[Editor’s note: The following article contains spoilers for “Yellowstone” Season 5, Episode 9, “Desire Is All You Need.”]
Ultimately, John Dutton misplaced.
Given “Yellowstone‘s” overt, lingering sentimentality for his waning lifestyle, in addition to its candor in acknowledging the rising threats going through fashionable ranching, maybe Dutton’s failure isn’t all that stunning. In spite of everything, the unlikely gubernatorial candidate as soon as constructed his platform round bringing a halt to progress itself. “I’m the other of progress,” Dutton stated. “I’m the wall it bashes towards, and I can’t be the one who breaks.”
Besides, after all, he did. In Season 5, Episode 9 — the long-awaited return of “Yellowstone” after a two-year hiatus — creator Taylor Sheridan revealed the John Dutton is useless. Police on the Governor’s mansion inform his kids, Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Kayce (Luke Grimes), that John died by suicide. Clearly, that isn’t true. John is simply too proud to take himself out of the saddle, and that is nonetheless “Yellowstone,” so viewers know a twist is coming.
As an alternative, it seems Jamie (Wes Bentley) orchestrated his father’s demise. After eager about placing a success on John an episode prior, it appears the bold legal professional normal adopted by means of with a bit assist from his girlfriend/fixer, Sarah (Daybreak Olivieri). They talked about it, she acted on it, and now John is useless, similar to that. Sarah instructed her hatchet man to make the nice cattle man’s demise appear to be a suicide, and that’s precisely what the authorities consider occurred.
Whereas John being murdered is far more believable than John taking his personal life, the twist doesn’t do all that a lot to enhance how Sheridan finally determined to maintain “Yellowstone” working with out its lead actor. (Costner, way back, introduced he wouldn’t return to the franchise, preferring to make his four-part, 12-hour “movie” sequence, “Horizon: An American Saga.”) Positive, the truth that the eldest Dutton died earlier than he may safe his ranch for future generations isn’t exhausting to consider. Progress, within the grand, sweeping sense that John used the time period, can’t be stopped (not to mention reversed, as probably the most highly effective man in Montana aimed to do). However the satan’s within the particulars, and the small print of John’s demise are all mistaken. How he’s suspected of dying and the way he really died each appear out of line for a personality — and a sequence — that deserved higher.
As has been closely scrutinized within the two years since “Yellowstone” Season 5 first premiered and Costner’s exit turned inevitable, the sequence did little to arrange John Dutton’s departure. In Episode 8 (the final to air earlier than the prolonged hiatus), Costner’s rancher was nonetheless the sitting governor of Montana, and he’d simply lent his public assist to his former (and present?) nemesis Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham). Collectively, they hoped to cease a pipeline from being constructed throughout tribal land — a pipeline that may additionally injury the Yellowstone ranch.
Then there was the promised impeachment. Earlier than John may depart the rostrum, information that his estranged son Jamie filed impeachment proceedings towards his adopted dad — accusing Governor Dutton of violating state regulation and, within the course of, main Montana into chapter 11 — reached the press. Reporters swarmed the stage. A proper listening to was within the offing. John, as he’s wont to do, sat silently, planning.
Plans we’ll by no means see him perform. Now, setting their father’s affairs is as much as the children, who’ve been at one another’s throats since day one and promised extra assaults on the finish of Episode 8. After Beth finds out what Jamie has completed, she suggests to her father that they take him to the Prepare Station — household code for killing somebody and dumping the physique the place it received’t ever be discovered. Anticipating his sister’s assault, Jamie suggests the identical factor to his Sarah — that they kill John earlier than John can kill Jamie. The long-brewing battle between father and son had lastly begun.
And now, after two years of anticipation, it’s over. John won’t ever get to go boot-to-boot with the son he raised to switch him. Jamie won’t ever get to face as much as a father he’s tried to stay as much as all his life. Extra importantly, the viewers won’t ever get to see the showdown “Yellowstone” has been constructing towards for 5 seasons. It doesn’t matter what’s revealed within the coming weeks, Costner received’t be part of it. Viewers won’t ever get the visceral satisfaction of father and son in a literal or figurative shootout on the Yellowstone corral.
To be clear, a lot of that’s past Sheridan’s management. If Costner wouldn’t return to shoot extra episodes, then there have been solely so many endings a creator can write for his character. However even in a cleaning soap opera as soapy as “Yellowstone” — lest we overlook, Jamie was secretly adopted as a baby and has a secret child all his personal — John Dutton’s chosen ending nonetheless strains plausibility.
For one, nobody who met John would ever consider he died by suicide. Episode 9 hints at that implausibility when Senator Perry (Wendy Moniz-Grillo) asks if Jamie believes the studies about his father’s explanation for demise. However then… everybody simply buys in anyway? It doesn’t matter how the scene was staged by Sarah’s hitman. John’s complete id was solid by means of toughness, and even in non-public, he by no means let on that he was depressed or in any other case wrestling with demons past his management. Asking individuals who knew John — the police, the ranchers, most of Montana — to consider he up and determined to die by his personal hand is about as foolish because it will get.
Making use of the identical logic, it doesn’t add up that John’s demise may come by the hands of such a minor character. Sarah has completed little to ascertain herself as a severe risk. Jamie has by no means as soon as outsmarted his father. Neither appears stronger collectively. (Their tryst seems superficially manipulative on her half, like she’s seducing Jamie as a part of her job at Market Equities, and it solely makes him look dumber for naively going together with it.) That leaves the remainder of Season 5 with numerous work to do in explaining how, precisely, these two nincompoops did what so many extra succesful antagonists throughout the earlier 4 seasons couldn’t: kill John Dutton.
However even when it does, no matter occurs subsequent, Episode 9 (“Want Is All You Want”) did little to reassure followers that “Yellowstone” can get by with out Costner. Most of the storylines nonetheless dangling hinge on Costner’s presence. How a lot will we care in regards to the pipeline being constructed if John’s not there to cease it? What about his longstanding rivalry with Thomas Rainwater? What about Summer time (Piper Perabo), and their bizarre little hippie/cowboy relationship? What about his showdown with Jamie, his questionable reference to Kayce, or a correct goodbye to the daughter who devoted her life to him? Heck, what in regards to the monetary choices he’s made to maintain the ranch working amid an outbreak of brucellosis — choices that he made, and he ought to tackle?
Just a few of those arcs are addressed in Episode 9, however what does it say about John, as a iconic fashionable cowboy, father, and chief, that he died with out resolving so many unfastened ends? Some could say, “That’s life — it’s messy.” However the sequence has by no means labored for accuracy (besides with regards to wrangling cattle and the like). It strives for emotional truths over all else, whether or not it’s Beth’s tough-talking enterprise negotiations (which, if utilized actually, are primarily nonsensical) or Kayce’s “shoot first, ask questions by no means” methods of serving as livestock commissioner. Costner may promote these due to his film star gravitas, his lived expertise, his standing on the present, and the standing he lent to his character.
This isn’t “Succession,” the place the query of, “What occurs after Logan Roy dies?” is baked into the story. That is “Yellowstone,” the place John Dutton is preventing the very thought of an after, of what’s subsequent, of progress itself.
Now that he misplaced — and to an adversary positive to have him handing over his grave — what extra is there to say?
“Yellowstone” releases new episodes on Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on Paramount Community. Watch a season-preview beneath.