Simply some of the well-liked tv reveals of the late-2010s and early-2020s, “Yellowstone” left a definite however messy mark when it ended. The western sequence created by Taylor Sheridan tracked the lives and machinations of the Duttons, a Ewing-esque household of highly effective businesspeople and politicians who preside over the titular palatial ranch and spacious plot of land it resides on in Montana.
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The sequence galloped alongside easily for 4 and a half seasons (spawning a number of spin-offs within the course of), till star Kevin Costner immediately left the present earlier than manufacturing might start on the second half of season 5. His character needed to be written off in consequence, and the sequence as a complete started rushing towards an explosive, complicated finish for its ensemble of characters. Now that the mud is settled, we have taken a gander on the destiny of every principal “Yellowstone” character, rating them by how satisfying the endings had been in addition to how a lot they impacted the general story.
Walker
Regardless of being a last-minute addition to the “Yellowstone” universe, ranch hand Walker (performed by musician Ryan Bingham) rapidly grew to become one of many present’s strongest characters — which makes the underwhelming decision of his storyline form of disappointing. The ex-con carried a lot ache with him, it was onerous for followers to not spend nearly all of his display time watching with bated breath, hoping that he would escape the abusive ranch alive to seek out some happiness in the true world by his music.
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By the point the sequence ends, Walker is freed together with the remainder of the ranchers and is final seen reuniting along with his girlfriend. Perhaps he’ll return within the spin-off sequence primarily based on the 4 Sixes Ranch, however there’s actually nothing memorable to say about his ending.
Dan Jenkins
After we say each “Yellowstone” principal character, we imply it — which suggests we won’t overlook about authentic huge dangerous Dan Jenkins (Danny Huston), who was a part of the present’s authentic principal ensemble. Dan was an actual property developer who was a part of a number of schemes to steal the Dutton land, not least of which concerned him placing successful out on John Dutton (Kevin Costner) within the pilot.
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Poetically, Dan was quickly dispatched by hitmen himself, maybe proving how out of his depth he actually was — a pretender, not not like the Duttons’ final adversary. His destiny will get factors for its spectacle and for capping off one of the best seasons of a “Yellowstone” series ever produced. That mentioned, it isn’t extremely impactful within the grand scheme of issues, and provided that it occurred so way back, different character endings are extra significant now.
Colby Mayfield
This is perhaps our most controversial putting on this record. For some, the way in which “Yellowstone” selected to wrap up the storyline of Denim Richards’ Colby Mayfield was completely tragic, and dramatically worthy given what it added to the tales of different characters — for us, it simply felt like a tragic waste.
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4 episodes into season 5, Colby is killed by a horse. No manipulations from exterior forces, no heroic sacrifices, only a good character within the fallacious place on the fallacious time falling sufferer to a freak accident. As a lot because it annoys us, we’ll give Taylor Sheridan and the “Yellowstone” credit score for making an attempt to depict the cruel realities of cowboy life. The stress between human will and the forces of nature has at all times been a core theme of “Yellowstone,” which makes Colby’s dying a (considerably) justifiable solution to ship one of many cowboys off.
Ryan
In stark distinction to Colby, if any of the cowboys get a win on the finish of “Yellowstone” it is Ian Bohen’s Ryan. With the Yellowstone Ranch closed for good, Ryan and the remainder of the branded workers had been let out, and whereas a lot of them returned to comparable work, Ryan selected a brand new profession path — one which allowed him to observe his coronary heart.
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Like Walker, Ryan reunited along with his girlfriend Abby (Lainey Wilson) — who’s now touring the nation as a musician. He chooses to depart the harmful lifetime of cattle-roping behind him and turns into a stagehand on her tour, which is objectively essentially the most aspirational decision for anybody who started the present because the branded indentured servant of an organized crime household just like the Duttons (even when it lacks the dramatic weight of entries a bit additional down).
Lynelle Perry
Although “Yellowstone” was at all times pretty cynical about politicians, broadly portray them as simply corruptible pencil-pushers who lack the right data of and respect for the wild lands they’ll affect, Lynelle Perry (Wendy Moniz) at all times appeared to get the advantage of the doubt from the sequence. Although her relationship with John Dutton did personally compromise her all through, she largely appeared to work on the facet of the angels — and, most significantly, she genuinely cared for John.
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It is solely simply, then, that she be invited to John’s funeral throughout season 5. Beth (Kelly Reilly) and her siblings are adamant about retaining the ceremony small and personal, besides, they guarantee Perry is ready to attend. She additionally seemingly senses the conspiratorial air surrounding John’s demise and will get to wield energy one final time by throwing a wrench into the plans to construct an airport on the Duttons’ land.
Jimmy Hurdstrom
Of all of the ranch arms on “Yellowstone,” Jefferson White’s Jimmy Hurdstrom had the strongest character arc. As soon as a continuing screw-up and all-around burden on the ranch, he turns himself right into a dependable grownup who truly outgrows his friends on the Yellowstone ranch. If his story had ended with him using off into the sundown to the largely unknown 6666 ranches as he did in season 4, he can be ranked a lot increased on this record.
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Reasonably than go away him on the market until he returns for the spin-off, however, Taylor Sheridan apparently favored Jimmy a lot that he brought the character back for season 5 just to bully him personally. We cannot waste time echoing the broad dislike of Sheridan’s cringe-inducing Travis Wheatley, nor are we gonna knock factors off for Jimmy simply because the 2 are linked. That mentioned, being the butt of Travis’ dumb jokes looks like a step again for a personality that arguably had essentially the most full character arc on the present exterior the Duttons themselves.
Teeter
It is onerous to decide on which cowhand is extra mistreated by “Yellowstone” season 5 — Jimmy, or Jen Landon’s Teeter. Sadly, shedding your romantic curiosity might be a greater consequence if the choice is enjoying straight man to Taylor Sheridan.
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Certainly, Teeter’s remaining main plot level revolves round her recovering from Colby’s sudden dying. Her response to the information is extraordinarily highly effective, and whereas her uncooked anger at his lack of struggling could possibly be taken two alternative ways (both as a mirrored image of the poisonous life-style of the ranch or, extra probably, a delicate continuation of season 5’s bizarrely judgmental characterization of dying and suicide), Landon sells the second completely.
Teeter and Colby were one of the show’s best couples, and we’re on the very least grateful their tragic finish was given due emotional weight. It additionally makes narrative sense that she would journey on to 4 Sixes — although that in all probability means she’ll get the dangerous finish of Jimmy’s deal as effectively.
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Monica Lengthy-Dutton
Monica Lengthy-Dutton (Kelsey Asbille) has been one of many most tortured characters on “Yellowstone” since its first season. Given this truth, and the way essential she must be, not simply as Kayce Dutton’s (Luke Grimes) spouse however as one of many few Indigenous characters with direct affect on the story, we’d have favored to see her shine in season 5. Sadly, it has little to supply Monica apart from extra struggling.
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The ultimate second between her and John Dutton within the first half of the season is actually one in all if not the very best scenes the 2 characters have ever shared. Right here, John reveals her a stunning quantity of respect by asking her permission to supply Kayce the ranch. The last word decision of Kayce’s stewardship of the ranch, which ends up in their household’s freedom from the Dutton legacy, is a good sufficient endpoint for her character. However each of those resolutions have extra to do with John and Kayce’s inside locations than hers alone.
John Dutton
Because the undisputed anchor of “Yellowstone,” John Dutton deserved greater than getting Logan Roy-ed earlier than the season 5B premiere. After all, as most followers could know, Kevin Costner wasn’t initially meant to depart so quickly, however because of a mixture of things (rumored pressure between him and Taylor Sheridan, messy contract negotiations, and scheduling conflicts with the manufacturing of his movie sequence “Horizon: An American Saga”), the actor was written out of the present primarily mid-season.
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So, how’d the Yellowstone kingpin go out? Killed off-screen by associates of an affiliate of Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley), the adopted son he’d disowned way back. Followers had been understandably upset by the decision, and Costner publicly acknowledged the validity of their frustrations. His dying almost breaks the sequence’ remaining outing, however its influence (together with a posthumous second between Beth and his grave) does sufficient to make it satisfactory. If dealt with extra naturally, killing Dutton unceremoniously off-screen might have been the right ending for a personality who could not come to phrases along with his place in a world bigger than him.
Lloyd Pierce
That is one thing relatively satisfying about John Dutton’s most loyal and longest-serving ranch hand attending to exit the sequence with extra dignity and closure. As soon as the deal between Kayce and the Damaged Rock Reservation is struck, the necessity for all these “employed” by Yellowstone is thru, that means they’re all lastly free to decide on their very own destinies. This consists of Lloyd Pierce (Forrie J. Smith), essentially the most senior member of the bunkhouse.
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Properly deducing that his superior years are a uncommon present relatively than a curse upon his waning bodily capabilities (particularly seeing what occurred to Colby), Lloyd chooses to not chase the younger people all the way down to Travis’ 4 Sixes Ranch in Texas. As a substitute, he lastly retires, hopefully capable of take pleasure in the remainder of his life in relative consolation.
Rip Wheeler
Much like Monica, Rip Wheeler’s (Cole Hauser) ending is tied so intently to that of his accomplice Beth that separating him from her weakens his arc general. In contrast to Monica, nonetheless, Rip does get to play a extra energetic position within the finale.
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When he realizes what Beth’s remaining transfer shall be, Rip races to her facet simply in time to avoid wasting her from sure dying. And when she lastly does get her revenge, Rip is correct there to assist her eliminate the physique and craft the duvet story — enjoying the position he at all times has for the Duttons, besides now as somebody defending his household relatively than as a mere employed goon. It is a superb finish for Rip, although he’ll in all probability get a extra dramatic conclusion in the spin-off series featuring him and Beth.
Jamie Dutton
Jamie Dutton was at all times a personality that was so painfully near being written to his full potential. The adopted Dutton brother was usually compelled into the place of being the largest dangerous of “Yellowstone,” a scorned traitor with the distinctive set of abilities to take the Duttons out for good. However as a result of his character was so usually robbed of company, “Yellowstone” merely convincingly offered him because the equally harmful and compelling villain he might’ve been.
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Although these issues are nonetheless very a lot current in Jamie’s remaining storyline, we’ll no less than give credit score the place it is due and acknowledge how becoming it was that he was slain in such a manner. It’s revealed over the course of the season that Jamie’s conspiratorial ally ordered the hit on John Dutton — with Jamie kinda-sorta-but-not-actually giving her the go-ahead. As irritating as it’s for Jamie to be undermined like this regardless of being the ultimate villain of “Yellowstone,” it does hold the present’s contemptuous portrait of him constant proper up till the top. It is virtually as if the universe (*cough* the writers *cough*) has no respect for a scheming lawyer who has at all times acted above the ranch and its methods, however in actuality, had been reliant on them for longer than he’d realized.
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In the long run, he is gutted by Beth in an act of brutal vengeance that’s layered with symbolism. For Jamie’s half particularly, the “gutting” feels intentional. It is one thing a real Dutton — somebody he pretended to be, then pretended to be superior to — would do to an animal. In his final moments, Beth symbolically transforms the power-hungry politician into the pig he’s. His physique is disposed of, his fame is posthumously ruined, and his son will develop up with out his father. Jamie’s life and dying at the moment are a quiet echo of his personal tragic and apparently uninstructive upbringing.
Thomas Rainwater
Although Taylor Sheridan hasn’t always handled the storylines of “Yellowstone’s” Indigenous characters with as a lot care as he did the Duttons, a lot of Thomas Rainwater’s (Gil Birmingham) story arc proves not solely how pure his intentions had been, however how expert of a screenwriter Sheridan is. It may be tough to create a compelling overarching antagonist for a sequence centered round a darkish antihero like John Dutton. However relatively than merely depend on higher evil story tropes, he gave the Duttons Rainwater, a foe who was genuinely righteous in his goals however corrupted by the Duttons’ affect as a lot as anybody else. As a substitute of conceding to and benefiting from their energy, nonetheless, he was compelled to make use of morally corrosive ways to struggle for his individuals’s future.
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As such, Rainwater’s story involves a largely sunny finish that’s, not like many storylines within the latter half of season 5, truly supported by John’s sudden dying. Together with his archenemy gone and the household as a complete weakened, Rainwater is lastly ready to comply with a compromise that satisfies the guts of his aspirations with out requiring strategic industrialization of the land. Quite the opposite, when he purchases the Duttons’ land from Kayce, he does so on the phrases that he will not construct something on it — that means the sale can’t financially profit him as as soon as may need. Birmingham had been instructed by Sheridan at first of season 1 that Rainwater would ultimately win the land, although he was stunned by the exact method it happened. Like Cole Hauser, Birmingham is ready to continue Rainwater’s story whenever – on the condition that Sheridan himself be the one to write it.
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Beth Dutton
Love her, hate her, or like to hate her, Beth Dutton was at all times given a number of the wildest storylines in “Yellowstone.” Taylor Sheridan clearly loved writing the vengeful Dutton daughter, whose return to the Ranch following her older brother Lee’s dying noticed her evolve from a cutthroat monetary govt to a real pressure of nature within the not-so-wild west. One might argue that, for higher and for worse, she was finally John’s true inheritor — a doubtful honor she earned by embracing her father’s violent methods firsthand within the finale.
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Beth had already embraced killing as a obligatory a part of the Yellowstone struggle for survival, and by the primary half of season 5, she was actively campaigning for the assassination of her personal adopted brother, Jamie. As soon as she turns into sure of Jamie’s position in John’s personal assassination, her fury is totally unleashed — she ambushes Jamie in his dwelling, bodily beats him, and (with a last-minute save from Rip Wheeler) stabs him within the intestine, killing him.
The particular method Beth chooses to kill Jamie could be symbolic. The situation she stabs him in — on her personal physique — can be near her reproductive system. It is in all probability the closest she will be able to get to immediately paying him again for sterilizing her with out her consent after they had been younger, which is where much of Beth’s deep hatred for Jamie stems from. It additionally could possibly be seen as a definitive therapeutic second for Beth in a wierd method, as she does the killing herself and thus will get to take full possession of the brutal, lawless, and lethal nature of her life, which has haunted her for the reason that tragic dying of her mom.
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Kayce Dutton
If there’s one storyline Taylor Sheridan and “Yellowstone” completely caught the touchdown on, it was that of Kayce. The youngest of the Duttons had at all times been the guts of the sequence, a bodily manifestation of the battle between his household and the reservation that constantly made “Yellowstone” extra compelling. Kayce’s journey all through the sequence noticed the veteran and rancher, as soon as primarily estranged from his household, be pulled again into their lives. Although he sought to safe a greater future for his spouse Monica and their son Tate, the Yellowstone Ranch corrupted as a lot because it supplied,
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Within the finale of “Yellowstone,” Kayce has lastly develop into the person he must be each to honor his household on the reservation and to guard the land his father and siblings had devoted their lives to. Reasonably than get tousled within the violence as he had within the premiere, he makes a take care of Chief Thomas Rainwater to promote the Duttons’ land for a couple of greenback an acre — the worth the Duttons initially bought the land for, which occurs to be sufficient to settle the remaining siblings’ imposing inheritance tax legal responsibility. However greater than the rest, it frees Kayce as soon as and for all, a want echoed in his request to Tate that he be buried wherever he’s — not on the ranch.
Taking pictures the second half of season 5 was straightforward for Luke Grimes, and he appeared able to say goodbye to Kayce for good after the finale. In 2025, nonetheless, it was confirmed that he would reprise the role of Kayce to lead an untitled “Yellowstone” spin-off — and although there aren’t particulars out but, we all know exactly what we’d like to see next from our favorite Dutton.
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