With Yellowstone set to soon return to television with the second half of its fifth (and formerly final) season, the fans can only hope that all the developments from the first half receive a satisfying payoff. Even though the audience couldn’t be any more excited about what the future has in store for the Dutton family, that doesn’t always mean that they haven’t had the odd complaint about the show in the past. Season 4 was, critically, one of the strongly praised installments of the show to date. As with most other TV shows, however, it wasn’t able to please everyone, with many fans pointing to one element they found to be particularly disappointing. Although Kayce Dutton has gone through quite a bit as a character, his story arc in Season 4 left a lot to be desired in the eyes of the audience.
Kayce has often been considered to be not just the most likable member of the Dutton family, but one of the most likable characters overall in the whole series. Given this, many fans are disappointed that the show hasn’t found anything interesting for him to do lately. Even though he started with an interesting enough arc, the fans have recently come to see his arcs as repetitive and stale. With Season 5 set to return soon, and especially with a sixth on the way, it’s not too late for the show to make up for Kayce’s stagnation as a character.
What Was Kayce’s Story in Yellowstone Before Season 4?
The Youngest of The Dutton Family, Kayce Has Been Seen As One of The Show’s More Likable Characters
| Every Season of Yellowstone (So Far) | Rotten Tomatoes Score |
|---|---|
| Season 1 (2018) | 57% |
| Season 2 (2019) | 89% |
| Season 3 (2020) | 100% |
| Season 4 (2021-2022) | 91% |
| Season 5 (2022-) | 84% |
Played by Luke Grimes, as the youngest member of the Dutton family, Kayce was introduced in the first season as a former Navy SEAL with a strained relationship with his family. He had settled on the Broken Rock Reservation with his wife, Monica, along with their son, Tate, making ends meet with a job as a horse tamer. Even though he had made friendships and a new family of his own on the reservation, he was still treated and felt very much like an outsider. In the pilot, he attempted to save his brother, Lee, who had already been mortally wounded by his father-in-law, Robert, forcing him to kill the latter. Later on, with John wants to reconcile their relationship, he offers a chance for the family to stay on the ranch, but Monica refuses, not wanting to endanger Tate in the family’s business, and she and Kayce wound up separating until the end of Season 2.
Kayce has been portrayed as a loving husband and father, who carries a much stronger moral compass than the rest of the family, and as a result, the fans have come to see him as one of the show’s more likable and easy-to-root for characters amid all the chaos caused by John and the rest. His story in Season 1 may have seemed like an intriguing setup for him to be a more heroic character with an engaging personal journey for him to undergo. Seasons 2 and 3, however, began to treat him as more and more of an afterthought. Most of his scenes consisted of working on the ranch interacting with Rip and the other ranch hands, and participating in the story in any significant way. Having worked as part of the commissioner of the Livestock Association, he was tapped by the chairmen of the Stock Growers Association to possibly run for governor, but this potential story arc sadly didn’t end up going anywhere.
Why Fans Felt Kayce Was Wasted in Season 4
Season 4’s Finale Gave Him a Big Moment, But The Rest of The Season Failed To Use Him Significantly
| Best Episodes of Yellowstone Season 4 | IMDb Score |
|---|---|
| “Half the Money”, Episode 1 | 9.3 |
| “Phantom Pain”, Episode 2 | 8.5 |
| “Keep the Wolves Close”, Episode 7 | 8.2 |
While Season 1 had set him to be an important character, fans had become more and more let down by how Yellowstone was failing to make him feel as important to the narrative as the rest of the Duttons. This shared disappointment reached its peak by Season 4, with many pointing out that he was given almost nothing to do. The only moment of any real significance he had in Season 4 didn’t occur until the finale, where he embarked on an Indigenous ritual to be accepted as a full member of Monica’s tribe. In this process, he underwent a “spirit quest”, experiencing a series of hallucinogenic visions that could have foreshadowed the future and overall fate of the Duttons.
One of the biggest critics of the use of Kayce’s character was Riley Utley, an editor for CinemaBlend, who even wrote an entire piece on it titled “I Love Yellowstone, But I Have a Bone to Pick With How The Show Uses Luke Grimes’ Character”. Utley had written that Kayce has always been her favorite of John and Evelyn’s children, which has made her all the more upset over how much the show isolated him from his family and how distant he had become from the show’s grander conflicts in its storyline.
It’s true that Kayce hadn’t turned on Jamie in Season 4, and he stands as this kind of neutral point in the feud between Wes Bentley’s character and Kelly Reilly’s Beth. However, he’s almost too neutral. I want to see some emotion, some fight from the Dutton, and I want to see him work directly with or against his siblings, not just live in the vicinity of them.
Seeing how Paramount has already confirmed a sixth season, there’s plenty more opportunity to include and involve Kayce more with bigger and more important storylines. With the second half of Season 5 having yet to premiere, there’s even more time for the show to make up for the amount that it could have previously towards Kayce’s development.
Has Season 5 Made Better Use of Kayce’s Character?
Luke Grimes Has Hinted That Bigger Things Are Ahead For Kayce
- The second half of Yellowstone Season 5 is set to premiere November 10 on Paramount Network.
In the first half of Season 5, Monica was shown to be pregnant as she and Kayce were expecting a second child after moving away from the ranch. Unfortunately, they later found themselves in a car accident that, despite both of them and Tate surviving, ended up tragically taking the life of their unborn child. After another brief separation, along with another heartfelt reunion between him and Monica took place, Kayce also agreed to take up the mantle of running the ranch after John had won the election for Governor. In the previously mentioned article, Utley also pointed out that even though Season 5 has given him more to do, especially with the reunion between him and Monica, it’s still not quite enough.
There’s always been reason to worry for Kayce and Monica, however, it was amplified during Season 5. While this point of contention is important to the overall show, having this be his primary storyline season after season has become a bit worn out. Also, it has isolated the youngest Dutton from the rest of his family, and I feel like that’s made the story less interesting.
It was established very early on that Kayce is a character that is actually far more complex than the show has really been allowing him to be. According to Business Insider, Luke Grimes has hinted that there is a “big moment” in store for Kayce and the character will “step up” in a major way. As the rest of Season 5 looms over, however, the audience will just have to wait and see how the show follows through with this promise.
