Editor’s notice: The under comprises main spoilers for Yellowstone Season 5 Episode 9.Properly, we have been ready practically two years now for Yellowstone to return and end off its fifth and remaining season, however with the superior information of Kevin Costner‘s untimely exit from the collection, many followers have questioned what the present would do with John Dutton. Ever because the very first episode of the Paramount Community drama, Costner’s Dutton patriarch has been the face of all the Yellowstone franchise. It is onerous to think about the present with out him, however we cannot need to any longer. How did tonight’s Season 5 Half 2 return, “Want Is All You Want,” reply the John Dutton downside?

‘Yellowstone’ Season 5 Writes John Dutton Off in a Brutal Manner

Reasonably than hold audiences hanging or draw out a season-long elephant within the room, Yellowstone decides to kill John Dutton off-screen, and instantly as “Want Is All You Want” will get began. No, we do not see something occur. With out Kevin Costner, we do not even see John Dutton’s face (a physique double stands in for the Western icon’s corpse). Reasonably, we watch in horror as each Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Kayce (Luke Grimes) arrive on the Dutton residence, which is swarmed by flashing lights and emergency responders. It appears to be like, for all intents and functions, like John died by suicide, having shot himself within the head at roughly 3:53 am the very morning that his impeachment trial was set to begin. If that each one sounds too handy — and under no circumstances just like the John Dutton you have been awaiting the previous 47 episodes — then you definately’re onto one thing.

It seems that after Jamie’s (Wes Bentley) discuss along with his present lover/company shark, Sarah Atwood (Daybreak Olivieri), on the finish of Season 5 Half 1, the Market Equities stooge will get proper to enterprise. As “Want Is All You Want” jumps between the current with John’s demise and the latest previous, we study that Sarah met with a employed gun six weeks prior and employed him to make John’s demise seem like a suicide. Company espionage at its most interesting. To make issues worse, when Jamie discovers on the information that John killed himself, he is studying about it for the very first time. In spite of everything, when he and Sarah talked about “skilled” choices to eliminate Jamie’s issues, he was referring to Beth. Sarah, alternatively, clearly had Market Equities (and their Paradise Valley growth offers) on her thoughts. Their largest opposition, in fact, was all the time Governor John Dutton.

So John Dutton did not kill himself. Greater than probably, he put up some type of battle earlier than being executed, however proper now, we do not know all the main points. And albeit, they do not matter. John Dutton is lifeless. Taylor Sheridan has ushered Yellowstone, each as a standalone collection and because the flagship narrative in a bigger Yellowstone Universe, into a brand new age — and there isn’t any going again. Sure, Kevin Costner’s identify nonetheless seems within the opening titles, however the John Dutton we all know and love is lengthy gone.

This Is not the First Time That John Dutton Has Been Supposedly Killed Off on ‘Yellowstone’

After all, this is not the primary time that we have seen John Dutton at demise’s door. Again in Season 1, we thought that John Dutton was dying of most cancers, and the primary occasions of the primary two seasons had been largely pushed by his need to make sure his household legacy earlier than he handed on. (Season 2’s “A Thundering” later reveals that he solely had a ruptured ulcer, not colon most cancers as he had assumed.) Then, on the finish of Season 3’s “The World Is Purple,” Dutton is almost killed once more after Garrett Randall (Will Patton) orders successful on the Dutton household to make sure his organic son, Jamie, would inherit every thing he is “owed.” After John is gunned down on the facet of the highway, it appears inconceivable that he would dwell on. But, we obtained one other 18 episodes (and two seasons) out of him.

If that is really it for John Dutton (and we have now no purpose at this level to consider that it’s not), and if Kevin Costner does not return with a shock twist on the finish to make all of it proper, then Yellowstone has really entered its remaining kind. John has joined his firstborn son, Lee (Dave Annable), and all the opposite Duttons earlier than him within the afterlife, and his youngsters at the moment are left to resolve what the way forward for their land, their model, and their household identify can be. With so much to do in solely six episodes, the remainder of Yellowstone Season 5 will little doubt captivate us till these remaining credit roll.

Why Did not Kevin Costner Return for the Remainder of ‘Yellowstone’ Season 5?

However why did not Kevin Costner return for the again half of Yellowstone‘s fifth and supposedly remaining season? Properly, it’s kind of difficult. After a number of manufacturing delays, Yellowstone was starting to intrude with Costner’s multi-film epic Western collection, Horizon: An American Saga. In line with Costner, it was the studios who mismanaged issues, to the purpose the place he may now not take part. “That they had me for [seasons] 5, six, and 7,” the actor advised Deadline in Could 2024. “I agreed to do it. After which they steadily started altering their format.” Regardless of that, Costner maintains that he’s keen to return again to Yellowstone if the circumstances enable. May that imply John Dutton is not actually lifeless? Properly, it does not appear probably.

In line with Kelly Reilly, Yellowstone‘s final batch of episodes goes precisely as Taylor Sheridan initially deliberate it. “The absence was a part of the ending,” the actress advised Leisure Weekly in October 2024, a couple of month earlier than the collection returned. “That’s not one thing that we needed to pivot; it was already written into the tapestry of the story. It was all the time going to occur, it simply unfolded just a little in another way.” Even so, Luke Grimes believes the present is on its final leg. It looks like it was all the time the plan for Costner’s flagship character to be eliminated from the Yellowstone narrative, which can little doubt go away followers questioning how that was initially supposed to return about. Nonetheless, because the Duttons reel from their heartbreaking loss — and Beth plans to kill Jamie herself — we’ll simply have to attend and see what kind of sundown Taylor Sheridan paints for our heroes to experience off in.

Yellowstone Season 5 Half 2 airs Sundays on Paramount Community. Earlier seasons could be streamed on Peacock.

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