eleven.
Biography[]
He and John had a complex relationship. Everyone looks down on Jamie, though he has done literally everything John had asked of him. John didn't seem to hold any love for Jamie and often acted as though he will ruin the ranch.
Before he was Jamie Dutton, his name was Michael Randall. As an infant, he lived in the household of Garrett and Phyllis Randall. His mother was a junkie and his father was working to make ends meet. One day, Garrett walked in on his wife whoring herself off to a stranger while Jamie was crying because he was hungry and was sucking on a crack pipe. Infuriated, Garrett murdered his wife in order to save his child from the life he was living. He spent more than 3 decades in prison for the murder and Jamie was adopted by John and Evelyn Dutton. As a teen, Jamie helped cover up a teenage pregnancy by taking Bethany to a clinic on a Native American reservation that forcibly sterilized women by performing a hysterectomy without their consent, to avoid anyone seeing a Dutton in a clinic in a high populated place like Bozeman, knowing the kind of weight the Dutton Family carried. This created a massive friction as Beth and Jamie were entirely at odds primarily due to Beth losing her ability to produce children. He later went to law school to become a lawyer and got his law degree.
Unlike his siblings, Jamie was not cut out for working on the ranch as his true calling was in politics. He is affiliated with the Montana State Democratic Party though, he ran for State Attorney General initially as an Independent, but became a Democrat after being sworn in, because unlike Governor Perry and John, his values didn't match those of the GOP that already dominated Montana. His political ambitions were always curtailed by John much to his dismay while Beth kept her fangs tightened on him, never letting Jamie forget what he cost her.
Jamie then began a relationship with Christina, a Democratic staffer whom he got pregnant. She left him shortly after seeing how he was still tied to his father. He faced off against rodeo queen Cassidy Reid and withdrew from the campaign as John ordered. He was later made Attorney General after Cassidy stepped down from the position. Upon learning that a magazine journalist, Sarah Nguyen, was writing a story on him with an intention to bring down the Duttons, he killed her and made her death look like a kayaking accident.
Later on, Jaime learned he was adopted and met his birth father, Garrett, learning his actual name was Michael. He finally made a decision to break away from the family and bought a house, which he moved into with his birth father and reconnected with Christena, discovering their tryst led to him having a son.
Jamie then discovered that Garrett orchestrated a coordinated strike on the Duttons with help from the Montana Free Militia. He was considering running for Governor of Montana, but lost the endorsement of former Governor Lynelle Perry when she backed John Dutton. He chose instead to run for re-election as Attorney General knowing he couldn't beat John, especially after he and Rip saved a bunch of people from armed robbers at Ruby's Cafe. When Beth learned that Jamie discovered who was behind the attempts on their lives, she then threatened Jamie with an ultimatum while revealing that she and Rip tied the knot. Jamie caved, knowing Rip would kill him over the abortion issue, in which he shot Garrett dead and delivered his body to the Train Station, unaware that Beth was following him and photographed him with Garretts body as leverage against him.
Though he was re-elected for a full term, Market Equities saw him as someone who was at odds with the newly elected Governor John Dutton. With Bethany's leverage hanging over his head, he was forced to sell his home, but kept tabs on his son, which further infuriated Beth. After pushing for impeachment against John, Beth then threatened to make the images of him with the dead Garrett public if he didn't resign from the Attorney Generals office. Jamie soon revealed that Garretts body wasn't the only corpse in that canyon, revealing it as the Train Station, which had been used as a dumping ground by the Duttons since the Ranch was built, making it clear that Beth couldn't expose him without bringing down her entire family. He was then approached by Sarah Atwood on a possibility to completely get rid of his issues without drawing too much attention. Jamie was seduced and entertained the idea and only half jokingly gave his blessing then acted like he was in complete shock that John was killed in a manner that looked like suicide.
Personal life[]
Family[]
Click here for the main page of the Dutton family.
Click here for the main page of the Randall family.
Jamie was born in Bozeman, MT, as James Michael Randall to Garrett and Phyllis Randall. His father beat his mother to death when Jamie was three months old. Jamie was then adopted by Evelyn Dutton and her husband John, and he came to live with a ranching family. [1] Before John Dutton inherited the ranch, his ancestors, James and Margaret Dutton, had already settled in the Yellowstone vicinity. Jamie's birth name, however, was given him before adoption, so he is not named after his Dutton forefather.
John and Evelyn Dutton were blessed with four children: Jamie has two brothers (Lee and Kayce) and a sister (Beth). They grew up together on the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch. Kayce extended the family, marrying Monica Long and having a son named Tate, Jamie’s nephew. [2] Another one of their sons, John, was named after Jamie's adoptive father John, but he died shortly after his birth. [3]
His adoptive mother died when he was younger. On March 30, 1997 she was out riding with Beth and Kayce and fell off her horse. Help came too late. [4]
In July that year John Dutton met Rip Wheeler, an orphan boy that just killed his father after he murdered Rip's mother and brother. Dutton welcomed the new boy onto his family's ranch, giving the orphan a home again. [5]
His oldest brother Lee died when he was protecting the family ranch in a feud with the Broken Rock Indian Reservation. Lee’s brother Kayce came too late to help him as he died of fatal gunshot wound by Robert Long. [2]
Some time in the past, Beth asked Jamie for help when she had become pregnant and wanted to get an abortion. He took her to the Indian Health Services' free clinic on the Broken Rock Indian Reservation to keep the surgery as secret as possible. He kept the fact that they would not be able to do it without sterilization from his sister. [6] When she found out, their relationship would never be the same.
Love life[]
When Jamie came to work close with his assistant Christina their relationship slowly evolved from a professional one into a more intimate one. However, when things took a turn for the worse professionally, the same thing happened to their relationship. [7]
Later, when Jamie had started to live with his family, Christina called him and told him they needed to talk. Jamie felt that it was about what happened after their split-up, but did not expect this happening to be the pregnancy of Christina. Soon after telling him, she left and gave Jamie the choice to either start his own family or stay with the family she despises. [8]
Jamie chose to stay with his adoptive family, but when it was revealed to him that he was adopted and that his biological father was alive he distanced himself from the Dutton family to become closer to his real father. When Christina had come to know about this, she decided it was time to reunite. Jamie was then introduced to his son. [9] They named him Jamie, after his father. [10]
When a conflict arises between the state of Montana and Market Equities, Jamie meets their representative Sarah Atwood, whose attractiveness doesn't go unnoticed by Jamie. Before they knew it they went out together [10] and grew remarkably close to each other. [11]
Study[]
Harvard Law School[]
After his father applied for him, Jamie went to Harvard Law School to become an attorney, leaving the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch for some time. [12]
Work[]
Attorney at law[]
When graduated from law school Jamie started working as an attorney at law, eventually helping out his father with legal matters concerning the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch. [2]
Run for Attorney General[]
Jamie was asked by Governor Perry and Attorney General Stewart to participate in the Attorney General elections. At a certain point there were concerns about John Dutton having too much influence by way of his son, but father and son grew apart and Jamie ran against the wishes of his father.
His father and Beth came up with another participant: Cassidy Reid. [13] Jamie was interviewed by Sarah Nguyen in the heat of battle and he made his father look bad to win votes. [14] But just before the elections he changed his mind as the conflict with his father got too much for him. He therefore withdrew from the elections. [7] Later on Reid was sworn in, after it turned out she ran unopposed. [15]
Yellowstone Dutton Ranch[]
Click here for the main page of the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch.
When his father gave him a new chance, Jamie went to live in the bunkhouse and started to work on his family's ranch as one of the hands. [16]
Livestock Commissioner[]
Click here for the main page of the Montana Livestock Association.
When the Montana Livestock Association had taken too many liberties in their ways of taking out their enemies, John Dutton had to resign from office. He promised Governor Perry to appoint his successor within week. After Kayce rejected John's proposal, he appointed Jamie to be the new commissioner. [17]
Acting Attorney General[]
Before Cassidy Reid got a chance to start, Governor Perry found a way to have Jamie in the Attorney General's office as acting A.G. Perry was able to convince John Dutton, so Jamie got the job he had wished for with his father's consent. [18]
Incident(s)[]
- When Jamie got himself in trouble by telling reporter Sarah Nguyen things he didn't want her to know, he couldn't convince her to keep the information unpublished. In a rage he attacked and eventually killed her. Together with Rip he made it appear as if the victim died in a kayaking accident. [12]
- His repentance and guilt over the killing brought him to a point where he took one of his father's firearms and went into the fields to kill himself. His father noticed the gun missing and caught up with him just in time to stop him from doing so. [16]
Personality[]
Jamie is normally a very rational person, who picks the most logical choice out of the options provided. However, he also has a darker side, as seen by the fact that he acts impulsively later on, such as when he strangled Sarah Nguyen to death. While fairly decent to most people, he and Beth share a mutual hatred spawned by when Jamie tricked her into getting a hysterectomy when she was pregnant as a teenager.
Trivia[]
- Fans consider Jamie to be, in earlier seasons of the show, the most rational member in the Dutton family, since he just seems like a regular guy who doesn't want to be involved with the crazy drama connected to the ranch. However, later seasons paint him as more unhinged, as his insecurities take over him.
Quotes[]
- You got to learn when to think like a lawyer, you understand? And when to think like a land owner.
- How many bodies has your father put in the same spot? Turn me in and you turn him in. Have you thought this through? (laughs) Wait, did you even know? Did you think I just picked a turnout on the Wyoming border at fucking random?! There's a century's worth of our family's secrets down at the bottom of that canyon. You want to see how fast they take the ranch from us then? It'll straighten your fucking hair, that's how fast.” –Jaime revealing information to Beth about the Train Station the Duttons hidden for generations and the warning of what would happen should Beth expose him as a killer.
Appearances[]
Check out the table(s) below to find out in which episodes Jamie Dutton made an appearance.
- O = appeared in this episode
- - = did not appear in this episode
Season 1[]
| 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| O | O | O | - | O | O | O | O | O |
Season 2[]
| 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| O | - | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O |
Season 3[]
| 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| O | O | O | - | O | O | O | O | O | O |
Season 4[]
| 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| O | O | - | O | O | O | O | O | O | O |
Season 5[]
| 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| O | O | O | O | O | O | O |
| 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| O | O | O | O | O | O | * |
* To be announced
Images[]
Videos[]
References[]
- ↑ Season 3, episode 7: The Beating
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Season 1, episode 1: Daybreak
- ↑ Season 5, episode 1: One Hundred Years is Nothing
- ↑ Season 1, episode 3: No Good Horses
- ↑ Season 1, episode 8: The Unravelling: Part 1
- ↑ Season 3, episode 5: Cowboys and Dreamers
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Season 2, episode 3: The Reek of Desperation
- ↑ Season 2, episode 9: Enemies by Monday
- ↑ Season 4, episode 5: Under a Blanket of Red
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Season 5, episode 4: Horses in Heaven
- ↑ Season 5, episode 6: Cigarettes, Whiskey, a Meadow and You
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Season 2, episode 6: Blood the Boy
- ↑ Season 2, episode 1: A Thundering
- ↑ Season 1, episode 9: The Unravelling: Part 2
- ↑ Season 2, episode 4: Only Devils Left
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Season 2, episode 7: Resurrection Day
- ↑ Season 3, episode 1: You're the Indian Now
- ↑ Season 3, episode 4: Going Back to Cali