Kevin Costner’s ‘Yellowstone’ Fate Doesn’t Do Right by John Dutton — or the Show
Taylor Sheridan finally revealed how his franchise tentpole could work without its exiting star and, initially, it sure seems like it can't.
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In the end, John Dutton lost.
Given “Yellowstone‘s” overt, lingering sentimentality for his waning way of life, as well as its candor in acknowledging the growing threats facing modern ranching, perhaps Dutton’s failure isn’t all that surprising. After all, the unlikely gubernatorial candidate once built his platform around bringing a halt to progress itself. “I am the opposite of progress,” Dutton said. “I am the wall it bashes against, and I will not be the one who breaks.”
Except, of course, he did. In Season 5, Episode 9 — the long-awaited return of “Yellowstone” after a two-year hiatus — creator Taylor Sheridan revealed the John Dutton is dead. Police at the Governor’s mansion inform his children, Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Kayce (Luke Grimes), that John died by suicide. Obviously, that isn’t true. John is too proud to take himself out of the saddle, and this is still “Yellowstone,” so viewers know a twist is coming.
Instead, it appears Jamie (Wes Bentley) orchestrated his father’s demise. After thinking about putting a hit on John an episode prior, it seems the ambitious attorney general followed through with a little help from his girlfriend/fixer, Sarah (Dawn Olivieri). They talked about it, she acted on it, and now John is dead, just like that. Sarah instructed her hatchet man to make the great cattle man’s death look like a suicide, and that’s exactly what the authorities believe happened.
While John being murdered is much more plausible than John taking his own life, the twist doesn’t do all that much to improve how Sheridan ultimately decided to keep “Yellowstone” running without its lead actor. (Costner, long ago, announced he would not return to the franchise, preferring to make his four-part, 12-hour “film” series, “Horizon: An American Saga.”) Sure, the fact that the eldest Dutton died before he could secure his ranch for future generations isn’t hard to believe. Progress, in the grand, sweeping sense that John used the term, cannot be stopped (let alone reversed, as the most powerful man in Montana aimed to do). But the devil’s in the details, and the details of John’s death are all wrong. How he’s suspected of dying and how he actually died both seem out of line for a character — and a series — that deserved better.