After an especially long hiatus, Yellowstone has finally returned for the second half of its fifth and final season. The final six episodes of Taylor Sheridan’s long-running Western series promise a dramatic and violent conclusion to the Dutton family saga as they fight again for their ancestral ranch. However, the series itself is beset by complications stemming from behind the scenes, particularly with star Kevin Costner, who portrayed John Dutton in the first four and a half seasons. After contract disputes, Costner announced that he would not return for the second half of Yellowstone Season 5, forcing the series to carry on without him for its final episodes.
As the patriarch of the Dutton family, John’s departure was a major shakeup for Yellowstone, giving the series an extra challenge in trying to come to a satisfying conclusion without its protagonist. Although his name still appears in the show’s opening credits, Kevin Costner does not appear in Yellowstone’s final six episodes, forcing the show to jump through hoops to explain his absence. While such an exit can hurt a series, Yellowstone fans tuned in for the midseason premiere to find out exactly what happened to John Dutton. The series doesn’t waste time in explaining its protagonist’s departure, but his fate has stirred controversy in the fandom.
Does John Dutton Die in Yellowstone?
John Dutton’s Final Fate Is Revealed in the Midseason Premiere
Season 5, Episode 9 of Yellowstone, entitled “Desire Is All You Need,” reveals the final tragic fate of John Dutton III. Earlier in the season, John stepped on plenty of toes when he was elected the next governor of Montana, using his newfound power to push back on the reforms being made to his state, including the airport that Market Equities planned to put on his ranch. After making many new enemies as governor, it is no surprise that Dutton would be targeted but no one thought that his fate would come at his own hand. The episode opens with Beth arriving at the governor’s mansion, where she immediately ascertains that something is wrong. After a brief conversation with the authorities, it is revealed that John Dutton killed himself.
This isn’t the end of the story, however. John’s children are unable to believe that he would end his own life and begin to suspect that foul play was involved. Beth immediately suspects that Jamie was somehow involved in their father’s death and begins plotting how to find out the truth. In Episode 10, entitled “The Apocalypse of Change,” Beth confronts Jamie in his office and demands to know whether he was involved in John’s death. Although he doesn’t answer the question, Jaime’s guilt is written all over his face. By the end of their conversation, Beth is sure of one thing: Jaime had something to do with John’s death.
What Really Happened to John Dutton?
John’s Death Wasn’t a Suicide After All
Although John Dutton’s death was officially ruled as a suicide, Yellowstone reveals that much darker forces were at play behind the governor’s untimely demise. More importantly, as Beth had guessed, Jaime was partially responsible for his father’s death. Earlier in the season, Sarah Atwood, a corporate shark working for Market Equities, seduced Jaime Dutton and turned him against his family once again. She convinced Jaime that the best course of action would be removing his adoptive father from the board entirely, opening the path for him to become Montana’s new governor and clearing the biggest obstacle standing in the way of Market Equities’ new airport. Foolishly believing that Sarah wouldn’t act on this assertion, Jaime was quick to agree with everything she said, not realizing that he had just given his seal of approval for his father’s murder.
Yellowstone Season 5 reveals that Sarah Atwood approached a covert mercenary organization to hire an assassin to kill John Dutton. Although the murder itself isn’t shown, Atwood is informed that the mercenary would stage the scene to look like a suicide, leaving few questions for the authorities to trace the death back to her. John’s death would be an open-and-shut case, made even more believable by his impending impeachment trial. With John supposedly killing himself on the night before his trial was to begin, few would have questions about what had happened. After John’s murder, Sarah finally reveals the truth to Jaime, who somehow is still unaware of the role that he played in the death of his adoptive father. While horrified at what he had agreed to, Jaime agrees to capitalize on John’s death and begins making plans to replace him as governor.
What John’s Death Means for Yellowstone’s Final Season
John Dutton’s death leaves Yellowstone‘s final season in a precarious position. While Taylor Sheridan has hinted that the plan was always for John to die before the series finale, his character’s fate likely would have been executed very differently had Kevin Costner returned for the final episodes. Speeding through the end of John’s story will undoubtedly hurt the show, though there were limited options in dealing with Costner’s exit. Despite the somewhat rushed nature of its protagonist’s death, Yellowstone has pivoted nicely to follow the surviving Duttons as they deal with their patriarch’s death. Moreover, John’s assassination paves a perfect path forward for the remaining few episodes of the series.
John’s death puts Beth and Jaime Dutton on a collision course that will end with one of their deaths. The two characters have hated each other for decades, with Beth vowing to kill Jaime on multiple occasions throughout the series. Now, with the knowledge that he was involved in their father’s death, Beth will stop at nothing to finally kill the Dutton family pariah–though she may lose her own life in the process. Moreover, John’s death leaves a hole in the ranch as it remains unclear who will take over its operations. Neither Beth nor Kayce wants to take over the ranch, though the latter has decided that he will do so if his son promises to carry on the Dutton legacy when it is finally his turn. However, as things continue to build to a crescendo, John’s death might kick off the series of events that will eventually lead to the Duttons finally losing the Yellowstone ranch.
Kevin Costner’s Yellowstone exit upends the series as it scrambles to find a reason for John Dutton’s absence in the final episodes. Nevertheless, John’s gruesome and tragic fate opens the door for intriguing stories in the last few installments of Taylor Sheridan’s iconic Western series.
