Cole Hauser – the star who played Rip Wheeler in “Yellowstone” – has passed away suddenly at the age of 50 md20

As we eagerly anticipate any news about the upcoming Yellowstone spin-offs, it’s easy to fall back into binging old episodes of the flagship neo-Western. Of course, whenever you do that, you’re bound to discover something new that Taylor Sheridan didn’t pay off with the series finale, which can be just as frustrating as it is hopeful. Hopeful, of course, in the sense that just maybe an upcoming project will make things right. When it comes to The Dutton Ranch, the upcoming Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Rip (Cole Hauser) series still in the works at Paramount, the spin-off can make good on a threat from the end of Season 5 that Sheridan seemingly forgot about entirely.

Sheriff Ramsey Never Returned to Give the Duttons Their Due in ‘Yellowstone’ Season 5

Image via Paramount Network

After recurring Park County Sheriff Donnie Haskell (Hugh Dillon) is shockingly killed in a gunfight in Yellowstone Season 4, it seemed that might be the end of local law enforcement on the show. Haskell had been a growing presence in the Dutton drama since the end of the first season, so his death certainly came as a surprise (though perhaps not to diehard Sheridan fans, who knew that he was busy co-creating Mayor of Kingstown). In the fallout of Haskell’s death, Rob Kirkland‘s Bill Ramsey — a watch commander who previously appeared in Season 2’s “Enemies by Monday” — takes his place as the interim sheriff. “Things will be different with me in charge,” Ramsey told John Dutton (Kevin Costner) back then, who inquired about potential new rules. “Still the old rules, but now they’ll be enforced,” the lawman replied. By the time Season 5 comes around, we begin to see what Ramsey means.

In the Season 5 episode “Tall Drink of Water,” Beth assaults a woman at a local Bozeman dive bar and a fight ensues between the Dutton clan and several others. When the cops are called in, they put Beth in the back of a squad car, much to Rip’s frustration. Before he can make a scene, Rip is warned by a deputy that the new sheriff “doesn’t put up with this s**t”; he couldn’t care less about the prestige of the Dutton name. It’s here that Ramsey shows up and — if we can suspend our disbelief that he would have any jurisdiction in Bozeman, which exists in Gallatin County, as a Park County lawman (one of the many things Yellowstone gets wrong about Montana) — lays down the law. Though he threatens to charge Rip and the others with battery, he ends up only arresting Beth for aggravated assault, deeming it a “problem of her own making.” In the end, Ramsey makes it abundantly clear to Rip that he will not tolerate the Duttons’ antics any longer.

This great scene concludes with the sheriff getting his man (or, woman in this case), but afterward, Ramsey is never seen again. Despite having only appeared three times on the show, Ramsey’s Season 5 return seemed to be a step toward making him a more recurring character. After everything that happened with Kevin Costner’s exit and John Dutton’s untimely death, this ended up being just another Yellowstone tease that never paid off — but one of Sheridan’s upcoming spin-offs could rectify that.

‘The Dutton Ranch’ Should Resurrect ‘Yellowstone’s Forgotten Season 5 Threat

Image via Paramount Network

Between these two confrontations, first between Ramsey and John and later between the sheriff and Rip, it seemed as if Yellowstone Season 5 was building toward a showdown between the Duttons and local law enforcement. The Duttons got away with so much earlier in the series because they had Haskell in their back pocket; as Ramsey tells John, Haskell had serious gambling debts and was willing to look the other way for anyone who might line his pocket with more. But the new sheriff in town couldn’t have been more different. With so many bodies hidden at the infamous “train station,” it almost seemed inevitable that the Duttons’ darkness would one day be so openly exposed. Considering we don’t know at all what the Rip and Beth spin-off will entail, perhaps the best way for The Dutton Ranch to continue off from the flagship series is by making Ramsey an important player.

No matter how cathartic Jamie’s (Wes Bentley) death was in the series finale “Life Is a Promise,” Beth literally got away with actual murder. We know that Ramsey promised that he was going to enforce the law, no longer looking the other way for the Duttons. More than that, Yellowstone has already established that county jurisdiction apparently doesn’t matter — unless Ramsey is actually the Gallatin County sheriff, which could be the case, though the show never sets up his transition from Park to Gallatin — the fact that Beth killed Jamie in Helena shouldn’t be a roadblock to seeing justice done. Sure, Rip, Beth, and Finn Little‘s Carter have moved westward toward Dillon, but that doesn’t mean that Ramsey couldn’t work to build a case against them from afar.

With John Dutton no longer around to protect Beth as governor, Beth doesn’t have the same political allies she once did. This leaves her wide-open as a target for Ramsey’s desire to rebrand Bozeman as an anti-corruption town in modern-day Montana. Of course, Beth doesn’t live in Bozeman any longer, but if Ramsey’s serious about seeing the Duttons brought to justice, he won’t just stop with John’s death. Kayce (Luke Grimes) may be moving on as a U.S. Marshal (hoping to redeem himself for his past mistakes), but Beth and Rip could still very well be up to the same old shady business as usual.

Sorry, but Beth and Rip Should Face Consequences for Their Actions on ‘Yellowstone’

The Dutton Ranch ought to follow up on Yellowstone Season 5’s biggest threat, and possibly even deliver Rip and Beth the consequences they really do deserve. While there’s no doubt that these two are fan favorites, their murderous, violent, and immoral acts should eventually catch up with them. Those bodies in the train station won’t be hidden forever, and the truth will eventually have to come out about Jamie’s murder, right? Sheridan has already introduced the best character to investigate these crimes, so it’s time for the spin-off to give Rob Kirkland a call.

While Donnie Haskell wasn’t a driving force of Yellowstone‘s narrative, the former sheriff factored into the series quite nicely on more than one occasion. If The Dutton Ranch wants to emulate the flagship drama’s success, perhaps bringing back Bill Ramsey will help make things interesting. As Kevin Costner himself once said, the Duttons all belong in prison. Who knows? This may finally move the show away from the constant land-grabbing, greedy real estate developer plots of yesteryear and usher the neo-Western into a new era.