Dutton Ranch Episode 8 Puts Carter At A Crossroads: Finn Little Explains Why He's 'Lashing Out,' And What's Next

Carter has been lost in a sea of existential crises all season on "Dutton Ranch," but with only one episode left in the show's freshman run, his path forward remains unclear — and a little troubling.

After his drunken antics at the 10-Petal Ranch anniversary party, which included stealing a bull head from Beulah's office and inadvertently giving her a heart attack, Carter spends Episode 8 clashing with Beth and Rip over his place in the world. And his epic hangover certainly doesn't help those conservations go any more smoothly.

Carter reveals that he dropped out of school, adding that Rip didn't finish his own education, but Beth makes it clear that Carter and Rip are very different people. "When you're given a chance to make your life better, you f***ing grab it," she tells him. "I need you ready for the hard parts, and the hard parts are coming." Beth thinks putting Carter to work with Rip for a day will set him straight, but it only ends in a tense face-off between her two men. 

"I just think he's acting out," Finn Little tells TVLine. "Part of it is that he's embarrassed about his behavior from the night before, so he's just lashing out. It's just teenager stuff. He'll learn from that and come back a bit stronger.

If you're wondering why Carter is in such a bad place, you need only rewatch the show's first seven episodes, because this dramatic outburst has been building all season.

"It's the move from Montana to Texas, which he didn't have any choice in; it's Dwight getting shot, because that was one of his best and only friends in Texas; and then the final push is Oreana at the party, basically exposing him," Finn Little explains to TVLine. "She told him who he is, and I think that really p*ssed him off."

Carter attempts to numb his pain with more drinking (always a good idea!), this time at Dwight's old place (another good idea!), but his good times are quickly interrupted by a visit from Sheriff Wade. In an unexpected move, Carter asks Wade for a job, to which Wade replies that Carter is deeply unqualified. So Carter shifts from questions to thinly veiled threats, telling the sheriff, "I bet Dwight would feel differently." As you may recall, Carter is the only witness to Dwight being unarmed when the police took him down, and Carter apparently intends to use this as leverage... to get a job? Allow Little to explain:

"He told Beth that he wants to be like Rip, he wants to be like [John]," the actor reminds us, adding, "I actually don't know whether this is just a pit stop along the way, or another angle he's trying to play with the sheriff. We'll have to see. That'll be a next-season question."

Because Carter's fractured relationship with Oreana is partly to blame for his personal spiral, we're crossing our fingers and toes that the couple manages to work things out, though it sounds like we'll have to cross them pretty hard. 

"I don't know if there's anything that Carter is going to be able to do to prove himself to Oreana," actress Natalie Alyn Lind tells TVLine. "She puts up these walls, but she is also somebody that craves love and attention so much. There's a line in Episode 3 or 4 that says Oreana's like Texas weather, it moves fast. She'll continue to test him."

Lind also suggests that Carter, 19, and Oreana, 24, may just be at different places in their life right now, making any relationship infinitely more difficult to maintain.

"I'm not sure if there's one thing he can do because Oreana's idea of what she wants in life is constantly changing as well," Lind explains. "Carter's in a position where he's kind of screwed. But I do think Oreana has a really big heart, it just takes some digging to get to."

What are your hopes for Carter, with or without Oreana, as we head into the final episode of Season 1? Drop a comment with your thoughts on all things "Dutton Ranch" below.