“Yellowstone” went to the train station.
After five seasons, the hit cowboy drama “Yellowstone” ended on Sunday night – well, probably.
Season 5 was supposedly the final season. However, on Wednesday, it was reported that stars Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser have closed deals to lead a spinoff show about their characters, husband and wife Beth and Rip.
In August, multiple outlets also reported that there’s a Season 6 in the works, but Paramount never announced or confirmed that. The Beth and Rip show will reportedly be a separate spinoff series, not a sixth season of the main show.
“Yellowstone” star Ian Bohen coyly told The Post that “it’s not necessarily” the end.
Nevertheless, this is the apparent series finale. Going into the super-sized episode, the main loose ends that needed to be tied up included the question of what will happen to the ranch, whether Beth will kill Jamie, and whether John Dutton will finally be laid to rest. All of those questions got answered.
Series stars Wes Bentley and Luke Grimes told The Post that the ending would be “heartbreaking.” Were they right?
Spoilers ahead for the “Yellowstone” Season 5 finale, “Life Is a Promise.”
Created by Taylor Sheridan, “Yellowstone” is about the Dutton family, owners of the largest ranch in Montana. It centers on patriarch John (Kevin Costner), who was also the governor before his death, and his adult children Kayce (Luke Grimes), Jamie (Wes Bentley), Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Beth’s husband, Rip (Cole Hauser).
Costner left after the first half of Season 5, amid rumors of a feud with Sheridan. The show dealt with his absence by killing John off, in a hit man attack that was initially staged to look like a suicide – but, now everyone knows it was a murder. Jamie, who is the Attorney General of Montana, was partly culpable in his father’s murder, even though he wasn’t directly involved.
In the finale, Kayce sells the ranch to Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birminghan), the leader of the local Native American community who was John Dutton’s sometimes enemy, sometimes ally.
Kayce tells Rainwater, “when my ancestors came here, land sold for a dollar twenty-five an acre, back when it was your land. That’s the price I offer you.”
His condition is that Rainwater can never develop the ranch or sell it, and Kayce and his family get to stay in East Camp, the area where he lives with his family.
Rainwater agrees to purchase the ranch for $1.25 an acre, and says, “Congratulations, you just made the worst land deal since my people sold Manhattan.”
The family holds a small private funeral for John Dutton and lay him to rest at the ranch. It’s only family (minus Jamie) and the cowboys.
Beth whispers to her father’s coffin, “you made me promise not to sell an inch, and I hope you understand that this is me keeping it. There may not be cows on it, but there won’t be condos, either. We won.”
She also whispers a promise that she will avenge John.
Rip lowers John’s coffin into the ground himself — even though the priest tells him, “we have people who do that.” And Rip promises John’s grave that he’ll take care of Beth.
Later, Beth speeds off to Jamie’s house in her car. Rip realizes where she’s going and chases her in his own car, but she’s got a head start. Rip threatens to call Kayce, but Beth snaps, “Keep Kayce out of this.”
When Jamie gets home, he doesn’t realize that Beth is in his house, and she surprise attacks him. Their fight is dirty and vicious. As the siblings brutalize each other, at one point, Jamie gets the upper hand and it seems like he may kill Beth. He’s on top of her, they’re both dripping blood, and his hands are around her neck as she gasps for air. (Although, the suspense is minimized for the viewer, since we know Beth will survive to be on her spinoff show).
Rip finally catches up to Beth, bursts into the house, and pulls Jamie off her. As Rip holds Jamie in place, Beth fatally stabs Jamie in the chest, keeping her promise to him that she’d be the last thing he would ever see.
Rip is worried about what they should do with Jamie’s body, but Beth says she’ll call 911.
“We don’t need to hide it, it’s part of the plan,” she explains.
When the cops arrive, an injured Beth spins a story that pins everything on Jamie. In death, Jamie’s reputation is destroyed. A local news reporter announces that he’s got a domestic violence charge (for his fight with Beth), and impeachment proceedings are started against him, to oust him as Attorney General.
Beth also tells Rip that she bought them a ranch, so they’ll have a new beginning. When they go there at the end, a content Rip comments, “the grass here is good,” while Beth makes fun of cowboys for being the only people who get “excited about grass.”
As Rainwater and his people take control of the ranch and let it resume its natural wildlife state, they make sure the Dutton families graves stay in place, including John’s headstone.
