‘Yellowstone’: The Best Jimmy Moments That Make Him the Most Lovable Ranch Hand in the Bunkhouse

Can you even imagine Yellowstone without Jimmy there to lighten the mood? In season 1, Rip Wheeler shows up at Jimmy Hurdstrom’s door, ready to make him an offer he couldn’t refuse. Jimmy was running with a bad crowd involving drugs, so this criminal had one shot left to turn his life around and make an honest living. It’s a tough scene to watch when Rip brands Jimmy with the Yellowstone Y, but he ends up doing him an incredible favor. Jefferson White does an amazing job playing Jimmy on the popular series, the sweet former criminal with a heart of gold who seems to get better and better as the show goes on.

One of the best parts about Jimmy is since he’s initially so clueless, he offers a lot of comic relief on a series that is consistently very heavy. He’s always getting the bunkhouse boys smiling with his bad jokes, but they all rally around him as he slowly starts fitting in and learning the ways of the ranch. From unexpected romantic moments to good old-fashioned laughs, here are some of Jimmy’s best moments so far on Yellowstone.

When he learns to ride a horse the hard way

Jimmy certainly didn’t fit in when he first arrived at the Yellowstone. He doesn’t know the first thing about being a ranch hand after Rip saves him from his old lifestyle, and he gets a rough crash course. Rip and John literally duct tape him to an unbroken horse Kayce brought to the ranch, forcing him to stay strapped to the back of the bucking horse for what seems like forever. Jimmy can barely walk when the horse finally breaks his resistance and he limps off slowly as he takes the horse away for a bath afterward. But he did it. And he didn’t complain when he still had more work to do. John Dutton notes, “There may be a little cowboy in him, after all.”

When the bunkhouse gifts Jimmy his first cowboy hat

It’s a rough start for Jimmy in season 1 as he gets used to life on the ranch and what it takes to be a real cowboy. At one point, he can’t find the tattered straw hat he had been wearing, so he confronts the rest of the bunkhouse one night as they sit down for a game of cards. They tell him they threw it away, and Lloyd tosses him a brand new real cowboy hat instead. It cost everyone a week’s pay, and Jimmy couldn’t look more excited as he tries it on for the first time. Someone even notes that Jimmy is all grown up now, and you can tell this is one big step in the right direction for their new ranch hand.

Jimmy’s first rodeo

In season 2, Jimmy is desperate for money but isn’t eligible to make anything extra on the ranch since he’s on the payroll. Lloyd tells him that cowboys looking for extra cash can compete in the rodeo just like he did years ago. Lloyd helps him learn to stay on a bucking horse — it’s kind of the only thing Jimmy’s actually good at— and even fronts him the money for his entrance fee. Jimmy is a bit nervous when he gets to the fair and sees other competitors getting flung off their horses, but he miraculously manages to stay on and brings home his very own winner’s belt buckle. It’s a big moment for Jimmy; he thinks he’s found something that could play a big part in his future. He was wrong, of course, but at the time, it was nice to see him so happy.

When he fumbles his way into a relationship with Mia

In season 3, the bunkhouse and Dutton family all attend Jimmy’s latest rodeo competition for support. Before he competes, he meets a pretty barrel racer named Mia who flirts with him after seeing him win in the past. He’s so distracted by her presence that when he gets up on the horse, he gets flung off and ends up in the hospital with some serious injuries. Mia shows up to visit him, and even though he tells her he’s never been with anyone before, they start their relationship right then and there…on his hospital bed. Neck brace and all. It’s really the kind of thing that would only happen to Jimmy Hurdstrom.

The first time he meets Emily

Jimmy and Mia’s relationship fizzles out at the start of season 4. He narrowly survived yet another near-death rodeo injury (despite promising John Dutton he would stop after he covered his medical expenses the first time around). Mia wants him to come with her, and John Dutton wants to send him down to Texas, where he can learn to be a man. He knows he owes everything to John, so he agrees to go to Texas, sacrificing his relationship in the process. Unexpectedly, he meets a new love interest when he gets there. They meet when Jimmy has to help Emily collect horse semen for ranch research (she’s a vet tech). It really breaks the ice in an entertaining way, and she offers to buy him dinner for the awkward experience. He tells her he’s capable of buying her dinner and what was a truly bizarre afternoon turns into a great day for our lovable ranch hand.

His entire relationship with Emily

The problem with Jimmy and Mia was that Mia loved “rodeo Jimmy.” She wanted him to be a big star she could follow around and be inspired by his impressive skills, despite how dangerous it was. Emily is a refreshing breath of fresh air because she doesn’t know “rodeo Jimmy” or even care about who he was before he came to Texas. She likes him for who he is at that moment, and the two spend as much time together as possible when he’s not working and earning his keep at the Four Sixes. It proves to be the exact relationship he needed to give him a much-needed self-esteem boost and help him become the man he was meant to be.

When he comes back to the Yellowstone as a man

It probably surprised the entire Yellowstone Ranch when Jimmy returns at the end of season 4 the way he does. He’s matured, brought a fiance (Emily), and noticeably learned a thing or two during his time away. It’s a sweet and special moment when John Dutton takes all this in and tells Jimmy that his debts can be considered fully paid. He lets him know he always has a place at the Yellowstone and wishes him well. It couldn’t have been a more different conversation from the start of the season when John has to force him to Texas to grow up.