'Yellowstone': What Happens to Kevin Costner Isn't Fair to John Dutton

[Editor’s note: The following article contains spoilers for “Yellowstone” Season 5, Episode 9, “Desire Is All You Need.”]

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.

As has been heavily scrutinized in the two years since “Yellowstone” Season 5 first premiered and Costner’s exit became inevitable, the series did little to set up John Dutton’s departure. In Episode 8 (the last to air before the lengthy hiatus), Costner’s rancher was still the sitting governor of Montana, and he’d just lent his public support to his former (and current?) nemesis Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham). Together, they hoped to stop a pipeline from being built across tribal land — a pipeline that would also damage the Yellowstone ranch.

Then there was the promised impeachment. Before John could leave the podium, news that his estranged son Jamie filed impeachment proceedings against his adopted dad — accusing Governor Dutton of violating state law and, in the process, leading Montana into bankruptcy — reached the press. Reporters swarmed the stage. A formal hearing was in the offing. John, as he’s wont to do, sat silently, making plans.

Plans we’ll never see him carry out. Now, setting their father’s affairs is up to the kids, who’ve been at each other’s throats since day one and promised more attacks at the end of Episode 8. After Beth finds out what Jamie has done, she suggests to her father that they take him to the Train Station — family code for killing someone and dumping the body where it won’t ever be found. Expecting his sister’s attack, Jamie suggests the same thing to his Sarah — that they kill John before John can kill Jamie. The long-brewing battle between father and son had finally begun.

And now, after two years of anticipation, it’s over. John will never get to go boot-to-boot with the son he raised to replace him. Jamie will never get to stand up to a father he’s tried to live up to all his life. More importantly, the audience will never get to see the showdown “Yellowstone” has been building toward for five seasons. No matter what’s revealed in the coming weeks, Costner won’t be a part of it. Viewers will never get the visceral satisfaction of father and son in a literal or figurative shootout at the Yellowstone corral.

To be clear, much of that is beyond Sheridan’s control. If Costner wouldn’t return to shoot additional episodes, then there were only so many endings a creator can write for his character. But even in a soap opera as soapy as “Yellowstone” — lest we forget, Jamie was secretly adopted as a child and has a secret baby all his own — John Dutton’s chosen ending still strains plausibility.

For one, no one who met John would ever believe he died by suicide. Episode 9 hints at that implausibility when Senator Perry (Wendy Moniz-Grillo) asks if Jamie believes the reports about his father’s cause of death. But then… everyone just buys in anyway? It doesn’t matter how the scene was staged by Sarah’s hitman. John’s entire identity was forged through toughness, and even in private, he never let on that he was depressed or otherwise wrestling with demons beyond his control. Asking people who knew John — the police, the ranchers, most of Montana — to believe he up and decided to die by his own hand is about as silly as it gets.

Applying the same logic, it doesn’t add up that John’s death could come at the hands of such a minor character. Sarah has done little to establish herself as a serious threat. Jamie has never once outsmarted his father. Neither seems stronger together. (Their tryst appears superficially manipulative on her part, like she’s seducing Jamie as part of her job at Market Equities, and it only makes him look dumber for naively going along with it.) That leaves the rest of Season 5 with a lot of work to do in explaining how, exactly, these two nincompoops did what so many more capable antagonists across the previous four seasons couldn’t: kill John Dutton.

But even if it does, whatever happens next, Episode 9 (“Desire Is All You Need”) did little to reassure fans that “Yellowstone” can get by without Costner. Many of the storylines still dangling hinge on Costner’s presence. How much do we care about the pipeline being built if John’s not there to stop it? What about his longstanding rivalry with Thomas Rainwater? What about Summer (Piper Perabo), and their weird little hippie/cowboy relationship? What about his showdown with Jamie, his questionable connection with Kayce, or a proper goodbye to the daughter who devoted her life to him? Heck, what about the financial decisions he’s made to keep the ranch running amid an outbreak of brucellosis — decisions that he made, and he should address?

A few of these arcs are addressed in Episode 9, but what does it say about John, as a iconic modern cowboy, father, and leader, that he died without resolving so many loose ends? Some may say, “That’s life — it’s messy.” But the series has never labored for accuracy (except when it comes to wrangling cattle and the like). It strives for emotional truths over all else, whether it’s Beth’s tough-talking business negotiations (which, if applied literally, are essentially nonsensical) or Kayce’s “shoot first, ask questions never” ways of serving as livestock commissioner. Costner could sell those because of his movie star gravitas, his lived experience, his status on the show, and the status he lent to his character.

This isn’t “Succession,” where the question of, “What happens after Logan Roy dies?” is baked into the story. This is “Yellowstone,” where John Dutton is fighting the very idea of an after, of what’s next, of progress itself.

Now that he lost — and to an adversary sure to have him turning in his grave — what more is there to say?

“Yellowstone” releases new episodes on Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on Paramount Network. Watch a season-preview below.