Kevin Costner is going to the train station.
Costner, 69, left the hit ranch drama “Yellowstone” before the second half of Season 5, amid a flurry of rumors about an alleged feud with showrunner Taylor Sheridan.
Now in its fifth and final season, the show follows the Dutton family, owners of the largest ranch in Montana, including patriarch John (Costner) and his adult children Kayce (Luke Grimes), Jamie (Wes Bentley), Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Beth’s husband, Rip (Cole Hauser). According to Paramount, 17 million viewers tuned into the first half of Season 5.
Where the show left off, John was the Governor of Montana and Jamie had a full-fledged villain arc, working against his family.
The second half of Season 5 premiered Sunday, Nov. 10 on Paramount Network (8 p.m.). Although there are rumors of a possible Season 6, Paramount hasn’t confirmed or announced that.
So, how did the show handle Costner’s exit? Did it send John off on a business trip? Did it take him to the “train station,” the show’s version of killing someone? Did it find a different way to write around the Costner-shaped hole in the story?
Spoilers below on the premiere of “Yellowstone” Season 5B.
The second half of the final season kicks off with an episode that revolves around John Dutton’s death. Yep, it turns out that “Yellowstone” addressed Costner’s absence by swiftly and brutally axing his character. Ouch.
The episode opens with Beth getting out of her car at her father’s house, alarmed to see a swarm of cops and ambulances outside. “That’s my father, what happened, is this a crime scene?” she asks. She frantically calls her brother, Kayce, and tells him, “I know nothing, but I know he’s gone.”
When Kayce arrives, the sibling duo enters the house. Solemn-faced cops tell them that they don’t want to see, but they take a look, anyway.
There’s a body on the ground, a puddle of blood and a gun on the floor, and blood spatter on a wall – John is dead from a gunshot wound, but his face isn’t shown (since it’s clearly a body double, as Costner was not on set to film it).
As Beth and Kayce cry and hug, Beth bitterly says, “It was Jamie.”
The scene cuts to local news anchors reporting that John’s house is surrounded by cops, and he provided no statement. One local news anchor says, “It appears more and more likely that the 26th governor of Montana has died.” (While this anchor is right, no real anchor would say that before reporting more thoroughly and getting confirmation. Oh well).
“Yellowstone” then checks in with Jamie, as he gets a phone call and looks sad. The audience doesn’t hear who called him or what was said, but it seems to be the news of John’s death. Since he’s the Attorney General, Jamie holds a press conference to inform the public that John died. He gets choked up and struggles to utter the words. Jamie’s emotions at John’s death appear to be genuine.
So, it’s not clear yet if Beth is right that Jamie killed John.
The scene returns to Beth and Kayce. Beth is aghast to hear that John’s death was ruled a suicide.
Beth repeats that Jamie did it. Although Kayce agrees with her that it couldn’t have been suicide, he says, “I don’t think Jamie is capable of it.”
Getting more hysterical, Beth calls Rip, who is off in Texas, and says, “Baby, they f–king killed him. My daddy.”
The episode then cuts to six weeks earlier.
Sarah Atwood (Dawn Olivieri), the evil lawyer who is sleeping with Jamie, is shown meeting with a sophisticated hit man.
They discuss killing John. The hit man tells her that a staged suicide would be the cleanest way to do it, since a staged heart attack is riskier, as a toxicology report could catch them.
After she gives him the go-ahead to act, the scene then shows Jamie crying in his room.
Sarah comes into his bedroom wearing lingerie and holding champagne glasses, ready to celebrate killing John. She’s confused why Jamie is weeping.
“We discussed this and you said to go forward,” she said.
So, it turns out that Beth is sort of right, but not entirely: John’s death is Jamie’s fault, but indirectly. He seems shocked and dismayed that Sarah actually went ahead and booked the hit.
Jamie wasn’t the one to pull the trigger, and he wasn’t the one to hire the hit man. His tears aren’t fake — especially since he started crying alone, before he realized that Sarah was there. He doesn’t appear to be triumphant about John’s death.
The way the show sets it up, it looks like the final stretch of episodes will be about Beth gunning for Jamie, seeking revenge.
The episode ends with Rip arriving home, and Beth crying in his arms.
“Yellowstone” airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on Paramount Network.
