Yellowstone may seem like a show about white men and their woes on paper, but the reality is that creator Taylor Sheridan uses his characters to tell a deeper story about growth, power, and the pain society can bring to families in a Montana landscape. What you think you're getting isn't always what he's actually trying to teach with his character and their journeys. For Yellowstone, one of the more fascinating aspects of the series is how the Dutton family operates in society, but also how the family dynamic works too.
At the center is the patriarch John Dutton (Kevin Costner), who projects out into the world that he has the power to sway his family one way or another, that he is the one people must follow along with while watching the series and that he is the one other characters listen to when he makes a decision. In fact, that couldn't be further from the truth. I would go as far as to say that out of the current members of the Dutton family, he has the least amount of power and is just at the bidding of his children. (Prior to Lee Dutton's death, he was probably in this slot, but alas.)
So if John Dutton isn't even in the middle range of the power dynamic, who actually is running the Dutton family? Well, it depends on the situation. There is one clear leader of the family as a whole, but then there are others who can sway people one way or another and so the power dynamics in the family as a whole are fascinating to break down. In looking at the family, it is clear who has power and who does not, so let's rank the Duttons based on who actually has sway.
7 Tate Dutton
Although the Dutton kids had some control in their family as children in the flashbacks we've seen (especially after their mother passed away), Tate (Brecken Merrill) does not have that power. No matter what is going on in the life of the Duttons, Tate sort of just goes with the flow. Sure, there were moments when things were done by Monica and Kayce for Tate's benefit, but he's not exactly pulling the strings. If anything, he just kind of wants to work on the ranch and hang out with his dad and grandfather.
It's possible that Tate doesn't really care either way about power, despite John constantly saying that they have to save the ranch for Tate and their family legacy. But maybe Tate will start to have more of that Dutton fire and drive as the series progresses. For now, he doesn't have much power — outside of keeping the ranch alive for him, and that's about it.
6 Rip Wheeler
Outside of Tate, the Dutton with no actual power over the family is Rip (Cole Hauser) — but that's because Rip has his power on the ranch as the foreman, and that seems to be enough for him. When it comes to who controls things around Yellowstone, Rip may do all of John's bidding, but he's also the one in charge of those who work there. You don't cross Rip and you do what he says. Obviously, that dynamic changes if John is the one telling you to do something, because Rip instantly agrees with him.
Rip is a fascinating character to rank in terms of power — because he does have power, just not over the Duttons. In fact, even if Rip wanted it, and tried to push back at John, he'd get shot down quickly because of how their relationship has been built, and so, for that, he's just slightly above Tate in the overall rankings of control in the family.
5 John Dutton
To the greater public, John Dutton is a man you don't want to cross. He'll come after you, take you for everything you tried to take him for, and he's not someone you want against you — but that is about where his power stops. For the most part, his kids are always three steps ahead of him. Even when they were younger, they still had a pull over him that made it so he barely had power within his own family.
Sure, on the actual ranch, the hands that work for him would never dare push back at John. Rip is his greatest soldier because he wouldn't ever try and bite back at him. But in the Dutton family, John doesn't have a chance against his children, and he is fully aware of that. He's not trying to be someone who thinks he has some kind of control on his kids, but he does still have that fear element working for him. His kids might have more power than he does, but he can still go full angry dad on them and they'll listen — and that is, truly, the definition of and power.
4 Kayce Dutton
Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) has more power than his father, but not much — more power in the sense that he can and will walk away from the ranch if he wants to, and he's not really the type to do exactly what John says to him. When it comes to his wife Monica, however, Kayce will do whatever she needs from him. There are moments throughout the series where Kayce pretends to act like he has a say in how his family functions, but the reality is that whatever Monica says goes.
Out of his siblings, Kayce has no power because he doesn't want it. He stays out of the drama with Jamie and Beth and sort of just does his job and carries on in such a way that he probably could switch that dynamic with a snap of his fingers if he wanted to.
3 Monica Dutton
If Monica (Kelsey Asbille) says something to Kayce, it goes. She's not afraid to tell him what she thinks; even when she is sort of angry about their situation and Kayce tries to be the man in their relationship, he quickly realizes she is right and does what she says. We've seen it happen multiple times but notably in Season 4, after the family is attacked, Kayce attempts to blame Tate's reaction on Monica, and then by the next episode, they're all living closer to Monica's parents again because she's the one with the power — and rightfully so.
Kayce is a lot like his father but also very different. He doesn't necessarily care that Monica is the one calling the shots, and so their relationship works because he does what she asks. She doesn't typically abuse that power but if push came to shove, what Monica wants is what will happen.
2 Jamie Dutton
Learning he wasn't John's birth son is something that made Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley) almost too powerful for his own good. Prior to the reveal, Jamie was the type of character who would do whatever his father asked of him and basically be a pushover with John. The reveal that he was adopted unleashed a side of Jamie that has resulted in a major power shift in the family — which is why Jamie and Beth have struggled so much.
The two didn't like each other before, but they had the kind of sibling relationship where you just expected it was a loving bicker. Then their hatred grew and grew to the point where they are now on a path to wanting to murder each other. It's a situation that leads to Jamie having more power over Kayce and John — because he is a lawyer and is the kind of character who would use that against his family, as we have seen.
1 Beth Dutton
We all know that Beth (Kelly Reilly) is actually in charge of the Dutton family. If anyone has power at all, it is her. Sure, by society's standards, she doesn't. She's not a member of the family that people would think is the mastermind behind it all, but that is exactly what is happening. Beth operates in the shadows and pulls the strings of her family like a puppet master in a way that makes her a fascinating character to watch.
No matter what Jamie, Kayce, or even John think, it is Beth who gets what she wants and knows how to get it — and so out of the entire Dutton family on Yellowstone, we know the real power belongs to her.