‘Dutton Ranch’ Breakout Natalie Alyn Lind on Sobbing Over That Murder, Discovering Oreana’s Life-Changing News and Season 2 Plans

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers from the ninth episode of “Dutton Ranch,” “El Padrino,” which is now streaming on Paramount+.

In a series filled with beloved characters like Kelly Reilly’s Beth and Cole Hauser’s Rip, as well as acting legends like Annette Bening and Ed Harris, it’s no small feat that Natalie Alyn Lind stole many scenes in the first season of “Dutton Ranch.”

The granddaughter of Bening’s matriarch Beulah and daughter of ne’er-do-well Rob-Will (Jai Courtney), Lind’s outspoken character Oreana kept everybody on their toes. Whether having men fight over her or busting Carter (Finn Little) out of high school to head to the bedroom, she was always in the center of drama. But in the season finale, two life-changing events happened: Oreana found out she was pregnant, and later watched her father bleed to death in front of her after getting shot.

Lind spoke to Variety about the final episode, saying that even reading the script for the first time made her emotional for Oreana.

“I was devastated,” she says. “As a fan of the show, I was not expecting the pregnancy whatsoever. I think it’s a really interesting tie-in, especially if you’re a fan of the original ‘Yellowstone’ and you know Beth’s background and how devastating that was for her. So the idea of Beth being a grandma, first of all, I was really excited about. I think it adds this maturity level to Oreana, and it has her completely rethink who she is as a person. Also, her dad had her really young, so that’s opened up an entire can of worms for Season 2, to see how that affects her and her entire family.”

Furthermore, despite his villainy, she says Rob-Will’s assassination had an intense impact on Oreana.

“When I saw that Rob-Will was killed, I genuinely started crying,” Lind says. “It was a sadness just relating to the characters and seeing the scene prior, how special and important this person in her life is for her. I am Jai’s biggest fan, so the fact that he was no longer going to be on the show, that just broke my heart. But it excites me as an actor because it creates new depth. It actually is one of the first things that happens on screen that I feel like people are going to be able to relate to Oreana next season, knowing the trauma that she’s been through. You meet the Jacksons, and you’ve known the Duttons for so long, but you don’t know any of the heartbreak and trauma that the Jacksons have gone through. So being able to see my character on screen go through something so traumatic, it definitely excites me for what’s going to come in Season 2. I’m excited to see how she handles this, and to go back to filming and jump into what this is going to look like.”

Looking forward to next season, Lind isn’t giving out any spoilers, but says audiences will learn more about how much Oreana has actually known about the family business, and will settle into a new role in it.

“Oreana is a very smart, manipulative girl, and she’s very good at showing the world what she wants them to see,” Lind says. “It’s something that we didn’t really discuss in Season 1, but Oreana went to college and graduated at the top of her class with an agricultural degree in business. So even though she wears her little Daisy Dukes and her high-heeled cowboy boots and whips her hair, she’s a very smart girl. I think she knows how to manipulate people and how to get what she wants out of life. It’s going to be very interesting to see how that relates to all of this information coming out about the ranch.”

Next season, too, will spotlight her backstory, as well as how Rob-Will’s murder will impact her going forward.

“We’ll be figuring out more about Oreana’s past,” Lind says. “I know Oreana’s past, but I’m excited for other people to learn. As for her father, their relationship has always been so messy, and she’s always having to make excuses for him. So seeing that he also has this vulnerability to him, I think that completely breaks her. But it also prepares her for motherhood, and she feels like she can be pregnant, like she can have a kid.”