Do you remember that brief time that Josh Holloway played a villain on Yellowstone? It’s okay if you don’t. The show often recycled villain

archetypes with new names and faces, sometimes even within the same season. But Holloway appeared during the show’s third season as

Roarke Morris, a rancher and stockholder in Market Equities who used the firm to try and run the Duttons out of town. But of all the villains to meet their fateful end on the Taylor Sheridan drama, Roarke went out the worst way possible.

While rattlesnakes may be more common in Texas than in Montana, the serpents still exist throughout the Last Best Place, oftentimes hiding in dark, shady spots where one may suddenly stumble upon them. But that’s not how Roarke met the snake that bit him. Though perhaps not as theatrical as the infamous Beck brothers or as well-rounded as Danny Huston‘s Dan Jenkins, Roarke was a serious thorn in the Duttons’ side throughout Season 3. He had lots of potential, and his verbal jousts with Beth (Kelly Reilly) were always a delight. But he was also the villain who died most unexpectedly on the show, and this is coming from a series that shot a man while he was on the toilet.

At the very end of the Season 4 opener, “Half the Money,” Rip (Cole Hauser) — believing Roarke to be responsible for the assassination attempt on the Duttons that concluded the third season — brings the villain a rattlesnake, throwing it at his head to get the animal to bite and kill him on his own property. It’s a pretty ingenious way to kill somebody, since it would be hard to prove that anyone (let alone Rip) was there to literally throw the snake at him, and that’s why they ultimately got away with it scot-free. As Roarke dies almost instantly, succumbing to the snake’s venom, Rip watches to ensure the deed is done, and then leaves as confidently as he arrived.

The whole thing is pretty insane. As noted, Roarke had been an important player throughout the entire third season, and it was because of Holloway’s character that Market Equities was even introduced into the show. But it was evident that Taylor Sheridan wanted to work through some new material with the fourth season, so killing off the previous year’s villain so suddenly in the premiere was the best way to do it. But it all proved to be a wash in the end. Not only was Roarke not the one who ordered the hit on the Duttons (it was really Will Patton‘s Garrett Randall), but his death only convinces Market Equities to double down on their land-grabbing plots to bury the Duttons on their own property. With the death of Kevin Costner‘s John Dutton a season and a half later, it seemed as if they succeeded, at least somewhat, after all. In the end, Roarke was just another body the Duttons had buried for the sake of their land, though he didn’t get the decency of a bullet to the brain — Rip made sure he suffered.