Yellowstone Never Explains Thomas Rainwater’s Backstory, But Taylor Sheridan Can Still Fix That

Taylor Sheridan never revisits Thomas Rainwater’s backstory in Yellowstone, but there are still opportunities to rectify Gil Birmingham’s character history. The Yellowstone executive producer’s flagship work came to an end with Yellowstone season 5, part 2, which saw the death of John Dutton III after Kevin Costner’s controversial Yellowstone exit. After his death, John’s kids handled the family’s legacy as best they could, with Kayce (Luke Grimes) selling the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch to Thomas Rainwater and the Broken Rock Tribe.

The events of Yellowstone season 5, part 2 had disappointing elements, primarily due to John’s death, but the Broken Rock Tribe’s win was a triumph. By selling the land back to the ancestors of its Indigenous stewards, Kayce Dutton fulfilled Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone prophecy from 1883, in which John’s ancestor, James Dutton (Tim McGraw), promised Spotted Eagle (Graham Greene) that the Dutton family tree would return the land to the Crow people in seven generations. Still, we don’t get the complete picture of what this triumph means for Rainwater, since Yellowstone never follows up on Thomas’ backstory from season 1.

Yellowstone Never Explains Thomas Rainwater’s Backstory

Yellowstone Season 1 Tells Some Of Rainwater’s Origin

In Yellowstone season 1, we witness pivotal moments for Thomas Rainwater. In Yellowstone’s series premiere, Thomas Rainwater becomes the tribal chairman of the Broken Rock Tribe, taking on the honor and the challenge of restoring well-being to his people. While his mission is misunderstood by his people throughout Yellowstone, Thomas knows that the best thing he can do for them is restore their ownership of the land, thereby restoring their way of life. We learn a bit about Rainwater’s background in the pilot, which helps to inform his goals, but our understanding could be even more robust.

When becoming chairman of the Broken Rock Tribe, Thomas tells a visiting Montana senator that he didn’t grow up on the reservation. Contrasting the scene, as Thomas is adorned in traditional regalia, Rainwater tells the lawmaker that he thought he was Mexican until he was 18 years old, only learning that he was Native American after his adoption records were unsealed in adulthood. Yellowstone season 1 gives us one more tidbit in Thomas Rainwater’s threat to John Dutton, with the chairman saying he studied at Harvard and worked in acquisitions and mergers at Merrill Lynch.

After Yellowstone season 1, we learn little else about Thomas Rainwater’s background. However, Thomas plays a pivotal role in the series’ conclusion, making the landmark deal with Kayce Dutton that restores the land to his people. The end of Yellowstone was controversial for many fans, who didn’t want to see John die or the family lose the land. Understanding more of Thomas’ backstory and thereby his motivations could have aided Yellowstone season 5’s reception. Other fans who also watched 1883, thereby gaining a deeper understanding of the Yellowstone finale, viewed its events as a triumph for the franchise.

Taylor Sheridan Can Still Tell More Of Thomas Rainwater’s Story

Yellowstone’s Story Is Continuing Robustly After The Original Series Ended

While we didn’t get to learn more about Thomas Rainwater’s backstory in Yellowstone, Taylor Sheridan could be saving more developments for his upcoming Yellowstone spinoffs. After Yellowstone season 5’s finale, the story will continue for Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) in a Yellowstone offshoot on Paramount+, and Kayce’s story will continue in a procedural series for CBS, tentatively titled Y: Marshals. Thomas could emerge in an upcoming spinoff series, and we could thereby learn more about the tribal leader. His appearance in Kayce’s series is promising, considering the bond he and John’s son formed in Yellowstone.

Perhaps a more exciting prospect and one that’s more likely is that we will learn more about Thomas Rainwater’s origin story in upcoming Yellowstone continuations that look back at the past, with at least one prequel series in the works and another one in the pipeline. Thomas is presumably connected to 1923’s Teonna Rainwater, and her story could continue in Sheridan’s next prequel, 1944. That said, it’s more likely fans will have to wait even longer than 1944‘s release, with Sheridan’s teased 1960s prequel the perfect place to reveal more about Thomas, potentially connecting it to his birth.