newlyweds Beth and Rip’s union, it’s understandable. There’s “a lot of pressure on [them],” Cole Hauser tells TVLine, “to pick up the pieces

and move forward… a lot of new responsibility on the characters as well.”

Of course, Hauser and leading lady Kelly Reilly don’t directly address the elephant in the room: the absence of Kevin Costner as Dutton family patriarch John. But they do offer Beth/Rip fans a welcome reassurance. What’s to come doesn’t tear apart the couple. On the contrary, “we pull together,” Reilly says. “We’re as solid as ever, I can tell you that. Beth needs him this year more than ever.”

Though Season 5A’s finale (recapped here) ended with Beth and John plotting to murder treacherous adopted Dutton Jamie, some of us were kinda hoping that Rip would get to be the one who took his brother-in-law to the train station — especially since it was he who had his pregnant sister sterilized when they were kids. “Well, Rip doesn’t know what Jamie did to Beth,” Reilly reminds. “It’s a secret. It’s still something that he hasn’t been told.”

But if he were to be told… come on! “I have my thoughts about what Jamie is and who he is and what he’s done, obviously, because of the past,” says Hauser, whose character had to help the ne’er-do-well dispose of a body in Season 2. “But that’s not on Rip’s mind this year. What’s on his mind is making sure that he’s taking care of the person he loves the most, and that’s Beth.”

With John presumably out of the picture, a lot of extra pressure would naturally fall on Rip. Is he feeling it? Nah, says Hauser. “I don’t think so. He’s been taught by John Dutton to be in this place. Twenty-five years later, running a ranch to him is second nature.

“The more stressful part was how he was going to move into the house with Beth and feel like he was comfortable in that world,” he adds. “Because he’s been on the outside of that his whole life. So if anything was uncomfortable, it was a couple years back when I was going into the house and sleeping with her inside of my boss’ home.”

“That was fun, watching you sort of squirm about that,” Reilly chimes in, laughing. “Beth was like, ‘What’s your problem?’”

Meanwhile, Rip was, as Hauser puts it, “sitting at the dinner table like, ‘Which fork do I use? Which salad do I eat?’”