The “Yellowstone” graveyard is filling up.
It seems that all good things must come to an end on the popular TV series which seeks to punish any of its characters who stumble upon even the tiniest morsel of happiness in the rough and tumble Montana landscape.
Episode 12 of the show’s fifth and allegedly final season delivered the death of a fan-favorite character, the latest in this season’s string of offings.
After kicking off part two of Season 5 with the death of the show’s patriarch John Dutton (Kevin Costner), the body count has continued to grow.
Spoilers below for the 12th episode of “Yellowstone” Season 5.
“Yellowstone” centers on the Dutton family, a dynasty of ranchers who own the largest cattle farm in Montana, including patriarch John (Costner), who was also the governor, and his adult children Kayce (Luke Grimes), Jamie (Wes Bentley), Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Beth’s husband, Rip (Cole Hauser).
After a nearly two year absence, the show returned on Nov. 10 and began the second half of Season 5 with a bang by killing off John, a move necessitated after Costner left the show, reportedly due to behind-the-scenes drama.
A hit man shot and killed John and made it look like a suicide. Jamie was not directly involved but bore some responsibility, as his girlfriend, the villainous Sarah (Dawn Olivieri), orchestrated the killing.
After the death of Sarah at the very end of episode 11, episode 12 starts off sweet with a moment between cowboy Colby (Denim Richards) and ranch hand Teeter (Jennifer Landon), who’s in Texas along with other “Yellowstone” cowboys who brought the cows south to graze after concerns grew that the animals could be exposed to brucellosis, a deadly disease that also has the possibility of spreading to humans.
Colby is still back at Yellowstone and during a call with Teeter he accidentally tells her that he loves her, which she teases him about before ending the call by saying “I love you too” (thank God, she didn’t say, “Thank you”).
In the bunkhouse, Carter (Finn Little) — the orphaned boy who Beth and Rip took in as their surrogate son in Season 4 — and Lloyd (Forrie J. Smith) are discussing what they’ll do if the Yellowstone ranch goes under.
Rip doesn’t offer much assurance as he walks in and tells Lloyd and Ethan (Ethan Lee) to start selling off some of the herd and the horses. Lloyd tells Rip that he has one horse they won’t be able to sell because “he’s a f–king man-eater” and says some horses just need to be put down. Rip promises Lloyd he’ll take care of it.
When Lloyd asks Rip if they’re out of business, Rip says he’s “trying to save the business.”
“Uncle Sam wants his pound of flesh. And we don’t wanna give it to him in land,” he explains.
Back in Texas, news of John’s death is only now arriving. Travis (show creator Taylor Sheridan) gets a call from Rip, who lets him know the fateful news. Rip doesn’t have the heart to tell Jimmy (Jefferson White), the once-troubled youth turned ranch hand that John saved by giving him a second chance.
So the responsibility falls to Travis, who tells Jimmy and gives him a week off to grieve. A bereft Jimmy says he’ll only take the weekend off because John wouldn’t want the young cowboy to miss work because of him.
Meanwhile, Jamie is interviewed about Sarah’s death by Detective Dillard (Rory Cochrane), who is also looking into John’s death at Kayce’s urging.
Jamie tells Dillard that he and Sarah weren’t conducting business together and their relationship was strictly personal. After confirming that Sarah was staying with him, the police ask if they can collect her belongings — which sends Jamie into a panic. Jamie refuses to hand anything over and shouts at Dillard, who now sees the AG as a suspect and promises to return with a warrant.
As soon as Dillard leaves, Jamie rifles through Sarah’s things and shreds incriminating documents.
Leaving Jaime’s, Dillard calls Kayce to let him know what just went down with his brother and tells him that Sarah’s death wasn’t a carjacking. The cop starts to put together that John and Sarah’s deaths are connected.
After speaking with Dillard, Kayce rings his former NAVY Seal buddy Cade McPherson (Jake McLaughlin) and sets a plan into motion to go after the hit man that killed his father.
We then cut to sweet young Carter, who’s been left to tend to the barn by himself while the cowboys go do their cowboy things. As he’s going about his duties, Carter comes across the wild horse Lloyd warned Rip about.
Noticing that the horse has knocked over its bucket of water, Carter decides to go against orders — that he not enter the horse’s stall alone — and refill the bucket, telling the animal that he can’t just stand there and let him die of thirst.
While he’s successful in retrieving the bucket, when he returns it, the bronc charges at him. Stuck in the stall with no one nearby, Carter seems a goner — until Colby luckily returns to the barn and intercedes to help the teenager, instructing him to crawl out as soon as he rushes in to push the horse back. But the plan goes awry when the horse attacks Colby even harder than he did Carter, kicking him repeatedly.
Carter manages to escape. But seeing Colby being attacked, he runs, grabs a shotgun and shoots the horse. He’s too late though. Rip hears the gun go off and returns to the barn to find Colby and the horse both dead next to a shaken and sobbing Carter.
Though destroyed, Rip immediately calls to let Teeter know that Colby is dead. She decides to travel back to Yellowstone.
On the drive, fellow ranch hand Walker (Ryan Bingham) tells Teeter that Rip told him that Colby’s death was quick and he didn’t suffer.
“He’s a cowboy. Suffering’s the job,” a tearful Teeter replies. “I just wish he would’ve suffered a little longer so I could say goodbye.”
Knowing Carter will be blaming himself, Beth goes to console the boy. She finds him still in the barn, a bloody and tear-stained mess. She assures him that Colby’s death isn’t his fault and says she’s glad Colby saved his life. In an attempt to get Carter to stop blaming himself, Beth tells him he can either honor Colby’s sacrifice or squander it — “and that will be your fault.”
In the lodge, Rip is blaming himself for not getting rid of the horse sooner, which Beth helps him process by lighting a fire and giving him a glass of whiskey to angrily hurl in the flames.
While that would all seem quite enough to end an episode, “Yellowstone” doesn’t relent, as Kayce tracks down the hit-man who killed his father at the assassin’s daughter’s soccer game.
After lurking in the shadows, Kayce gets in the backseat of the hit-man’s car as father and daughter are leaving. Kayce points a gun at the little girl and tells his dad’s murderer to drive on.
Kayce threatens to kill the hired gun’s daughter and says he ought to kill him but instead Kayce explains he’s trading his family for the hitman’s. If the hit-man gets out of town, thus posing no further threat to the Duttons, he won’t bring any harm to his family.
He then exits the car before jumping into a black SUV, where we find Mo (Moses J. Brings Plenty), who asks Kayce how it went before asking him if “counted coup” — a Native American term that means persuading an enemy to admit defeat without having to kill the enemy.
“I counted coup,” Kayce replies.
“Then he understands,” Mo says.
“Yellowstone” airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on Paramount Network.
