Who Is Sarah Atwood From ‘Yellowstone’?

In case you haven’t heard, Yellowstone is back with a vengeance. The Taylor Sheridan-created, Kevin Costner-starring series may not impress Sam Elliot (who, not incidentally, starred in the 1883 prequel), but approximately 12 million premiere viewers can’t be wrong. Hopefully, several million of those viewers will trickle into Tulsa King territory, too, but at the moment, viewers are a little bit obsessed with a new character, who might be threatening the Montana ranch-reign of John Dutton.

That would be newly installed rival, Sarah Atwood. Who is she, and have we seen this actress before now in this universe?

That’s an interesting question. Actress Dawn Olivieri is, in fact, familiar to this universe, and she’s thrilled to now be in Yellowstone proper, as her Instagram posts reveal.

Olivieri picks up the role of Atwood, who’s barging into view after John somehow ends up being governor. Sarah represents Market Equities, which is intent upon scooping up as much property as possible, and naturally, the Duttons are in her sights. As the Pioneer Woman blog points out, Sarah is keen to “take advantage of a spurned Jamie to turn him against the rest of the family.” That task doesn’t seem like it will be too difficult, given Jamie’s emotional state, and your dad is probably very interested in the outcome of this instant rivalry between Sarah and John.

As for Olivieri herself, this franchise is playing head games with people because the actress portrayed widow Claire Dutton in 1883. Now, she’s zooming ahead in time while making an effort to trounce John Dutton, which should make for high cowboy drama. In between both of these roles, however, Dawn comes by her livestock-associated ways naturally. Here, she appears to be quite the attraction for a herd of deers.

Yellowstone airs new episodes on Sunday nights.