What Happens To Malcolm Beck On Yellowstone & Why Is It So Important?

The Beck brothers are the bane of the Duttons in "Yellowstone" Season 2. Teal (Terry Serpico) and Malcolm Beck (Neal McDonough) are real estate moguls with high aspirations of opening up casinos. However, they have a knack for trying to build on the wrong family's land. 

Teal and Malcolm pack quite the punch as the season's primary antagonists and drag the Dutton family into an all-out war; the conflict culminates in a bloody showdown between the Beck brothers' white supremacist thugs and the Duttons. The stakes are high, with Tate (Brecken Merrill) even getting captured and held captive. In the end, Montana's most dysfunctional family emerges victorious, with Kayce (Luke Grimes) killing and torturing Teal, and John Dutton (Kevin Costner) standing over a dying Malcolm in the season finale. Why the latter thought he could take on the legendary Lt. John J. Dunbar in a shootout still befuddles the "Yellowstone" fandom years later.

Despite only appearing in a handful of episodes, Malcolm Beck's villain arc has disastrous repercussions for the Duttons. For starters, in the following season, it's revealed that Tate is suffering from PTSD due to his abduction. Throughout the season, he is seen coping with his captivity; simple tasks such as taking a bath prove challenging for the young Dutton. The fallout of the Beck conflict also forces John Dutton to resign from his position as livestock commissioner. However, it wasn't just the Dutton family that had to feel Malcolm's wrath. Longtime Dutton enemy Dan Jenkins (Danny Huston) also meets his demise in Season 2 when the Beck brothers send professional hitmen after him. Overall, multiple years and seasons later, the actions of McDonough's character can still be felt.

Years before he was tearing it up on Paramount Network's hit series, Neal McDonough enjoyed a chaotic run on FX's "Justified," portraying career criminal Robert Quarles. Quarles is introduced as a lieutenant and representative of Detroit's Tonin crime family; the character immediately makes his presence felt, showcasing a ruthless edge and a fancy quickdraw technique that he totally didn't steal from Christoph Waltz's Dr. King Schultz.

With grand ambitions of his own, Quarles strays away from Detroit and attempts to start his own miniature criminal kingdom in Kentucky. However, as the season progresses, the city boy gradually learns Harlan County ain't Detroit. Quarles makes one too many enemies, and his aspirations end with his arm getting cut off, courtesy of Ellstin Limehouse's (Mykelti Williamson) cleaver.

When it comes to portraying villains like Malcolm Beck and Robert Quarles, McDonough can only do it one way. In a 2019 interview recapping a Season 2 "Yellowstone" episode, the actor explained how when he plays villains, it's crucial that they truly hold some type of conviction and think they are in the right. "One of the things I always try to do in all my villains is to make it that everything they do is completely justified in their own brains." Hopefully, McDonough can also choose a character with better decision-making skills next time he's up for a neo-Western. Trying to take on Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) and John Dutton on their own respective shows is just asking for a bullet — or cleaver.