Warning: This article contains spoilers for 1883, 1924, and Yellowstone.A closer look at Lee Dutton’s (Dave Annable) death in Yellowstone in the context of the Dutton family tree supports the theory that Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) will die in Taylor Sheridan’s neo-Western epic. The connection is sobering after Yellowstone foreshadowed Kayce’s death in season 5, episode 12; things are coming to a head for the Duttons as they round out Yellowstone‘s fifth chapter. The second half of Yellowstone season 5 experienced production delays, but Sheridan planned its ending from the start. Thus, the series’ first Dutton death of the five-season saga may foreshadow its last tragedy.
Kayce has a more active role in Yellowstone season 5, part 2, starting with his father’s unexpected death. While Kayce, Monica (Kelsey Asbille), and Tate (Brecken Merrill) were settling in a house on the Dutton Ranch, the father had distanced himself from his family’s affairs. However, after Kevin Costner’s John Dutton III meets his fate, Kayce takes an active role in his murder investigation. While he chooses not to murder the man responsible for his father’s death in episode 12, opting to “count coup,” Kayce is dangerously positioned as Yellowstone season 5 concludes.
Lee Dutton’s Divisive Death In The Yellowstone Series Premiere Explained
Lee Dutton’s Death Marks The Beginning
The first milestone in a long line of Dutton tragedies is Lee’s death in the Yellowstone series premiere. Lee accompanies his father, a convoy of law enforcement, and cowboys to take back their cattle from Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham). As Lee and the others storm the Broken Rock tribe to take back their cattle, things turn violent, and a gunfight ensues. Ultimately, the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch convoy retreats its cattle. However, the eldest Dutton challenges the tribe members on the scene, causing Monica’s older brother, Robert Long (Jeremiah Bitsui), to shoot and kill him.
Kayce gets entangled in the start of the range war as he is rounding up cattle for the Broken Rock tribe, which includes his wife and son. Upon witnessing Lee’s death, Kayce shoots Monica’s brother to protect himself. The youngest Dutton then carefully walks his brother’s body back to the ranch on horseback. Thus, Lee’s death marks the beginning of Kayce’s reemergence at the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch. The event is divisive, turning a simple dispute over cattle into an all-out range war for the ranch, setting up the narrative arc for Yellowstone and its spinoffs.
Lee’s Death Ties To The Duttons’ History Of Tragedy & Sets Up Another Clan Death In Yellowstone
Kayce Dutton’s Death Could Mark The End
As Sheridan expanded his neo-Western empire after Yellowstone began, the additional stories clarified that Lee’s death is just a part of the ranch’s history and the sacrifices made to maintain it. Specifically, Sheridan has a way of leaving a single child alive in the clans of the rich Dutton family tree. In 1883, Elsa (Isabel May) meets a tragic, defining fate, leaving Audie Rick’s John Dutton I as the only surviving child of James (Tim McGraw) and Margaret (Faith Hill) Dutton. While John survives and the parents have another child, tragedy follows the Duttons into the Great Depression.
James and Margaret had Spencer before Brandon Sklenar played the character in the cast of 1923. Still, his brother, James Badge Dale’s John, dies in 1923 season 1, episode 3, “The War Has Come Home,” which leaves Spencer as the only surviving son of James and Margaret. John Dutton III’s father, Dabney Coleman’s John Dutton II, continues the trend since he has no known siblings. Even Costner’s John Dutton III was an only child. His brother Peter died as a baby — noted in Yellowstone when John II died and again when Monica and Kayce’s son, John IV, died.
The drama of one remaining Dutton per generation dominates every Yellowstone story. It only makes sense that season 5, part 2, would continue the trend, and if it does, only one Dutton sibling can remain. Considering Tate’s conversation with his father about his death in Yellowstone season 5, episode 12, Kayce might not survive the series. The development would single out Kelly Reilly’s Beth as the last of a generation, solidifying the trend for the next, since Beth can’t have children of her own. Kayce’s death would leave Tate as the only seventh-generation heir to the family’s legacy.
Why Kayce’s Death Perfectly Fits The Dutton Family Curse
A Curse Follows The Duttons
Tragedy surrounds the lives of the Duttons in Yellowstone. Sheridan’s existing 1883 and 1923 stories prove that the screenwriter makes a habit of leaving minimal Duttons surviving to pass on the family’s legacy, upping the stakes and drama. Therefore, Kayce would top off all the other untimely deaths in Yellowstone season 5. Kayce and Lee’s deaths could serve as bookends to the series, potentially marking the beginning and end of the family’s modern range war. The loss of John’s youngest son would make for a tragic ending, but considering Elsa’s death and 1883‘s ending, it would be thematically expected.
Kayce’s death would leave Tate as the only possible blood-related Dutton to continue the family’s legacy, exacerbated by the untimely death of his infant brother.
There’s even buzz that Sklenar’s war-torn Spencer dies at the end of 1923 season 2, further suggesting that the Dutton family trends back up Kayce’s impending demise. Ultimately, it feels somewhat obvious when zooming out and looking at the entirety of the Dutton family curse. Kayce’s death would leave Tate as the only possible blood-related Dutton to continue the family’s legacy, exacerbated by the untimely death of his infant brother, John Dutton IV, in Yellowstone season 5. The curse could also finally end with the family losing the ranch, as they shed the danger of protecting it.
