‘Yellowstone’: Kayce and Rip’s Bloody Fist Fight Shocks Fans on Twitter

John Dutton’s health crisis on the Yellowstone Season 2 premiere left him knowing it’s time to prepare for a guard change at the ranch, sending Rip down the hierarchy of power.

“New Beginnings” began with John (Kevin Costner) leaving the hospital early against medical advice, choosing to recover from his burst ulcer at home. With Kayce (Luke Grimes) by his side, the billionaire reflected on having to survive past his initial diagnosis while also preparing his son to take over the work at the farm, even if that means conflict with ranch foreman Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser).

In the aftermath of the heated bar fight, tensions were still high between Rip and Walker (Ryan Bingham). After almost getting into a fight while building a fence on the property, Walker seems ready to leave the ranch forever and packs his bags.

He says goodbye to Cowboy (Steven Williams) and begins to make his way out of the property when he runs into John and Kayce returning from the hospital, and they insist he stay and fight harder for his position on the ranch.

The tension leads John to make a decision regarding the hierarchy among the workers, and he calls on Rip to meet with him at his office.

During the meeting, John tells his longtime employee Kayce will never get the respect of the wranglers as an authority figure in the ranch if he continues to live with them, before he announces he is moving Rip into the worker quarters and giving the house to his son.

While Rip seems angry at his boss’ request, he adamantly leaves his home and moves in with Walker and the other men. The next day, Kayce takes charge of the men as they do their work, but another confrontation between Rip and Walker — in which he almost kills the guitar-wielding wrangler — leads to a fist fight between Rip and Kayce.

The bloody confrontation seemed to freak out the other workers, as well as fans on social media, as John looked and prevented anyone from interfering in the power struggle.

In the end, Rip chose to give up the fight and submit to Kayce, leading to him proclaiming that if anyone felt like fighting one another at the Dutton Ranch, they would have to fight him first.

The drama did not end there, however, as Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) learned of the fight from Rip and confronted her brother for undermining her plans to save the ranch she he should be fighting to reunite with his family.

As John attended his first rehabilitation swimming lesson, Kayce ran into Monica (Kelsey Asbille) and his son Tate (Brecken Merrill) at the pool, leaving the end of the episode on an emotional note.

Yellowstone airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on Paramount Network.