The following story contains spoilers for the beginning of Yellowstone season 5, part 2.
AFTER JUST ABOUT two years away, Yellowstone is finally back for the second half of season 5—six episodes that may or may not represent the end of the show (a season 6 has been rumored, but not confirmed). And while there was plenty of drama already going on with this neo-Western soap opera, the show quickly took a moment to address a bit of real-life drama: how it’s biggest star, Kevin Costner, left the show during the lengthy hiatus due to a number of conflicts with the production and creator Taylor Sheridan.
The opening scene of the season 5, part 2’s debut episode gets into things right away: police cars surround John Dutton’s residence, and a rattled Beth (Kelly Reilly) shows up with an obvious bad feeling about what’s gone down. Kayce (Luke Grimes) shows up shortly after, and as the two enter the home, they confirm the worst—John Dutton is dead. We don’t see Kevin Costner‘s body (because, you know, he left the show), but we do see a body, from various vantage points. And we see blood on the wall. A tragedy in Montana.
Normally in a show like this, not seeing a body is a major red flag that the character is not actually dead. But given the circumstances, this seems like a pretty cut-and-dry way to write of a character that Sheridan no longer had access to. But Sheridan is ever the craftsman, and seems to have found a way to make use of Costner’s exit and Dutton’s death, by turning his departure into a mystery. What really happened?
The majority of the rest of the episode turns the clock back several weeks and lowers the stakes—but Yellowstone fans know that there’s a lot up in the air. The de facto lead of the show, and a figure they’ve come to love ever since the first episode aired back in 2018, is dead. And whoever’s responsible is going to have some explaining to do.
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Is John Dutton actually dead on Yellowstone?
This may be a tough pill to swallow—but yes, John Dutton is absolutely dead on Yellowstone. Not only has Kevin Costner left the show and confirmed himself that he would not be returning, but the reactions from Beth, Kayce (Luke Grimes), and Jamie (Wes Bentley) prove that this is no fake out.
But did John Dutton actually die by suicide?
Now that’s the real question, and what we’ll likely spend the majority of Yellowstone‘s season 5, part 2 wondering. We’ve seen Jamie and Sarah from Market Equities discuss violent options, and meet with potential assassins, so that definitely seems to be what they’re wanting us to think happened—that assassins killed John and staged it to look like a suicide. But Jamie’s reaction to learning of his dad’s death did seem genuinely troubled, so there’s a chance he didn’t have anything to do with it.
But then again, he has more or less always been a snake, and he could just be coming to grips with what he is indeed responsible for. Beth is certain that Jamie did it, in one way or another—that’s one of the first things she said after learning of John’s death. And while the show does frequently operate with her POV as the one we should listen to, she’s also been wrong about things plenty of times.
Essentially, we’ll just have to have to wait for the final episodes of Yellowstone to see exactly what happened to John—his death is being set up as perhaps the show’s final central mystery. Hell, maybe Kevin Costner filmed an actual concluding death scene in secret. But that doesn’t seem particularly likely.
