Yellowstone is in the home stretch as the Season 5 finale draws near, and the show bid farewell to a major character on Sunday (Nov. 16) amid a tense showdown between two of the Duttons.
Season 5, Episode 10 is titled “The Apocalypse of Change,” and it finds the Duttons and all of their ranch hands struggling to adjust to the new normal in the wake of John Dutton’s (Kevin Costner) death.
That includes Carter (Finn Little), who is so despondent that he has taken to his bed, where Rip (Cole Hauser) tries to comfort him by telling him he will always have a place at the ranch.
Meanwhile, Lloyd (Forrie J. Smith) is wondering whether he needs to look for a job after having spent his entire adult life at the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch, and Tate (Brecken Merrill) is struggling with how he views his own future after his grandfather’s death.
The episode sees viewers bid goodbye to John Dutton’s girlfriend, Summer Higgins (Piper Perabo), who goes her own way after Beth (Kelly Reilly) tells her it’s time for her to leave. As it turns out, she was never actually released into John Dutton’s care; she had been free to go all along.
The highlight of the episode is an angry confrontation between Beth and Jamie (Wes Bentley), who can’t even bear to look her in the eye in the wake of their father’s death. Telling him she knows he was behind it, Beth warns him that the next time he sees her, he will die — and though she has threatened his life before, this time has a ring of finality about it.
Jamie’s girlfriend and accomplice, Sarah Atwood (Dawn Olivieri) is not spared from Beth’s wrath, either; she physically assaults her after Atwood laughs in her face as she confronts her.
Though Kayce (Luke Grimes) has been trying to give his brother the benefit of the doubt, he appears to believe Beth when she tells him that Jamie could not look at her when confronted — and the phone call he makes to an old military friend has an ominous tone to it.
Elsewhere in the episode, we see the Yellowstone ranch hands still struggling to settle in at the 6666 Ranch, and it’s unclear if any of them will ever return to the Yellowstone.
With just four episodes left in Season 5, there are still many more questions than answers. Will Jamie and Sarah get away with John’s death? Will he really allow Market Equities to reinstate their lease and start developing parts of the Dutton family’s land? Is it even possible that he might end up replacing his father as governor in a special election? And who will end up winning in the looming confrontation between all of the surviving Duttons?
Yellowstone airs every Sunday on Paramount Network.
