It’s always bittersweet when a season of your favorite show ends.
It’s always exciting to see where the story is going to go, and season finales tend to be pretty exhilarating (hello Season 3 finale). But on the other hand, you have to wait an entire year for the next season to premiere, and the waiting can be BRUTAL.
However for me, I love reading the reactions of fans as the show moves forward.
Based on the social media, fan groups and Reddit threads, fans seemed to be a bit disappointed with Season 4, and not all that impressed with the Season 4 finale. Granted, everybody can’t be attacked and blown up every season, but Season 4 seemed to do more to set the table for future events as opposed to advancing the story in real time.
Many fans thought Kayce’s story was out of left field, we got a TON of Jimmy and the Four Sixes (opening the door for a spinoff), we even saw 1883 make its way into the show via flashbacks. Meanwhile, Jamie’s biological father, Garrett Randall, never really became a formidable foe and then was suddenly killed off, John kind of just muddled about, and the Market Equities issue didn’t really materialize until the end.
It was still a great season of a great show, but overall, it seems like fans felt it was just a little… slow.
However, according to one popular Reddit thread, fans are OVER one of the most popular characters in the show… Beth Dutton.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read “Beth Dutton is my spirit animal” on Twitter and in the comments, but for some fans, from the way she treats her brother Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley), to the way she treats Carter (Finn Little), to the way she never has to answer to anybody… fans are downright fed up with Beth.
A debatable issue for sure, but here’s some of the comments on Kelly Reilly’s character, the great Beth Dutton.
Beth Treatment of Jamie
It’s no secret that Beth hates Jamie with a fiery passion, and after he took her to get an abortion at a young age that resulted in her permanent infertility, she may have every right to be.
But as the series has moved along, her hate for him continues to grow more and more intense, and some fans think she’s gone overboard. Especially, since Jamie was probably put in a position that he never should’ve been in.
Here’s what they’re saying:
“I can’t take any more scenes of her confronting Jamie and telling him how much she hates him and is going to ruin him.”
“I’ve been over her for awhile. My in-laws love her, but I’ve always thought her character was bizarre and the writers let her set the tone for how others see Jamie. If you watch the show critically Jamie literally isn’t that bad of a dude.”
“Especially with how they’re becoming increasingly aggressive and violent. Like, wouldn’t Beth realistically calm down over the course of 25 or so years? Instead it feels like she grows more abusive and hateful as time goes by.”Â
“Her hate filled monologues are getting ridiculous now. Enough already kill her off.”
“I’m on season 1 episode 5 and I’m already over her.”
“Every interaction with her and Jamie is the exact same. She’s a huge bitch, he’s a little bitch.”
“Yessss. He is one of the least bad characters on the show but we are all supposed to hate him because Beth is just a miserable, insufferable witch who masquerades as Badass Take-No-Prisoners Bitch.”
“I get it, she’s a no nonsense bad bitch. But does she ALWAYS have to be insufferable?”
 “Jamie the real victim in all this. Fucking asking a 16 year old to make that decision for you and holding it over him forever is stupid.”Â
Beth’s Treatment of Carter
Fans weren’t happy with her treatment of Carter either.
Since Beth now has a husband and still can’t have kids, she’s essentially adopted Carter, who reminds them both of a young Rip. But when Carter calls her mom, she practically tears his head off, sending poor Carter, a kid desperately in need of love, away crying.
Yeah, Beth has plenty of demons to work out, but the move was pretty cruel, even for Beth standards… and fans weren’t loving it. Beth’s ruthless personality is why a lot of people love her, but unless she wants Carter to grow up to be just like her, she needs to show him some love, right?
Needless to say, fans didn’t love that interaction:
“Honestly, I love Beth’s personality. HOWEVER… I am not into how shitty she is to Carter.”
“I’m especially not interested in how shitty she is to Carter. Absolutely ridiculous & completely unnecessary.”
“I also love Beth, but when he called her mamma, I already knew and I was like, “don’t do it/say it” and she did. She said I’m not your mom and it was about the crappiest thing I’ve seen her do.”
“Beth, beyond just being cruel to Carter, also seems to think that the only way she can be a mother is to have her own, biological children.”
But on the other hand, some fans think her relationship with Rip has fueled that hate.
She now has a husband, she wants to be a mom, but she can’t… and Jamie is to blame. The more and more the idea of a family becomes real for her, the more and more she’s reminded of what Jamie did.
“I think as her relationship with Rip has grown, her hatred for Jamie has also grown. It is a constant reminder of what he took away from her. Especially now that the kid is with her and Rip, it is just in her face how much she can’t be a mother.”
“My theory is Beth is struggling with the whole “mama” thing because she has been angry for so long about not being able to be a mom (in her thoughts) after the sterilization. She holds on to that as part of her anger with Jamie.”
We’ll see how it all shakes out in Season 5, but right now, Beth doesn’t appear to be winning any new fans.
Then again, after Market Equities comes after her for corporate espionage, she might end up being responsible for taking the entire family down.
Only time will tell…
