During the third season of "Yellowstone," John has to tell his Jamie that he isn't his biological father, as Jamie needs to obtain his birth certificate to file official paperwork related to his senatorial campaign. It's a choice that will have far-ranging consequences during the show's fourth season. John also refuses to sell his massive spread, even though it is killing his family financially, and he is nearly shot to death by a rival in the season finale, in an act of revenge.
However, while John revealing Jamie's true paternal history to him is somewhat cruel, it is a necessary gesture, and importantly, something he doesn't do specifically to hurt his son. None of these acts involve stone-cold murder, which makes John telling his bunkhouse crew to take the men who attacked Teeter (Jennifer Landon) and Colby (Denim Richards) "to the train station" his most upsetting act of Season 3.
In one way, John is pretty justified in requesting this hit — the men Roarke (Josh Holloway) hired attacked Teeter and Colby while they were skinny dipping and in a vulnerable state. But it's an eye for an eye gesture that shows how calculated the Dutton patriarch is. When it's revealed that one of the attackers was once a branded Dutton ranch hand, Walker (Ryan Bingham) actually rips the brand from the man's chest before hanging him. That Dutton — who so often speaks about caring about his family and his extended family on the ranch, including his branded hands — ordered this to happen makes it all the more disturbing. It becomes clear that any of them could be next, at any time, if they step out of line.
