This Yellowstone Season 4 Theory Could Have The Duttons In Major Trouble

The Duttons are usually good at keeping secrets, but the family may have made a misstep in trusting ex-con Walker, according to a compelling Yellowstone season 4 theory. After Walker's shocking return in season 3, Reddit user DoomsdayFAN pointed out that the former prisoner asked a whole lot of questions about the train station — the infamous spot where Rip and the Duttons dispose of people who betray or threaten them. The Redditor went on to suggest that Walker may have even been wearing a wire, but whether he's working with the police or not, the presumed dead rancher's return seems destined to come back and haunt the Dutton family before the series ends.

As of September 2020, actor Ryan Bingham, who plays Walker, hadn't filmed any scenes for season 4 yet, according to an interview with Popculture.com, but he did say he was awaiting the call, which could mean his character is going to be a wild card in the coming season's storyline. The most pressing issue that the Dutton family is currently facing is who organized the attack on John, Kayce, and Beth, but once that's out of the way they may have to reckon with Kayce's decision to keep Walker alive.

Even though Walker sports the Yellowstone brand that doesn't guarantee his loyalty. Rip already tried to dispose of the rancher once. But thanks to Kayce's belief in second chances, he was spared, and since this is Yellowstone, there has to be more to his reappearance than meets the eye.

In the season 3 finale, Rip and Lloyd kidnapped Walker and brought him back to the ranch after they discovered the cowboy didn't make it to the train station after all. However, it seems strange that they just happened to run into the rancher at a random bar. Sure, it's a small world and all, but since Kayce made a point to spare his life, even though Walker knows that Jamie Dutton murdered someone, you would think he would have made himself scarce.

Walker isn't dumb. He knows that he possesses information that could damage the Dutton family, and despite Kayce's pardon, Rip will never trust him. And yet he accompanied Lloyd to the train station anyway, and proceeded to ask him a series of questions that were the very definition of suspicious. If it gets back to Rip that he was asking about how many bodies have been dumped at the station and what they did to end up there, Walker is going to be in serious trouble. So why take that risk unless there's a chance of personal gain?

It definitely feels like Walker could be working for a law enforcement agency, but given his background, it's just as likely he's made a deal with one of the Duttons' enemies. He could potentially lead people directly to the train station, and he has more than enough evidence to implicate Jamie, Kayce, John, Rip, and Lloyd in a number of deaths.

The Dutton family's greatest weakness may ultimately be their unwavering belief that the ranchers who take the Yellowstone brand feel a sense of unshakable loyalty to John and the ranch. Even though Walker has engaged in shady behavior in the past, the family seems willing to begrudgingly give him a second chance. But it is far more likely that what they're actually giving him is a chance to bring them down from the inside.