Warning, massive spoilers ahead for the Yellowstone return of Season 5, Episode 9: After almost two years of waiting, the western series is a hit Yellowstone returned with season 5b and can also be streamed in Germany soon. But the shock of how the series says goodbye to lead actor Kevin Costner comes right at the beginning: after 7 minutes, John Dutton is just a corpse – murdered.
However, I can only disagree with the angry reactions to John Dutton’s death: Yellowstone gets that in the midseason opener Make the best of a tricky situation out of here.
Yellowstone doesn’t hesitate to kill John Dutton in Season 5 – and that’s a good thing
A single silent scene in the peaceful stables of the Yellowstone Ranch opens Episode 9. Then the 5th season, alongside Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly), rushes straight into the dreaded territory – and clarifies the long-simmering uncertainty about how Kevin Costner will leave Yellowstone: John Dutton was shot. We only see his body briefly in the Montana governor’s mansion. The real drama takes place in the faces of siblings Beth and Kayce (Luke Grimes), who cannot believe the loss of their father. Only then do we jump back in time to build a bridge to the 8th episode.
Despite the outcry currently echoing online about the death of the Dutton patriarch it is an act of mercythat Yellowstone gets down to business in the first few minutes. The series rips off the band-aid and answers the most important question first – so that we can then mourn and move forward.
Hardly any Yellowstone fan will have missed the news last year that Kevin Costner would no longer be returning to the hit series after the halfway point of season 5. Regardless of whether you side with Taylor Sheridan or Kevin Costner in the dispute between series creator and star (I personally feel like a child of divorce and simply curse both of them as stubborn goats): This Yellowstone dispute is a tragedy and has changed the series. But we as viewers can’t change anything about Costner’s absence. We can only judge what the series does with this development.
Kevin Costner’s departure presented Yellowstone with an impossible situation – but the series solves it in the best way possible
Of course, I was initially sad that external factors and personal squabbles had derailed the Western series at the height of its success. But for all the lamentation: How could Yellowstone have resolved the exit of its biggest star other than with the logical and early hinted death of the main character?
Even Kevin Costner saw this solution as the best way out, even if he didn’t end up filming his character’s death personally. The Alternatives would all be even less satisfactory been: A newly cast actor or John Dutton’s sudden absence from “his” series would have bothered me more than the radical step of his series execution.
Was I hoping until the very end for a Costner guest appearance to (fatally) round out his story? Naturally. But Even after his death, John Dutton remains the driving force behind the plot. In this way, the series pays tribute to Costner and at the same time reflects the anger of the audience in the anger of the characters. Yellowstone director Christina Voros. which John Dutton further described in the new episodes as an “essential part of the story” is probably right. Even if the patriarch no longer actively fills this center, but instead triggers desires for revenge and legacy disputes with his death.
But what surprises me the most now that it actually happened is that Yellowstone actually benefits from the death: Because movement comes into a series that has always acted in the same pattern.
Kevin Costner’s Yellowstone exit has a positive side effect
As absurd as it may sound given the fresh sadness: John Dutton’s passing finally brings Yellowstone forward. The very first episode in season 1 posed the question of who would inherit the Dutton Ranch: outsider Kayce (Luke Grimes), politician Jamie (Wes Bentley) or ice queen Beth (Kelly Reilly)? Or maybe John’s right-hand man Rip (Cole Hauser)? Episode 9 of the 5th season suddenly marches clearly towards this goal again and is not called for nothing “Desire is the only thing that matters”.
The The question of Dutton’s successor has been delayed for 5 seasonsbecause John Dutton always kept the leader’s cowboy hat on despite several near-death experiences. And as much as I enjoyed getting involved in the fight against ever-new relay opponents, the prospect of finally clarifying the question of the origin of the family legacy as a result of Kevin Costner’s departure is even more exciting. Montana’s Game of Thrones is about to undergo a major change of throne and therefore there is no reason for me as a viewer to throw in the towel with Costner’s exit.
Because as much as the star was always the figurehead of the series: Yellowstone is not just a Kevin Costner show. I may have turned on for him at first, but I stayed because of that other stirring characters. That hasn’t changed. On the contrary: Now more than ever, I want to see Beth hunt down Jamie with Rip, who caused his father’s death at the hands of fixer Sarah Atwood (Dawn Olivieri). I want to see Kayce finally choose a side. I want to enjoy oily Jamie trying to get out of the loop. And the loss makes it clear: this time it’s really about the whole thing and more deaths are inevitable.
When the remaining Yellowstone stars met a few days ago “new energy” When we spoke on set, I thought it was just a panicked attempt to put things down so that the series with Kevin Costner wouldn’t lose its audience. This can of course still happen. But it would be unfair, because the departure of the patriarch means the Western suddenly surprisingly dynamic again become.
Podcast: Why Yellowstone is so enormously successful
We’ve been asking ourselves for a long time: Which series actually inherits Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad or The Walking Dead? One answer is: Yellowstone.
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